Windows 10 inspired me to move to a Linux operating system


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I have experienced Windows 10 and I have to say I am no fan.  The Windows 2000 graphic user interface looked better than the ugly Windows 10 interface.   If this were the only issue with it I would have little problems because I have third party software that could correct it.  Reasons I will do my best to avoid a future Windows 10 install:

1)  You don't want to be forced to update

Windows updates are usually a good thing. Most of them bring important security patches and bug fixes to your device. But that doesn't mean you should update your computer the second a new fix is out, because the updates themselves can come with bugs that can possibly mess up your machine. With older versions of Windows, you can choose when to update.  But with Windows 10 you won't have that choice. Windows 10 automatically downloads and installs updates to your computer.  I had to tinker with the Services under Administrative Tools to shut off all Windows Updates on a laptop computer.  All other Windows operating systems would allow you to simply turn off Windows updates.

2)  The blatant ugly ad software embedded in the operating system.

I do not like the ad software that is pushed at you in Windows 10.  However this problem can also fixed with third party software called "Classic Shell."

3) I do not want to be data mined

Windows 10 -- like most operating systems -- has its share of privacy concerns.  By default, the operating system is set up to automatically send feedback to Microsoft, allocate part of your device's bandwidth for its Peer to Peer update service, and show advertisements in your Start menu.  Most of these invasive behaviors cannot be turned off unless you use third party software.  I had to use Spybot Anti-Beacon software to shut off all the data mining from Windows 10.  Every time you restart the operating system I have to activate the third party software to turn off all the Microsoft spying.

I am now using 64-bit Linux Mint version 17 as my main operating system and I am quite impressed with the improvements that have been made with the software in the last few years.  I sometimes use Windows 7 now to play video games but I think my days with a Microsoft operating system are numbered.

Edit:  I have discovered without hacking Windows 10 software updates cannot be turned off.   I have attempted to turn them off on a Windows 10 computer but found the software updates were pushed to the machine anyway.  Windows 10 updates may do the following to your machine: 

  • Twice per year you may need to re-install software deemed not required by Microsoft that they may remove
  • Your preferences (including privacy settings) may be be reset to default, so you'll need to go through them regularly to change them again.
  • Some Metro applications may be re-installed if you deleted them previously. 
  • Expect your group policy settings and tweaks to be completely removed or changed and the only way to get them back is to change to Windows 10 Enterprise.
  • Certain software titles and drivers may cease to work.
Edited by Still_Small_Voice
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For those who want to use Windows 10, but without all [most?] of the garbage, this video may help.  I haven't watched it yet because I don't have Windows 10 yet, but my brother recommended it, so it must be good.  I also have links (somewhere) for how to disable things like MS using your computer from which your neighbors can get their Windows updates and stuff like that (in case that's not included in this video).  (The point being, there are folks out there who have documented how to turn off offensive behaviors.)

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Think about what you said on Item #1:

10 hours ago, Still_Small_Voice said:
  1. With older versions of Windows, you can choose when to update.  But with Windows 10 you won't have that choice. Windows 10 automatically downloads and installs updates to your computer. 
  2. I had to tinker with the Services under Administrative Tools to shut off all Windows Updates on a laptop computer. 
  3. All other Windows operating systems would allow you to simply turn off Windows updates.

So, you do have that option.

And what ad software are you talking about?  I've never seen any ads on my computer.  Are you sure you're using a genuine licensed OS?

Edited by Guest
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Microsoft's ugly tile applications off the Start Menu are their ad software.  At least you can fix that with the Classic Shell software.  I am really repelled away from Windows 10 with the constant battles of unwanted software updates and the constant spying the operating system does.

 

Edit:  The next computer hardware build I am doing is based around using a Linux operating system and a Windows 7 build.

Edited by Still_Small_Voice
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I am an old guy, so I apologize about my lack of knowledge.  So far, Windows 10 doesn't seem all that bad too me.  I suppose if Microsoft is interested in the LDS gospel library and LDS.com as well as these forums and some other sites like that, perhaps they'll read up on Mormonism and convert.

I suppose Windows 10 is made for the non-technologically talented old folks like me.

The item I'm not really a fan of is this new Office 365 idea that they have going around now.  I'd rather have a devoted office that I don't have to worry about whether it renews or not.

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The windows gui team needs to be fired. The core of windows ten is pretty good. Its just all the buggy and forced garbage that surrounds it. Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr. Really really wish the higherups used windows 10 before making us switch to 8 through 10

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Just out of curiosity, what kind of software can you run (is even available) on a Linux operating system? I've heard praise for Linux systems for years and yet...the primary reason I run a computer is to run the software on said computer. I know that most of that software is unavailable on Linux.

It strikes me that having a really great operating system doesn't do much good if nothing runs on it.

So am I mistaken?

