Seriously consider moving to Linux

[mxnerd]

Used to test Linux in VM only (on SSD) for a long time. For the past week I finally install Q4OS Linux (TDE or KDE desktop) on SSD and use it as host machine. TDE -- Trinity Desktop Environment is XP like.

Found it extremely smooth, no tons of crap processes running in the background as Windows 10. Virtual environment KVM is almost as good as VMwarre Workstation.

 

[Goober13]

Used to test Linux in VM only (on SSD) for a long time. For the past week I finally install Q4OS Linux (TDE or KDE desktop) on SSD and use it as host machine. TDE -- Trinity Desktop Environment is XP like.

Found it extremely smooth, no tons of crap processes running in the background as Windows 10. Virtual environment KVM is almost as good as VMwarre Workstation.

I have Q4OS running on a 13 year old latop with 4GB ram. I have yet to see it go above 1Gb ram, but i don't use that laptop much, It was more of an experiment than anything else.
Q4OS is definitely one of the lightest distros out there!

 

[Red Squirrel]

I find the best way to make the plunge is to keep your windows drive intact, put in another drive and install Linux on it and dual boot. Don't try to dual boot on same HDD, if you don't do it right you'll trash your windows install when you resize the partition to make room for Lunux, ask how I know. The easiest is to make Linux the primary and Windows the secondary. Grub will handle the dual booting process.

Once you are used to Linux being your daily driver you might find yourself needing windows for certain things but it will get annoying to have to reboot your Linux one if you're in middle of something so I find having a KVM and having a dedicated windows box is the best way at least for me.

 

[mikeymikec]

I've been dual-booting since 2018 IIRC, nowadays running Linux Mint 21.x as my primary OS and I'm happy with it.

One thing that really surprises me is that if I'm monitoring processor usage in Windows, it's a matter of routine to see unexpected and sustained CPU usage caused by Windows background activity for whatever reason, and I've basically never seen this happen in Linux. I wonder what kind of power usage difference would be noted between two hardware-identical systems being used for the same average user tasks over say a week.

Aside from that, one other thing I like about for example Linux Mint is that it's very rare for me to be interacting with a particular window and for something else to steal the focus. That always bugged me about Windows, where I've found it to be probably a daily occurrence and MS's only partial solution is the notifications system and silencing it which isn't particularly desirable either (since it also silences "you can now safely disconnect this USB device" for example).

 

[pmv]

Would have given up on Windows some time ago if not for the fact I still occasionally fire up a game. The way it seems to be moving towards becoming an ad-supported 'service' (with forced upgrades with older software stopping working every time, and increasing amounts of what seems to be built-in advertising) I doubt I'll be using Windows much longer...if I could just fully kick the gaming habit.

 

[igor_kavinski]

if I could just fully kick the gaming habit.

Load up Arch Linux or Manjaro Linux and try running your favorite games under Wine. If the experience is acceptable, say bye bye to Windows. Another game focused distro is POP_OS but I've read that Arch has Valve's blessing and Manjaro is based on Arch.

 

[pmv]

Load up Arch Linux or Manjaro Linux and try running your favorite games under Wine. If the experience is acceptable, say bye bye to Windows. Another game focused distro is POP_OS but I've read that Arch has Valve's blessing and Manjaro is based on Arch.

I suspect there will be all sorts of glitches. But when Win 10 goes EOS and they force an upgrade to 11 (or later) and I have to go through all the upgrade pain anyway, I will probably jump ship to Linux instead.

 

[mikeymikec]

Would have given up on Windows some time ago if not for the fact I still occasionally fire up a game. The way it seems to be moving towards becoming an ad-supported 'service' (with forced upgrades with older software stopping working every time, and increasing amounts of what seems to be built-in advertising) I doubt I'll be using Windows much longer...if I could just fully kick the gaming habit.

Dual boot? Then play about with various options such as Wine or playing under Linux natively and/or fall back to Windows for gaming?

