many have to - work from home, have to share data and programs with other workers. There are of course ways around it but I know literally thousands of people who are supplied with a company laptop with windows on it and they have to use it…
You realise that most companies still run on Windows don’t you? I’m in the UK and there is around zero companies that use anything else… here they got rid of Macs because of the hassle of supporting them and windows. Plenty of companies won’t let you use a Mac to work with either
You’re in the UK, so you’re not bound by GDPR… but a whole lot of places and orgs that are bound by GDPR realize that MSFT products indeed are a joke from a data security standpoint, and are actively transitioning to linux or at the very least FOSS software.
I am in the US.
I literally used to work for MSFT, a few of their different locations around Seattle.
They are a fucking insane mess, internally, organizationally.
I worked with people, old timers who’d just casually tell me:
‘Oh yeah back before Desert Storm, I was out in Saudi Arabia flashing the BIOS of computer hardware that was bound to be installed in Saddam’s C&C and Air Defense Radar networks, some months later when time came for the air sorties, somebody else just flipped a switch and down goes all their radars!’
Aka a supply chain attack.
Aka, unless your definition of ‘data security’ is ‘the NSA has all my data’, then MSFT products are rather dubious at providing data security.
For starters in the UK we ARE bound by GDPR…
But it doesn’t matter - you are assuming that companies care in the UK, they don’t. You get Windows or Windows. As said a lot of software only runs on Windows, and this will continue until microsoft stop windows, corps don’t care. Here in the UK Macs are rare, really really rare, in business. Heck in general use they are rare compared to Windows. Linux is nowhere, under 0.1%. You are literally forced to use Windows if you work for a company. My wife works for a charity and she has to use the company laptop, through the company VPN or else she gets warning and can be sacked… it really is that simple. The company controls what software is installed, even what updates are installed. Here in the UK the NHS buys around 5 million windows machines a year… just imagine that
Much of what MSFT does isn’t GDPR compliant, or violates other data security and privacy laws in the EU or elsewhere, or just generally throws privacy and security by the wayside, as a matter of course.
If you think MSFT gives a shit about actual data security and privacy, you’re not following the just stream of lawsuits they just keep getting into, revolving around these issues.
Yeah if that means 99% of orgs have bad policy, by relying on a company with a terrible record on all this, the, uh then uh yeah, 99% of orgs are choosing to have the ability to blame someone else for their own bad decisions, over making better decisions.
The point is arguing about something when you plainly don’t understand how the UK still has GDPR doesn’t really validate your opinions in any way shape or form…
The security doesn’t matter, nothing other than Windows is used. To move to something else would cost so much that businesses simply cannot sustain that. We now have workers who have had 30 years of only working with Windows… and new workers only get Windows. Doesn’t matter what you or anybody else thinks, or says, it matters little. It is pretty much set in stone that you need Windows and Office in the UK, plus other software to make things like PDF’s and documents. You can point anyone towards anything and it just doesn’t matter… and here in the UK they don’t care about lawsuits, we don’t sue first and ask questions later - our legal system is just not setup that way. It is so difficult for other countries to understand, but that kind of approach just doesn’t happen, and our legal system takes little notice of legal issues in countries like the US.
Yet again - headline and article are massive overexaggerations, talking about an issue that a few people have had in very specific situations and saying it breaks everyones SSDs/HDDs and might corrupt their data to get people like you to get outraged and spread FUD.
Remember - if even 0.01% of people on Windows 11 get an error with an update, that is like 100k people. A 0.01% error rate is nothing. It’s not even worth mentioning. It’s not even worth investigating. Sure it sucks for those 100k people, and they’ll be complaining to everyone that will listen - but it’s not a big issue. That’s this. That’s this exact thing.
First of all, false equivalency. Second, this isn’t new and didn’t just start happening again. Its never stopped happening. Windows update is fucking atrocious. Its always been atrocious. Its always been the single worst part about using windows for the vast majority of users.
