Hacker News new | ask | show | jobs
by close04 2195 days ago
Power users customize their own installation, they don't download a modified ISO from Yandex. This isn't aimed at power user but at regular users who don't understand what was done to it or the risk of downloading your OS from an untrusted source. It's so easy to turn them into rootkit encrusted ISOs and just call them "NEW! Updated Ninjutsu OS v2.0".
1 comments

I don't mean for this particular tool.

I mean for the fact you have less and less to say with regards to your installation. I have been Windows user for many years but around 4-5 years ago I got fed up with the fact Microsoft decides on a daily basis to change completely the stuff I own and not let me have anything to say about it. I don't want to have any Live accounts to log in to my machine, I don't want significant updates installed without me having anything to say about it. I want to spend time doing actual work and not babysitting the OS because I just got interrupted by another Microsoft idea.

Currently the only Windows I personally use is a VM I use to do my remote work because I am forced to use Windows. Just this weekend I got the very significant Edge update that completely blew my setup and caused me to spend an entire day to fix. As I am paid by the hour this is pretty significant: unhappy client, lots of work stacked.

You would think a backup would help? After all this is VM that I basically don't touch. The only site I open is the one I use for remote connection. The only tool I ever run is Edge. Unfortunately, it was not possible for me to revive the backup and not have it immediately do its thing.

I am disgusted.

See, this bit about the Live account is where you and I differ. It's now so much easier just to have my Live account that mirrors my Local User account, except I use a PIN to login instead of a password and my Win10 license is bound to my Live account so if I need to reinstall and reactivate I don't have to screw around with manually typing keys or having to call MS to activate, it simply works.
I've just returned to Windows for the first time in 20 years having had a pet VM of the kind you describe for Windows tasks before. I am pretty astonished that I am forced to update so often and that Windows still needs reboots for most of its systems. Compared to only updating for the occasional kernel patch when I was a Linux desktop user on Debian it is almost comical.
That's due to a fundamental difference in how each OS handles files. Linux will let you replace a file that is open in another running process, and Windows won't. Each way of doing things has its pros and cons. It isn't the kind of thing that can be easily resolved.