Windows 11 is closing a loophole that let you skip making a Microsoft account
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It's not a big deal. They're removing the bypassnro.cmd script, which is just this:
@echo off
reg add HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\OOBE /v BypassNRO /t REG_DWORD /d 1 /f
shutdown /r /t 0
You can still use shift-F10 at the same point, type those two lines (not the @ECHO OFF), and it will achieve the same result.
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Ok, so this solidifies my desire to never buy a Windows PC/laptop and why my switch to Mac was a good choice a few years ago. However Mac gaming is nowhere near where it should be right now and I was thinking about getting a cheap Windows laptop for games that aren't available on Mac.
I remember a push a few years ago to get some linux distros pre-installed on some OEM hardware but I didn't hear much of anything past the hype. Anyone have any good OEM brands that have linux installed instead of Windows and are relatively affordable?
Framework laptops can come with optionally no OS if you choose, and I can attest to their build quality being quite good.
I know there are some brands that will have Linux pre-installed, but I don't know enough about them to comment.
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I have Nvidia yeah and quickly learnt that I wasn't going to get it working smoothly and went back to Windows. If I manage to get a RRP 9070XT, then I will try Linux again.
I hate the "stop using windows" comments, when it's quite impossible to have the same experience without specific hardware and setups.
It's not the fault of the creators of an operating system that Nvidia refuses to write comparable drivers. They're the only ones with the technical knowledge of the GPU's internals that is necessary to write a driver. Open-source Nouveau drivers exist but are less functional because of this, its programmers have to try to reverse-engineer and do a lot of guesswork and testing, and for free.
Basically: If you value FOSS software at all, buy from manufacturers that are friendlier to FOSS software, or you may unknowingly lock yourself out of it.
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In addition to what the other guy said, Mint is also more focused on desktop. A bunch of apps are pre-installed that one would expect on a desktop OS. Additionally, the default Mint UI, Cinnamon, feels very familiar to a Windows user. It has a start menu, task bar, tray, etc.
Debian is in the same family, and is more oriented for servers. It is super minimal out of the box, which is perfect when you want it to sit in the other room and perform specific tasks. However, you can install all the same programs, even the Cinnamon UI on Debian.
Really the difference is the out of box experience, but they are otherwise pretty similar.
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What advantage embedded windows gave to a manufacturer for it to be worth paying license fee for? I kinda feel this part is difficult for Microsoft to compete at
It was because developers historically were familiar with Windows and would just default to making a Windows product. You want a POS interface? Your developer is probably going to hand you a .exe and not a .deb. Then your next move is to tell the hardware division to put that .exe into production systems, at which it is too late for the hardware division to argue you just chose the more expensive option without thinking.
This is changing, particularly as many platforms make it trivial to compile for different OSes.
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not
LennyLinux! -
They give me more and more reasons to stay on W10 until I give up games and move to Linux permanently.
I'll miss my TCMD scripting, though. But besides that and gaming, most of what I do nowadays is cross-platform.
Why would you give up games to move to Linux? Been enjoying Cyberpunk and Guild Wars lately, and many games before that the last year.
Check out Proton DB. Gives reports on how well things run. Anything Gold or higher is going to be a non-concern to play. Honestly, at this point I don't even check if games work with Linux, I just assume they do unless proven otherwise.
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Why is everyone reccommending linux mint all of a sudden? What happened to ubuntu and fedora?
Mint is ubuntu with the icky stuff removed and given an extra layer of polish. Still loving it here.
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It does, but performance seems a lot laggier than Windows.
I've been using Linux full time for a while now, and only recently installed Windows on a secondary drive, just for those two things.
Before, on Linux, it was a bit of mixed bag.
Sometimes it would start up without issue, other times sound wouldn't work, etc.Using corectl is a must, and make sure you have a stable steam install. (iirc the steam I installed didn't come with half of the 32 bit libs it was expecting).
