Making the Switch to Linux Mint

[Amaris]

Yeah, I know, I was surprised too. It's just that Windows 10, while sporting a beautiful interface, and having many great options, isn't what I'd hoped it would be.

It's faster, it's stable, it's flexible; those features exceeded my expectations. Unfortunately, it's also a tattletale, and a control freak. Even with all of the "features" disabled, Windows is still recording everything you type, everything you say, and is handing it off to "trusted partners", whomever they are.

When I first played with the technical preview, I was ecstatic! Here we had an OS that was going to combine the good things about Windows 8, with the best of Windows 7. How could it be bad? Well, for me it is. My desktop behaves more like a much larger version of a mobile device than it does the giant box on my desk. I don't want a mobile device on my desktop PC. I have a cell phone already, and I love it as it is.

Maybe it's because I stopped using the tech preview months before it was time for Windows 10 to roll out ( I figured they had pretty much put in place what was to be the final OS), but I didn't expect so many major changes toward the end.

I think the final push for me was that I found out today that Win 10 will be performing an update and a restart, whether you like it or not. I realized, then, that I had lost a good deal of control over my PC. I'm a power user, and I like having that control. Well, now Microsoft says you can flip these switches and we'll stop doing some of these things, but we will still do what we want, and I think for many users that's okay, and I'm not against that, but for me, the loss of control, the erosion of privacy, that's not enough to get me to stay.

I've been a Windows man for 25 years, but maybe it's time to change to something familiar, but still different enough, on a different path.

After digging around and almost going with Ubuntu (great OS that it is), I have chosen Linux Mint. It has a very familiar interface, seems to be very flexible and stable, and has a large supportive community.

Is there anyone else having similar thoughts?

 

[CorporalCaptain]

I'm still in the process of evaluating. If the keylogger really is in the production release, then Windows is dead to me. I wouldn't use a machine with crap like that on it to play solitaire.

 

[Robert Maxwell]

Mint is a good distro! I have used it a lot over the years. Currently, it is running on my son's desktop, and I run it in a VM on my laptop whenever I need a Linux environment. (My Minecraft server runs CentOS since I have no need for a desktop GUI there.)

As for a keylogger in Windows 10: there isn't one. Microsoft can be a bunch of boneheads, at times, but they aren't quite that stupid.

 

[Amaris]

The keylogger is in Windows 10, though supposedly much more limited. Microsoft said they would remove it, or at least let everyone assume they would, but it's still there. Microsoft Windows 10 uses what you type, and what you say, to improve the user experience, but they also talk about trusted partners, again, whomever those may be. The most use is via Cortana. In the settings menu, you can disable Cortana's "getting to know you" option, which also disables Cortana, because she will not work without that enabled.

Some feel the concern is overblown, such as the lifehacker article here: http://lifehacker.com/what-windows-10s-privacy-nightmare-settings-actually-1722267229

And while I do agree that it isn't straight up 1984 stuff, it is enough to make me pause. I'm a staunch privacy advocate. Disabling some or all of the options in the settings menu can severely reduce the functionality of the system. Not only that, but signing in with a local account instead of a Microsoft account causes issues with the Microsoft store, among other apps and the OS itself.

So it was enough to tip me over the line and look elsewhere. Hell, I'm typing this from Mint right now.

Mint is a good distro! I have used it a lot over the years. Currently, it is running on my son's desktop, and I run it in a VM on my laptop whenever I need a Linux environment. (My Minecraft server runs CentOS since I have no need for a desktop GUI there.)

As for a keylogger in Windows 10: there isn't one. Microsoft can be a bunch of boneheads, at times, but they aren't quite that stupid.

Yes indeed, Mint seems to be a really friendly OS. I installed it, and am in the process of transferring half a terabyte of data from my backup drive to the new system. I've found that I have good analogues to Windows programs, so I'm not going to miss out on anything. I also like Mint because it's pretty sprightly. Sure, Windows 10 loads up in about 15 seconds, but Mint is pretty quick, too!

 

[Warp Core Breach]

Mint is pretty nice, especially if you're relatively new or not so experienced with Linux. It's an Ubuntu/Debian derivative so if you're familiar with Ubuntu you should be fine. If I had a gripe with it I'd say it probably goes a bit overboard with the number of default packages on installation (multiple media players and other stuff), but that's not really much of a problem.

