This is a taste of what you can achieve when regulatory bodies actually have the guts to stand up to megacorps.
this post was submitted on 17 Nov 2023
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In the EEA, much more is on the way:
Bing's web search from the Start menu and the Edge browser can be uninstalled Third parties can add to the Windows Widgets Board feeds Third parties, like Google or DuckDuckGo, can provide the built-in web search results that Bing once had exclusively Windows users who choose to sync their Microsoft accounts will have their pinned apps and preferences synced, seemingly keeping their EEA-enabled choices Windows will now "always use customers' configured app default settings for link and file types"
Good to see Microsoft just blatantly confirming that these are anti-competitive measures rather than any sort of technical limitation.
A “technical limitation” is just a feature with a poor ROI on engineering hours on a spreadsheet. I mean, on Microsoft 365 Excel.
The fact that they only do this in Europe is the biggest "fuck you" to users they could have done.
Well if you're tired of Microsoft, you can install any of the many Linux distros completely free
I will when I can install all the programs I need that exist on Mac and Windows.
You can. Just install them through WINE or Valve's Proton compatibility tool.
WINE and Proton are great, but it really depnds on what programs in particular are needed. Even one unsupported application can be a dealbreaker when no alternatives exist or are acceptable substitutes.
You can run them in a VM...
If you're doing things like music production that require fast access to the hardware, a VM isn't going to cut it. If you're deeply invested in a particular DAW or if you need to work with an industry standard tool, you may have to use Windows even though there are perfectly good DAWs available for Linux.
You can dual-boot in that case. VMs are pretty good these days though - you may be surprised how well things work.
My solution so far is just to use a Linux computer for all my regular computing and a Windows one for music and some photography stuff. I also have to use Windows for my job.
VMs have their own drawbacks. There are some projects to integrate a Windows VM with Linux (WinApps), but it won't quite integrate fully. Graphical performance is bad without a GPU to pass through (Intel GVT-g kind of works, but is a massive pain to get working).
Intel GVT-g kind of works, but is a massive pain to get working
There's a kernel module to get SR-IOV (the replacement for GVT-g in newer Intel GPUs) working on Linux, and Intel are working on upstreaming it.
For non-tech users I think the problem is momentum, for technical users it's (IMO) Stockholm Syndrome a good percentage of the time.
Really as a technical user I'm moreso afraid of how much time and how much work it'll cost me. And I know a lot of distros are 1 click installs. That doesn't matter to me. It's more the transferring files and getting things set up and settling in again. I'm already settled in on my windows 10 computer. Everything is where it needs to be. I changed to Firefox earlier this month and just that was mentally painful. I can't imagine the whole OS.
I'm in university too so this would be a day that I could be doing homework etc
As someone who hopped over to the Linux side of the fence... same. Dual-booting somewhat eased the transition though, since I could do it more gradually and fall back to Windows whenever I needed it. Now that I primarily use Linux, I love how swapping to a new computer is 99% done by just copying homefolders. Even apps copy over, using user installed Flatpaks.
Switching to a new browser was mentally painful?
It's a bit of an exaggeration but I'm glad that of the many things I said, that was what you took away. Very insightful commentary.
Sad USA klepto clowns deny us what really should be common practice, and it’s sad it has to be codified.
I'm going to need to set my language setting to English (France) soon then.
English (UK)?
Oops, not part of EEA either, if they’re being pesky with non eu countries, then uk screwed
Maybe English (Malta) if that's an option
You should be able to set the region and the language independently, right? What if you're an English speaker living in Germany, for example?
English (Gibraltar)
Oh good another Windows N? Because, if you've tried to use it, I'm sure you'd know how well that went.
I accidentally installed windows N and God, why does it exist?
why does it exist?
The EU made them do it.
This time it's the EEA, or Schengen, but probably backed up by the EU. I think the N version worked, sort of, but there were also some dark design patterns there. Mind you, this is some legislation ago, so the new one might actually be a better solution. We'll have to see.
The moment win 10 reaches EOL, I'm switching. Not gonna ride that shitshow anymore
Didn't we already do this with the Windows XP "N" edition?
I miss the old pirated XP. Stripped and streamlined for your convenience.
You could try . It's not a custom image, but will heavily trim and modify the Windows base.
Or Tiny11, which you can build.
I might give that a spin, when the EEA version of 11 drops... but until then: Win10.
I am building a minimal, debloated Win11 QEMU image currently. But windows doing that on Purpose? I dont think so
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Some are not so subtle, like testing a "quiz" that made some users explain why they're trying to quit the OneDrive app.
Those living in the European Economic Area (EEA)—which includes the EU and adds Iceland, Liechtenstein, and Norway—will soon get the volume turned down on their Windows 11 systems.
Microsoft writes in a blog post that many of these changes will be available in a preview update of Windows 11 (version 23H2) this month.
The Digital Markets Act's impending arrival will impact other major tech firms that are considered "gatekeepers" providing "core platform services" that are "most prone to unfair business practices."
Google has recently pitched the European Union on the idea of forcing Apple to make iMessage interoperable under the Act.
On Wednesday, Meta became the first platform to appeal its gatekeeper status for its Messenger and Marketplace services, followed shortly thereafter by TikTok.
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