ulkesh

ulkesh , 1 month ago to linuxmemes in Linux best

If you're using it mostly for gaming, Windows is going to be the superior choice.

From a benchmark perspective this has shown to be false in some or many areas. And outside of kernel-level cheat protection, games are continually hitting Gold on ProtonDB, which means that the list of games only working on Windows is dwindling every day.

And now with umu-launcher, which is now baked into Lutris, the games don’t even have to run via Steam in order to make use of Proton, and especially proton-ge. Thank the Glorious Eggroll! (And thank all others who have had a hand in this Linux gaming renaissance)

So I assert that Windows is not at all the superior choice anymore. And with Recall and other nonsense Microsoft has done, they deserve to lose all the marketshare possible — thus, I am advocating for people to switch to Linux as fast as they can. It’s a tough sell to some, for sure, but if I can get my mother to run Linux, I have a good chance to get anyone on board.

ulkesh , 1 month ago to Technology in Elon Musk threatens to ban Apple devices from his companies over OpenAI partnership

He's a hypocrite, and a piece of shit. Stop listening to him. Stop reading his tweets. Stop giving him any attention at all. He's dirt under our boots and deserves nothing more.

ulkesh , 1 month ago to Technology in A PR disaster: Microsoft has lost trust with its users, and Windows Recall is the straw that broke the camel's back

I've not run into this, but I also use Bluetooth on both devices (my work Mac and my personal phone) so it's usually enabled. I also rely on Find My capabilities, so I suppose I'm their target audience. However, if they are purposefully re-enabling even after a user explicitly disables, then I agree completely that that is anti-user/anti-consumer/anti-privacy and they should be brought to task for it.

ulkesh , 1 month ago to Technology in A PR disaster: Microsoft has lost trust with its users, and Windows Recall is the straw that broke the camel's back

I have used a Mac since 2007 (almost exclusively for work) and many of Apple's services during that time. I have not experienced any ads as you describe. As for Bluetooth magically turning back on after a software update, of course I do not know for certain, but that screams incompetence more than it screams intent. Apple most definitely has problems (where they build their hardware, policies they tried to enact and then backtracked, etc). And I'm not advocating for them like I am for Linux and other open source solutions. But if a normal user doesn't want to deal with some of the lingering complexities that Linux still has (which is a dwindling number), then a Mac is a relatively viable alternative and it does not come anywhere near as close to the privacy nightmare that Microsoft has become.

I am not tribal at all with respect to any of these entities. I have used all three OSes for the better part of 25 years. I have watched the ebbs and flows of Microsoft, Apple, Adobe, Canonical, Red Hat, and various FOSS solutions such as Linux, for a very long time. And I have had a front row seat seeing Apple's mistakes, Microsoft's mistakes, Canonical's mistakes, and so forth. And I feel I can judge with some semblance of realism and objectivity -- Microsoft has failed so hard with Recall and they are so out of touch with what users want, they deserve every bit of ire they are getting, and they deserve to have their market share diminish because of it. Aside from perhaps Google, and now Adobe, I haven't seen a technology company be so blatantly and willfully aggressive (and one could say, stupid) when it comes to these actions and topics.

ulkesh , 1 month ago to Technology in A PR disaster: Microsoft has lost trust with its users, and Windows Recall is the straw that broke the camel's back

Helping people to prevent their privacy from being completely screwed isn’t the same as feeling superior and smug about one’s choices, lifestyle, or where one lives. The sooner people understand the difference, the better.

But sure.

I also use Arch, btw…got any “witty” response to it?

ulkesh , 1 month ago to Technology in A PR disaster: Microsoft has lost trust with its users, and Windows Recall is the straw that broke the camel's back

Just like people who are beholden to their politics or their religion, they’ll get fucked over as often as possible until they’re dead. The majority of people are tribal and sadly they see Microsoft, Google, Apple, etc as some kind of extension of their tribal identity.

ulkesh , 1 month ago to Technology in A PR disaster: Microsoft has lost trust with its users, and Windows Recall is the straw that broke the camel's back

I’m telling everyone I know it’s time to move to Linux, or worst case Mac.

ulkesh , 1 month ago to Technology in xaitax/TotalRecall: This tool extracts and displays data from the Recall feature in Windows 11, providing an easy way to access information about your PC's activity snapshots.

