Windows 9 is... Windows 10

[Userfriendly]

Was anyone expecting something else?

http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/wind ... -statement

Privacy Statement
Last update: January 2015
...
Data We Collect
...
When you acquire, install and use the Program software and services, Microsoft collects information about your use of the software and services as well as about the devices and networks on which they operate. Examples of data we may collect include your name, email address, preferences and interests; location, browsing, search and file history; phone call and SMS data; device configuration and sensor data; voice, text and writing input; and application usage.
...

I wonder if Samsung knows I own 2 of their TVs (and if they are upset that I watch pron on them)... does Beko know that I own one of their cooking station?... I've bought a Fiskars axe today and guess what: no one asked for my name and location... Maybe they don't care about me like Microsoft does. Yeah, that's it, I'm sure!

P.S. the sad thing is that something outrageous today will become normal tomorrow...

Have you seen the South Park HumancentiPad episode lol? Apple does it, Google does it in chrome, search engine and you're email. All them big companies want more info from their costumors so they can bombard us with ads relevant to our interests or not. It's all in the Terms of Use but the majority of people don't know any better to care about it.

Conspiracy theorists would think this is all NSA or FBI's master plan to gather intel or maybe it really is just so companies can give their customers better products. Who knows?

[Midas]

This Guardian article couldn't be more a propos to what I think about unwarranted snooping:

• Mass surveillance is fundamental threat to human rights, says European report (http://gu.com/p/457nt)

What I immediately retained was the report's initial quote from Russian writer Alexander Solzhenitsyn, a survivor of the Stalinist state murderous repression:

• "Our freedom is built on what others do not know of our existences".

[webfork]

... is just so companies can give their customers better products. Who knows?

The main problem that I've seen is that there's a goldmine of customer data they need access to.  We all know you can spend years sending out spam and just end up in jail, while clear, targeted advertising is worth millions.  It's gone beyond that now.  Starbucks for example recently realized their mistake in letting Google handle their Internet service and are on track to switching their whole company over to a customer data mine.  Knowing what people surf plus credit card data plus what they buy?  I could write a very long list of ideas that could guide what Sears puts in their next catalog or Amazon posts to their front page.

Technology industries are having fits about how to manage this.  Customer data is so critical but they know full well what's happening with the recent Sony and Home Depot hacks.  How much do they store?  How much do they retain?  How do they encrypt everything?  New features and cool tricks take a long time to test and understand before they're considered secure, but they've got to get these things out the door to avoid losing business to the competitor.

Microsoft is getting crushed because there's a new model for operating systems that they can barely charge anything for (their competitors are giving away their updates just like Microsoft gave away Internet Explorer back in the 90's) so they have to get customer data to balance the scales.  Not to mention the fact that they need usage and crash data to speed up development cycles.

Ultimately, there's a very practical reason to be afraid of all this, as the Sony hack thankfully pointed out.  Emails from 10 years ago that you wouldn't think *anyone* could care about might have something very incriminating.  Conversations about money, taxes, or people who ended up being famous or important are all hurting Sony right now.  Worse, nobody seems to care in this society that you were a dumb kid anymore: over the age of 12 it seems like mistakes follow people forever.  That's why I have that "Free Justin" thing in my signature.

Sadly, the only solution here is switch to Linux, which is weirdly the same solution as 10 years ago.  Back then the monster was also Microsoft but for different reasons: they were a dangerous and harmful monopoly.  Now they're jumping on the no-privacy bandwagon.  The only difference now is that even the most popular Linux (Ubuntu) is in much the same boat.

[joby_toss]

http://arstechnica.com/information-tech ... d-at-work/

As announced last week, current users of Windows 7, 8, and 8.1 will be able to upgrade to Windows 10 for no cost. Microsoft says that this will be a limited time offer that will run one year from the release of Windows 10; we honestly wouldn't be tremendously surprised to see that limited time offer extended.

Subsequently, and in some ways even more importantly, those new Windows 10 machines will continue to receive updates "for the lifetime of the device—at no cost." Those paid major version upgrades that Windows has historically had will be going away; once you're on the Windows 10 train, you're on the Windows train, and you'll continue to receive a steady stream of updates and upgrades until your system stops working and you buy or build a new one.

