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Upcoming Windows 11 builds cannot install without internet and Microsoft Account

(infosec.exchange)
268 points tech234a | 1 comments | 29 Mar 25 04:13 UTC | HN request time: 0.291s | source
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samiv ◴[29 Mar 25 07:00 UTC] No.43513408[source]▶
I'm also 100% convinced Microsoft will introduce mandatory code signing at some point and make it so that you can only ever install software from Windows Store.

They are envious of the Google and Apple walled gardens/cashcows and are now determined to turn Windows into one.

Windows is no longer a product for users, the users of Windows are the product for Microsoft to be shoved into the Azure sales funnel.

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agilob ◴[29 Mar 25 07:12 UTC] No.43513481[source]▶
That's the main reason why Valve is investing in Linux and Steam Deck.
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eru ◴[29 Mar 25 08:47 UTC] No.43513877[source]▶
Apropos, running Steam on my Archlinux Desktop with Windows compatibility turned on works really, really well. Much better than what I remembered from the bad old days of trying to get stuff running in Wine.
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nobodyandproud ◴[29 Mar 25 10:52 UTC] No.43514431[source]▶
Linux Mint with Lutris and Wine.

I completely removed Windows from all of my personal notebooks and workstations.

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1. astrobase_go ◴[29 Mar 25 13:31 UTC] No.43515400[source]▶
I game using Steam on Pop_OS![1] with a home-built AMD machine and, while I know there are some background processes (Proton) that run to establish and maintain a compatibility layer, it's nearly seamless to me as a user. The most I really see is a progress bar that appears before some games where Vulcan shaders have to be pre-rendered. In my experience everything needed for Windows-native games to run on Linux is handled automatically, without any configuration, runtime flags, or anything else.

Early on I consulted ProtonDB to see if my games would run, but honestly now I don't even look at it any more. While YMMV depending on the games you play, I haven't encountered really any major bugs and zero crashes. The most I found was some strange shadow texture rendering artifacting in Baldur's Gate 3, but it was contained to a particular part of a particular map.

A decade ago it was kind of rough, but now? I am never going back to Windows for gaming. Playing games on Linux is light-years better than what it used to be. If you're curious but haven't tried it because you had bad experiences in the past, I'd encourage anyone to give it another go.

1: https://system76.com/pop/