Edit: Guys I didn’t write the headline; the subtitle that I added, I’ve now fixed tho
Edit: Also, the information about there being no escape is out of date – here’s a quick guide to how to fix the problem in the modern day
Don’t want to sound like I’m proselytizing, but unless you run Linux, your computer really isn’t yours (closed firmware aside).
Microsoft is just as bad at treating your hardware as theirs that they so graciously allow you to use (in between forced updates, criticizing your browser choices, and trying to trick you into storing everything you do in one drive)
Forced updates are a good thing for most people, though. The general population doesn’t know or care about infosec, so they’ll put off updates for months or years.
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I’d be fine with what you describe in the second paragraph, but that’s not what’s meant by “forced.” That’s opt-out. Forced is what’s really objectionable, especially when it’s abused, as discussed in the article and elsewhere in these comments.
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Updates forced at inconvenient (or inapropriate) times aren’t a good thing though.
Don’t interrupt my work right bloody now.
You can update later when I’m done doing what I’m in the middle of.
The forced updates are usually after the system has bugged the shit out of you to update for a week or two.
Plus, you can easily disable it.
Let’s have the authorities force us to eat salad and exercise while we’re at it, it’s better for us
Oh Christ, that’s not the same thing and you know it.
Meh. You’re not just talking about just making it automatic or easy or recommended, but actually forcing everyone to have to go along with it and taking away the option to not do it.
You 100% should have to keep your systems up to date. It’s a danger to yourself and everyone else when you don’t.
Even at the risk of Microsoft adding more spyware to my machine, reinstalling apps I deliberately uninstalled, reverting privacy settings I set, strongarming me into using their browser, etc? All of which has been reported.
My hardware, my choice.
If you want to phrase it as a “personal responsibility” thing, then you should frankly be criminally liable if your system is used for a DDOS attack.
Sounds like Microsoft is the problem here. Their antics finally got me to switch to Linux with Copilot.
Just curious, are you unvaccinated too?
Edit : Turns out you can turn it off atleast according to someone in the thread idk personnely i ran ubuntu .
There already is a way to turn that off AFAIK but also any tech literate person should be able to tolerate a, what is it these days, monthly(?) restart of Windows.
The point is leaving an unpatched system running is dangerous. You shouldn’t be “tech literate” and running into a problem with these updates.
As much as I love that Linux gives more flexibility here, and I do run Linux on pretty much all of my devices, I very much agree with Microsoft that these updates need installed.
Even “tech literate” people are often extremely relaxed with their security posture.
Oh i didn’t know there was a way i personnely don’t run windows (anything anymore really last time was ubuntu) i kinda thought there was no way from reading these comments if there is why are people commenting that . I’m gonna go edit.
I think it’s some registry thing at this point, but last I knew, yes there’s still a way to turn it off … even though you really really really shouldn’t.
That’s their problem though. If they wanna get hacked, go for it.
But there should be a way to turn it off for us power users at least (without having to build a whole domain controller)
The problem is when those systems become part of a botnet.
Plus, you can just disable the update service if you want to leave your computer vulnerable to attacks.
It’s not that easy.
Except it is; you can add a batch script in your startup folder to disable it on startup. You could also just add the registry key that disables it.
If you’re actually a power user, disabling updates isn’t an issue.
Hard agree to disagree.
Don’t want to sound like I’m proselytizing, but there are other free operating systems not based on Linux: FreeBSD, FreeDOS or ReactOS in example. I wish, I could add GNU/Hurd to the list, but from what I know, its unusable at the moment. Redox is also a new OS written in Rust, but it’s not ready yet (I think).
Now, are these real alternatives to a regular Linux based OS? In some cases they are (FreeBSD and their family), but most probably would just use Linux for their PC. They aren’t even suited for gaming I guess, the likes of Steam. I was just “Acktually”-ing around that you don’t “need” Linux for owning your computer. I mean, you mentioned closed firmware, so technically I was allowed to. :D
Yeah my position is really to recommend any FOSS OS in the large over proprietary ones. However, since my experience is primarily with Linux distributions, and I do think that Linux makes sense for a lot of use cases, I usually start by talking about “Linux” first.
