Yes I am going to bitch about Microsoft again...

[Bleipriester]

MS is making more money than ever. Their Azure clouds are their new No 1 business.

Clouds have issues. Security of course being a big one. When you have data stored off-site and 1,000's of times a day it is accessed over open lines, you are vulnerable. And Azure has had more security problems than AWS. Which is kind of expected with M$. They have a very long history with blasse security precautions despite always claiming otherwise.
At the same time I am not super convinced companies have really saved money using cloud based systems over client/server apps years ago. Everytime internet goes down - you are dead. No so with internal networks. It does seem to me people are down, or having some sort of issue more than before. At the same time you are dependent on someone else, many times in another country to solve an issue.
Cloud services have a lot of issues.
Having said that, it is certainly going to continue to grow because there is much-much money to be made in subscription "pay us forever" set ups.
Just ask Adobe.

I think the clouds do not always directly save money but improve the procedures through better accessibility. And sure, once the service is down, that´s it.

Accessibility IS the security issue. The weakest link syndrome.
Many people access it at home...on the same computer they blast with porn sites, "free" games peppered with malware etc. etc.
To me what we are seeing is the continuance of everything as a service, companies like Adobe dangle "low upfront cost!!".... in order to capture them as having no choice nut to pay them high fees for the rest of their lives. I am not a fan of this. You end up paying exponentially more in just a few years...and then keep paying and paying and paying. It is ingenious. And ethically bankrupt.

The difference is you can now afford an Adobe program. The price was up to several thousand Dollars before. Otherwise, I don´t like dependency on Internet and licenses, too.

 

[Ringel05]

LinuxMint for me also. I didn't get along with the Unity GUI.
I understand however that is now gone.

Yup, Unity is "officially" no more. It's still available if you want it with some diehards trying to keep it going on their own. I ended up with Mint because my Terminal time is minimal at best and I don't really like Ubuntu's Gnome 3 interface as much. I loved KDE but it requires a lot of Terminal time to get some things to work properly and not everything does, too many bugs for me.

 

[iamwhatiseem]

LinuxMint for me also. I didn't get along with the Unity GUI.
I understand however that is now gone.

Yup, Unity is "officially" no more. It's still available if you want it with some diehards trying to keep it going on their own. I ended up with Mint because my Terminal time is minimal at best and I don't really like Ubuntu's Gnome 3 interface as much. I loved KDE but it requires a lot of Terminal time to get some things to work properly and not everything does, too many bugs for me.

I have no idea if it is something that is common at all... I have 3 of our office staff running LinuxMint.
With almost everything being browser based, who needs Windows screwing everything up?

 

[Ringel05]

LinuxMint for me also. I didn't get along with the Unity GUI.
I understand however that is now gone.

Yup, Unity is "officially" no more. It's still available if you want it with some diehards trying to keep it going on their own. I ended up with Mint because my Terminal time is minimal at best and I don't really like Ubuntu's Gnome 3 interface as much. I loved KDE but it requires a lot of Terminal time to get some things to work properly and not everything does, too many bugs for me.

I have no idea if it is something that is common at all... I have 3 of our office staff running LinuxMint.
With almost everything being browser based, who needs Windows screwing everything up?

Considering M$ just screwed up Chrome's sandbox with an update....... Yeah, I'll surf on the Linux machine........

 

[Likkmee]

Linux MX 19 is quite similar but uses the XFCE destkop. It's a lot like Cinnamon and has as good of a custom tool kit.
I recommend Brave as a browser these days.

 

[iamwhatiseem]

Linux MX 19 is quite similar but uses the XFCE destkop. It's a lot like Cinnamon and has as good of a custom tool kit.
I recommend Brave as a browser these days.

I am using Brave now, but for some websites I have to use Chrome. Even if I shut off the "shields" somethings still don't work.

 

[Ringel05]

Linux MX 19 is quite similar but uses the XFCE destkop. It's a lot like Cinnamon and has as good of a custom tool kit.
I recommend Brave as a browser these days.