I use “incontrol” to stop feature updates. And I used win11debloat. Havent had a problem since. In dogshit bloat, no dog shit copilot, no forced updates, no privacy destroying telemetry. Just me and MY windows machine like the old days.
Meh - people are creatures of habit. To quote a family member “I’m too old to learn a new operating system!” Any change, even over to Mac OS, is rejected by most Windows users. Even when 99.9% of what they do is in a web browser.
Every time I try switching to Linux I run into some issue I just cant fix and go back to windows, currently pirated win10 IOT LTSC. Last time it was getting the USB ports to recognize an ESP32, the time before that graphics card drivers, the time before that it would either take ages to boot or not boot at all, the time before that software I couldnt get to run.
Maybe try another distro? Mint 22.1 works just fine right out of the box, and at this point Claude provides actual support better than scouring 3 forums in case you need small tweaks. Other than some proprietary fingerprint reader I never use, every machine I’ve used it on has been fine.
You can just do a live install from USB and test it before even installing.
OK, well what I’m trying to tell you is that unless you have some exotic hardware, Mint has the reputation of working right out of the box. Not great for gaming, so if that’s a deal breaker, then that’s it.
Yet again, I trot out this phrase, as a response to yet another massive Windows fuckup/scandal:
… People are still using Windows?
many have to - work from home, have to share data and programs with other workers. There are of course ways around it but I know literally thousands of people who are supplied with a company laptop with windows on it and they have to use it…
Huh, sounds to me like bad security and data integrity policies/practices from whatever company, probably not very well run places to work for.
You realise that most companies still run on Windows don’t you? I’m in the UK and there is around zero companies that use anything else… here they got rid of Macs because of the hassle of supporting them and windows. Plenty of companies won’t let you use a Mac to work with either
Yep I do realize that.
And I still have the same opinion.
You’re in the UK, so you’re not bound by GDPR… but a whole lot of places and orgs that are bound by GDPR realize that MSFT products indeed are a joke from a data security standpoint, and are actively transitioning to linux or at the very least FOSS software.
I am in the US.
I literally used to work for MSFT, a few of their different locations around Seattle.
They are a fucking insane mess, internally, organizationally.
I worked with people, old timers who’d just casually tell me:
‘Oh yeah back before Desert Storm, I was out in Saudi Arabia flashing the BIOS of computer hardware that was bound to be installed in Saddam’s C&C and Air Defense Radar networks, some months later when time came for the air sorties, somebody else just flipped a switch and down goes all their radars!’
Aka a supply chain attack.
Aka, unless your definition of ‘data security’ is ‘the NSA has all my data’, then MSFT products are rather dubious at providing data security.
Like uh, did your org completely remove Copilot?
… Are you sure about that?
For starters in the UK we ARE bound by GDPR…
But it doesn’t matter - you are assuming that companies care in the UK, they don’t. You get Windows or Windows. As said a lot of software only runs on Windows, and this will continue until microsoft stop windows, corps don’t care. Here in the UK Macs are rare, really really rare, in business. Heck in general use they are rare compared to Windows. Linux is nowhere, under 0.1%. You are literally forced to use Windows if you work for a company. My wife works for a charity and she has to use the company laptop, through the company VPN or else she gets warning and can be sacked… it really is that simple. The company controls what software is installed, even what updates are installed. Here in the UK the NHS buys around 5 million windows machines a year… just imagine that
Well technically its not the same GDPR, but w/e.
Point is:
Much of what MSFT does isn’t GDPR compliant, or violates other data security and privacy laws in the EU or elsewhere, or just generally throws privacy and security by the wayside, as a matter of course.
https://www.crowell.com/en/insights/client-alerts/cloud-gdpr-risks-highlighted-by-european-commission-ruling-over-microsoft-365-use
https://ppc.land/irish-court-approves-first-class-action-against-microsoft-rtb-data-breach/
https://www.gadgetreview.com/microsofts-recall-fails-to-protect-sensitive-data
https://www.courthousenews.com/microsoft-must-face-privacy-class-action-over-kaiser-website-data/
This is just a teeny weeny sampling.
