Windows 11

[granz]

Sounds like a sign. I think the Father prefers Linux for reliability.

Hah, funny. Though, Linux is very definitely more reliable.

[JKnightandKARR]

Granz, I know you're trying to help (with regards to Windows 11) and I appreciate it. It's the principle of the thing. I should be able to run my OS without having to wall it off behind a VM. I should be able to get updates without it breaking things. And I should be able to use the apps that I have always used without them now being buggy and useless.

I kick myself for letting myself become dependent on Windows to run software. Even when I was focused on Parallax products, the only software available for the longest time was Windows only. The few cross platform apps that were later developed were third party and some are no longer supported. I think as I moved forward I will stick with things that are cross platform.

So for now I only need to get by for a few years until I find some Linux software that does what I need to do.

I agree, though it don't help that there's soo much software that don't support Linux... Like my Red Dragon keyboard software and SteelSeries COD: Black Ops II mouse software... both are going to be used with my Gizmo Project. So, I'll have to use a VM Windows to control them on there.

[JKnightandKARR]

Granz, I know you're trying to help (with regards to Windows 11) and I appreciate it. It's the principle of the thing. I should be able to run my OS without having to wall it off behind a VM. I should be able to get updates without it breaking things. And I should be able to use the apps that I have always used without them now being buggy and useless.

I fully understand, and agree. Part of what drove me away from Microsoft was, first of all, starting with the infamous "you're all a bunch of thieves" letter (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/An_Open_Letter_to_Hobbyists, and then going to their (ironic) outright theft of many different programs (I.E. https://grantster.com/2012/06/07/the-stacker-conspiracy/.) Finally, with the introduction of Windows XP, they started "illegally" tracking user's info, including notifying Microsoft of every DVD movie that the user played on their computer. Each subsequent version of Windows had more, and more, "phone home" routines. Microsoft firmly believes that they, and they alone, know what the computer should be doing. The user, no matter how much they know nor how long they have been using computers, is TOO FRICKEN STUPID to know what they want. It up to "Mommy Microsoft" to tell them what they want, and how to do it.[/rant]

So, yes I hate Microsoft (and by extension Windows - at least beyond Win 9X) also. Windows should work properly without causing the most confusion/stress possible to the user.

I saw something about that on Facebook, but then again, look at the source... but it was saying some stuff about 11 or whatever ver, sending info on litterally everything you do on it back to MS. if that's true or not, idk, the source is Fakebook...

[granz]

I saw something about that on Facebook, but then again, look at the source... but it was saying some stuff about 11 or whatever ver, sending info on litterally everything you do on it back to MS. if that's true or not, idk, the source is Fakebook...

I would believe it, "Fakebook" or not. When XP came out, researchers discovered nineteen "phone home" routines within Windows. Each successive version has had more, and more, of those "phone home" routines. by the time Windows 8 came out, most security techs had quit counting, and just switched to *nix (unix, Linux, etc.) or some other OS for their own usage, and only used MS products where necessary for work.

[JKnightandKARR]

I saw something about that on Facebook, but then again, look at the source... but it was saying some stuff about 11 or whatever ver, sending info on litterally everything you do on it back to MS. if that's true or not, idk, the source is Fakebook...

I would believe it, "Fakebook" or not. When XP came out, researchers discovered nineteen "phone home" routines within Windows. Each successive version has had more, and more, of those "phone home" routines. by the time Windows 8 came out, most security techs had quit counting, and just switched to *nix (unix, Linux, etc.) or some other OS for their own usage, and only used MS products where necessary for work.

Not surprised. I call it Fakebook or Jokebook, both apply... Cause Fake crap all over n Facebook is litterally just a joke anymore... and obviously not the HaHa funny...

[Chris Savage]

by the time Windows 8 came out, most security techs had quit counting, and just switched to *nix (unix, Linux, etc.) or some other OS for their own usage, and only used MS products where necessary for work.

Which is my current philosophy. I'll use it on one machine for what I need it for, and my other PCs will be Linux.

[granz]

Which is my current philosophy. I'll use it on one machine for what I need it for, and my other PCs will be Linux.

Yes, well right now, I do have the VirtualBox VM with Windows 7. But I also have that old Acer netbook with Windows XP. In addition, just a week, or so, ago, I picked up a Microsoft Surface with Windows 10 from one of my eWaste sites. I had thought about loading it with Linux (and still might,) but after seeing this, I might leave it with Win-10 for helping friends troubleshoot their Windows systems.

[Chris Savage]

I removed the 512GB SSD and the 1TB mechanical drive from my laptop yesterday. Prior to that I had created an installer on a 16GB USB drive. So now the old laptop has Ubuntu Pro on it. This weekend the Alienware Desktop PC will be upgraded (downgraded?) to Windows 11 Pro (hopefully) and everything will just take some time to get tweaked again after all the changes.

A buddy is coming over tomorrow afternoon to help me move the benches around to facilitate the rearrangement of everything, and then I can get back to projects once again.

[granz]

So now the old laptop has Ubuntu Pro on it.

Just out of curiosity, what made you decide on Ubuntu?

[Chris Savage]

Well, I think of Debian as more geared toward power users (not me). I think of Mint and (I don't remember the other one) as being more for beginners. Ubuntu has always been considered the general all-around Linux for those who have some experience.

Now I'm curious...which one would you have recommended?

[JKnightandKARR]

Well, I think of Debian as more geared toward power users (not me). I think of Mint and (I don't remember the other one) as being more for beginners. Ubuntu has always been considers the general all-around Linux for those who have some experience.