Like all the browsers each has their pluses an minuses, I like Brave for many things but have some problems with it in other areas. Chrome is fast but they collect your data and sell it no matter what your privacy settings are. Lately I've been using Firefox again, their customizable security settings are the best and their security updates are release faster than anyone else. You can also use Firefox to run on the Tor network. Plus Firefox isn't as slow and clunky like it was a while back even though is is still slower than Chrome and Brave.

 

[Bleipriester]

 

[Tom Paine 1949]

I’m glad to see there are smart internet rebels out there who understand all this stuff. When I read your comments above I just feel like a useless old man... : (

 

[iamwhatiseem]

MS is making more money than ever. Their Azure clouds are their new No 1 business.

Clouds have issues. Security of course being a big one. When you have data stored off-site and 1,000's of times a day it is accessed over open lines, you are vulnerable. And Azure has had more security problems than AWS. Which is kind of expected with M$. They have a very long history with blasse security precautions despite always claiming otherwise.
At the same time I am not super convinced companies have really saved money using cloud based systems over client/server apps years ago. Everytime internet goes down - you are dead. No so with internal networks. It does seem to me people are down, or having some sort of issue more than before. At the same time you are dependent on someone else, many times in another country to solve an issue.
Cloud services have a lot of issues.
Having said that, it is certainly going to continue to grow because there is much-much money to be made in subscription "pay us forever" set ups.
Just ask Adobe.

I think the clouds do not always directly save money but improve the procedures through better accessibility. And sure, once the service is down, that´s it.

Accessibility IS the security issue. The weakest link syndrome.
Many people access it at home...on the same computer they blast with porn sites, "free" games peppered with malware etc. etc.
To me what we are seeing is the continuance of everything as a service, companies like Adobe dangle "low upfront cost!!".... in order to capture them as having no choice nut to pay them high fees for the rest of their lives. I am not a fan of this. You end up paying exponentially more in just a few years...and then keep paying and paying and paying. It is ingenious. And ethically bankrupt.

The difference is you can now afford an Adobe program. The price was up to several thousand Dollars before. Otherwise, I don´t like dependency on Internet and licenses, too.

Not so friend.
Let's take Adobe Suite... Illustrator, Photoshop and InDesign.
You are correct, they were/are expensive. A brand new copy of all three was about $800/copy when buying multiple license copies. But - people didn't do that. You bought the upgrade versions, and the upgrade versions were only about $150/copy. You would only buy full blown copies maybe every 5 years or so, and many times not upgrading all of the machines.
So...let's say you had 5 copies. Because you already owned the software you only needed the upgrades. At $150 each every couple years that is $450 for 5 years.
TODAY... you will pay a MONTHLY subscription of $42 copy multi license. 42 x 12 x 5 years = $2520!!!
Nearlly SIX TIMES THE COST BEFORE.
Ingenious and ethically bankrupt.

 

[Bleipriester]

MS is making more money than ever. Their Azure clouds are their new No 1 business.

Clouds have issues. Security of course being a big one. When you have data stored off-site and 1,000's of times a day it is accessed over open lines, you are vulnerable. And Azure has had more security problems than AWS. Which is kind of expected with M$. They have a very long history with blasse security precautions despite always claiming otherwise.
At the same time I am not super convinced companies have really saved money using cloud based systems over client/server apps years ago. Everytime internet goes down - you are dead. No so with internal networks. It does seem to me people are down, or having some sort of issue more than before. At the same time you are dependent on someone else, many times in another country to solve an issue.
Cloud services have a lot of issues.
Having said that, it is certainly going to continue to grow because there is much-much money to be made in subscription "pay us forever" set ups.
Just ask Adobe.

I think the clouds do not always directly save money but improve the procedures through better accessibility. And sure, once the service is down, that´s it.

