Just bought a new Windows laptop and it was LOADED with bloatware. Some apps could be deleted simply, some however are baked in. Discovered BloatyNosyApp and the partner app Junk Ctrl for W11 on GitHub https://github.com/builtbybel/BloatyNosy
This seems to have done the trick quickly and surprisingly easily compared to DIY powershell activity.
All PCs bought in retail should be wiped and reimaged with a fresh install. At the very best, you install the firmware updates manually or via the manufacturer app but even then I will take a second look before approving.
But that only removes OEM bloatware and you still have to deal with Windows bloatware.
Bloatynosy removes onedrive, people, microsoft mixed realityportal and such. With just 1 click. I literally just used it now on a fresh windows installation
It also disables telemitry, and a few other things (default “fix” button)
Most OEMs push firmware updates via windows update these days.
The OEMs app might get you them sooner, but nothing is better than windows BSODing, then deciding now’s a good time to install a firmware update.
Yes, let’s fucking download software from a GitHub repo!
And then bitch how Linux isn’t user friendly, because you… might have to download software from a GitHub repo?
Dafuq are you talking about? I’ve downloaded many random shit from Github on Windows to restore some basic UX functionality on W11, while I have never downloaded any software from Github repo on Linux, because everything I need is either on Ubuntu repo or some ppa or - shockingly - is built-in DE. And I’m a programmer and Linux is my daily driver.
The MBA dickheads took Microsoft over years ago. Engineers used to have some input on features and design, but those days are long gone. I know the term enshittification has been overused, but it applies double to Microsoft.
Tools like ShutUp10 (which works on Windows 11) are the only reason I can bear to use their bloated horrible OS for my job.
Office 365 pissed me off so much I only use LibreOffice now (and it’s excellent).
We should all be using Linux, but some folks (like me) are trapped for now.
Fuck Libre Office and Open Office.
I really hate the, “we should all use Linux” mentality and I see it on here a lot. Let me tell someone who barely knows how to send a fucking file over the internet how to fix their broken repository that decided to randomly break during an Linux upgrade.
Linux and Windows do different things in different ways that make sense in both ways for different reasons. Not everyone should hate Windows or vice versa, Linux, because this entire Lemmy community thinks it is superior in every way.
I get pissed off by office as well but you know what it has some pretty damn good features. It works in the cloud it’s easy to sync across my decides.
Windows updates break things but at least MS and Windows has a massive catalogue of fixes and ways to go back.
I love Linux but holy mother of fucking God it is an absolute pain in the ass to fix when it breaks and you expect me to tell my Mom to understand that.
No, we should not all be using Linux because Linux does not work for all models needing to be met. I hate to be that aggressive asshole but Jesus Christ I keep seeing this on Lemmy and it’s just a god damn stupid fucking statement. Oh and for fucks sake. If I see, “what kind of Linux system are you using that breaks.” Dammit, I have literally seen Linux break in the middle of a college classroom demonstration of just installing it and wouldn’t you know it just like Windows it isn’t perfect. Get off your high horse people. You don’t know something more than the average person because you use Linux or Windows or hell even Unix.
People who “barely knows how to send a fucking file over the internet” can’t fix shit on Windows either. I spent a lot more time fixing my mom’s Windows install than her Ubuntu.
I spent a lot more time fixing my mom’s Windows install than her Ubuntu.
Small anecdote, roughly in the same line as yours:
As W7 was close to end of life, I asked my mum about it, as her laptop used W7. And after highlighting the privacy nightmare that W10 became, she decided to try Linux out. So I installed Mint in her machine. At the start she asked for help often, but the amount of “pls help” decreased over time. The last time that she asked for help was because she wanted to access “her computer” from her phone, just like I do with mine. (i.e. local network.)
My neighbours though? I often get some spare change from them, by helping them out with their Windows machines. And they’re in the same level of tech expertise as my mum, you know, those folks who can download and install a program and not much else.
So I believe that it reached a point where, in certain aspects, Linux is actually easier to use and maintain than Windows. Linux is still full of rough corners, unintuitive design and stupid shit, but at least it doesn’t get on your way on purpose because it benefits some business out there.
I’m not gonna comment on the Linux portion because you seem quite passionate, but both Libre Office and Open Office are cross platform apps. So they’ll work just fine with your OneDrive / Dropbox / Backblaze / whatever to give you the wonderful fully cloud synced experience on either Windows or Linux.
Linux is just the kernel and infinitely superior to anything Microsoft has ever produced by itself. Stability and usability issues arise from the distribution that is being used, there are many that are tailored for the average consumer and that are just as simple to use as Windows. People like to forget it, but Android also uses the Linux kernel and is the most successful operating system in the world, with the amount of installed instances dwarfing the amount of Microsoft Windows installations.
Windows randomly decided to break for me many more times than Ubuntu did for my parents. Every time a sudden new update is pushed on the background, stalling anything I would be doing to a halt, it’s a roll of the dice if it will still function properly when it’s done.
