Boy, the good ole days are gone when it comes to Windows. I am posting just to help anybody that doesn’t know. This is like a creepy wire tap. If you are actually using Windows 11, make sure to disable and or reduce telemetry in Windows 11 (Privacy). If that actually helps, I am sure there are more ways they send data back but the video link is a simple how to for the telemetry. Here is more info: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wtg_s1GQiMU
how to disable telemetry in windows 11
Install Linux
I’m gonna piggyback off of this to remind everyone to install OpenSnitch and go through the iinitial and super-tedious approve/deny outgoing connections.
there’s stuff on linux that, despite being perfectly offline capable and having turned off everything related to clown sync and remote check this and that, still phones home.
I mean most things are just timeserver checks or poking GitHub/flathub/repo servers. Not something you can fully prevent if you value seamless functionality. Fedora has an opt out telemetry ping just to see how many people are using each version, but it comes part of when you run an update and ping their servers for that anyways. If you want it all removed and still have good functionality I really recommend secureblue
Like auto updates? Usage survey? Or something Canonical?
I’m not that interested to find out what exactly it’s doing. it suffices that I was explicit about fuck no don’t do none of that and it’s still outbound.
like the latest one I blocked is QownNotes. everything related to online is turned off yet it still wants to connect to api.qownnotes.com.
First line on their website:
QOwnNotes - Free open source plain-text file markdown note-taking with Nextcloud / ownCloud integration
Dude, a fucking “cloud notepad” is phoning home… Check what you’re installing.
Ha. Beat me to it!
Just spyware doing spyware things here.
pulls out typewriter
Boy, the good ole days are gone when it comes to Windows.
No such thing ever existed. All of this has been a work in progress for the last 30 years.
The “good old” Windows XP didn’t send data to Microsoft every 30 seconds. But not because it was a good operating system or because Microsoft was a nice company.
It was the case only due to lack of resources and infrastructure. That’s why every new Windows release featured gradually more spyware. Microsoft was slowly but steadily progressing towards its original goal. That goal never changed.
Some people are severely misinterpreting inability to spy en masse with unwillingness to do so. Microsoft was never unwilling. Not even for a minute.
ITT: a lot of people trying really hard to justify their use cases for Windows.
Well, there is no need to justify a decision for personal use. But keep in mind there is plenty of corp software that literally can not run on Linux. Believe me, I tried.
The Windows 11 cope…
I got a new laptop for work, i could use linux for it, everything i do is within a browser, but it took me an hour tops to set up in windows 11 (well maybe a couple while i fiddled with settings, fuck you windows 11), jumping over to linux seems like an impossible task for me, who has never done it before
but i am planning to get a linux os running on my old laptop (8gb ram) that i use for torrents and streaming (browsers), i ran proton vpn. Give me a recommendation, maybe a tutorial i can follow, if you’re so determined, give me the nudge i need :p
As the other user said, get Mint Cinnamon on a USB. I moved to Linux last year (now on Bazzite KDE) and it wasn’t the leap I expected, more just a small shuffle. Everything is roughly where you expect it to be and works how you expect it to, but like actually where you’d expect and working how you expect. Like if Windows 10 had been designed just for usability without corporate interests clogging everything up. The only reason it may take a while to customise to your liking is that you can customise far, far more of it straight out of the box.
Ill consider it, thanks!
My reason is really simple: replacing Windows with Bazzite or whatever would be a lot of effort. If W11 ever bricks itself or does something hideously invasive (that I can’t disable or opt out of) then it becomes less of an effort than maintaining the status quo, and thus switching becomes the obvious choice.
We all have our limits - yours is a fair point of ease vs inconvenience. I think that is the market dominant force. That being said with how far any distro has come since I started messing around in 98… It’s close to being that easy.
It’s very very easy to install Linux. Only moderately difficult to dual boot
I’m aware of that. What all the linux fanboys here are failing to understand is that wiping out an old OS and replacing it with something new that you’ll have to learn how to use is something that takes effort and currently is unnecessary.
W11 currently works okay. I can still easily disable the annoying things and push off nonessential updates. I don’t need to replace it. Yet. If that changes, then I can go through the process to replace it. But there’s no reason for me to do so yet.
Linux fanboys proselytize more aggressively than evangelists do.
Come off it.
The OP is about the worrisome aspects of Win11, and we’re out here telling OP there’s an alternative that doesn’t violate user privacy.
Obviously learning a new OS can be an obstacle but how much do you value privacy? You’re sitting here saying it’s too difficult. You’re the problem, not me
If you value privacy, fuck off into the woods at this point. It’s looking pretty likely increasingly invasive spying laws will get approved in many different countries.
For Windows 10 and 11 this is just scratching the surface and is next to useless for all the stuff they leave behind.
Use ShutUpWindows10++ (yes it work on 11 too) and THAT will get the vast majority of the stuff that this video doesn’t even touch on.
If you start with privacy options, then Winhance, then windows shut up it covers even more ground.
Laughs in Tux
MS at least permits to desactivate all this crap (naturally not documented, but activated by default), it’s all in the settings, services and registry (eg.desactivate SysMain, whith which MS
stealshare your Bandwidth). Apart there are also a ton of other services and “features” which remain active by default, despite not longer needed since 15 years, eg.Prefetch, IndexService, Hibernate and other (eg.AI), slowing down the system and wasting RAM. Most optimizer apps, like ShutUp10 and others can help, if you don’t want to do it by yourself (!!!). To make easier the access, God Mode still works in Windows 11, or download Super God Mode. Windows always need work to turn it in a fast and usable OS with an reasonable privacy (remember that some telemetry make sense, eg.for update checks (Important security updates, also for drivers)Mandatory to install Portmaster.
Your data is spread eagle cross the block
Spread…
Is this a start trek reference?
tld;dr: no
While it’s the title of a(n awesome) song by Death Grips, it just seemed an apt description of your data with 11.
Any idea about Win11 IoT LTSC? I use that in a VM, pretty nice, very barebones OTB, I use CTT tuner to just remove microslop edge.
Glad I got out two years ago. Never going back.
Once a software I use has a native Linux version and not a hacky buggy work around I’ll move my main production machine. Got a box with proxmox on it with two vms of Linux. No issues with Linux other than not being able to use my wireless Xbox controller dongle… And Xbox controllers. Though I’m certain it’s a configuration issue.
