As an American, my next OS will not be Windows.
I've used linux as my OS of choice for the past ~ 25 years. I recently installed windows 11 after building an AI/ML/gaming workstation because I wanted to run some of the more complex bethesda mods that required you to run windows executables (i.e. downgraders, etc).
The only thing that's made it tolerable is the fact that I mostly live in the WSL shell, but I cannot get past the sneaking worry that I simply don't know what my OS is doing behind the scenes. For all I know, it's logging every keystroke or snapshotting my desktop back to MS hq.
As I get older I've gotten more and more concerned about privacy and data retention. IMHO the question you have to ask yourself is not 'do I trust $megaCorp or $currentAdministratioin' it's 'do I trust every possible future permutation of corporation or government indefinitely in the future'. In my case, absolutely not. There's no way we don't someday reach the point where an authoritarian administration turns AI lose on the absolute mountain of data corporations and governments have quietly squirreled away on each and every one of us to identify 'undesirables'. At least back before the computer age this took manpower and effort. Now and in the future it just takes a little electricity and compute.
People need to learn to do this in government. The party in power switches every 4-8 years. When the other guys get in, you wish you'd done something to limit executive power. Then when you get in again and actually have the power to add some new limits, well, you're the ones in office now, so why would you limit your own power?
Think ahead by more than the end of the quarter. You want subsidiarity and checks and balances to protect yourself from them tomorrow. Is it really so bad that it would also protect them from you today?
This is kind of a useless statement. You might as well say "I use an operating system." Someone will say "how have you solved problem X or feature Y?" And someone else will say "Oh, that's available in Ubuntu." And then "What about Z?" And the answer is "OpenSUSE has that." And so on. Ultimately, all the Linux advocates will say that Linux is parity with Windows, but the reality is that there is no distro that has 80%+ coverage of Windows features.
If it weren't for them, I could reuse all my lightning cables rather than re-buying them all as USB-C.
Nowadays it's mostly just certain competitive multiplayer titles that won't work on Linux (due to anticheat).
Have you opened a lot of .mht or .shtml files lately? What about ftp:// links? (Most browsers have removed FTP support and if HN is to be believed, FTP users should be beaten and locked in a cell with the uneducated, mouth breathing http:// users).
And in doing so, not cared enough to immediately go into control panel and change the file association manually, as you could for the last 30 years; rather, insisting you need an Easy Button (tm) to do this in one click?
This impacts like 0.001% of users.
Now they need to maintain all these "if isInEEA()" equivalent complexity all over their systems just so they can comply with the law as narrowly as possible.
It feels almost like these companies with their obnoxious cookie banners: "Let's make these things as terrible as possible so we can show everyone (including our users) how grumpy and mad the law makes us feel!"
I’m fine with this and hope that this being the case catches up to the broader public because it will further the realization that companies must be adequately regulated.
Now it exists as: https://extensions.gnome.org/extension/1057/google-search
The extension you linked doesn't even have any real code in it, and the reviews complain that it doesn't work.
Is an awful feature. Pretty much never have I wanted to search the internet using that bar, and the only time I do it's because I made a typo or pressed enter too soon and the search ranked some internet search above mine.
You also can't easily disable it. This is a win for Linux
Are you fucking kidding? This has been a thing for about 15 years. Here you have a discussion on the subject dating back from 2012: https://askubuntu.com/questions/233543/how-to-enable-google-... .
This supported one web search engine which is what Microsoft was doing. But your link says it was removed which didn't give me codifidence in saying Microsoft so invest a ton of money into the experience.
Linux has any feature you want if you look for it. Most distributions are a little opinionated on their default config, but nobody is forcing any type of config, program, defaults, or telemetry on you. You're completely and totally free to configure and use your computer in the way you want with absolutely no interference of any kind. You just have to put in a bit of work.
Meanwhile on windows, your defaults are disrespected and reset automatically. Widgets and programs and adware are installed, configured, and all but non-removable by default. Even if you remove them, Microsoft will put them back eventually. Microsoft will reset your default programs, reset your taskbar config to put useless widgets back. And of course let's not forget just how much spying windows does. Even if you try, you can't really remove it all forever.
Stupid Windows users don't even understand they're essentially cattle to Microsoft. Clueless and uninformed Microsoft fanboys cannot comprehend using the comouter you paid for, which Microsoft owns instead of you, in a way that Microsoft hasn't blessed. You don't even understand the concept of freedom
In terms of desktop environment features there is no comparison. The variety of options and widgets in Linux DE’s extends far beyond the basic shit available in Windows.
It took Windows several decades to get virtual desktops (Windows 11). Linux had that in 1993.
The Plasma web search plugin includes ~100 search engines / services OOTB.
Why in god's name would I want that? When I start typing in my search bar I want to find things on my computer, that's why I'm typing on an operating system widget and not a google tab.
It's really sad that W11 is hands down less usable and responsive than almost any other linux desktop I've used because of this.
Er, honestly? Yes, zero would be better than one when that one is hardcoded by Microsoft.
2. I know krunner has this and has had it for a while. I have it turned off and I think it might be that way by default, for the issues noted above.
Turns out, mixing internet search on desktop search is just not very intuitive. Okay, the web browser searches the web. And then my operating system searches... my operating system. Seems pretty good to me.
I mean, I would be quite caught off-guard if Chrome suddenly started showing my documents in google searches.
I can't say it's fun!
It's petty, but that the expense of their engineering time. On the bright side, it doesn't matter much because Microsoft software seems to decay at a much higher rate anyway.
Anyone figured out how to disable web search without breaking local search or other features?
They are proving that all the harshness is entirely warranted. Thanks, EU.
cptcobalt•1d ago
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Microsoft is number 1 or very close for most/worst dark patterns.