Sure, and how easy was it to fix those issues?
Usually it is nothing more than either reversing an update or waiting for the next update in Windows.
While in Linux you’d have to re-import the correct repositories through command line and it might still not work, explain that to your parents.
Yep… Moving to Lemmy it’s quite surprising how much of an echo chamber the Linux group has on here.
It’s a good OS, but being honest Windows is likely better for almost everyone as it’s a lot simpler to understand with good support. Don’t have to worry about comparability as much or other things either.
It’s such an echo chamber that you’ve gotten a number of downvotes just for providing your perspective here
On Lemmy I see people raving about Linux all the time like it’s the second coming of jesus it’s so annoying. Really fits the stereotype of Linux users always letting you know they use Linux
if I didn’t work in IT and I didn’t play certain video games and I didn’t need certain recording software I would be 100% Linux it kind of pisses me off that I can’t be 100%.
That was a whole lot of “If I didn’t just” statements xD
Still, VMs and containers and such. Could still do it if you wanted.
Proton is revolutionary but it still isn’t a solution for every game. And that’s not even getting into the lack of support Nvidia gives to anything Linux.
I just recently updated shutup10 because of another annoyance of windows and was surprised that it didn’t solve my problem right away. Even with shutup10 it’s barely bearable.
I don’t use either if those and I’m not having this “barely bearable” experience. What do you guys see that is bothering you so much? I don’t get any ads or crap installed when I setup a new PC. Is it because I’m using Win Enterprise?
Right. Buy products that is not only expensive to buy, but also expensive to repair. Pass…
The close competition? For the price of a MacBook you could get a beefy ass PC.
Before I will even think about buying a Mac I will buy a Framework laptop and install debian.
And I don’t even use Linux outside of a home server.
far beyond the close competition in both quality and performance
It’s true that Apple continues to be the king of build quality. And while they do currently hold the performance per watt crown, there are plenty of laptops that beat the M2 when it comes to raw performance, especially if you throw in a dGPU. And of course, none of this matters if the device doesn’t run the software you want, which is what I suspect most people on Lemmy have issue with.
Yeah, I remember XP and Seven as solid OSes where everything just worked.
Now it’s a mix of crap, hey this app is in night mode, this one isn’t! Want to change a parameter? Ha ha you can’t! You want to share a folder? Good luck!
And it’s heuristics/analysis just because Windows is inherently insecure drags any pc down to a crawl…
And publicity??!
Aurgh
I switched to MacOS last year and it’s so much better. Considering a full Linux switch when this iMac is too old unless the VisionPros turn out to be as good as advertised
I’m using Windows 10 at home and 11 at work. I’ve already turned an old gaming laptop into a Linux machine, and I don’t think I’ll ever switch to Windows 11. The straw that broke the camel’s back was the moment I read an article about Microsoft’s vision to make Windows entirely cloud based.
That’s so they can run everything as SaaS and bill you monthly to use the computer you already paid for.
This is pretty much my view, hardware is good, software is good, price is stupid, and Apple being Apple can suck. But I’m happy with it
ive slapped mint on so many PCs… people barely know its not windows
most people only use the freakin browser
Its kinda why chrome os works. Majority of people only need the browser, and if you need basic office suite, google has their own cloud options.
Its when you have specific use cases when you HAVE to use a certain os over another (e.g gaming with anti cheat, AI/ML and engineering software is usually windows foward, adobe stability on OSX. A lot of backend and server applications on linux)
Unless you make it a point to procure an LTSC version, which Microsoft won’t even sell to you unless you have a site license.
LTSC is the only version of Windows that behaves like it’s still your computer, and I have uptime measured in months on a computer who serves Plex all day long.
I have a friend who runs MacOS too. She bought it used and it’s a desktop so it isn’t impossible to repair.
ITT: folks who think Linux is too complicated or whatever, but are perfectly willing to jump through endless hoops to work around some of Windows’ deliberate hostility.
The Stockholm syndrome is real.
I’ve reinstalled both Linux and Windows on the same machine a few weeks ago and it was considerably easier and faster to install Linux. It also had less problems post-install too.
Installing Linux is incredibly fast and easy, yeah. It’s everything you try to do after that. Unless you are a regular user and have commands memorized you need to open a browser and go look them up every time you need to do some basic shit. I’ve been using Linux off and on since 2008 and you just cannot say with a straight face that it is easier than windows.
folks who think Linux is too complicated or whatever
At one point this was true, but that was many years ago.
Unfortunately, that reputation has kind of stuck.
Not really. You are underestimating how stupid the average person is. They cannot peel an orange.
The barriers are still too steep. My Ubuntu machine updated it’s kernel and then refused to boot after that. I had to look up how to manually lock the old working kernel.
Windows has never completely broken itself on an update for me.
If that happened to my parents they’d be angrily driving to the shop to get another cheap windows laptop.