If you think MSFT gives a shit about actual data security and privacy, you’re not following the just stream of lawsuits they just keep getting into, revolving around these issues.
Yeah if that means 99% of orgs have bad policy, by relying on a company with a terrible record on all this, the, uh then uh yeah, 99% of orgs are choosing to have the ability to blame someone else for their own bad decisions, over making better decisions.
The point is arguing about something when you plainly don’t understand how the UK still has GDPR doesn’t really validate your opinions in any way shape or form…
The security doesn’t matter, nothing other than Windows is used. To move to something else would cost so much that businesses simply cannot sustain that. We now have workers who have had 30 years of only working with Windows… and new workers only get Windows. Doesn’t matter what you or anybody else thinks, or says, it matters little. It is pretty much set in stone that you need Windows and Office in the UK, plus other software to make things like PDF’s and documents. You can point anyone towards anything and it just doesn’t matter… and here in the UK they don’t care about lawsuits, we don’t sue first and ask questions later - our legal system is just not setup that way. It is so difficult for other countries to understand, but that kind of approach just doesn’t happen, and our legal system takes little notice of legal issues in countries like the US.
You realize a lot of software still only runs on windows, right? So its not even a choice for a lot of business.
Yet again - headline and article are massive overexaggerations, talking about an issue that a few people have had in very specific situations and saying it breaks everyones SSDs/HDDs and might corrupt their data to get people like you to get outraged and spread FUD.
Remember - if even 0.01% of people on Windows 11 get an error with an update, that is like 100k people. A 0.01% error rate is nothing. It’s not even worth mentioning. It’s not even worth investigating. Sure it sucks for those 100k people, and they’ll be complaining to everyone that will listen - but it’s not a big issue. That’s this. That’s this exact thing.
Wow, with a mentality like that, you’re a perfect fit for medical school.
First of all, false equivalency. Second, this isn’t new and didn’t just start happening again. Its never stopped happening. Windows update is fucking atrocious. Its always been atrocious. Its always been the single worst part about using windows for the vast majority of users.
Came here to say “Well, maybe they’re corrupting your data.”
I use “incontrol” to stop feature updates. And I used win11debloat. Havent had a problem since. In dogshit bloat, no dog shit copilot, no forced updates, no privacy destroying telemetry. Just me and MY windows machine like the old days.
Well yes, but actually this is a security update
Look at it from the flip side: Linux is so bad people would rather deal with this than deal with Linux.
Meh - people are creatures of habit. To quote a family member “I’m too old to learn a new operating system!” Any change, even over to Mac OS, is rejected by most Windows users. Even when 99.9% of what they do is in a web browser.
Every time I try switching to Linux I run into some issue I just cant fix and go back to windows, currently pirated win10 IOT LTSC. Last time it was getting the USB ports to recognize an ESP32, the time before that graphics card drivers, the time before that it would either take ages to boot or not boot at all, the time before that software I couldnt get to run.
Maybe try another distro? Mint 22.1 works just fine right out of the box, and at this point Claude provides actual support better than scouring 3 forums in case you need small tweaks. Other than some proprietary fingerprint reader I never use, every machine I’ve used it on has been fine.
You can just do a live install from USB and test it before even installing.
I don’t bother testing using live boot anymore, often hardware will work on the live image but not work after it’s installed.
Needing to try random distros is part of my frustration with Linux, I just want one that works out of the box.
OK, well what I’m trying to tell you is that unless you have some exotic hardware, Mint has the reputation of working right out of the box. Not great for gaming, so if that’s a deal breaker, then that’s it.
Lies! Linux never has issues!
My laptop’s Linux install currently isn’t corrupt and won’t boot, honest!
Disclaimer: I actually like Linux a lot, JFC the windows hate is crazy…