GDPR has little to do with this

Not at all true, GDPR is the exact reason why you see all of the sites these days letting users know that their site stores cookies and requesting acceptance of it. Hence why I said we, as a global society, are trying to do something about this, even if it's something as simple as cookie use disclosure on sites -- it's a start.

If you’re fully opting out to not even have persistent sessions, I’m guessing you’re in the far minority of users here.

Never once said I did.

I’m not aware of any non-trivial readily available built-in encryption for cookies.

You're correct, data-at-rest encryption doesn't exist for cookies, but data-in-flight does with SSL. Also, signing cookies and samesite origin is a thing being done these days, which makes them quite improbable, if implemented properly, to be hacked for any actual use in terms of leaking logins to said sites.

this is an offline feature. The data doesn’t go back to Microsoft

For the moment, that's what they say, yes. And that's the problem, especially since it's turned on, by default. This -- is not -- something -- Microsoft has earned trust for.

But you are free to believe them all you want -- the rest of us who have seen what Microsoft has done these past 40 years use that as a guide to judge -- and history is usually a very good judge.

ulkesh , 1 month ago to Technology in ISPs seek halt of net neutrality rules before they take effect next month

As many times until Congress grows a spine and finally codifies ISPs as being a dumb pipe into law.

Until then, greed will continue.

ulkesh , 1 month ago to Technology in xaitax/TotalRecall: This tool extracts and displays data from the Recall feature in Windows 11, providing an easy way to access information about your PC's activity snapshots.

First, false equivalency.

Second, we’re not okay with cookies and session being in a place that could leak — it’s why we’re doing everything possible to stop that from happening (I mean GDPR alone is one effect of this).

Third, the fact that you can’t see a difference between cookies, which actually can be secured via proper encryption and signing, and a literally unencrypted database driven by OCRed screenshots (taken every couple of minutes) that requires an opt-out and is a very small slippery slope to that data making its way back to Microsoft’s own servers for their own greedy pursuits….then I’m not sure what to tell you.

Recall is wrong. And it’s indefensible. Period.

If you think it’s okay, then feel free to open everything up to Microsoft of who you are and what you do on your Copilot+ PC. I, for one, among many, will choose to secure my information as best as possible, including never using another Microsoft product again, if at all possible. And I’ve already done so for myself.

ulkesh , 1 month ago (edited 1 month ago) to Technology in Linux May Be the Best Way to Avoid the AI Nightmare

[Thread, post or comment was deleted by the moderator]

ulkesh , 1 month ago to Technology in Linux May Be the Best Way to Avoid the AI Nightmare

Thanks! If I ever get an Android phone I’ll look into that.

ulkesh , 1 month ago to Technology in Spotify is raising the cost of Premium subscriptions, again

SpotX works quite well.

ulkesh , 1 month ago (edited 1 month ago) to Technology in Linux May Be the Best Way to Avoid the AI Nightmare

Just love all the ChatGPT ads embedded in the article.

And before all the “jUsT uSe An Ad BlOcKeR” messages, I’m on a phone using the main browser and have nothing set up where I’m at (DNS/etc) to block ads.

It’s amazing how many poorly-written articles are being posted about Linux lately, and on top of it, has ads for the very thing they’re talking about switching to Linux to avoid. Almost as if it wasn’t written by a human.

EDIT>> And there they are. Get a life.

ulkesh , 1 month ago (edited 1 month ago) to Technology in In case you missed it: Bank info-stealing malware found in 90+ Android apps with 5.5M installs

iOS user: That’s a shame.

But seriously, this sucks and is why Google needs more rigorous vetting of apps that go into the store. Sure, you sideload, that’s your problem. But if on the Play Store, the general Android user would think there’s some good level of governance.

Of course there’s a measure of caveat emptor here. So hopefully it’ll teach people to be wary of what information they freely give out.

LOL, well I guess the Reddit masses are on Lemmy full swing now. Enjoy the malware, I'll continue laughing about it.