Windows 7 and 8 users are starting to disable Windows Update entirely. Yikes.
I just saw that today that many people don't want to upgrade to Windows 10 and due to Microsoft's insistence, have disabled Windows Update entirely. I know they are taking the extreme here, but this means that we will see new malware that will target those types of users. Great.
Its too bad that the average consumer cannot get behind a GNU/Linux system if they want to use a desktop PC. I do understand that most consumers do everything on their tablets and phones, but if they are sticking to the old fashioned desktop and laptop way of doing things, Windows gets less and less appealing. I can see some hanging on for gaming, but more and more games are released for GNU/Linux (even if they are non-free) and there is always that overpriced Mac ecosystem. I'm not recommending people get a Mac, but when compared to Windows, it is the lesser of the two evils even if Apple can be assholes at times.
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poor dudes.
Generally speaking, if a product is good and cheap it becomes the market leader. GNU/Linux is good (reliable, secure, respects your freedom and privacy, etc.) and very cheap (free of charge). It's a mystery to me why so many people prefer just the one is familiar to them.
sometimes when I compare GNU/Linux & Losedow$, I ask myself, why people use Winsucks? Because GNU/Linux offers all what a user wants. But not everybody knows it, and some people don´t want to.
I still use both versions, I did disable all the updates in both versions, because I don't like non of it.
Still I prefer Debian.
No software is always reliable, cheap, secure. Not even GNU+Linux in
general, and not even free software.
However, if there's one thing that free software promises and has a
chance to guarantee at long terms is: the respect to society's essential
freedoms.
To give you an idea, software that is licensed under a weak copyleft
[permissive] license, or that is licensed under most lax [permissive]
licenses allows for the redistributor to put a profit margin of 300%
above the direct and allocated costs associated with the software, and
when this happens, redistributors will say generally say: "Oh, it's
free/libre software, so it has added value". At least the GPL tries to
break this madness by requiring that the price of conveying the source
of the work must-not be superior than the typical price of
redistributing it on physical media, and this means: not applying profit
margin upon the cost of conveying the source.
The GNU GPL doesn't place limitations on how much money you can make selling copies of programs. The only limitation is you can't require an additional fee for someone who you have already given a binary to getting the source code to that binary. You can charge $1,000,000 for a copy of the software, but you can't give the binary away gratis and then demand $1,000,000 for those who have been given the binary to also get the source code.
I would install GNU/Linux on some machines elderly has but because if a thing called BANKID in Sweden that only support Windows and Mac. BankID is used to connect to banks and government stuff on Teh Internetz. Their is a Smartphone app but that is way to complicated for these people.
There is a deb package bankid-chrome for Ubuntu.
http://ppa.launchpad.net/ubuntu-se/bankid-chrome/ubuntu/pool/main/b/bankid-chrome/
https://launchpad.net/~ubuntu-se/+archive/ubuntu/bankid-chrome
https://wiki.ubuntu.com/SwedishTeam/Support/BankID_i_Linux_genom_Google_Chrome
https://wiki.ubuntu.com/SwedishTeam/Support/E-legitimation
They say it can be done in a terminal.
Ett annat sätt, som fungerar generellt i Ubuntu/Debian för att installera från nämnda PPA, är att öppna ett terminalfönster och köra följande kommandon:
sudo sh -c 'echo "deb http://ppa.launchpad.net/ubuntu-se/bankid-chrome/ubuntu trusty main" > /etc/apt/sources.list.d/bankid-chrome.list'
sudo apt-key adv --keyserver keyserver.ubuntu.com --recv F0511E06
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install bankid-chrome
Of course, this practice is horrible to begin with. Security on insecure platforms only?
The main reason people use Windows still is because there's a lot of proprietary software available for it and not GNU/Linux. Games, mostly. There's sort of a "chicken and egg" situation here, and also the fact that GNU/Linux systems are so different from each other that decentralized distribution for GNU/Linux is much more difficult.
I would say the main reason people use Windows is because that is what comes with the computer and most people are afraid to install another operating system (if they even know another system can be installed). It should be illegal to tie a computer with an operating system. Wait! It actually is illegal in most of the world: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tying_%28commerce%29
The funny thing is, even most Windows users should always wipe the OEM image and install a vanilla OS. You can't trust an OEM preinstalled Windows setup. They are mostly booby-trapped with bloatware, adware, crapware, 'value-adding' crap, OEM backdoors and whatnot.
So why not wipe the WinCrap and install a clean slate, GNU/Linux, when you are facing this task anyway?
Here in Brazil we have the consumer defense code, which has articles
against tying.
However, this is a subjective right, not an objective right. This means
that, it does exist by law, but only applies if the party involved wants
to exercise it. If it would be objective, perhaps no redistributor would
do tying.