 

[igor_kavinski]

This is another, somewhat complicated way of achieving near native Windows performance for games on Linux: https://www.heiko-sieger.info/running-windows-10-on-linux-using-kvm-with-vga-passthrough/

 

[WilliamM2]

Would have given up on Windows some time ago if not for the fact I still occasionally fire up a game. The way it seems to be moving towards becoming an ad-supported 'service' (with forced upgrades with older software stopping working every time, and increasing amounts of what seems to be built-in advertising) I doubt I'll be using Windows much longer...if I could just fully kick the gaming habit.

Where are all these ads in Windows 10 and 11 I keep reading about? I've never seen a single ad on any of my machines.

 

[igor_kavinski]

Where are all these ads in Windows 10 and 11 I keep reading about?

Are you using Home or Pro? I think they are more likely to target Home users.

 

[mikeymikec]

Where are all these ads in Windows 10 and 11 I keep reading about? I've never seen a single ad on any of my machines.

Would you like to sign in with an MS account?
Would you like to use OneDrive?
Office 365? We've got a good offer going!
Back up your personal folders using OneDrive?
Use Edge as your primary browser?
Did you know that OneDrive helps protect you against ransomware?
Let's finish setting up your computer... <cue a few of the above questions yet again>
Are you sure you want to download Chrome? Here's fifteen reasons why Edge is so great!
Are you sure you want to make ... your default browser? Here's fifteen reasons why Edge is so great!

I was helping configure a customer's Win11 laptop that they bought themselves recently. In the space of two hours it had badgered me at least twice to download Office 365. "I'm entitled to it" apparently... a free trial version for six months. grrrreat.

@igor_kavinski may have a point, I mostly see Home editions of Windows. I'd be surprised if it mattered that much though, because MS still wants to peddle their wares and I doubt that simply giving them another ~£30 is going to make them shut up.

 

[WilliamM2]

Are you using Home or Pro? I think they are more likely to target Home users.

Both. I'm on Pro, wife's laptops are Home.

 

[WilliamM2]

Would you like to sign in with an MS account?
Would you like to use OneDrive?
Office 365? We've got a good offer going!
Back up your personal folders using OneDrive?
Use Edge as your primary browser?
Did you know that OneDrive helps protect you against ransomware?
Let's finish setting up your computer... <cue a few of the above questions yet again>
Are you sure you want to download Chrome? Here's fifteen reasons why Edge is so great!
Are you sure you want to make ... your default browser? Here's fifteen reasons why Edge is so great!

I was helping configure a customer's Win11 laptop that they bought themselves recently. In the space of two hours it had badgered me at least twice to download Office 365. "I'm entitled to it" apparently... a free trial version for six months. grrrreat.

@igor_kavinski may have a point, I mostly see Home editions of Windows. I'd be surprised if it mattered that much though, because MS still wants to peddle their wares and I doubt that simply giving them another ~£30 is going to make them shut up.

Out of all of those you mention, all I have seen is Edge asking to be default, which is NOT an ad in my opinion. Just click no, never see it again, or never open Edge in the first place...

 

[pmv]

Are you using Home or Pro? I think they are more likely to target Home users.

In all honesty I've forgotten now the specific instance that struck me as undeniably pure advertising built into windows - I think it was a "notification" message that popped up asking me to buy some MS product.

But I stopped playing the built-in windows games like Spider Solitaire and Hearts (that have been there since Win95), because they started forcing you to sit through an extended advert before playing them.

In addition to that there is the tendency of Windows updates to install 'games' that I never asked for, that appear in my apps list (e.g. I now have "Disney Magic Kingdoms", apparently). These also take up disk space but aren't actually playable unless I spend more money, so they are essentially adverts. Then there's this weird BGAUpsell and BingChatInstaller things that keep trying to change my browser settings to use microsoft products, even on browsers other than Edge (I still can't quite figure out if they are malware or MS adware - but most references I find to them reckon they are installed by MS themselves).

It's a slow process, but it does seem MS are very slowly shifting to an adware-supported model for Windows.

 

[mikeymikec]

Out of all of those you mention, all I have seen is Edge asking to be default, which is NOT an ad in my opinion. Just click no, never see it again, or never open Edge in the first place...

Are you telling me that you've never seen the "let's finish setting up your computer" message directly after login? I'd be surprised if that really was the case even if you elected to sign in with an MS account straight away.

