Windows 11 has made the “clean Windows install” an oxymoron | Op-ed: PC makers used to need to bring their own add-on bloatware—no longer.::Op-ed: PC makers used to need to bring their own add-on bloatware—no longer.
This is the best summary I could come up with:
Use Linux.
I’m not a bot, beep boop.
A clean windows install is when you clean windows off your hard drive and install Linux
😄
Prove it !
I’m sorry Dave, I’m afraid I can’t do that.
SolidGoldMagikarp
Edit: Very obscure reference, sorry.
The word “distribute” refers to the act of distributing or spreading something out among a group of people or things. It can also refer to the way in which something is distributed or arranged. For example, a company may distribute its products to different retailers, or a teacher may distribute assignments to students. Additionally, it can mean to give out something in an orderly way, such as distributing flyers or pamphlets.
I’ve been running Linux on my laptop for ages, because I really only use a web browser on it anyway.
It was the bloat and bullshit in Windows that made me switch my desktop gaming machine to Linux back in 2018. I was regularly spending time fiddling with settings, removing things Microsoft wanted to push, using third party tools to disable telemetry, etc and it occurred to me if I was going to spend all that time fixing and changing things, I might as well be running Linux.
In 2018 there was a bunch of games that didn’t work without a fair amount of work, but I was already spending time wrestling with my computer anyway and on Linux I didn’t also have the feeling that my OS was actively resisting me and trying to force me to do what it wanted.
If something on Linux didn’t work, it was because it hadn’t been built or fixed yet. It wasn’t because Corporate decided to use their OS to force their app store or cloud services onto people.
It wasn’t because Corporate decided to use their OS to force their app store or cloud services onto people.
Ubuntu and the snap store say hi!
That’s alright, nobody is recommending Ubuntu.
I run Slackware, so no snaps, systemd, etc. It just does as it’s told.
Good on you, I was a long time slackware user myself. I just wanted to make the point that just using any Linux doesn’t suffice to escape these shennanigans, the choice of distro matters as well.
Until I can play competitive shooters on Linux this isn’t an option.
Unfortunately there’s still a lot of major blocks to using Linux when most of what you do requires windows only software. Between CoD, Destiny 2, Apex Legends (bans Linux players falsely), Lightroom and Photoshop I’m basically stuck on windows. There’s still too many important things that still don’t work on Linux for it to be viable.
Don’t even get me started on hardware. My GoXLR mini has no support either, so I’d need to buy a new audio interface to use Linux, while losing a lot of functionality.
Don’t mind me, still salty that I can’t make the switch. But if 85% of what I do on the daily can’t be done in Linux then it’s a non-starter.
Yea, no
Some motherboards will actually try to install software when you install Windows. Recent ASUS and Gigabyte motherboards are known for this, however with ASUS I know you can disable it (source: own an ASUS motherboard, there’s an option to disable the installation of Armory Crate)
Sometimes that software is useful, a few times windows didn’t auto-install ethernet drivers, so I was happy ArmoryCrate could be mounted to do so.
I used to buy the “pro” version of windows to avoid shit like this. Windows 10 was the last version I bought and paid for. I was able to setup a strictly local account but had to disable all of the telemetry manually. Out of the box, that shit was enabled by default. Occasionally, updates would re-enable those settings.
I just really hate windows. I only use the shit for gaming. Other than that I stick with *nix
And Linux has come so far in gaming. The worst part isn’t the games themselves, but all the other crap companies make you install. The stupid Ubisoft and ea apps are the only reason I use windows at all.
Try portproton, this app have one click install of ubisoft and others launchers
Thanks I’ll give it a shot.
I feel Apple is missing out on the opportunity of taking more marketshare.
I remember the sub $750 2010 Macbook Air 11 inches that weighted 900grams and had a 6h battery. One of my favourite laptops all time and my first Mac.
Today Apple insists on iPads that have extremely limited functionality, and don’t really threat MS on entry level laptop market.
What? Apple is still releasing good laptops, m1 makbook air was unmatched for its price for like 2+ years and is still a machine that can last 6-10 hours under workload
Absolutely! Great machines indeed, I have one.
However, the sub-$1k market is under served with iPads only.
I think a 12 inches M1 Macbook can do some serious damage at this price range.
I guess (in their mind) their laptops are “premium” product and making a cheap one will lead to brand damage.
Plus, I remember how bad was previous 12 inch macbook, people will probably be very catious about it (if they ever make one)
The base M1 MacBook Air is regularly (and currently) on sale for $750 at major retailers like Best Buy, Costco, and Amazon. MSRP is still $1000, though.
