Windows 11
- Thread starter Mercutio
- Start date
Mercutio
Fatwah on Western Digital
It might be making a boot optimization pass. Either that or you got some updates that installed silently and it did more than usual back-end work during your next startup.
With regard to low cost, reasonably powerful systems, I can't recall seeing mini PCs with Ryzen 3550H CPUs before, but Amazon has several of them today, 16GB/500GB systems that are around 40% faster than an N150 and prices around $210. I wonder if this is a response to the cost per unit for newer but much more common Ryzen 5500 and 5800 mini PCs going up.
Mercutio
Fatwah on Western Digital
One of my customers had an issue that it took me a couple days to find and deal with. They had a bunch of weird, invalid text in a database they're using, starting a couple weeks ago. Turned out that one of their employees has turned on an AI translation feature in Edge, such that it was taking their text input and translating it into Polish. The text looked right on their screen as they typed, but it was being translated before it was sent.
So that's a new thing we all have to look out for.
So that's a new thing we all have to look out for.
fb
Storage is cool
Interesting with AI auto translate, especially on the database side if you don't store the input as unicode (or do not store it properly as unicode).
Mercutio
Fatwah on Western Digital
What my customer actually noticed was "funny characters" and partial nonsense, which they assumed were data corruption, showing up in a daily report. I was terrified I had bad RAM in a server until my customer let me know that one of his employees had a bunch of the same weird characters and nonsense in emails they were sending.
The user swears they have no idea how the translation software got turned on. The only non-English language I even occasionally encounter here in the US Midwest is Spanish.
The user swears they have no idea how the translation software got turned on. The only non-English language I even occasionally encounter here in the US Midwest is Spanish.
mubs
Hairy Aussie
Time to install Linux in a VM and start getting used to it??
Mercutio
Fatwah on Western Digital
Linux from the end user side isn't genuinely too different from Windows or MacOS. There are a couple small exceptions, one being that there really aren't official clients for cloud storage and another being locked out of full-fat desktop MS Office. A variety of third party clients for storage exist and you can use the web version of MS Office and/or look at GDocs or LibreOffice, but I know a lot of people who have spent their whole lives seeing ever problem as Excel-specific solutions.
Content creation on Linux can be a headache. Resolve Studio, Reaper, Inkscape and Affinity Photo work but most tools for creatives don't. A few types of games don't work (mainly online-only titles with anticheat systems). Other than that, the main thing is just knowing that the filesystem outside home folders is different and the minor annoyances of having a new Window Management system. The same people who already aren't configuring VMs or setting up private server applications will continue to not do that on their Fedora or Mint or whatever system.
Mercutio
Fatwah on Western Digital
Several US States and multiple countries are in the process of trying to force OS vendors to add an age verification tool to their account generation process. This is something that could put the nail in the coffin for Local Accounts on Windows, but moreover, how the hell would niche OSes like NetBSD handle these requirements?
I want to say that my main Google account is more than 20 years old and that attestation should be enough, but my fear is that, should this be implemented, lawmakers would add more and more identity information to the requirement, which could be a real problem for all sorts of reasons, chief among hem gender identity and race.
I want to say that my main Google account is more than 20 years old and that attestation should be enough, but my fear is that, should this be implemented, lawmakers would add more and more identity information to the requirement, which could be a real problem for all sorts of reasons, chief among hem gender identity and race.
sedrosken
Florida Man
Yeah, apparently Newsom himself said that the law wasn't enforceable as-is because it was so vague, but urged it to be pushed through anyway as it can be amended later on. Or something.
I find it entertaining that a BSD fork responded by modifying their license to prohibit use in California.
My question is, how do you enforce this for servers, which have no real primary user to verify? Or for corporate-owned machines? If there's a way to mass-tick a flag saying "this user is an adult, trust me bro" it'll be found and abused immediately, rendering the law moot.
I find it entertaining that a BSD fork responded by modifying their license to prohibit use in California.
