Ask HN: Are privacy concerns around Microsoft Windows 11 overblown?

Re:Ask HN: Are privacy concerns around Microsoft Windows 11 ... by GartzenDeHaes on Monday November 07, 2022 @10:39AM (#33507175)

I think the people at Microsoft have concluded that only suckers and dups are still using Windows. Young folks use their phones, neohipsters use Macs, and techbros use Linux. For the leftovers still on Windows, Microsoft is serving up Edge browser toolbar scams, taskbar "news" ads, lock screen ads for whatever it is that Bing is doing. Elon Musk should buy Microsoft so it can die too.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Ask HN: Are privacy concerns around Microsoft Windows 11 ... by joemazerino on Monday November 07, 2022 @10:40AM (#33507193)

Linux is insecure OOB and generally misconfigured by it's users. Windows remains the defacto choice for bros who want security.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Ask HN: Are privacy concerns around Microsoft Windows 11 ... by _Algernon_ on Monday November 07, 2022 @10:43AM (#33507252)

lol

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Ask HN: Are privacy concerns around Microsoft Windows 11 ... by dustymcp on Monday November 07, 2022 @10:52AM (#33507397)

That is a stretch lol

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Ask HN: Are privacy concerns around Microsoft Windows 11 ... by Woeps on Monday November 07, 2022 @10:57AM (#33507498)

I'm ignoring the first part of your sentence because meh.

However "Windows remains the defacto choice for bros who want security". I'm genuinely curious about this part of the statement. Could you please elaborate

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Ask HN: Are privacy concerns around Microsoft Windows 11 ... by lpcvoid on Monday November 07, 2022 @11:18AM (#33507815)

I dislike Windows the same as everybody on here, but they do a lot of security engineering such as virtualization based security, for example their hypervisor enforced code integrity stuff.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Ask HN: Are privacy concerns around Microsoft Windows 11 ... by encryptluks2 on Monday November 07, 2022 @11:31AM (#33508032)

Stockholm syndrom, amiright? No seriously.. Windows has a continuous stream of security vulnerabilities. Linux has cryptsetup, dm-verity, secure boot signing, TPM, proper sandboxing, QEMU, etc.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Ask HN: Are privacy concerns around Microsoft Windows 11 ... by rdevsrex on Monday November 07, 2022 @10:45AM (#33507300)

That last line was kinda surprising to hear. Not a big Elon fan, but generally I think you at least wait a quarter to see if they've run it into the ground or not.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Ask HN: Are privacy concerns around Microsoft Windows 11 ... by encryptluks2 on Monday November 07, 2022 @11:28AM (#33507980)

I remember saying the same about Donald Trump. All these people kept warning me, and although I didn't vote for him... I said, let's give him a chance. I really wish I could go back in time and take their warnings more seriously.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Ask HN: Are privacy concerns around Microsoft Windows 11 ... by warent on Monday November 07, 2022 @10:48AM (#33507340)

I can't tell if you're joking so I'll assume not. Windows is still by far the de facto gaming OS. Mac and Linux cannot handle games like Windows can.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Ask HN: Are privacy concerns around Microsoft Windows 11 ... by thfuran on Monday November 07, 2022 @11:11AM (#33507700)

Consoles and iOS/Android are by far the dominant gaming OSes. PC gaming isn't even all that huge slice of video gaming, let alone computer usage as a whole.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Ask HN: Are privacy concerns around Microsoft Windows 11 ... by gabelschlager on Monday November 07, 2022 @11:26AM (#33507944)

It's good to keep in mind that games like League of Legends alone have over 100 million monthly players. While I agree that mobile is far bigger (especially thanks to Asian countries), PC's slice is too big to ignore. And just going by Steam numbers, seems to be actively growing each year.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Ask HN: Are privacy concerns around Microsoft Windows 11 ... by lpcvoid on Monday November 07, 2022 @11:14AM (#33507747)

There are very few games I cannot play on my Linux/Steam box with AMD hardware. Everything just works out of the box, I just click play.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Ask HN: Are privacy concerns around Microsoft Windows 11 ... by AnIdiotOnTheNet on Monday November 07, 2022 @11:43AM (#33508247)

Good for you? Let me know when DCS runs on Linux consistently without issue. Or, like, literally any VR system.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Ask HN: Are privacy concerns around Microsoft Windows 11 ... by cjbgkagh on Monday November 07, 2022 @10:56AM (#33507468)

I’m getting constant stuttering in Win11 and have tried just about everything to fix it. They have this weird memory compaction thing running, and constant virus scans, and I don’t know what else. It’s been a total nightmare and for now I’ve quit gaming.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Ask HN: Are privacy concerns around Microsoft Windows 11 ... by HomePhone on Monday November 07, 2022 @10:53AM (#33507426)

Not to mention the de facto OS in multiple industries.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Ask HN: Are privacy concerns around Microsoft Windows 11 ... by ahelwer on Monday November 07, 2022 @10:52AM (#33507412)

This is unfortunately true and a reason I am finally installing linux at this very moment. The worst were those monthly post-login series of screens trying to override my consent for various options so some PM at Microsoft could hit their quarterly KPIs (because they Measure What Matters) followed by a smarmy screen at the end saying the computer was now "all yours" (so my own home computer I've had for 8 years isn't mine?). It was just such a gross, pushy thing to have respect for my consent clearly trashed in that way. I deserve not to be abused in this way by my own computer I use every day.

I've decided to really dive deep in linux. This is a rest-of-my-life thing now. I'm going through the Arch install process, really enjoying reading the wiki and enabling the services and fiddling with all the options. Windows treated me poorly enough that I no longer care about things "just working". I need to take this stuff into my own hands.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Ask HN: Are privacy concerns around Microsoft Windows 11 ... by cjbgkagh on Monday November 07, 2022 @10:54AM (#33507433)

I work with a few big companies and there seems to be a general push to put everything in the browser as part of the plan to get rid of windows. Plus the browser acts like a thin client for those wanting to get rid of Citrix.

Microsoft isn’t helping the matters by completely failing at building new UI toolkits. Internally Azure is seen as the future, but they burned a lot of their biggest customers already by overselling capacity to them in three year contracts. Those contracts are not getting renewed at the same level. I’ve never before seen a company sabotage itself so badly.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Ask HN: Are privacy concerns around Microsoft Windows 11 ... by scantis on Monday November 07, 2022 @11:01AM (#33507556)

That is not true, Microsoft is still widely regarded as the industry standard. It doesn't matter how horrific their products are or become.

I have so many measurement devices that run some form of windows on them and are impossible to port to anything else. I still run windows XP and 7 in private networks for some machines and still have to use windows 95 to rewrite some 8bit routines to floppy to run some ancient controllers.

Not because I want to, but because I have to.

Windows 11 is a giant problem, as it uses ridiculous amounts of ram. Around 2025 we will not be allowed to have win10 on the network.

So this is serious question for some, is windows 11 any good with privacy? Well I certainly hope so, as I'm not in the position where I have any choice.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Ask HN: Are privacy concerns around Microsoft Windows 11 ... by booleandilemma on Monday November 07, 2022 @11:07AM (#33507646)

I think the people at Microsoft have concluded that only suckers and dups are still using Windows.

I really hope that's not true. I'm a programmer and I still prefer Windows.

The UI is nicer than macOS, and the UX is smoother than Linux. Every now and then I try to install Ubuntu and find that it still doesn't work well with my headphones, or it randomly disconnects from my wifi.

Efforts like the Windows Terminal and WSL lead me to believe that you're wrong.

[ Parent | on HN ]