Undecided on Windows 10 here, I haven't upgraded any of my machines yet. But I think the last time I was an early adopter of a Microsoft OS was around the time Win2K came out.

 

[Robert Maxwell]

The keylogger is in Windows 10, though supposedly much more limited. Microsoft said they would remove it, or at least let everyone assume they would, but it's still there. Microsoft Windows 10 uses what you type, and what you say, to improve the user experience, but they also talk about trusted partners, again, whomever those may be.

MS is still not recording everything users type and sending it up to their servers. They just aren't. If they were, it would be really easy to prove.

What they are doing in that regard is no different from what smartphones and tablets do. It's an optimization feature, not a nefarious means of sucking up all your personal information.

It's fine if somebody doesn't want to use Windows out of a general concern for privacy. The default settings are certainly leaky--MS wants you to let them monitor how you use the system and share that data with others, for the purposes of both marketing and application development research. I've disabled all that, too, but going another way and just ditching the OS entirely is a valid response, as well.

What I don't think is helpful is fearmongering about what they are actually doing. People should make decisions based on information, not paranoia.

 

[Amaris]

I'm not trying to fear monger, so my apologies if it comes across as such, I'm just leery of the idea that so much of my information could be up for grabs, depending upon Microsoft's mood and terms of service.

 

[StarMan]

I'm happy with Windows 10. However, I'm making the switch back to Google Chrome. It's those small details like letting you reopen a closed tab, or highlighting text, right clicking and searching. Edge is just too clunky. Quick, yes. But the UI needs refining.

 

[Santaman]

I've used a whole lot of Linux distros, its my main laptop OS since I don't use it for gaming, I use Mint on it with the Cinnamon GUI, never had the slightest problems with it and the version I use is the LTS version so it will be supported until 2020 or so.

Debian is less easy but very stable, Suse is nice as is Fedora for weaker machines I recommend XFCE instead of Cinnamon as UI.

As for Windows, I am not going to use 10, 8.1 will be the last one unless they get rid of all the crap, I agree with J on this one, I'm the one who decides about every aspect of my machine, not M$.
The only reason for me to have it on my main machine is gaming and I can do without DX12.

 

[SPCTRE]

Microsoft will never learn anything about me that Google doesn't already know.

 

[Amaris]

Now, in the interest of full disclosure, I've kept Win10 on a small partition, just in case something happens to my Linux Mint installation, but I plan on using it only for that situation, and for the games that won't run on Linux. Microsoft getting my game data, well I don't care about that so much.

 

[Dryson]

The keylogger is in Windows 10, though supposedly much more limited. Microsoft said they would remove it, or at least let everyone assume they would, but it's still there. Microsoft Windows 10 uses what you type, and what you say, to improve the user experience, but they also talk about trusted partners, again, whomever those may be.

MS is still not recording everything users type and sending it up to their servers. They just aren't. If they were, it would be really easy to prove.
What they are doing in that regard is no different from what smartphones and tablets do. It's an optimization feature, not a nefarious means of sucking up all your personal information.
It's fine if somebody doesn't want to use Windows out of a general concern for privacy. The default settings are certainly leaky--MS wants you to let them monitor how you use the system and share that data with others, for the purposes of both marketing and application development research. I've disabled all that, too, but going another way and just ditching the OS entirely is a valid response, as well.
What I don't think is helpful is fearmongering about what they are actually doing. People should make decisions based on information, not paranoia.

Sure but when you are working on a novel or small book like I was and the contents are released to MS for "both marketing and application development" is the goal really about development or stealing what people work on to say it belongs to someone else?

This happened to me about seven months ago. I was working at a facility and had gone to work one day. Within a few moments of being at work two of the other employees that I worked with began talking about the Zombie short manual I had been working on for nearly a year. They took bits and pieces of the exact page that I had scrolled to and were discussing it. The one worker even said that he had written the book and that it was his.

So obviously the MS operating system spies on the user a lot more than we know about or it could be Apple Users within the ISP Providers releasing such information about MS users to make them think their systems are vulnerable to switch to Apple Products. The later is most likely the case.

What still confounds me is that the worker would stand there and lie through his teeth while me listening as he told the other employee that he written the book I had been writing.

Are some people just that retarded?