My question is, how do you enforce this for servers, which have no real primary user to verify? Or for corporate-owned machines? If there's a way to mass-tick a flag saying "this user is an adult, trust me bro" it'll be found and abused immediately, rendering the law moot.
Last edited:
Mercutio
Fatwah on Western Digital
Think about all the weird stuff we use that technically has an OS and probably talk to the internet. Copy machines, medical and industrial equipment, routers and switches, IoT gear... how silly is this going to have to be?
I am mostly concerned what this does for the state of anonymity online and perhaps it will be EU privacy regulations that win out with these things, but as I understand it, the EU wants to implement a digital identity system that has just as many issues as anything else. Mostly, I just don't want to be force to sign up for any sort of universal ID I have to use on the internet that will be tracked and controlled by the State, particularly this State. No one who has an interest in civil liberties should be OK with this and yes I do think that letting non-adult see boobs and trans and dead bodies and racism on gross web sites is the price we have to pay for that, because the alternative is an infrastructure for censorship and State-sponsored repression.
I am mostly concerned what this does for the state of anonymity online and perhaps it will be EU privacy regulations that win out with these things, but as I understand it, the EU wants to implement a digital identity system that has just as many issues as anything else. Mostly, I just don't want to be force to sign up for any sort of universal ID I have to use on the internet that will be tracked and controlled by the State, particularly this State. No one who has an interest in civil liberties should be OK with this and yes I do think that letting non-adult see boobs and trans and dead bodies and racism on gross web sites is the price we have to pay for that, because the alternative is an infrastructure for censorship and State-sponsored repression.
sedrosken
Florida Man
I saw all kinds of stuff I was never meant to online as a kid and while I can't say I turned out fine I am a functional tax-paying member of society. I completely agree.
jtr1962
Storage? I am Storage!
Even before the Internet kids got their fill of that stuff looking at dirty magazines. I remember the time me and my siblings stumbled across my father's stash. My mother of course went ballistic that he even had that stuff in the house, especially with young children around.
Chewy509
Wotty wot wot.
The thing is, I see Microsoft wanting to implement this with Windows, especially as a way to kill local accounts. (which imho is a shit idea).
GNU/Linux and the *BSDs will simple put a notice on the download page stating that the software can't be used in California. (or any other state that wants to do the same). IIRC this is a loophole in the legislation.
The interesting one will be Apple and its devices. If using iCloud it's currently optionally and really is a 'trust me bro' field, but for local accounts (remember of macOS, all accounts are local accounts), will it ask for the age? Apple with it's privacy focus, and about protecting users privacy being a key tenant (remember the push back against US three-letter agencies and law enforcement), it'll be interesting to see what Apple does.
GNU/Linux and the *BSDs will simple put a notice on the download page stating that the software can't be used in California. (or any other state that wants to do the same). IIRC this is a loophole in the legislation.
The interesting one will be Apple and its devices. If using iCloud it's currently optionally and really is a 'trust me bro' field, but for local accounts (remember of macOS, all accounts are local accounts), will it ask for the age? Apple with it's privacy focus, and about protecting users privacy being a key tenant (remember the push back against US three-letter agencies and law enforcement), it'll be interesting to see what Apple does.
sedrosken
Florida Man
I’m not even talking about the kind of stuff that gets printed and sold behind the counter. No, I’m talking about the shock sites and various prototypes to stuff you’d find on LiveLeak now.
I won’t name anything in specific, and I doubt I’ve seen anything outright illegal more than just disgusting, but none of it is great for a developing mind. It was just the reality of the internet in the mid-2000s.
Mercutio
Fatwah on Western Digital
Brazil's OS-based age verification rules take effect on March 17, 2026. California, New York, Colorado and Illinois have proposals for OS-level age verification. These laws are being framed as protection for children. They WILL pass. There's not a doubt in my mind that age is only the first step and OS vendors will end up with mandates to provide even more demographic information.
ddrueding
Fixture
Linux seems to be getting good at gaming just in time.
sedrosken
Florida Man
In a couple years, any platform that can't give the "are you an adult" flag won't be allowed to load most websites, most likely.