Accessibility IS the security issue. The weakest link syndrome.
Many people access it at home...on the same computer they blast with porn sites, "free" games peppered with malware etc. etc.
To me what we are seeing is the continuance of everything as a service, companies like Adobe dangle "low upfront cost!!".... in order to capture them as having no choice nut to pay them high fees for the rest of their lives. I am not a fan of this. You end up paying exponentially more in just a few years...and then keep paying and paying and paying. It is ingenious. And ethically bankrupt.

The difference is you can now afford an Adobe program. The price was up to several thousand Dollars before. Otherwise, I don´t like dependency on Internet and licenses, too.

Not so friend.
Let's take Adobe Suite... Illustrator, Photoshop and InDesign.
You are correct, they were/are expensive. A brand new copy of all three was about $800/copy when buying multiple license copies. But - people didn't do that. You bought the upgrade versions, and the upgrade versions were only about $150/copy. You would only buy full blown copies maybe every 5 years or so, and many times not upgrading all of the machines.
So...let's say you had 5 copies. Because you already owned the software you only needed the upgrades. At $150 each every couple years that is $450 for 5 years.
TODAY... you will pay a MONTHLY subscription of $42 copy multi license. 42 x 12 x 5 years = $2520!!!
Nearlly SIX TIMES THE COST BEFORE.
Ingenious and ethically bankrupt.

That is correct. And nobody needs each and every new version. However, if you need it only for a short time, you are still better off.

 

[Bleipriester]

Wow, just easy.

How to disable Cortana in Windows 10 May 2020 Update -- or even uninstall it

With the release of Windows 10 May 2020 Update, Microsoft not only introduced a range of new features and options, but also took some away. One thing that has changed with Windows 10 version 2004 is that Cortana is now a standalone app rather than an integral part of the operating system.

betanews.com

 

[iamwhatiseem]

Wow, just easy.

How to disable Cortana in Windows 10 May 2020 Update -- or even uninstall it

With the release of Windows 10 May 2020 Update, Microsoft not only introduced a range of new features and options, but also took some away. One thing that has changed with Windows 10 version 2004 is that Cortana is now a standalone app rather than an integral part of the operating system.

betanews.com

READ: -" Due to Cortana being so obvious in stealing your data and watching everything you do... we have decided to do it in different ways that are less obvious so users are not so disturbed by the fact we are watching every move you make."

 

[Gdjjr]

Dear Microsoft,

I am NOT going to play anything other than Klondike Solitaire, no matter how many stupid games you promote and I'm NOT going to pay 15 bucks a year to stop your stupid ads.

Sincerely,
An old man

 

[Ringel05]

Dear Microsoft,

I am NOT going to play anything other than Klondike Solitaire, no matter how many stupid games you promote and I'm NOT going to pay 15 bucks a year to stop your stupid ads.

Sincerely,
An old man

That's interesting. I don't have any ads for anything and I'm not paying anything but then I log in with a local account. Oh and I'm playing the old Win 7 games on Win 10........ All Microsoft bloatware is shut off.

 

[Gdjjr]

That's interesting. I don't have any ads for anything and I'm not paying anything but then I log in with a local account. Oh and I'm playing the old Win 7 games on Win 10........ All Microsoft bloatware is shut off.

It's a Windows 10 thing.

 

[Ringel05]

That's interesting. I don't have any ads for anything and I'm not paying anything but then I log in with a local account. Oh and I'm playing the old Win 7 games on Win 10........ All Microsoft bloatware is shut off.

It's a Windows 10 thing.

I'm running Windows 10........

 

[Gdjjr]

I'm running Windows 10........

Good for you. I'm playing Klondike Solitaire on windows 10

Did you or did you not type this?

Oh and I'm playing the old Win 7

 

[Ringel05]

I'm running Windows 10........

Good for you. I'm playing Klondike Solitaire on windows 10

Did you or did you not type this?

Oh and I'm playing the old Win 7

Reading comprehension isn't your strong suit is it.......... Howzabout finishing the rest of the sentence........