Here is a link to my book. I will post the review stating where someone said that the book had been written by someone else and not me.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00U575ZL2?ref_=cm_cr_pr_product_top

Another experience I had is when I was playing World of Tanks and was talking to another player using the in system Mic. Within a few moments of talking to him someone wrote in local chat "STOP TALKING TO THE COMPUTER!" I then added the person to a blacklist. I received this message the first time I used audio chat in the game.

So yes Microsoft does in fact record various bits of information that it then sells or gives to companies who want to know what a person is writing about or who they are talking so that in my opinion MS can control and dictate political elections based on what their needs are.

 

[Robert Maxwell]

The keylogger is in Windows 10, though supposedly much more limited. Microsoft said they would remove it, or at least let everyone assume they would, but it's still there. Microsoft Windows 10 uses what you type, and what you say, to improve the user experience, but they also talk about trusted partners, again, whomever those may be.

MS is still not recording everything users type and sending it up to their servers. They just aren't. If they were, it would be really easy to prove.
What they are doing in that regard is no different from what smartphones and tablets do. It's an optimization feature, not a nefarious means of sucking up all your personal information.
It's fine if somebody doesn't want to use Windows out of a general concern for privacy. The default settings are certainly leaky--MS wants you to let them monitor how you use the system and share that data with others, for the purposes of both marketing and application development research. I've disabled all that, too, but going another way and just ditching the OS entirely is a valid response, as well.
What I don't think is helpful is fearmongering about what they are actually doing. People should make decisions based on information, not paranoia.

Sure but when you are working on a novel or small book like I was and the contents are released to MS for "both marketing and application development" is the goal really about development or stealing what people work on to say it belongs to someone else?

Well, go ahead and find me an example of Microsoft (or any company) doing that. I'll wait.

This happened to me about seven months ago. I was working at a facility and had gone to work one day. Within a few moments of being at work two of the other employees that I worked with began talking about the Zombie short manual I had been working on for nearly a year. They took bits and pieces of the exact page that I had scrolled to and were discussing it. The one worker even said that he had written the book and that it was his.

Nice anecdote, but really has nothing to do with the issue at hand.

So obviously the MS operating system spies on the user a lot more than we know about or it could be Apple Users within the ISP Providers releasing such information about MS users to make them think their systems are vulnerable to switch to Apple Products. The later is most likely the case.

These sentences are made of words but do not add up to a coherent thought.

Try again?

What still confounds me is that the worker would stand there and lie through his teeth while me listening as he told the other employee that he written the book I had been writing.

Are some people just that retarded?

Here is a link to my book. I will post the review stating where someone said that the book had been written by someone else and not me.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00U575ZL2?ref_=cm_cr_pr_product_top

I believe that you wrote it, but "a coworker claimed it was his" is not in the same universe as "Microsoft is going to steal your writing, publish it, and claim all the rights."

Another experience I had is when I was playing World of Tanks and was talking to another player using the in system Mic. Within a few moments of talking to him someone wrote in local chat "STOP TALKING TO THE COMPUTER!" I then added the person to a blacklist. I received this message the first time I used audio chat in the game.

What on Earth does this have to do with anything? Voice chat channels in multiplayer online games are usually public to everyone in the same zone/level. You are aware of this, right?

So yes Microsoft does in fact record various bits of information that it then sells or gives to companies who want to know what a person is writing about or who they are talking so that in my opinion MS can control and dictate political elections based on what their needs are.

You started off with a factual statement and ended up in crazytown. Try again?

 

[CorporalCaptain]

Mint is a good distro! I have used it a lot over the years. Currently, it is running on my son's desktop, and I run it in a VM on my laptop whenever I need a Linux environment. (My Minecraft server runs CentOS since I have no need for a desktop GUI there.)

As for a keylogger in Windows 10: there isn't one. Microsoft can be a bunch of boneheads, at times, but they aren't quite that stupid.

Yeah, I read that article. From the end of it:

On June 1, Microsoft's Gabe Aul confirmed that users will be able to disable these features in the final release of Windows 10. The option will be available in Windows 10 Settings > Privacy > Feedback & Diagnostics. "It's also configurable as part of OOBE [the out-of-box setup experience] on new installs," He said.

I'll check again after Windows 10 is released on July 29, 2015.

So, the article is not speaking from the benefit of hindsight, but only what has been promised by Microsoft.

