this post was submitted on 27 Jun 2023

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Microsoft wants to move Windows fully to the cloud (www.theverge.com)

submitted 2 years ago by floofloof to c/[email protected]

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[+] [email protected] 2 points 2 years ago (11 children)

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[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 years ago (6 children)

Agreed. I've been lazy because I'm a gamer, but at this point it's time. I hope the other game companies can figure out something like Proton to play on Mint.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 years ago (1 children)

You can play nearly anything through proton by adding the game's .exe as a non steam game. ProtonDB is a valuable resource.. You can install Mint alongside windows anyway and just boot winders for the games that don't run on Linux.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 years ago (1 children)

Can you dualboot with bitlocker? Are there any halfway decent full drive encryption methods with recovery keys that won't regularily corrupt the system? I'm mainly hesitant to make the switch based on those requirements. Plus, I have been in the MS ecosystem for such a long time. All I know and I worked on it as a sysadmin as well for many, many years. Big comfort zone.

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[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 years ago

It's actually hilarious that consoles might become the new must-have gaming equipment because of this.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 years ago (2 children)

Kill two birds with one stone, get a Steam Deck?

You get a distro (arch) wrapped up into an excellent gaming device, and can drop into desktop mode for productivity needs. For 400 bucks, it's a pretty sweet setup, imo.

Or, if you have the machine already, certainly take advantage of the enhancements Steam has contributed to proton, and game on.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 years ago

Yeah I had a catastrophic lighting strike and ended up having to buy a nice gaming pc during the pandemic. I love everything I've heard about steam deck but will be pc bound until I get my money's worth xD

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[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 years ago (1 children)

Also check out lutris, which is a game launcher and a website full of working install scripts.

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[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 years ago

Yeah - fortunately I gave up gaming long ago (got too addicted and had to step away to maintain a productive healthy lifestyle). I need it for Office productivity apps, CAD and 3D slicing software, and photoshop. All of my needs are available as open-source programs, or Photopea does almost everything I need from photoshop these days lol.

So my only excuse lately has just been that I'm too lazy to make the switch since I have everything mostly setup in windows how I like it. But it wouldn't be hard to export some profiles and import them into the Linux versions of the same applications.

But windows actions lately have really pushed me towards linux - I hear they're trying to put ads into the windows 11 start menu. Its ridiculous that I now need to install third party menus and file explorers if I want to still use my operating system ad-free.

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[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 years ago (2 children)

You could try distrosea before committing to an install.

It gives you a VM online to play around in for almost any distro you can think of.

Don’t forget that desktop environment (DE) and distro are decoupled in Linux, so if you didn’t like the feel of Ubuntu (GNOME DE) you can go with Kubuntu (KDE Plasma DE). Both are on DistroSea.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 years ago (2 children)

I highly recommend KDE these days, on Ubuntu or other. It's just so damn usable and flexible.

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[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 years ago (1 children)

mint user here. rocksolid distro, maybe not bleeding edge but very good as a daily driver; also for music production. reasonably customizable desktop with cinnamon.

only caveat: some vst plugins do not work well with wine when it comes to their copy protection (#izotope and #ssl among them), others do (such as #kilohearts)

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[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago) (1 children)

I agree, I think if this is how windows goes forward a lot of tech people will leave their ecosystem entirely. The one thing stopping them is the convenience of windows (mostly free if you know what you are doing and most processes don't need to be thought about). A subscription based OS throws everything out the door. This gives them an unbelievable amount of control over what you see/do/store. Want to view a website for linux installation? "Nope that goes against our T&Cs, you've been banned from your OS with all your information on it".

The upside I see will be linux will start becoming easier on everyday users because the tech people switched and want the convenience

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago) (2 children)

The tech people switched long ago.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 years ago

Depends on who you define as "tech people" - lots of IT professionals absolutely switched long ago.

I am technical to a point (Building and running a farm of 3D printers, developing and running an e-commerce site, etc). But my time is valuable so while I tried to make a switch to Linux 15 years ago, it just wasn't "convenient" enough for my office/work productivity needs. Now that I've circled back around, I'm pretty pleased with the evolution I've seen.

Plus most of the open-source software I already use is obviously also available on Linux so the transition will be easier this time around.

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[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 years ago (4 children)

Linux distros like Fedora, Ubuntu, Mint and Pop! have been fully capable of replacing Windows for typical work and home uses for several years.

Even gaming is very close to being on-par now.

There are still niches dependent on Windows, like specialized engineering software or anyone that simply refuses to use anything other than Adobe products.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 years ago

I used Kubuntu in a Windows shop for 10 years. Was the only one capable of keeping server VMs running in my dev environment as well. Don't even get me started on the frikkin' updates.

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[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 years ago (4 children)

I've dabbled in Linux for decades, but fully switched to Linux as my daily driver about 5 years ago. I still have a Windows partition set up for dual boot, but only boot into it once every couple months now to run very specific software. I can honestly say I miss nothing about Windows. Linux has matured leaps and bounds even in the past 5 years. Gaming, productivity, programming, hobby. It can do it all. I will admit there is still a technical barrier to entry. You will need to get used to the command line and searching the web frequently for how to do something. But if you have those skills I don't think it's a contest anymore. Linux is the better OS.

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[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 years ago

Sounds like a great way to contribute to a surveillance state!

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 years ago

Not really surprising, it is what they earn on

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 years ago

That’s a big nope for me.

Internet goes out? I can still do some amount of work, now I need power and internet to both work to do any work at all.

Not a fan of this and I will not embrace it.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 years ago (1 children)

This might be a hot take but I wonder how this would be priced.

It could be handy for cloud gaming (since gforce now publishers are trying to block it).

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[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 years ago

So you’ll need the internet to use windows? No

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 years ago

@floofloof. That's a hard no. I mean if work wants to do it....ok? But on my own machines....Linux or Mac. I can just picture some jerk DDOSing it.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 years ago

Doesn't Microsoft have the worst availability around for their cloud stuff? Or is IBM still giving them a run for their money?

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