this post was submitted on 09 Jul 2023
103 points (100.0% liked)

Technology

37699 readers
257 users here now

A nice place to discuss rumors, happenings, innovations, and challenges in the technology sphere. We also welcome discussions on the intersections of technology and society. If it’s technological news or discussion of technology, it probably belongs here.

Remember the overriding ethos on Beehaw: Be(e) Nice. Each user you encounter here is a person, and should be treated with kindness (even if they’re wrong, or use a Linux distro you don’t like). Personal attacks will not be tolerated.

Subcommunities on Beehaw:


This community's icon was made by Aaron Schneider, under the CC-BY-NC-SA 4.0 license.

founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
top 50 comments
sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[–] wasabi@lemmy.eco.br 92 points 1 year ago (3 children)

It means I’ll continue to happily use Linux.

[–] AndrewZabar@beehaw.org 29 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (2 children)

Lol likewise!

I used to use OneDrive but they recently shrunk down everyone’s free storage capacity to laughably small space and now wish for everyone to subscribe to more paid space.

🖕🏼bye bye OneDrive.

[–] ablackcatstail@lemmy.goblackcat.com 10 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Yeah, fuck one drive! Microsoft can eat my entire ass.

[–] tabasko@sopuli.xyz 4 points 1 year ago

Haha, I second that

[–] Monomate@lemm.ee 7 points 1 year ago

I'm out of the loop on this subject. I know Onedrive previously offered 15GB to free users, then strunk it to 5GB, but kept the larger amount to legacy users.

Have they made another reduction recently?

[–] Starya68@beehaw.org 7 points 1 year ago (2 children)

That's cute. But there is software that only runs on Windows. And some people have to use it.

load more comments (2 replies)
[–] frog@beehaw.org 77 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Wouldn't moving Windows into the cloud basically make computers non-functional without internet? Because I can see a few problems with that, particularly for those in rural areas or who are travelling a lot.

I've hesitated to switch over to Linux in recent years, primarily due to concerns about compatibility with software and games, but I'd rather have to find new art software than pay a subscription for an operating system that I can't even use offline.

[–] RandoCalrandian@kbin.social 50 points 1 year ago (4 children)

Omg are you in for a treat!

Steams work with proton, steam OS, and the steam deck means after switching my gaming pc to Linux last year, the only games out of the hundreds I have that don’t work are the ones whose launchers refuse to run on Linux.

Even Denuvo games work with a little effort

Highly recommend you give Linux another shot 😁

[–] TheFriendlyArtificer@beehaw.org 17 points 1 year ago

Gotta mention Pop_OS! as a fantastic beginner distro. My 72 year old mother refuses to use anything else. It's simple, has automated backups and disaster recovery, and installs non-free drivers for graphics cards.

I don't personally use it since it doesn't yet support Wayland and my gaming rig has a HiDPI screen and X11 doesn't support fractional scaling. Or per screen scaling.

I'm legally obligated to inform you that I run Arch.

[–] frog@beehaw.org 9 points 1 year ago (8 children)

I'd need to check into whether Linux is also viable with the software I use: I'm starting a game design degree in September, so there's a wide variety of software, including the Adobe suite, that I'll be tied to for at least the next three years.

[–] sfera@beehaw.org 11 points 1 year ago (1 children)

It's also worth to mention that there are options like Blender/Krita/Godot wich are quite good and don't require tooling like Wine.

But those might not be a viable option if your courses are specific to Adobe products.

But really, check those out anyways, it's worth it.

[–] frog@beehaw.org 7 points 1 year ago (4 children)

My plan at the moment, I think, is to wait until I have a full list of which softwares I'll be using (which I won't get until the course begins - the college pays for it all), and then make a decision. Based on the partial list I have, about half are compatible with Linux. I do also have the option of having Linux on my desktop and Windows on my laptop.

I'm definitely going to do some more research. The last time I looked into it, Linux wasn't compatible with the vast majority of the software I used and games I played, and there weren't many suitable alternatives. That situation has definitely changed by the looks of it, so I just need to research some more specific things.

[–] Mummelpuffin@beehaw.org 7 points 1 year ago (1 children)

For anything that you really can't get on Linux:

People have probably told you that Wine is the way to use it anyways, but maybe no one's mentioned Bottles which makes using Wine dead easy. Most of the time you can sort of just open up Bottles, run the installer for the software through there, make sure Bottles knows where the .exe is for the actual program is and you're good to go.

load more comments (1 replies)
load more comments (3 replies)

Most software works with wine anymore, including the adobe suite. Be warned there is probably going to be some tinkering to get it working perfectly, but nothing a bit of searching can't solve.

load more comments (6 replies)
[–] Darkrai@kbin.social 7 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Yeah I switched in 2020, but finally deleted my Windows partition a couple months ago. Never going back now.