But, from my experience, if a “solution” to a problem “forces” the user to make a choice, then they’ll stick with what “currently works” over having to make a choice. So when I talk to people about Linux IRL, I typically direct them to Linux Mint directly, even though other distros exist and it actually doesn’t fit my use cases. Once they’re comfortable in the Linux ecosystem, they can switch to a different distro or OS family if they feel the need to do so.
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Yeah, I know people running FreeBSD as their daily driver; totally left that one out haha.
The rest of them are either niche (e.g. FreeDOS for retrogaming) or not quite ready for daily driving (e.g. ReactOS – which I’ve been rooting for for a while now).
There’s also TempleOS lol
When we’re talking FOSS, feel free to “ackshually” all day. Worst case is I learn something new/cool.
I would absolutely run FreeBSD on my laptop if the WiFi wasn’t awful. It doesn’t matter which chipset, max is like 20 Mbps. Rouuugh.
On the server side of things, Docker/Podman is so convenient, and keeps me from blowing so much time on “maintenance.”
Hopefully, some day, I can daily a BSD. Until then- NixOS!
The Hurd hasn’t done anything properly in, what, 3 decades? I am actually surprised someone even remembers it.
spoiler
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Thanks!
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Don’t want to sound like I’m proselytising but do you have a few minutes to talk about our Lord and Saviour, Linus Torvalds?
I’ve said for years that the very last power we have as consumers is the ability to turn off our internet and still be able to use our devices. That is my minimum expectation of any company.
Fridge needs an internet connection, fuck you. TV won’t work unless it’s connected to the internet, fuck you.
But most especially (and this is why I moved to Linux originally), computer needs to always be connected to the internet even if all I’m doing is opening an office program that has nothing to do online? Go fuck yourself.
The ability to unplug my ethernet cable and still be able to use 99% of my computer with the exception of email and a web browser is the absolutely most basic human right left to us.
New versions of Android have made turning off mobile data more inconvenient. Now, you need to tap twice instead of just once in previous versions.
My fix to this is to click the “airplane mode” button
That’s Google’s version of android. Most OEMs still have the single tap internet toggle.
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My computer runs Linux.
Your Computer Isn’t Yours: Apple stores every program you run, and when and where you ran it
I’m not using Apple hardware or software, so I doubt it.
Same.
The good thing about buying something it’s with your own money you can buy whatever it’s better for you.
I have an iPhone propped up on the desk viewing my laptop screen just so Apple can record my programs and be happy. Don’t want them to miss out!
The version of macOS that was released today, 11.0, also known as Big Sur…
Good thing we’re on top of things here on the fediverse.
This is from 2020. You absolutely can use Little Snitch or a similar firewall to block this traffic.
https://eclecticlight.co/2021/02/23/how-to-run-apps-in-private/
This is from 2020. You absolutely can use Little Snitch or a similar firewall to block this traffic.
We agree how sinister and dystopian it is to need to work against your hardware/os vendor for something like this though, right?
Shutup 10 exists, but that doesn’t make it OK that Windows users have to continuously be on guard for MS to try snooping on them, either.
Spending time to this is waste of life, it used be you setup the PC and it was good, now it is maintenance. I could not justify it any longer… made that switch.
Can you though? LS now operates in user mode, which means it can no longer block traffic sent to Apple via a kernel thread.
It’s all a bit pointless though, as a LOT of hardware now calls home as well, and it doesn’t matter what OS to run on top of it unless you’re running something like TempleOS. Vanilla Linux is not going to protect you by itself. And if you’re using a repository system for software updates, that’s going to be reporting your software too — and many web browsers also report the URLs you go to (or even consider going to) and what extensions you have loaded.
But that article points at a solution for macOS users: it’s the certificates that are being checked. Any non-bog-standard software I run is not notarized or signed, and it functions just fine and has nothing to send back to Apple’s servers. First time I run it I need to right click and select Open to run the app, and this bypasses the entire signer system.
Added in an edit
Little Snitch
Little Snitch won’t work because they use the Apple-blessed content filter which apparently doesn’t allow blocking this.
Pointing it to localhost in the hosts file does work, as indicated in that article.
4 year old article
Last time I bought this up, everyone thought I was lying because they couldn’t believe the thought of their beloved status symbol not being perfect.
Its important to remind people that apple cares about your security and privacy as much as zuckerberg.
I haven’t noticed Akamai traffic recently; has Apple moved to another contractor, or do they import these hashes internally now?
Why is this four year old story being reposted?
It was news to me