I don’t think there is touchscreen support still, also not sure if they have a 2in1 option. As well, any non gaming laptop I’ve used in the past whothehellknowshowlong has had great battery life, even the cheap used convertible Chromebooks I install Windows 11 on have pretty great battery life. Definitely does more than a MacBook Air and for a lot less
are you really trying to say that chromebook can do more than m1 macbook lol
please show me an example of working in blender with chromebook
Touchscreen, tablet mode.
If I wanted to use the touchscreen, I’d rather get a tablet or use my phone. I would like to see the capability to open actual apps, not just chrome. In this case, even ipad is more capable than chromebooks because it can actually run lots of stuff, even video editing software.
We are talking about Chromebooks running Windows. Not Chromebooks running ChromeOS
Definitely does more than a MacBook Air
You are so far behind in tech news my dear friend.
Touchscreen, tablet mode.
Please show me a Chromebook with 12 hours of battery life (Hell, even a x86 device) that has the same profile.
I’m pretty sure a Chromebook can’t run D4 either o.o
Look, I’m down for the anti-Apple circle jerk, but let’s hang on the side of reality, at least.
Touchscreen, tablet mode.
Please tell me where the anti-Apple circlejerk is, because lemmy is a sea of anti-Windows and Google circlejerking the likes of which have never been seen
I don’t think you meant to double reply so I’ll respond here.
I didn’t touch 2-n-1 or “tablet mode” since it’s not a target for their devices. I was specifically honing in on the claim of “Any gaming windows laptop has good battery life” (which I take to mean comparable) and “a chromebook running windows can do alot more for cheaper”
Both of those takes are either out of date or straight up not true. Especially when we consider the profile. There’s a few laptops that came out since the M1 that hit the same battery life, but they often need to make a compromise on performance when on battery power – which the M1 series did not. There are a few laptops that both hit the profile and the battery life that are on x86, but they are more expensive.
As for the Anti-Windows/Anti-Google stuff, it’s extremely common in the FOSS community and they’re represented at a much higher clip than a more general audience like /r/gaming on Reddit. In fact, the more into Unix-like spaces you go the more discussion there is about Windows being a many-layered shit show.
I never said “any gaming Windows laptop has good battery life” I literally said “any non gaming laptop I’ve used in the past whothehellknowshowlong has had great battery life”. Nice attempt at trying to twist things but that’s pretty bad.
As far as “a chromebook running windows can do alot more for cheaper” that is factually true. To my knowledge there isn’t a MacBook of any type that is convertible or contains a touchscreen, regardless of your personal feelings on that matter those are massively important features to a lot of users and the market demand reflects that in a very big way. Not to mention a Chromebook running Windows supports a much larger amount of software which, again, may not be important to you personally, but it’s massively important to a lot of people especially with Apple ending OS upgrades going further. And before you run off trying to say “oh but what about boot camp” well you still don’t have a convertible or a touchscreen.
I have spent the last 15 years of my life as a Linux user, and I spent 4 years of my life as a Mac user. The*nix community really needs to get over Windows and stop trying to pretend that Windows users are morons and are somehow completely oblivious to the existence of Linux. It’s an insane obsession
I never said “any gaming Windows laptop has good battery life” I literally said “any non gaming laptop I’ve used in the past whothehellknowshowlong has had great battery life”. Nice attempt at trying to twist things but that’s pretty bad.
Ah, I missed a word. My honest mistake! Wasn’t intended, I skipped over the word as I was reading. You can understand how if that word was missing that it would be confusing. I’m not going to get into a performance debate over the space of ultrabooks, because it’s all over the place compared to the M-series since it’s release. Especially on the high-end side. For chromebooks though, you do take a massive hit on overall horsepower — unless the trend of them “slapping in a Intel Celeron and calling it a day” has broken recently.
As far as “a chromebook running windows can do alot more for cheaper” that is factually true. To my knowledge there isn’t a MacBook of any type that is convertible or contains a touchscreen, regardless of your personal feelings on that matter those are massively important features to a lot of users and the market demand reflects that in a very big way. Not to mention a Chromebook running Windows supports a much larger amount of software which, again, may not be important to you personally, but it’s massively important to a lot of people especially with Apple ending OS upgrades going further. And before you run off trying to say “oh but what about boot camp” well you still don’t have a convertible or a touchscreen.