Edited by The Folk Prophet
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Some application software is available for Linux, some packages have equivalents, others can be emulated. Some you just can't use on a Linux OS. Choice of operating system is like choosing any other tool, just depends what you want it for.

Personally, I rarely use Linux on my personal workstation, it just doesn't do everything I need it to do. But I have used it for many servers. Linux is always my first choice for external DNS servers and web servers. I have also used certain Linux distros for penetration testing in the past.

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Folk Prophet, this is what I am able to do with Linux Mint version 17:

* Web browse and do my online banking

* Listen to music 

* Watch Youtube videos

* Watch DVD movies

* Word process and do my cash flow plan with LibreOffice version 4.2 (replacement for Microsoft Office)

* Do my scripture study

* Encrypt or decrypt sensitive financial data on my hard drive

The only other thing I do with the computer pretty much is video games and I need to use my Windows 7 for that. Everything else has been replacement software I can use with Linux.  If you are going Linux I would personally go with a 64-bit version though 32-bit is available.

 

Edit:  I also like the "Mate graphic user interface" as it is similar to the old classic Windows start menu that I grew up with.

Edited by Still_Small_Voice
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Folk Prophet, one of the Linux software versions of Photoshop is Gimp.  I don't think it has all the features of Photoshop but I have found it to be an interesting photo modification program.  There is a free version of Gimp available for Windows.  Some people also run a virtual machine in a Linux operating system to use Windows and software compatible with it.

You can download Gimp here:

https://www.gimp.org/downloads/

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18 minutes ago, Still_Small_Voice said:

Folk Prophet, one of the Linux software versions of Photoshop is Gimp.  I don't think it has all the features of Photoshop but I have found it to be an interesting photo modification program.  There is a free version of Gimp available for Windows.  Some people also run a virtual machine in a Linux operating system to use Windows and software compatible with it.

You can download Gimp here:

https://www.gimp.org/downloads/

I not technologically knowledgeable, but even I know about Gimp!  Actually, the reason I know about it is due to my wife who uses it sometimes.

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14 hours ago, Still_Small_Voice said:

Folk Prophet, one of the Linux software versions of Photoshop is Gimp.  I don't think it has all the features of Photoshop but I have found it to be an interesting photo modification program.  There is a free version of Gimp available for Windows.  Some people also run a virtual machine in a Linux operating system to use Windows and software compatible with it.

You can download Gimp here:

https://www.gimp.org/downloads/

1

No thanks. Tried it. Didn't care for it.

14 hours ago, JohnsonJones said:

Some people also run a virtual machine in a Linux operating system to use Windows and software compatible with it.

What possible motivation would I have for doing this instead of just running Windows?

14 hours ago, JohnsonJones said:

I not technologically knowledgeable, but even I know about Gimp!  Actually, the reason I know about it is due to my wife who uses it sometimes.

I know about Gimp too. That doesn't make it synonymous to Photoshop in power, features, usability, stability, third-party plugin (and the like) support, etc., etc.

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1 hour ago, The Folk Prophet said:

What possible motivation would I have for doing this instead of just running Windows?

I don't know to be honest, as I don't really use a Linux machine.  I'm solidly on Windows.  I think I could take some guesses.

If you have an older version of Windows, perhaps you could run that Windows version to play games, but have none of the headaches of the newer versions of Windows (for example, yesterday I was using Windows 10 and left some conference talks open to get back to later.  When I came back, the machine was a green screen because it decided that it was time to update.  A minor inconvenience as I came back 20 minutes later and it was back up again, and the talks opened right back up when I reclicked the browser, but I know some people would be extremely put off by things like that.

You can turn windows off at will with a virtual machine (or I think you can) so you don't have many of the headaches with Windows, and all the flexibility and control that you have with Linux. 

Linux seems to run (well some versions of Linux) and faster than Windows as a whole if configured right.  I think my tablet as an Android is of some sort of Linux type configuration.  It seems with the google store I have a ton more options in regards to apps to download and utilize than I do for windows.  I imagine many of those apps will run better for Linux than they would for windows if you were trying to organize them in that fashion.

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5 hours ago, The Folk Prophet said:

@JohnsonJones, perhaps the crux of my confusion on the matter is that I do not have anything with Windows 10 that I consider a headache.

You probably are not the target audience for Linux or other OS's then, most likely.

MY items are mostly guesses on my part, as the closest to Linux I get is with my android tablet (and I suppose my phone uses android as well, but I strictly use that as a phone instead of the everything tool others use it as).

All my computer is done on a windows pc.

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  • 6 months later...

I found this article interesting.  Most businesses are hanging on to Windows 7 and I can see why.  As of March 2017 about 69 percent of businesses were still using Windows 7.  Only 9 percent were using Windows 10.

