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PaperclipPerfector  1mo ago (text post)   2731 thread views

Friday Fun Thread for December 27, 2024

Be advised: this thread is not for serious in-depth discussion of weighty topics (we have a link for that), this thread is not for anything Culture War related. This thread is for Fun. You got jokes? Share 'em. You got silly questions? Ask 'em.

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You may want to disable SecureBoot in your BIOS. Linux Mint can handle it fine, but Microsoft Updates have broken Linux installs using it in ways that made getting the data out hard before, and I wouldn't be surprised if they do it again.

This is a non-issue for a computer that doesn't have Windows, right? Because then you aren't getting any updates from Microsoft?

(I'm specifically boycotting Microsoft, because Win10/11 are evil and Microsoft is bankrolling OpenAI which is also evil, so I didn't buy Windows for my new computer.)

Yes, if you aren’t also running Windows on the same computer, SecureBoot is a lot safer. There are some distros that won’t have SecureBoot shims, but they’ll just give you a load error when trying to boot from USB.

I didn't buy Windows for my new computer

People buy windows outside the, uh, GitHub store?

Well, you can either run the scripts, or pay 10-30 bucks to some reseller so you don't have to re-run the piracy scripts every time or risk them breaking when certain updates are installed, which was a problem back with earlier cracks. (Plus, I just don't really like piracy- though I have much less of a problem when it concerns software the manufacturer is unwilling to sell, including Windows versions that are only generally sold to businesses.)

There are a few manufacturers that offer their hardware without Windows installed (at a substantial discount, no less); a few laptop manufacturers offer this for their business lines (which, naturally, are the only kind of laptops worth buying outside of the gaming ones, and the gaming ones have to have Windows for better or worse anyway).

A lot of vendors don't sell computers without Windows bundled. For instance, literally every retailer in Bendigo, where I live (with the exception of Macs, which of course come bundled with macOS). Last time that was enough to dissuade me and I bought a computer with Windows (thus buying Windows); this time it wasn't and I ordered one off the 'Net.

Furthermore, pirating an OS is riskier than pirating most other things.

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