And anymore, I feel like niche windows software is gonna be harder to run than almost all the games. The only games that don't work are the annoying anticheat ones.

[–] sadreality@kbin.social 6 points 1 year ago (1 children)

went this route few weeks ago, went 100% pop os recently... good times.

fuck you microshit, i am gaming fine.

load more comments (1 replies)
load more comments (1 replies)
[–] ablackcatstail@lemmy.goblackcat.com 34 points 1 year ago (1 children)

It does not mean anything for me because I am not a Windows user. For Windows users it means subscription models and renting software. It could also mean eventually booting your computer into a desktop that is in the cloud. I hope to god that does not happen because it may make finding hardware that will run Linux and BSD that much harder.

[–] TheTrueLinuxDev@beehaw.org 9 points 1 year ago

I don't think it's possible for them to do so, because that would means killing the gaming aspect of Windows. GPU on cloud is stupidly overpriced and expensive, just look at Standard_NV6 for an example, it easily cost $10,000/yr according to this (Just look for anything that have "N" in it's name for GPU enabled VM and they are all expensive.)

If they try to ban everyone from being allowed to use their own computer hardware, I really doubt people would stay on Windows, they most likely would be in the 5 stages of griefs and then contemplate on switching to either Linux or Mac OSX.

[–] techviator@kbin.social 32 points 1 year ago (2 children)

My take on this Cloud-First-Windows vision that was leaked from a Microsoft presentation with very little details and just a lot of speculation:

If it actually happens, it will be more similar to a Chromebook, they will provide, likely an ARM based, low specs device with a basic Windows install that perhaps only has the cloud-connector (probably RDP based), One Drive to sync files, and Edge with extensions to run Office365 in offline mode.

Apps would just be either web-wrapper based apps, or RDP Apps, or you could just deploy your cloud desktop to do some work that requires more power.

I also think they would still provide an x86_64 based Windows for more powerful PCs for content creators and gamers.

load more comments (2 replies)
[–] theshatterstone54@feddit.uk 28 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (3 children)

It means Windows is switching to a subscription model. It could be a good thing for some Linux users, if they need Windows for specific applications and don't want to spin up a VM. O can't see a reason for using it beyond that, other than being forced to, because Microsoft kills off yoir local Windows and turns your computer for a bootloader for a cloud system, which is itself a bootloader for your browser, for most people. What a terrible world we live in. Zero privacy guaranteed, a subscription model making Windows more profitable (again).

ALSO, good luck stripping down Windows, removing bloatware, ads and telemetry. I GUARANTEE you it will be impossible to remove ads and telemetry on Windows in the Cloud. And thus that crap will be FORCED on you!

[–] kent_eh@lemmy.ca 15 points 1 year ago (1 children)

However, since most retail hardware is built to target Windows compatibility, it could mean fewer options for hardware that will be easy to install Linux (or any other OS) on.

In fact, I would count on Microsift making their hardware spec intentionally be difficult to load anything "unapproved" on.

load more comments (1 replies)
[–] Rentlar@beehaw.org 10 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Precisely. Putting more of the control onto Microsoft server means this: you do anything that they don't like? No Windows for you. Oh, now we need more money so now we're putting in a shitty change, don't like it? Suck it up.

load more comments (1 replies)
[–] Deathsauce@kbin.social 17 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

I personally don't see the "Eureka!" moment that big tech apparently does in moving EVERYTHING to the cloud when they struggle to design safe and reliable services as is. The whole cloud stuff just kind of says "sure it will be a privacy nightmare rife for exploitation from bad actors, but THINK of the money we could earn from it in the long run!"

[–] deluxeparrot@feddit.uk 8 points 1 year ago (1 children)

That's basically it. They keep control. They can charge subscriptions. They own it. Not you.

load more comments (1 replies)
[–] Deemo@lemmy.fmhy.ml 12 points 1 year ago (2 children)

I doubt people will pay for a windows subscription. Most will stay on 10/11 indefinitely and Microsoft will probably backtrack pretty quickly (look at windows 10 to 11 migration) 😉

[–] Balssh@kbin.social 10 points 1 year ago

And some will probably give Linux a try. I only stopped pirating Windows because it got free, but I have no intention to pay a subscription to be able to use my fucking PC.