You *could* get away with *never again* opening Edge by having the installer for another browser already downloaded, but I think if you're going to be honest about this you'll acknowledge that having a web browser on Windows is a prerequisite for installing another browser.

If you think that's not an advert (let alone the other related points in made regarding Edge), why do you think that Microsoft wants you to use Edge? Pure ego? They get a kick out of seeing their browser on the top ten most popular list wherever on the Internet? Or do you think that maybe... just maybe... a corporation like MS seeks more income?

 

[igor_kavinski]

Both. I'm on Pro, wife's laptops are Home.

Women have more patience

 

[WilliamM2]

Are you telling me that you've never seen the "let's finish setting up your computer" message directly after login? I'd be surprised if that really was the case even if you elected to sign in with an MS account straight away.

When I set up the system initially, I believe I did see that. Just turn off notifications, and you will never see it again. It sounds like you are reaching in what you call "advertising".

 

[WilliamM2]

Women have more patience

What the hell does that mean? She gets no ads.

 

[mikeymikec]

When I set up the system initially, I believe I did see that. Just turn off notifications, and you will never see it again. It sounds like you are reaching in what you call "advertising".

If you want to pretend that it's not advertising, that's entirely up to you. I'm not going to expend any further effort in trying to convince you otherwise when your response amounts to "nuh uh".

Most people just don't want to see this "not advertising" in the first place, rather than have to devise/research workarounds.

 

[WilliamM2]

If you want to pretend that it's not advertising, that's entirely up to you. I'm not going to expend any further effort in trying to convince you otherwise when your response amounts to "nuh uh".

Most people just don't want to see this "not advertising" in the first place, rather than have to devise/research workarounds.

Whatever. I have seen none of what you claim is advertising since the day I installed windows. And I dealt with it in 5 minutes (or less). How is that a reason to switch now? Keep stretching the definition of "advertising", good luck.

 

[pmv]

When I set up the system initially, I believe I did see that. Just turn off notifications, and you will never see it again. It sounds like you are reaching in what you call "advertising".

Why would one want to turn off notifications, and not see if an update has been installed or if Defender has found a virus or whatever? Notifications are a part of the O/S, having to turn them off to not see adverts means adverts are creeping into the O/S itself.

There's also that long list of unasked-for games that clutter up my apps list (I think none of them are actually there in playable form, those entries are, therefore, adverts).

At the moment the advert content is no so intrusive as to be a big problem, but it seems to be very much the direction MS is going in.

 

[igor_kavinski]

They should contain all their "own products advertising" to a single icon on the desktop. Something that says "Get more out of your Windows Experience". Then whenever people install Windows, that's the first thing they delete. OEM installed Windows will still get clicks on it from newbies and that's what Microsoft is targeting anyways. No seasoned user wants to pay Microsoft more than the Windows license.

 

[WilliamM2]

Why would one want to turn off notifications, and not see if an update has been installed or if Defender has found a virus or whatever? Notifications are a part of the O/S, having to turn them off to not see adverts means adverts are creeping into the O/S itself.

There's also that long list of unasked-for games that clutter up my apps list (I think none of them are actually there in playable form, those entries are, therefore, adverts).

At the moment the advert content is no so intrusive as to be a big problem, but it seems to be very much the direction MS is going in.

You don't have to turn off ALL notifications. Just the ones that annoy you, like the 4th and 5th ones down for the previously mentioned screen. Here's mine:


It really seems like you guys are trying to complicate this. I haven't had an issue with apps installing themselves.

 

[mikeymikec]

How is that a reason to switch now?

What gave you the impression that I'm trying to get you to switch anything?

Just bear in mind that you've got three people telling you that they're seeing messaging in Windows that you've never seen, that's all that's going on here, and you're arguing like we're wrong/lying and also we don't know what advertising is.

That's the extent of the logic you're employing in this thread.

Your screenshot/suggestion only targets one of the methods of delivering messaging ("let's finish setting up your computer"), the only one that you acknowledge exists.

I'm going to suggest what may seem to be a radical strategy to you: Stop at the point of saying "I've never experienced that before" and acknowledge that your experience is not definitive.