Mercutio
Fatwah on Western Digital
As I mentioned in the Gaming thread over in the Pub, CachyOS is really fuss free, especially for something based on the normally extremely fussy Arch Linux. I had to do one entire thing to enable GoG, Epic and Amazon game support and controllers and bluetooth both worked out of the box on systems with AMD GPUs.
I just ran across AtlasOS, which is a Playbook of customization steps from a Baseline Windows Pro ISO. I haven't done anything with it yet, but I'm interested enough to link it here. It might be a good intermediate step for you guys not ready to contemplate Linux yet.
I just ran across AtlasOS, which is a Playbook of customization steps from a Baseline Windows Pro ISO. I haven't done anything with it yet, but I'm interested enough to link it here. It might be a good intermediate step for you guys not ready to contemplate Linux yet.
Mercutio
Fatwah on Western Digital
Apparently, Microsoft is now saying that 32GB is the baseline for "worry free" Windows Gaming PCs.
That does actually make sense, but I'm seeing NUC-type client systems shipping out with 4GB RAM than I did 10 years ago when that might've actually been acceptable.
That does actually make sense, but I'm seeing NUC-type client systems shipping out with 4GB RAM than I did 10 years ago when that might've actually been acceptable.
Mercutio
Fatwah on Western Digital
Microsoft has an internal Windows build focused on improving Windows 11 "pain points" including overall Explorer and GUI responsiveness and a de-emphasis on AI components. No, we can't see it. But they're working on it. Maybe it'll make its way to public testing. Maybe they'll turn the whole UI into a Copilot prompt instead with a real-time video feed of how many kilowatt hours your request consumed. I consider both to be equally likely.
Mercutio
Fatwah on Western Digital
It's fairly tangential to Windows 11 as such, but the newly announced version of MacOS does not support any Intel hardware. If they aren't releasing x86 binaries, that's the end of the road for the Hackintosh community as well, and that's one less choice for the rest of us as well.
mubs
Hairy Aussie
W11 had downloaded updates (2nd Tuesday stuff). I asked it to install. rebooted, and in a black screen it showed the progress. However, it got stuck at 40%. After a long time it said something went wrong and it would uninstall. Rebooted a couple of times and came to the log in prompt and booted normally.
I did a manual update check, and it downloaded the patch again - security update KB5094126 (26200.8655). Then the whole thing repeated. Is there a problem with this update or is it something specific to my PC?
I did a manual update check, and it downloaded the patch again - security update KB5094126 (26200.8655). Then the whole thing repeated. Is there a problem with this update or is it something specific to my PC?
sedrosken
Florida Man
Looks like one they're reporting some problems with. Some people are having it halfway install and kill their start menu, other people are like you and having it revert itself in a loop.
Gödel
Storage is especially nice if it doesn't rotate
MS just quietly extended the Win 10 extension by another year:
From https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/extended-security-updates: "You can enroll in ESU any time until the program ends on October 12, 2027. If you’re already enrolled, your coverage will automatically continue through that date—no action needed."
Mercutio
Fatwah on Western Digital
Bitlocker on Windows 11, Server 22 and Server 25 can be entirely bypassed via a trivial exploit.
The main mitigation is to turn off the Recovery partition in Windows. So that's cool.
The main mitigation is to turn off the Recovery partition in Windows. So that's cool.
mubs
Hairy Aussie
My system showed the windows update icon, so I clicked on it. Apparently Windows 11 26H2 is available. Anybody installed it yet? Don't want to be the guinea pig.
Mercutio
Fatwah on Western Digital
There's some security nice to haves. Better biometric options. You can move the taskbar and there's some options to customize the start menu. Nothing you'd care about in terms of features unless you're excited about other than that. I installed it on my laptop and had to go look at what changed.
mubs
Hairy Aussie
Dang. I've forgotten how to multi-quote. Anyway, Handy & Gödel, I've nevr wanted to be on the bleeding edge, and moved to W11 kicking and screaming because I wanted up to date security and MS did all that fear mongering about W10.