This is the claim I find dubious. Given the rampant success of the Apple line since the advent of the M1, I’m unsure if the lack of a touch-screen mattered to general users. Especially since market for MacOS has grown since then. And you’re right, some may really care about a touch screen — but I’d call it a mixed bag. Users may similarly care about things like having dope display, high quality speakers, or a GOAT trackpad. To point at one hardware feature that is missing and calling it a dealbreaker is a bit much.
And sure, a chromebook on Windows can run anything in the Windows suite — it’ll be rough for anything that calls for performance compared to an M-series at the moment. Think tasks like Blender, rendering out a video (my MBA chews through 4k footage at faster than real time playback!), high end photo editing, or particularly gross compilations that take a bit of time. My little Air can run games like Diablo4, we have Baldur’s Gate 3 (which the betas running on Metal2/3 were awesome), or Fallen Order. It’s kinda sweet! Currently, we don’t use boot camp either (since there actually isn’t a fullblown ARM based Windows yet) generally we use translation layers (sometimes more than one). At the moment it’s pretty rare for me to not have a native ARM build of software by major companies, and if it’s not (looking at you game devs) I’ve gotten along quite well with x86 - > ARM translation and/or Windows->MacOS translation.
Like, I’m not claiming chromebooks don’t have a use case. Nor am I claiming a MacBook is the GOAT. It’s the specific claim “Definitely does more than a MacBook Air and for a lot less,” that I don’t agree with. Just on the silicon horsepower alone, and I don’t have to compromise on battery life, performance, and it’s still light while still being itty-bitty! Downside, I pay more. Well, mine I paid $700 for.
Eh, I use the three families of OS’s daily. My dev work is on a Windows machine, and the OS is kinda a hot mess. Granted, most of what informs my opinion most end users won’t even notice or care about. I say if someone wants to use Windows, go for it. But, I’d only use it if I was literally paid to do so, but that’s my taste.
What?! They have been taking marketshare since the M1 series.
Heck, even iPadOS is gimped so the Mac doesn’t get stepped on. Which is a shame because the M1 Air has pretty darn close to the same silicon.
18 years of running linux on my computers because windows is insufferable in some way or form. Windows 11 Pro was actually fairly decent at first I even liked the UI despite its issues. Then updates broke and even digging into the cmd prompt tools couldn’t fix it. Which is just insane to me as a company that is hoovering up my data cant figure out updates. I dont even care all that much about the privacy aspect if it just worked. Hell its why I use google services. But every version of windows I have used since XP has had some sort of fatal error that could only be fixed with a clean install. When that happens its my sign to go on a distro hop.
Dark patterns have also just become the norm in Windows and Mac OS. Honestly kind of sad because both OS’s at one point in time had there high points where they felt like they were built for the user. Now they are glorified billboards that run apps.
Lol start menu…who even clicks that these days?
I think this is something people like to hyperfocus on, these days the workflow is win key and a couple letters. I hear so many Linux teens go on about the start menu and I always struggle to try and recall what the star menu looks like
I use it regularly to find and launch programs. Just like I use CMD+Space on mac. Windows key and start typing is super convenient, and search is somewhat decent at programs that are already installed
I must clarify yes, I click the start button to search for apps etc but rarely, if ever, utilise the start menu. Searching from the start button, makes the search icon redundant, unless there’s something I’m missing?
This is the best summary I could come up with:
For a certain kind of computer buyer, the first thing you always did with a new laptop or desktop from a company like Dell, HP, Acer, or Asus wasn’t to open the box and start using it.
Computer manufacturers often distributed buggy, pointless, or redundant third-party software (“bloatware” or “crapware”) to help subsidize the cost of the hardware.
This might pass some savings on to the user, but once they owned their computer, that software mainly existed to consume disk space and RAM, something that cheaper PCs could rarely afford to spare.
Computer manufacturers also installed all kinds of additional support software, registration screens, and other things that generally extended the setup process and junked up your Start menu and desktop.
The “out-of-box experience” (OOBE, in Microsoft parlance) for Windows 7 walked users through the process of creating a local user account, naming their computer, entering a product key, creating a “Homegroup” (a since-discontinued local file and media sharing mechanism), and determining how Windows Update worked.
Due to the Microsoft Store, you’ll find several third-party apps taking up a ton of space in your Start menu by default, even if they aren’t technically downloaded and installed until you run them for the first time.
The original article contains 596 words, the summary contains 204 words. Saved 66%. I’m a bot and I’m open source!
I read that if you select “English (World)” during setup, a lot of this bloat is never installed. Have yet to try.