I'm rocking a 7900xtx, so it's not exactly low-end, and half-life alyx was giving me a lot of stutters.I have quite a different experience, can't tell if it is placebo or not, but my vr experience is slightly smoother in Arch Linux compared to my Windows 10.
i play VR via Proton using ALVR (steamvr) or Wivrn
But i havent tried playing Alyx on linux yet
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You can still skip it with MicroWin and also Rufus. I've tested it just recently.
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Are Linux ports of games so hard to do? Genuine question. I am not a games dev.
My personal opinion is that Windows is an easier target because all Windows machines are consistent in their underlying interface with the user's hardware. Same idea with MacOS. You know what display manager and graphics library to target, and what packaging format to target.
Then, there's Linux, which can be one of any number of distributions with varying software stacks, packaging formats, etc. It's not that Linux gaming is radically difficult to support, it's just much less standardized. This makes it a lot more work for a much smaller demographic. The Vulkan graphics API has made some of the software issues much less of a problem, but you still have to contend with things like different display managers and stuff like packaging differences between distributions.
Makes sense.
Would packaging like Flatpak or AppImage be an option? Or just make sure it runs with Wine? Probably all not that straightforward. -
Blender at least has gotten to the point where an indie flick made with it actually won some Oscars and other big awards, so that pretty much put it on the map as a viable Maya or 3DSMax alternative, so there's that.
Yeah, Blender is one of the few points where it works. QGIS is the other.
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Why the fuck is a Microsoft account so important to Windows that running it without one is considered a "loophole"?
Microsoft will sell it as a safety thing - your essential stuff is backed up to your Microsoft account, so in the event that your computer is compromised or damaged, you can wipe and start over with your important stuff restored from your Microsoft account.
Which is not a bad idea in itself, but the rest of the data harvesting and telemetry makes it yuck. I use pihole to block access to Microsoft telemetry servers.
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Also, I will not be surprised if they audaciously disable Win 10 Home edition for security purposes once end of life is reached.
I've still got a windows XP computer that I fire up once in a while for the LOLs. it continues to remind me that support ended in 2014, but it keeps working.
I also have a Windows 8.1 tablet that continues to work, and receive Windows Defender updates.
They won't disable anything, stop spreading FUD, that's Microsoft's job.
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You can still skip it with MicroWin and also Rufus. I've tested it just recently.
Did you try that with the latest beta build?
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It's not a big deal. They're removing the bypassnro.cmd script, which is just this:
@echo off
reg add HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\OOBE /v BypassNRO /t REG_DWORD /d 1 /f
shutdown /r /t 0
You can still use shift-F10 at the same point, type those two lines (not the @ECHO OFF), and it will achieve the same result.
Their intention is clear. I wonder for how long this workaround is going to stay.
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Ok, so this solidifies my desire to never buy a Windows PC/laptop and why my switch to Mac was a good choice a few years ago. However Mac gaming is nowhere near where it should be right now and I was thinking about getting a cheap Windows laptop for games that aren't available on Mac.
I remember a push a few years ago to get some linux distros pre-installed on some OEM hardware but I didn't hear much of anything past the hype. Anyone have any good OEM brands that have linux installed instead of Windows and are relatively affordable?
It's funny that with how enclosed the Apple ecosystem is, even they don't force you to create an Apple account to use macOS.
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Chiming in as well with a Linux distro: peppermint , debian based.
If you want the horrors to persist but kind of limited check out windows ameliorated -
Did you try that with the latest beta build?
No with the latest ISO from windows 24H2 I believe
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Ahh so Mint is kept up to date like Ubuntu/Fedora and doesn't have all the telemetry and pop ups for Ubuntu Pro. Thank you!
Ubuntu and Fedora have different “up-to-date”. Ubuntu is patching old code to work / feel modern and Fedora is updating as fast as possible to new Software.
I think Ubuntu is unnecessary doing double work, but I guess they have to, since they have drifted too far from upstream…