From what I understand, if I update my retail version of Windows for free, it will transform itself into an OEM version. I'm not even sure if Windows 10 will offer retail versions anymore. And once on Windows 10, I'll have to stay on Windows! Money makes the world go round, the world go round... Liza knew better...

Any good Linux distros out there, for a novice like me?

[lautrepay]

Any good Linux distros out there, for a novice like me?

Seriously?
Linux Mint KDE.

[SYSTEM]

Any good Linux distros out there, for a novice like me?

I use siduction myself. However, it is clearly a power user distribution and therefore not novice-friendly.

Siduction uses the rolling release model. The user never needs to upgrade to a newer version of the distribution because the entire distro updates gradually via the package manager. Siduction in particular is a cutting edge distribution that upgrades it packages as soon as updates become available in upstream. Of course, things frequently break because of that.

[Midas]

Any good Linux distros out there, for a novice like me?

• Take from someone that's "been there, done that": although heavily inspired by Windows, KDE is a beast and not for novices, IMHO; you're much better off with a LXDE/XFCE distro.
  
  My advice? Either the much lauded (for this purpose) PCLinuxOS or my personal favorite PeppermintOS -- which is Debian/(L)Ubuntu/Mint based, BTW, but adopts the LTS route; also do not get intimidated by its Cloud slant, it's not mandatory.
  
  But, to each his own, so knock yourself out: http://lmgtfy.com/?q=linux+distribution+chooser...
  
  (Distrowatch is also an excellent starting point)

• EDIT: Peppermint 6 desktop with icons.

• 

[joby_toss]

Seriously?
Linux Mint KDE.

Sure, but let's continue here: http://www.portablefreeware.com/forums/ ... =1&t=21916

[Userfriendly]

@joby_toss
I don't understand why you think Windows 10 would be bad. All the changes it has is mostly good and Microsoft seems to be heading towards a positive direction with it. Maybe its the lack of understanding and information on it?

If anything its a straight upgrade to Windows 7 and 8. Some people might think you need a microsoft account to use Win 8 and 10 but no you can still make an offline local account and not be tied to any Apps or Appstore. The experience is largely the same as Win 7 now that they've included the start menu in Win 10. You'll get security, performance, and useability enhancements all around.

If its the retail key uprade thing, we don't know much about it but it will probably be an upgrade to an equivalent license like Win 7 pro retail to Win 10 pro retail. Once the free year is over they will still have to sell retail versions of Win 10 for people who missed out. The lifetime updates is just Microsoft trying to be more like Apple with Mac OS X.

[joby_toss]

Everything that tries to limit my freedom is bad! I don't even care if it's a very capable OS or not... MS approach is bad in my eyes (they're going for more profit and control) and it's not my fault that they don't make it clear if it's the other way around. Time will tell.

[joby_toss]

It gets better and better by the minute:
http://www.forbes.com/sites/gordonkelly ... c-install/

For now Microsoft is keeping it quiet, but Build 9926 of the Windows 10 Technical Preview released last week can be downloaded and installed via Windows Update on Windows 7 and Windows 8.

[Userfriendly]

Windows 10 confirmed free upgrade for all windows 7/8 pirates worldwide yarr!
http://arstechnica.com/information-tech ... ine-users/
http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/03/ ... 6A20150318
http://www.theverge.com/2015/3/18/82410 ... re-pirates

Only got windows xp or no windows at all? No problem. Pirate Win7/8 and you can get a legit copy of win10. Bold move by Microsoft but it only makes sense. They want people to be on the same platform and be potential customers to their App Store and other services. It works for Google and Apple. So why not do the same thing.

[joby_toss]

Nothing is free in life! I would never accept that offer if it was the case!

[SYSTEM]

Windows 10 confirmed free upgrade for all windows 7/8 pirates worldwide yarr!
http://arstechnica.com/information-tech ... ine-users/
http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/03/ ... 6A20150318
http://www.theverge.com/2015/3/18/82410 ... re-pirates

Only got windows xp or no windows at all? No problem. Pirate Win7/8 and you can get a legit copy of win10. Bold move by Microsoft but it only makes sense. They want people to be on the same platform and be potential customers to their App Store and other services. It works for Google and Apple. So why not do the same thing.

It turned out to be false: http://www.polygon.com/2015/3/18/825237 ... de-pirates

With Windows 10, although non-Genuine PCs may be able to upgrade to Windows 10, the upgrade will not change the genuine state of the license.

[joby_toss]

Shocking!