In the case of Brazil, the consumer can request that the manufacturer
(not the vendor/redistributor) removes the tied software from the
computer with no cost. However, the consumer must-not accept the terms
that come along with the tied software, in order to be legally capable
of exercising the right.
Besides, it seems that most Brazilians don't exercise this right because
they acquire the hardware when the situation is desperate, or because
they fear that exercising it might take time and money (which in most
cases it does, specially if you have to pay for transportation of the
product back and forth).
On top of it, if the consumer takes it back to the vendor/redistributor
instead of delivering it to the manufacturer and request for untying,
the vendor/redistributor might just do the untying himself, but this is
worse because it doesn't educate the manufacturer to respond
appropriately for these cases, besides, the vendor/redistributor might
void the warranty doing so.
I admit that I only boot into Windows to play games. Other than that, I stay in a GNU/Linux boot.
I thank Microsoft for updates. Everyday
Thanks to the updates I get sick of windows. And that is what made me think, I should try linux (I wasn't even sure what linux was)
Now, I won't say GNU/linux has a chance against windows when it comes to gaming.
But, thanks to the lack of games I only have a few, and whenever I feel like gaming, I think, I should expend my time on something better, like learning how to code or learning more about GNU/linux.
So I play less now.
Or actually working my job as a lawyer.
I've learn more about computers with one year using GNU/linux than 20 years with windows. =)
Steve Gibson (the developer of the original light pen for Apple II and Atari systems as well as numerous software programs) has been a Windows developer for many years and developed a free 83k application called Never10 that prevents the Windows pop-ups from upgrading to Windows 10. It will also remove any files that Windows has automatically downloaded as well (which can amount to over 6GB). It uses a group policy and registry edits which is the same thing a sysadmin would have to do in an enterprise environment.
From the Never10 page "Never10 does NOT prevent the installation of Windows updates, including the infamous Get Windows 10 (GWX) update KB3035583. Never10 simply employs Microsoft's documented and sanctioned configuration settings to instruct it NOT to change the installed version of Windows."
I mention this two reasons:
1) I would rather see someone use Never10 than to turn off their security updates because someone will almost certainly break into that device. I would assume anyone turning off their security updates probably has no understanding of security practices and having a vulnerable device on a network opens up every other device on the network too (and this is excluding the device being turned into a zombie for spam/DDOS which is also almost a certainty).
2) If you know anyone who is struggling with this Windows' issue, this is the PERFECT time to infer that a transition to GNU/Linux is in order. If they are that upset at Windows, it is actually the perfect time to educate about why GNU/Linux is better and conforms to everything they want their computer to do. Trisquel is more than adequate for the majority of users who don't even know what an OS is and are using their computers for document processing and web browsing.
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2 weeks ago I installed Mint on a friend's laptop, he is a total computer illiterate. I asked him several times so far if he likes it and if everything is ok. Answer: perfect.
Cinnamon or MATE version? Oh and I'm guessing you did the Ubuntu based version (17.x) instead of the Debian one.
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tg3: Cinnamon (buguntu based)
I have installed Trisquel on My Mother's Computer, Uncle's Computer, Both a Friend and his Wife's computers, and have sold two laptops with Trisquel on them, and no one has complained yet.
I had to install a copy of Win 10 to be able to update my laptop's BIOS. I tried other means but failed. Maybe it was due to the BIOS password, don't know, but the installer/updater/flasher reminded me of the password before proceeding. I had an old HDD that I swapped in for the update and then promptly replaced it with my SSD with Debian/CDE on it.
GNU/Linux has the same problem that the Windows Phone platform has. No one's developing for it because it has such low market share, and it has such low market share because no one develops for it.
Edit: I'm happy to note that I recently saw a headline asking if the Windows 10 update reminders qualify as spyware. I wanted to yell "Windows IS spyware!" I'll never use another Microsoft product again.
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> I'm happy to note that I recently saw a headline asking if the Windows 10 update reminders qualify as spyware.
More like adware - it is an add nagging the useds to upgrade to Nsaowns 10.
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Most of the people I know buy computers from a brick-and-mortar store. They go into a store like Best Buy, and they try out different computers and eventually buy one. It would be great if there was a GNU/Linux store where people could go and try out GNU/Linux in person, buy it installed on the computer, and receive support services. Alternatively, perhaps stores like Best Buy could carry a line of computers that have GNU/Linux installed. I wouldn't hold my breath though.
The simplest initial solution would be to set up a table at some college fair. Then make demonstrations, answer questions, and help people install GNU/Linux. If this were done by a company that already exists, like Think Penguin, orders could be taken as well--maybe even sell some laptops there and then. This could be quite a lucrative model for promoting GNU/Linux, since a lot of college students buy computers, and there are a lot of college students. Also, there are many benefits to focusing on college students and universities in general.
Not to mention you would be supporting an even more evil company by buying a chromebook.