Posted on 08/20/2024 5:54:51 PM PDT by ShadowAce
I am one of those who mask my OS/information.
“I am one of those who mask my OS/information.”
I would say that unknown is mostly Linux users who wish to remain private.
I really should increase my supply of "spare" computers. Need more Linux boxes. I had Windows Subsystem for Linux almost somewhat working for a while under Win11, then gave up on it.
I was thinking rpi users. Countless millions of those.
Well even Raspberry Pi OS is a Debian derivative.
Take one of those and get Mint cinnamon. If any are 32 bit boxes go get this as the best for those. Mint Cinnamon 18.3 32 bit.
https://blog.linuxmint.com/?p=3445
A soon as you have it installed go shut off the updates, you wont need them and they don’t support it anymore anyhow. You will find that will not matter. And your Firefox browser will be outdated. Just run a command line update and upgrade to bring all the apps up to date with their new changes.
You will have a 32 bit machine that plays like a new one.
Thank you Ace, this is cool news... :)
“Can you generate a fake OS? Tell the world you are on BEos, a VAX, or OS/2 Warp?”
I’m curious what he is doing too... :)
Well, next year millions of users of computers less than 5 years old will have to make the choice of
1) laying out $500 to $1500 for a new computer that can do what their existing computer can.
2) use a machine that no longer gets security updates and patches and which is boycotted by software companies
or
3) upgrade to Linux.
And what about LINUX users that run a copy of Window in a Linux shell?
A number of newer laptops are essentially sealed boxes - it is a major chore to install a new battery or switch out the drive for a bigger/faster one. So GNU/Linux gives users a workable alternative to having to upgrade hardware - just get on youtube, learn a few basics, and pitch Windows in the ditch where it can rot in peace - and switch your computer to GNU/Linux which usually performs excellently on older hardware (compared to Windows).
Also, GNU/Linux is getting easier and easier to install, even for non-techies. Note that it is NOT fool-proof.
GNU/Linux is divided into distros, and each distro has one or more options of desktops available. A distro indicates the basic packaging system (Debian/Fedora/Arch/etc.), while the desktop environment (DE) designates the user interface.
Browsers like Firefox and Chrome are available, as is the LibreOffice suite for general office work, along with numerous games and music players and video players and much more.
The single greatest difference, in my opinion, is in the package managers. With Windows, you just head off into the wilds of the Internet and track down whatever software you want, frequently having to shell out money for it. You install it and hope you can get drivers to work. On the other hand, the GNU/Linux user space makes use of repositories that hold the free-to-use software for your distro. The software you find in the repositories has been specifically compiled to run on your distro, so there are surprisingly few real driver issues except for Nvidia graphic cards and a few odd network adapters. I have had almost zero driver issues in the past nearly twenty years. The kernel contains the drivers, and the kernel is updated frequently, so in the odd case where a driver seems to be missing, generally an update will install it soon.
DE’s include:
Gnome is similar in looks to Windows11, and is used by many.
KDE is a slick-looking system with lots of configurables. The plethora of options can be overwhelming, but it is quite stable and has a good package base.
Cinnamon is lightweight and solid.
Mate (my choice) is lightweight and quite solid.
LXDE and LXQt and the rest all have their fans.
Also, most GNU/Linux distros have live USB images which let you install on a thumbdrive so you can boot and test the hardware before you install.
That was a very honest and accurate summary, thank you.
Windows folks are up against the wire. They really need to get on this ASAP if they are going to do it.
Yes but rpi is arm, they may only be counting x86 desktops under linux.
We use WSL on Win 10 as our dev platform. Our team develops embedded sw in C and Python using gcc. We use VSCode and gitlab all within WSL (we run an in-house edition of Ubuntu inside the WSL container). We can even access the build server through the corporate VPN from home. Onboarding is a bit of a chore but we document everything on a wiki on our gitlab repo page so new team members can get set up.
With my yearly budget of engineering software in the $10s of thousands the OS is not important to me. I just want something so I can stop giving that wannabe nazi Gates any money.
I need to get my Proxmox box into service and fire up as many Linux containers as needed. (Next weekend’s project!)
FreeBSD .01%? I’ve got four of them here /snicker
Wife is on Linux Mint. Gates aggravated me one time too many. She’s happy.
Got a Raspberry Pi 4 too. Linux.
It will still be several years before say Office will only work in Windows 11 or higher.
I do not want to switch to Windows 11 as I do not trust Bitlocker which encrypts your hard drive.
If you do not remember your Bitlocker password or the Microsoft account password where maybe hopefully the Bitlocker account is stored then all your files like family photos, tax records... all files are gone!
The backup drives may also be affected.
Many millions will have a new pc but do not realize they have a encrypted one until they try to log in.
I have a WD Essential 2TB external drive that has Bitlocker. I have no password as I never did encrypt. I have a 2015 Gigabyte desktop pc with Windows 10 Pro and no TPM chip or secure boot. Bitlocker is not an option.
My 2018 HP z240 SFF desktop pc has secure boot and no TPM chip.
Neither pc can be upgraded to Windows 11.
I have a license for Windows 11 Home 22H2 which has no Bitlocker option. I have used it in a VirtualPC window and used a workaround to install it.
Future Windows 11 24H2 will have Bitlocker for both Home and Pro versions.
I tried various solutions found on the internet but nothing works. Many postings of people saying the same thing that they did not encrypt the internal or external drive.
Microsoft showed it had the ability to get around Bitlocker when that crowdstrike problem happened but it will not be available otherwise.
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