Now I'm curious...which one would you have recommended?

I always figured, that they was all pretty much the same thing other than name... Kinda like Chevy Camaro and Pontiac Firebird... but then, I've never really used it.

[granz]

Now I'm curious...which one would you have recommended?

I recently saw an article which described several different distros (distributions) of Linux, but have not been able to locate the article again - still looking.

Many years ago (~2012), Jeff (OldBitCollector) recommended Linux Mint to me. He said that Mint is the distro that he recommends to his clients who have no (or very little) experience with Linux, or are tech neophytes. Several of his clients are senior citizens, and Mint is the distro that works best for most of his clients.

Long before that (in the mid 1990s) I tried Slackware; I got it installed and running, but still did not adopt it as my daily driver. Since then I have run Debian, Ubuntu, Kubuntu, DSL, Fedora (the free version of Red Hat - even took a course in Red Hat,) Kali, Puppy and several others. My first daily driver distribution was Caldera OpenLinux (about 2000), unfortunately that was abandoned shortly after I started using it all the time. The distro that I keep on my main computers is Linux Mint (except for Raspberry Pi systems, those usually get some Raspberry Pi distro - which is Debian, and of course Mint descends from Debian, so it's relatively easy to switch to, and from, Mint.) So, since about 2012, I have been running Mint pretty much exclusively. I do use wine (Windows Emulator) for some Windows programs that I like, and I have Oracle Virtual Box with Windows 7 (and 2000, 98SE, 95, MS-DOS and CP/M 2.2 VMs) for when I want to do stuff with those OSs.

When I had clients (or people now) ask me about switching to Linux, I most often recommend Mint - especially if they are not real familiar with Linux, or a major IT person (and even then, I often recommend Mint.)

[Chris Savage]

Well, I still haven't gotten those benches rearranged upstairs so I can start working on Raspberry Pi stuff again, but once I do, I need to go back and see what I was running on the older Raspberry Pi systems. I honestly don't remember. I haven't used them since I worked at Parallax. The great thing with this laptop is I was really just trying to get Windows OFF from it and get a new SSD drive into it. I feel like I have been liberated from the shackles on it and can do do pretty much whatever I want now. If I have Debian on ANY of the R-Pi models, I would considering putting that on there.

Moving the discussion back to Windows, I ran into an interesting problem that has frustrated me and irritated me greatly. It has also paused my move to Windows 11 on my Alienware. Let me explain (for those interested):

My wife had a really OLD laptop. It was so painfully slow that I suggested she get a new one. We purchased an ASUS laptop from Best Buy. I thought it had reasonable specs for Windows 11 and ASUS is a good brand. I believe it is an i5 with 12GB RAM. Now, mind you, I NEVER put less than 16GB on any PC since Windows 7 because of resources, but so many of the laptops I saw on Best Buy seemed to have 8GB or 12GB of RAM, so naturally I thought Windows 11 must make better use of resources. I WAS WRONG!!! This computer is almost as slow as her 10 year old laptop!!!

It takes more than a minute to boot. Once booted it sometimes lags logging in. Once you're logged in, you can't really DO anything for another minute or two. It drove me nuts, because she has often asked me to help her with her bookwork on this machine. Because she didn't own Office and the default mode of this machine was S-Mode, we installed a free office application found on the Microsoft Store (WPS Office).

Not only was it slow, but after a few months, the software required her to login to made edits to existing documents, which was an immediate red flag to me. After a while (a year or so) the login changed and didn't seem to want to allow her to login at all! So I bought her a desk top from Amazon. A refurbished Dell i7 with 32GB and an SSD. She could not believe the difference in performance! I told her, now you know what I have.

I'm getting to the issue...please be patient.    I decided to subscribe to Microsoft 365 since I was tired of buying per PC licenses for Office and having them be out of date. This meant having to install it first on my newer Laptop and then invite her to the "Family Group". This worked out okay, but then we booted her laptop to install it there. My intention was to synchronize her bookwork folder across both PCs as I had done way back in the past when I got my first laptop.

Immediately the new desktop started adding folder and copying documents and photos, etc from the laptop, even though we specified setting it up as a new PC. It turns out (and this is where I am pissed) that if you're using the same Microsoft account on more than one PC, Windows 11 tries to synchronize them all!!! Prior to this, you would have to manually set up which things were synchronized. What a mess it was trying to not only STOP that, but clean up the mess afterward. To make matters worse, Microsoft 365 WILL NOT install on her laptop! Gives me some kind of signature error no matter how I try to do it.

So, now I need to factory restore the laptop, make sure it's NOT in S-Mode and then try again. But on top of that, I need to first figure out how to stop the computers from trying to sync. I don't know if she's going to need another Microsoft account or what, but I know I am not doing anything with Windows 11 on my desktop until I solve this issue.

[granz]

If I have Debian on ANY of the R-Pi models, I would considering putting that on there.

The first OS on the Raspberry Pi was actually Debian. This was actually customized by the RPi Foundation, and became Raspbian, which then became Raspberry Pi OS. So, if you have an original Pi (1), then you may have actual Debian (although pretty well outdated.) But anything newer will be Raspbian, or RPi OS - although all of them are descendants of Debian (as is Ubuntu, and Mint.)

[Chris Savage]

The newer laptop is there solely for getting back into music production. It came with Windows 11. Then while doing research, I came across this video.