Thanks Merc. Any serious bugs to be aware of?
Thanks Merc. Any serious bugs to be aware of?
Mercutio
Fatwah on Western Digital
I'm still waiting for Microsoft's fix for Windows losing track of tunneled RDP sessions.
I haven't seen anything, bug-wise, but in general, I wouldn't want to be first to take up the new version on my primary PC, either.
I haven't seen anything, bug-wise, but in general, I wouldn't want to be first to take up the new version on my primary PC, either.
Mercutio
Fatwah on Western Digital
And I'm still running Ubuntu 20.04 on my 2 newest desktop PCs. (Actually, they're desk-unders.)
Why such an old release? 20.04 has been out of support for what, a year?
Since KDE is purportedly dropping support for Xorg in version 6.8, and GNOME is working on that as well and I'm absolutely convinced that Wayland has never done a single thing right in all of history, I spent last night converting the Linux desktops I have (i.e. the pile of game systems and a couple laptops) to Cinnamon instead.
I never really thought about Cinnamon on non-Mint distros, but I have it running fine on Fedora and CachyOS now. Its devs are saying they won't drop support for Xorg until Wayland works for the overwhelming majority of users. That's language I like to see.
I do support a small number of Ubuntu/Mint users. I mentioned this in Something Random a few months ago, but Ubuntu "upgrades" Xorg configs to Wayland and then completely removes Xorg as part of current normal version upgrade scripts. Between that and snaps always fucking something or other, I'm not really sure why anyone picks Ubuntu to begin with, but it's always right there when someone does a "Which Linux should I try?" search.
sedrosken
Florida Man
Momentum. It's still there because momentum. People don't really change thought patterns, it's why Microsoft is still so dominant in the first place. Your first option a normal person will think of when wanting an alternative is going to be a Mac or an iPad with a keyboard case, and the first Linux distro people think of, right or wrong, is either Ubuntu or Arch (and the latter never for a good reason). We went for so long with *buntu being the only distro to really get the out-of-box experience right enough that now people hear of another distro and are like "cool, you're 20 years late".
All the guides assume a Debian base at least, and outright Ubuntu-only stuff like PPAs quite commonly.
All the guides assume a Debian base at least, and outright Ubuntu-only stuff like PPAs quite commonly.
Gödel
Storage is especially nice if it doesn't rotate
And I'm still running Ubuntu 20.04 on my 2 newest desktop PCs. (Actually, they're desk-unders.
Paraphrasing the Florida Man, inertia. I'm still getting security and other updates, and with my Ubuntu Pro "livepatching", they're most often installed automatically, without manual intervention. It's pretty neat when a whole new kernel is installed "in the background", and there's no reboot required, as opposed to Windows, where most every little patch requires a reboot. (I don't know how I qualified as a Ubuntu Pro, but I'm still waiting for my first paycheck.
)But note that, according to Google, for 20.04, "Extended Security Maintenance (ESM): Available until May 2030 through Ubuntu Pro (free for personal use on up to 5 machines)."
I admit I'm on the amateur side of this Pro/Am forum; I got into building my own PCs as a hobby decades ago, and back then, Ubuntu seemed like a good ($ 0) alternative, and I've stubbornly stayed with it. I'm not that interested in "distro shopping", I'm just staying with what (little) I know.
One of my favorite aphorisms is "If it ain't broke, don't fix it." I do have a couple of machines running 24.04, my wife's laptop and a little VM on which I run Pi-hole for my little home network.
But maybe you're right, I should get off my @$$ and upgrade from 20.04. What I'm considering is to try it on my second-newest PC, and upgrading to 22.04 and then 24.04. I hardly ever use that one, but after the upgrade, I'll try running a fair amount of stuff and make sure everything's working OK, before I get into upgrading other PCs. I don't want to upgrade to 26.04 yet; IIRC, there are major changes involved in that.