[–] PenguinTD@lemmy.ca 8 points 1 year ago

everytime I am tempted at thinking maybe give w11 a try then some news pop up about how badly they put ad in everywhere. :P

[–] thecodemonk@programming.dev 11 points 1 year ago (1 children)

With the state of internet speeds in the US? No. This won't work.

load more comments (1 replies)
[–] gortbrown@lemmy.sdf.org 11 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I'm not entirely a fan the idea of having my OS run somewhere other than my own computer, unless it's like a remote lab I use for specific tasks. Like if I could use Linux, and just use this for my classes that run Windows exclusive software, then I'd maybe use it. Otherwise I think it's a bit weird to have your whole computer basically be in the cloud.

[–] blirdo@beehaw.org 4 points 1 year ago

Yeah, good luck preventing forced "upgrades/updates" every time a new Windows OS comes out too. No thanks, I'll take my software locally thank you haha.

[–] mawkler@lemmy.ml 11 points 1 year ago

"You will own nothing and be happy"

[–] techno156@kbin.social 8 points 1 year ago (1 children)

That sounds like a horrid decision. Imagine having to troubleshoot a relative's computer, which isn't working because their internet is down, or is too slow to support streaming Windows like that.

It just sounds like a nightmare all-round, both from a Microsoft Standpoint, since they would have to build all the hardware to support it, people who would have to troubleshoot an issue that might show up on either the local or networked version of Windows, but not both, and from a security standpoint, since it seems like it would make it a lot easier to just hijack the whole computer using that kind of mechanism, with the user being none the wiser, for the most part.

load more comments (1 replies)
[–] axum@kbin.social 7 points 1 year ago

Considering how stadia panned out, this is a nothing burger for at least the next decade.

[–] PenguinTD@lemmy.ca 7 points 1 year ago (2 children)

honestly if not for DirectX and whatever windows specific thing, I would have use linux for a long time cause I am heavy gamer. I know this version of windows OS is probably experimenting offering stuff that are directly on the cloud(like office/team etc), I don't see them suddenly throw away local OS market and just let whoever wants to take over. (oh, and all the telemetry data, right? )

[–] sadreality@kbin.social 7 points 1 year ago (1 children)

made a switch to linux recently due win11 changing privacy settings with updates and installing tiktok icons. i paid good moeny for this hardware, fuck off satya microsft

steam on linux supports everything i play but CoD and new BF so not a big loss imho

load more comments (1 replies)
[–] sfera@beehaw.org 7 points 1 year ago

Telemetry won't be a topic anymore under such circumstances because will be implicit and the least of your worries. Tracking the input of the users will be part of the service they are paying for.

[–] HughJanus@lemmy.ml 6 points 1 year ago

I don't understand what any of this means. Windows is now just Edge?

[–] Frog-Brawler@kbin.social 6 points 1 year ago (7 children)

It means we’re about to see a lot more people asking for help with Linux.

load more comments (7 replies)
[–] CarlsIII@kbin.social 5 points 1 year ago (2 children)

It’s actually nonsense because you would still need some software on your computer to connect to the internet in the first place

[–] r00ty@kbin.life 8 points 1 year ago

Yeah, but you will get the most basic machine made up of a screen, touchpad, keyboard, basic ARM CPU, wifi and framebuffer. Those will be sold as Windows 365 terminals for a low price. Probably even subsidised and sent free if you subscribe for a year ahead.

I've used what used to be the shadow PC (before OVH got hold of it). That was surprisingly good. Latency often so low I could play FPS, yes not as good as playing local. But still not dying every single round because of it. But it DID need a fair amount of bandwidth to look good (30Mb/s was the point I think quality started to drop).

But in the end I don't want it to succeed, because if it does proper PC hardware will become hobbyist and niche. And we all know hobbyist niche items are expensive!

load more comments (1 replies)
[–] dedale@kbin.social 5 points 1 year ago

Middle term? The phasing out of personal computers, and moving toward a system of servers/terminals where noone owns software.
You'll rent computing power or storage space, you'll only pay for the interface.

[–] kelvinjps@beehaw.org 4 points 1 year ago (1 children)

A point where could be good, is being able to work from home more easily, I mean I've applied to some companies where I could only work using their computers, so If I can work from home with this. But I don't really understand why they need it

[–] tanglisha@beehaw.org 6 points 1 year ago

If it wasn't clear from the article, that's already a thing. They can even set up your software for you. I can see how it would make managing hardware in lots of different places a lot easier.

I really don't see any benefit to it (for users) for home use. It's certainly an easy way to make Windows a subscription service and charge you for storage. It also pretty much wipes out any data privacy on your devices.

[–] RemembertheApollo@kbin.social 4 points 1 year ago
load more comments
view more: next ›