Although this documentary (44min) it’s somewhat older, it’s (unfortunately) still relevant as ever.
The Microsoft-Dilemma - Europe as a Software Colony | Full Documentary

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[–] 2 points 1 year ago

I will use opportunity to post this link.

Share it to someone that needs an alternative to windows :)

http://endof10.org/

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  • 21 comments in c/buyeuropean@feddit.uk view that post
    [–] 1 point 1 year ago
    [–] 15 points 1 year ago (10 children)

    For me it's mostly down to Microsoft being such a douche about their Windows 11 upgrade. My windows 10 PC can apparently not do thd upgrade due to "incompatible hardware" but at the same time I can still run pretty much everything I like to play / do just fine. It's really making me consider switching to Linux, I might give it a shot on an old laptop soon and if that goes smoothly then I'll switch on my other PC as well. No need for Windows anymore if they're pushy and there's a good alternative available.

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  • [–] [S] 8 points 1 year ago (6 children)

    If you do try Linux, I highly highly recommend Linux Mint, since it's the most newbie friendly.

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  • [–] 4 points 1 year ago (4 children)

    I'd rather recommend an immutable distro like bazzite. Mint was ok, but pretty messed up if something didn't work. If you mess up your immutable distro, all you need to do is reboot.

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  • [–] [S] 12 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (3 children)

    Immutable distros will likely become the standard in the future, but at the moment I think they're a poor choice for newbies since there's very little documentation around them, very few people who can help if something goes wrong, and often can introduce their own problems due to flatpak permissions that require their own specialized knowledge that a newbie won't have.

    When I tried bazzite, I encountered an issue that someone else had reported on the forums months ago, which had never received a response due to how stretched thin the UBlue team are.

    Mint on the other hand works fine 99% of the time, and has heaps of help resources available for it. It also strongly suggests setting up a snapshot of your system that you can rollback to if anything ever messes up, which pretty much puts it on par with bazzite in that department.

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  • [–] 1 point 1 year ago (1 child)

    True it's rather new but I've had basically the opposite experience. Mint broke a lot of stuff, couldn't get my audio working properly at all, lots of help forum posts are for old versions and fuck up your system, while bazzite just worked and I could jump straight into customization. I'm not trying to dissuade the use of mint, I just think by now there are a lot of valid alternatives.

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  • [–] [S] 2 points 1 year ago

    I think Mint can be a bad option if someone has newer hardware, but the onboarding process is just so butter smooth for non-techies. From what I recall of bazzite, the onboarding process for someone completely unfamiliar to Linux isn't the best.

    And while Mint is bad for new hardware, Bazzite can be sort've the opposite problem. I have a laptop with switchable graphics that has massive glitches with Wayland still. Since Fedora dropped X11 support entirely, Bazzite unfortunately inherited that, making it impossible to use on my hardware. However, Mint worked with it flawlessly thanks to it still supporting X11.

    The immutability aspect of Bazzite could be a massive strength for new users if they focused on their onboarding process.

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  • [–] 3 points 1 year ago (1 child)

    +1 for Linux Mint, switched from windows 10 recently.

    Terminal is annoying but not needed as much as I feared, and usually it's copy + paste anyway (ctrl + shift + v to paste in terminal). A lot of stuff is easier on Linux, like updating, and (sometimes) installing things. Also, it's a feeling that your computer will stay the same or get better, not get worse.

    Also:

    In Steam, you use Proton when your install button is grey, by tapping the gear icon on the right, selecting Properties, Compatibility, checking the box that says "force the use of a specific Steam Play compatibility tool", and choosing the first thing from the drop-down menu. So far everything I've done this with has worked immediately after.

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  • [–] 3 points 1 year ago

    In Steam, you use Proton when your install button is grey, by tapping the gear icon on the right, selecting Properties, Compatibility, checking the box that says “force the use of a specific Steam Play compatibility tool”, and choosing the first thing from the drop-down menu.

    I think Proton is enabled by default in recent Steam client release.

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  • [+] 14 points 1 year ago* (last edited 6 months ago) (8 children)
  • [–] 8 points 1 year ago (2 children)

    i’d say microsoft is the biggest threat because they hold a lot of critical data… if oracle snuffs out of existence, companies can probably migrate reasonably easily (don’t get me wrong there would be gnashing of teeth but alternatives exist), CRM there are EU alternatives (ERP, whilst different, is i think a superset of this and yall have SAP which is german) which tend to throw money at companies wanting to switch, adobe… i mean, they don’t really hold business critical data - it’d be disruptive, but not catastrophic if they disappeared

    microsoft however hosts huge amounts of business critical data - email, one drive, sharepoint, office, and of course windows: it’s easy to say that email migration is easy, foss alternatives exist for all of this, but the data is particularly problematic and getting users to embrace a whole suite of new systems is pretty difficult

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  • [+] 1 point 1 year ago* (last edited 6 months ago) (2 children)
  • [–] 1 point 1 year ago* (1 child)

    yeah i certainly thought about linux in there, but im just not sure it’s viable for company-wide use… again, users are not all technical and “forcing” a platform on them that has a kinda hodge-podge of user experiences and isn’t something they’re used to think wouldn’t end well

    i do think however that the EU has the resources to invest into a really great linux workstation platform to compete with windows: an easy SSO system to replace AD (heck perhaps some cool AF system that uses OAuth so you can use existing web SSO?!), management like group policy, easy interfaces for things like network file sharing, fleet management, etc and design a really slick user experience

    it could be amazing, but users are stubborn so it would have to be amazing i think

    for creative cloud, my default is to say the affinity suite (no idea where they’re based, but they’re at least pay once and get a download: subscriptions can’t cut them off so less risk), but it’s mac and windows only… perhaps the EU could do an apple and have them onboard as a “launch partner” with their new cool linux-based distribution

    gimp is getting better, but really i don’t think it’s there yet - especially the UI. inkscape is the same but further behind, and i don’t event know of an alternative to indesign

    davinci resolve is a great alternative to premiere and after effects, but afaik blackmagic is US-based… it does run in linux though so supports this EU-OS. the free version also has just a download and AFAIK no dial-home, and their paid version is pay once and download a package and you’re good to go … can’t remember how the license works? it might dial home to validate, or it might just be an algorithmic key… even most professionals wouldn’t need the pro version though TBH (unless you’re exporting 8K or doing some intense effects and AI filtering/fixes etc)

    i think in general my critique of a lot of the FOSS alternatives are all kinda the same: they lack polish and ease of use, which isn’t super difficult to fix… they have great bones, and with a concerted effort from entities not looking solely for direct profit i think they could really get off the ground as real alternatives… i’m just not sure for regular users they’d accept them as they are right now (but wouldn’t it be so cool for the EU to spin off a whole distro with clean branding, management, interfaces, and a FOSS productivity and creative suite that was branded, skinned, and followed well thought out design patterns)

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  • [–] 4 points 1 year ago

    It is the biggest fish in the front. How many people use Windows? How many of those use Microsoft Office?

    And now think of how many of those people use Oracle or a CRM? In comparison, it is a minority, even if you throw all CRMs in one pot.

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  • [–] 2 points 1 year ago (1 child)

    I think (partly) because Microsoft proved we have a point and the rest hasn't yet. Not as major as blocking a judges access to his email at least.

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  • [–] 7 points 1 year ago

    And right it is. No American influence!

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