Here is something at reddit about the issue: https://www.reddit.com/r/Windows10/comments/31rxsv/disable_keylogger_windows_10. According to this, the same services that perform the logging during testing are present in the retail version of the OS. Moreover, the same services have actually been in Windows since Win7. Even if they aren't performing those tasks by default, the mere presence of these services on the system would represent yet another security breach waiting to happen.

This actually meshes perfectly with Aul's statement as related in the ZDNet article. The ability to disable a feature implies the presence of code capable of executing it. :/

 

[Amaris]

...
Are some people just that retarded?

...

I realize you're making a point on something, but could you please not use that word?

Mint is a good distro! I have used it a lot over the years. Currently, it is running on my son's desktop, and I run it in a VM on my laptop whenever I need a Linux environment. (My Minecraft server runs CentOS since I have no need for a desktop GUI there.)

As for a keylogger in Windows 10: there isn't one. Microsoft can be a bunch of boneheads, at times, but they aren't quite that stupid.

Yeah, I read that article. From the end of it:

On June 1, Microsoft's Gabe Aul confirmed that users will be able to disable these features in the final release of Windows 10. The option will be available in Windows 10 Settings > Privacy > Feedback & Diagnostics. "It's also configurable as part of OOBE [the out-of-box setup experience] on new installs," He said.

I'll check again after Windows 10 is released on July 29, 2015.

So, the article is not speaking from the benefit of hindsight, but only what has been promised by Microsoft.

Here is something at reddit about the issue: https://www.reddit.com/r/Windows10/comments/31rxsv/disable_keylogger_windows_10. According to this, the same services that perform the logging during testing are present in the retail version of the OS. Moreover, the same services have actually been in Windows since Win7. Even if they aren't performing those tasks by default, the mere presence of these services on the system would represent yet another security breach waiting to happen.

This actually meshes perfectly with Aul's statement as related in the ZDNet article. The ability to disable a feature implies the presence of code capable of executing it. :/

Yep. I love the new Windows 10, which is why it's still on my system. I plan on using 10 for games and such, and Mint for the heavy lifting regarding everything else. It's just that Microsoft is so vague about things.

I didn't know that about Windows 7, though. That surprised me.

 

[Bagofmostlywatr]

Running it on both desktops and the laptop at work now. It's a great 'no fuss' operating system. Reminds me of windows nt 4.

 

[intrinsical]

Having done research work in computer science and machine learning, I understand where Microsoft is coming from. Modern analytics require huge amounts of data before they can produce accurate simulations and results. This data cannot be faked or produced artificially and thus has to be painstakingly gathered "in the field". You can think of it as clinical trials on human beings for new medicines, or field testing of new cars on the road by normal drivers. No pharmaceutical or automobile company will launch a product without such extensive actual testing on human subjects. It has to be done to create a robust, safe, user friendly product.

Its the same thing for Microsoft. Windows 8 didn't have this sort of data for analytics and Microsoft relied on its panel of Usability Experts to craft the Windows 8 experience. Look at how well it turned out. Microsoft learned from this experience and this time its doing the work to gather data on how people actually use their Operating Systems in real life actual situations. This is really important for them to hone in the Windows 10 experience.

Having said that, I do believe their lawyers have been overzealous in crafting the legalese to cover all possible cases where the gathered data can be used. They could do with limiting the scope of the contractual clauses. They could also do with just sampling the data instead of doing a wholesale 100% capture.

 

[Shaytan]

After digging around and almost going with Ubuntu (great OS that it is), I have chosen Linux Mint. It has a very familiar interface, seems to be very flexible and stable, and has a large supportive community.

Linux Mint is certainly a good user friendly distro. I'm not a big fan of Cinnamon but apparently that's only me.
My main OS is Manjaro with Plasma 5. It's a Arch based distro but it's a lot more user friendly than Arch and it's actually easier to install on my laptop than Ubuntu.

I was going to say that there is nothing that Windows does better than Linux but that was before I tried to connect my TV to the the video card 5 minutes ago
Except for that, I prefer Linux

 

[urbandefault]

...
Are some people just that retarded?

...

I realize you're making a point on something, but could you please not use that word?

Dude, you went full retard on Win10 before the release. Never go full retard.

[yt]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X6WHBO_Qc-Q[/yt]

 

[Amaris]

...
Are some people just that retarded?

...

I realize you're making a point on something, but could you please not use that word?

Dude, you went full retard on Win10 before the release. Never go full retard.

What do you mean?