Windows 11 has made the “clean Windows install” an oxymoron
arstechnica.com
Op-ed: PC makers used to need to bring their own add-on bloatware—no longer.
  • eldrichhydralisk@lemmy.sdf.orgEnglish
    9·
    2 years ago

    I actually use M365 and OneDrive. I still get periodic pushes to use these services on Windows 11. The upsell pressure from my OS is getting really bad.

  • thisbenzingring@lemmy.sdf.orgEnglish
    5·
    2 years ago

    The only clean install is with Enterprise edition and after using dism to remove everything and then sysprep and never actually attach your Microsoft account to the os.

  • argv_minus_one@beehaw.orgBanned
    3·
    2 years ago

    Computer manufacturers often distributed buggy, pointless, or redundant third-party software (“bloatware” or “crapware”) to help subsidize the cost of the hardware.

    To make more profit for the manufacturer, I think you mean. Until the cryptocurrency scammers came along and started stripping store shelves bare, you could build a computer from parts, it’d be cheaper than buying a pre-built computer, and it would be free of crapware.

  • conditional_soup@lemm.ee
    21·
    2 years ago

    The only thing holding me back from diving headlong into Linux is gaming support. I’ve been a windows user since W98. XP was the shit, 7 was rock solid, ten was pretty good, but it seems like Microsoft is dead set on speedrunning enshittification with 11.

    • Punctum@feddit.de
      6·
      2 years ago

      True. Gaming is extremely awesome on Linux compared to a few years ago right now, though. Anti-cheat holding you back?

      • sadreality@kbin.social
        2·
        2 years ago

        Everything on steam works except modern anti chat games.

        If i knew it was this good… Woulda jumped sooner

          • sab@kbin.social
            2·
            2 years ago

            It’s a typo, should be anti cheat.

            You can chat away to your heart’s content.

          • GigglyBobble@kbin.social
            1·
            2 years ago

            Call of Duty: Modern Warfare for example runs Ricochet Anti-Cheat on kernel level which fundamentally contradicts Linux architecture and will never run.

            Easy Anti-Cheat is an example where the devs gave in paving the way to a proton addon which allows you to play Apex, for example.

      • conditional_soup@lemm.ee
        2·
        2 years ago

        No, I’m not big for online gaming, just heard that not all games that work on PC work on Linux, and I’m not sure about the status of various emulators that I use.

        • Diplomjodler@feddit.de
          1·
          2 years ago

          I regularly watch stuff about Steam Deck on YouTube and they’re always emulating just about everything. I don’t know anything about the subject but it seems to me it works pretty well on Linux.

        • Tippon@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
          0·
          2 years ago

          I’m running Windows 10 and Linux Mint on my PC. I booted into Mint earlier this week, and out of my 189 (mostly older) Steam games, 186 work with no tweaks. It’s definitely worth looking at :)

        • Jagermo@feddit.de
          0·
          2 years ago

          Check out Protondb, it’s not only for the steamdeck, but (probably) all Linux derivates. You can sync your steam library to see, what works and how well.

          • sugar_in_your_tea@sh.itjust.works
            0·
            2 years ago

            Most people will include their distro in the comment details, but it rarely matters because Steam ships pretty much all the dependencies games need, so whether you’re on Debian (old packages) or Arch (new packages), the games will be running the same versions of common libraries.

            So your distro choice really doesn’t matter that much, and if it does, you can use the FlatPak, which includes even more dependencies and is common across distros.

    • thisbenzingring@lemmy.sdf.orgEnglish
      2·
      2 years ago

      The only games that don’t work with a Linux solution are games that the developers have purposely done something that makes it not work.

      Check out https://www.protondb.com/ Some games might require a little tinkering. The Vulkan api will win the graphics war because Microsoft hasn’t done much with DirectX and DX12 is not doing very well supporting the features it claims it can while being difficult to program. It’s only a matter of time before Windows loses it’s hold on the desktop. And Microsoft doesn’t seem to really care. They make their API for Azure work with Linux.

        • SatyrSack@lemmy.one
          0·
          2 years ago

          Just because a new Windows version is available doesn’t mean that Windows users will upgrade. My work computer is Windows, but I have still not touched Windows 11 at all to this day. But if the latest Windows is far better than the other available versions, then users and enterprises will likely want to upgrade.

  • Starfish@kbin.social
    0·
    2 years ago

    The closest thing to clean install is Ameliorated AME or Atlas OS. Check that out if you really need windows.