Windows 11 - Microsoft's Walled Garden. (Dire Warning)

Operating Systems & Open Source Windows
104

I myself don’t really like Apple, for their approach to everything, but trust their software, on the whole.
I don’t trust Microsoft, especially Windows in a home environment; the Enterprise tools needed to secure and protect it are not practicable for home users, IMHO.

Google Seem to do a good job with the AOSP and Pixel lines, but it takes too long for patches to filter through to non pixel phones. And the manufacturers abandon the phones when they still have many years of operation left. So old, unpatched phones keep being used.

I like and trust Linux, but it is Very buggy, and takes some tinkering at times. And some software just does not work well. But I rather spend the time to use Linux, than wall myself in to MS/Appl.

Just my thoughts (again)

105

I pay $30 a month for my unlimited calls/25 GB data cell phone plan. Need to add $20 to that for three years to get an iPhone that lasts 5 years or $10 for the two-years-ago model that will last 3 years, while I can pay $5 for two years or even nothing extra to get a mid-range Android that lasts 3 years.

So, as a consumer, the longevity argument holds very little weight nowadays. And that’s not even counting that Android smartphone flagships and Open Source phones like the PinePhone also does the longevity thing.

Apple require you to get a flagship phone to get their phones. Let’s see how that holds up once smartphone flagships are more and more obsoleted by midranges… :slight_smile:

1 Like
106

Apple don’t require you to buy a flagship, they just require you to buy something that isn’t shit.

When you take into account the 4-7 years of OS upgrade support, it isn’t that expensive really.

3 Likes
107

If all your offerings are either this year flagship phone or past years flagship phone then yes you are required to buy a flagship phone. :stuck_out_tongue:

meanwhile I am very happy with my $400 mid range Android smartphone with three years of guaranteed upgrades, thank you very much.

108

The current iPhone SE has never been a flagship…

2 Likes
109

Compare parts list of SE to the flagship of two or three years prior. It is basically a prior flagship with some new cosmetics. But sure, let’s amend that to, you can buy a flagship, a prior flagship, or a phone that falls into pieces after 2-3 years of regular use - but hey, the software still supports it, just need some duct tape!

1 Like
110

My only forray into Apple was the SE.
At £80/year for lifetime, was reasonable for me.

I didn’t like their ecosystem though so switched.

Gone for pixel at slightly higher, but GrapheneOS.

I would have trusted Pixel to get like 3 years support before being abandoned though, with timely patches, unlike previous Androids.

111

Nail on the head there!
That in a nutshell is the reason people run into problems with their computer.
They buy a system as a status symbol and just play solitaire on it.

As one who builds his own systems ive learned many configurations for the variety of uses
Including the variety of linux flavors.
The sith lords and apple baskets os’s are in simpler words one size fits most an f#(k the rest.

(Of course we will SELL you specialty software for an arm, a leg, and a left nut too)

Its that mentality that made me switch to linux.

112

At the end of the day, you run what you feel comfortable with. Apple / Android, whatever. It’s like pickles, some people like them, others do not.

The key to avoiding corporate lock-in and surveillance is a viable third-party option and that’s Open Source. Not that popular on phones at the moment, but as privacy deteriorates more people will look for another option. The level of surveillance in modern tech is shameful. Android forcing location to be turned on for all apps is moronically selfish just to generate more data for their algorithms to generate more billions.

A universal declaration of human privacy rights is needed. Rights that cannot be signed away with a EULA when you install FruitMachine16 on your phone. Rights that block corporations from banking and selling your data, just because they collected it. Rights that carry severe penalties for violations. No back doors, no flawed encryption, no mass slurping of personal data from cars, appliances and personal tech. The EU is leading the pack in this area today, but they are playing perpetual catch-up as the tech evolves and companies become more reliant on the data to make cash. Cash they can use to influence lawmakers globally.

And if the government wants to conduct surveillance or gather info on you, they need to have a court order approved by a judge. One that names you directly and not a classified blanket declaration that covers millions approved by a secret court.

Rights, once lost, are not coming back until people are ankle deep in blood.

1 Like
113

Compare a non premium android phone to previous flagships. Not sure what point you’re trying to make…

The current SE has a much faster CPU/GPU and more RAM than the iphone 8 chassis it was based on. So no, parts are different anyway.

1 Like
114

Have you even taken a look at midrange Android vs the iPhone SE? I mean, seriously taken a look to compare the two. The SE has significantly worse hardware and raw specs, somewhat mitigated by the iPhone software tuning that is possible to do since Apple controls both phone and OS. The only highlight is the CPU, which, while great, is like buying a hatchback with a v8 engine…

You also do have a lot of Android manufacturers promising security support for up to five years, though may vary from model to model. Is this situation perfect? No. Is Apple doing it better? Definitely. But when you can get a two year subscription phone either heavily subsidized or basically for free, the “holds forever” argument goes flying out the window for most people.