We have a phrase for a bricked windows install: it’s called the Blue Screen of Death. It’s not like Windows never gets fucked either.
I’ve personally never had such an issue upgrading Linux.
Funny, I switched to Ubuntu because my brand new laptop was continually bricking with Windows 10, specifically due to Windows Update.
Roundabouts the time period of the forced Windows 10 update I had a desktop and laptop BOTH completely break, booting only to a black screen on startup, having received somewhere around half of an update I had no say in.
I’d like to think they’ve learned their lesson. I’d like to think I could safely leave a windows computer on overnight without waking up to a surprise new version, or bricked PC. But even having that as an outside possibility is enough to turn me off windows entirely.
: folks who think Linux is too complicated or whatever, but are perfectly willing to jump through endless hoops to work around some of Windows’ deliberate hostility.
Man I realised this when I found myself running a third party program just to get my audio to simultaneously play out of multiple outputs on windows. I had regular issues with games and my killer ethernet adapter (they’re notoriously bad, but after switching to linux didn’t have any issues). Reformatting for home was getting longer and longer. Start menu search started to become slow and bogged down. Windows store was a nightmare. It was a constant battle to remove all the advertising and tracking “features”. I game, but mostly a PC for me is a tool. When a tool stops doing its job, it gets replaced.
Funnily, when I play games with my friends, I rarely have issues… but as soon as I do, they they’re pretty quick to jump down my throat about my OS of choice.
EDIT: WSL is pretty nice though, I use it on my work box.
I feel like I get closer and closer every day, but video games still keep me anchored down
I actually like to be able to play games on my gaming PC so no thanks, I will stay with windows
That’s wholly your prerogative, but I just wanted to chime in and say - I was firmly in this camp too, but I’ve been restricted to a shitty second PC as I don’t have access to my usual rig at the moment. Decided it was the time to give Linux a shot after 4-5 years since last time. Every game I’ve tried has worked with 0 mucking around, outside of games I’m obtaining through uh, less ethical means, which don’t just install straight through Steam.
I know it’s only anecdotal and I’m not saying you have to change if you’ve got no reason to, but gaming isn’t really the reason it used to be for not using Linux. Unless you only play competitive shooters with Anti-Cheat that doesn’t work on Linux.
Not really an issue for basically any game these days. The Steam Deck running Linux has changed the game significantly. I play video games exclusively on Linux. I haven’t booted into my Windows SSD in months. Honestly considering nuking it and making it a game storage drive for Linux.
The amount of Steam games compatible with Linux is about 10 000.
The amount of Steam games compatible with Windows is about 70 000.
Stop claiming gaming on Linux isn’t an issue anymore. Yeah it is getting better, but it isn’t even close to what Windows has to offer at the moment.
Downgraded my new desktop computer from Win11 to Win10 this weekend. Still considering if I shouldn’t just go back to Linux now that Valve has made gaming on Linux viable…
Worst case scenario, you could always set up a dual boot situation if there are just one or two games you play that aren’t supported. That’s what I’ll probably end up doing on my main rig eventually since the only game I’d really miss that’s not supported is ESO.
Dual boot doesn’t work anymore with win11, it requires secure boot to be enabled, so the grub boot loader won’t work. Idk if anyone has found a work around though.
I’m holding out as long as I can on Win10 for gaming. It’s my hope that Linux gaming will be compatible with most of my games by the time I have to choose between Win11 and Linux. Last time I checked there were a few games I was interested in that weren’t completely compatible with SteamOS.
It’s working pretty well on my steam deck for me but not without a few bugs. Nothing game breaking though. (I also had some different bugs on windows 10 so not sure how much is platform specific)
I want to switch to gaming on linux so bad. Just a few weeks ago I ran into a sudden issue where any source game I launched in windows would crash my graphics driver, totally unrecoverable without restarting the PC (even shift+ctrl+win+b did nothing) and on some restarts I found myself being forced to boot on integrated graphics and fully reinstall drivers. Total shitshow, started while I was midgame and came out of nowhere, couldn’t figure anything out.
I finally gave up and installed mint, got steam set up and downloading, started moving over some my backed up files… only to find out that a thing I’d ordered to make my VR headset wireless wasn’t going to have Linux drivers. I was gonna have to dual boot windows at the very least. And I’ve had other experiences where Windows updates have broken Grub and forced me to do reinstalls as well, so…
The day can’t come fast enough where companies just build stuff for Linux. The Windows UI gets worse with every release, and it’s really not as bug-free as people seem to think, it just has market share and companies tend to build for it by default. Completely self-fulfilling prophecy.
I was gonna have to dual boot windows at the very least. And I’ve had other experiences where Windows updates have broken Grub and forced me to do reinstalls as well, so…
You didn’t have to reinstall. You just have to boot from a live USB and then run like three commands to fix it. But yes, that is indeed unironically more work to figure out and safely do.