I work with Windows 10 at work and hate it.  It is the worst operating system I have ever worked with in my Information Technology career.

https://community.spiceworks.com/networking/articles/2628-windows-10-adoption-surges-yet-businesses-still-hang-on-to-windows-xp-and-vista

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10 hours ago, Still_Small_Voice said:

I found this article interesting.  Most businesses are hanging on to Windows 7 and I can see why.  As of March 2017 about 69 percent of businesses were still using Windows 7.  Only 9 percent were using Windows 10.

I work with Windows 10 at work and hate it.  It is the worst operating system I have ever worked with in my Information Technology career.

https://community.spiceworks.com/networking/articles/2628-windows-10-adoption-surges-yet-businesses-still-hang-on-to-windows-xp-and-vista

We're an international company and we're on Windows 7.  Hah!

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I love windows 10!  Except for the fact that I hate the settings app they use; it's much less intuitive and user-friendly, but I just bypass it and use the classic control panel and it's all good.  I will say, I originally hated windows 8, and then I actually used it for 5 minutes, learned the keyboard shortcuts, and realized I was the problem and  started loving it again!  That probably made moving to windows 10 much easier for me than some others.  BTW, we use windows 10 at my fortune 500 place of business.  Just got the upgrade about 3 months ago!

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7 hours ago, person0 said:

I love windows 10! 

Enjoy the illusion of controlling your computer.  I have discovered without hacking Windows 10 software updates cannot be turned off.   When forced Windows 10 updates are pushed to your machine the below may happen to you: 

  • Twice per year you may need to re-install software deemed not required by Microsoft that they may remove
  • Your preferences (including privacy settings) may be be reset to default, so you'll need to go through them regularly to change them again.
  • Some Metro applications may be re-installed if you deleted them previously. 
  • Expect your group policy settings and tweaks to be completely removed or changed and the only way to get them back is to change to Windows 10 Enterprise.
  • Certain software titles and drivers may cease to work.

Thank goodness 64-bit Linux Mint version 18 is such a great operating system.  I do not have to put up with the poor quality refuse Microsoft releases anymore.

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22 minutes ago, Still_Small_Voice said:

Enjoy the illusion of controlling your computer.  I have discovered without hacking Windows 10 software updates cannot be turned off.   When forced Windows 10 updates are pushed to your machine the below may happen to you: 

  • Twice per year you may need to re-install software deemed not required by Microsoft that they may remove
  • Your preferences (including privacy settings) may be be reset to default, so you'll need to go through them regularly to change them again.
  • Some Metro applications may be re-installed if you deleted them previously. 
  • Expect your group policy settings and tweaks to be completely removed or changed and the only way to get them back is to change to Windows 10 Enterprise.
  • Certain software titles and drivers may cease to work.

Also, Microsoft will use your computer to provide updates / downloads for other people so that those people aren't getting their downloads off MS's server, but off of some end-user's Windows 10 box.  Ick.  Cooties.  So much for your bandwidth being yours.

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41 minutes ago, Still_Small_Voice said:

Thank goodness 64-bit Linux Mint version 18 is such a great operating system.

Don't get me wrong, Linux Mint is top of the line, and I'm a big fan.  Doesn't change the fact that I like Windows 10.  There are multiple non-hack ways to disable automatic updates.  Metered connection, disable windows update service.  You can also disable sharing.  Perhaps the non-technical user gets screwed, but they've already given everything to Google by this point anyway.  Better to have competition in the take over the world market wouldn't you say!  ;)

Edit:  Anyone who is adequately capable of using Linux on a regular basis could just as easily run a Windows 10 VM within Linux and block the ports used for windows update also.  Then you get the advantages of both when wanted!

Edited by person0
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31 minutes ago, person0 said:

Don't get me wrong, Linux Mint is top of the line, and I'm a big fan.  Doesn't change the fact that I like Windows 10.  There are multiple non-hack ways to disable automatic updates.  Metered connection, disable windows update service.  You can also disable sharing.  Perhaps the non-technical user gets screwed, but they've already given everything to Google by this point anyway.  Better to have competition in the take over the world market wouldn't you say!  ;)

Edit:  Anyone who is adequately capable of using Linux on a regular basis could just as easily run a Windows 10 VM within Linux and block the ports used for windows update also.  Then you get the advantages of both when wanted!

Your information is wrong.  You cannot turn off Automatic Updates in Windows 10 without hacking.  I attempted it on my wife's computer.  I turned the Automatic Updates off and a few weeks later software updates installed.  No one turned them back on.

Selecting disabled sharing in Windows 10 is also an illusion.  The Windows 10 operating system feeds information to Microsoft on a continual basis.  You install Windows 10 enjoy Microsoft controlling your computer.  You do not control your computer short of shutting off all Internet access or hacking the operating system.

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