Quality is great but migrating to a new device every three years on a device manufactured to be “disposable” is not that big of a deal, either. Merely an inconvenience for many.

1 Like
115

Nice, looking in to it, a bunch of Android phone sellers had to up their game from Feb 2022, in response to Pixel6

This does change the game in my book.
some of them even promise 4 major Android versions too.

Thanks for the info!

116

The iPhone SE has an A15 in it, which is literally the same speed as an Apple M2 in single thread, it just has a different mix of small vs. large cores (2 performance cores missing), and half the GPU cores.

That’s not the OS doing that.

It’s not a flagship and never has been due to the sensors, cameras and display - but the SOC is fairly current.

117

So, a V8 engine in this:

image
image1280×720 71.9 KB

It’s nice and all, don’t get me wrong, but if the rest of the housing is shite, then it doesn’t really matter. Half the RAM, a quarter of the storage of competing Android phones in that segment that offer the same stuff, most Android phones also allow you to expand storage with another 256 GB through SD cards as well. Only a single camera lens. Screen is just too small to really make use of all that horse power. Sure it is snappy, but I just see too many compromises with the SE.

Apple does the Premium segment very well; but the SE is practically a joke in the segment it is competing in.

118

Average non geeek user (or me personally, I run a 13 mini for the better cameras) doesn’t give a shit about expanding storage or how much ram the phone has.

What matters is what apps it runs and how secure it is. Extras are how good the camera is and what it looks like.

1 Like
119

Talk about being tonedeaf… :grin:

With that logic the 4060 8GB at $399 is a great product too. Except the general consensus is that it’s a terrible price for a good product. Same thing with the 2022 iPhone SE. Decent phone, but at $429, well, there are way better options out there and the phone is beaten both by $350 Androids (roughly same specs), $450 Androids (way better specs), and iPhone 12 Minis on the used market.

It’s like saying a 3060 is a better purchase than the 6700 XT at the same price point. No, in general it is not, but for your particular use case the 3060 might offer some benefits over the 6700 XT. I would only recommend the SE to someone already locked in to the Apple ecosystem that needs a new phone today and cannot pay the extra, what? $200 for a 12 Mini?

120

Hmm, a V8 in that ‘car’ might be a lot of fun.

I mean, you’d probably be dead after speeding around in it after not too long, but it would be a fun death. :rofl:

1 Like
122

As far as I am concerned, it’s not Windows 11 that is the problem.

I mean, yeah, Microsoft decided to turn millions of perfectly serviceable PC’s into eWaste for no reason at all other than their desire to not support them, and that is pretty shity, but 90+% of what is bad in Windows 11 was already bad in Windows 10.

Windows 7 was the last decent Windows operating system.

Windows 10 saw the full on push towards online Microsoft accounts, forced cloud integration, forced freemium ecosystem apps, obscene data mining, a move to subscription software models, etc. etc.

They saw what Google and to a lesser extent Apple were doing and said “we want that too”. That was Windows 10.

Going from Windows 10 to Windows 11 is quite minor by comparison.

The question is how things go in the AI era. I wouldn’t touch a “Windows 11 AI PC” (or whatever it is they are calling them) with a proverbial 39.5 ft pole. That takes the data collection and abuse and turns it up to 11.

The question is, how long until they decide that it is mandatory? It isn’t as of right now in Windows 11, and I’m not sure if it will be in Windows 11 or not, but it doesn’t take clairvoyance to see which direction this is headed.

Once an NPU (or background AI activity on the GPU) is mandatory, being used to analyze and data harvest every aspect of our lives, I am out. Heck, I will likely be out long before then. If having a Microsoft Account finally becomes mandatory in a way that cannot be circumvented, and/or blocking all of microsfts content servers at the network level stops working, that’s when I am out as well.

To be fair I’ve already been 100% linux at home for going on 25 years now with one exception, and that is for games. I have dual booted to a game partition all of this time, because the state of Linux gaming - while it is better than it has ever been - is still not ready yet, IMHO, but when the day comes that they truly enforce Microsoft accounts, or make the OS break when I block Microsoft servers online, or force me to have their AI analysis shit running, that’s when I erase my partition for good.

That “Recall” shit is truly horrifying, and there is no way I will trust that “turning it off in settings” will truly mean it is off and not quietly analyzing absolutely everything I do and sending it to Microsoft.

1 Like
123

The more trash they put into windows the better.

The sooner people wake up and get off the better.

2 Likes
125

I doubt Windows will last as long as a consumer OS for this to happen. The way things are moving, we’re all going to swap to another OS before this.