Oh, thanks will look into those, might be a good alternative!

Think of something you’ve never mentioned or discussed before, then out of nowhere, start having a conversation with a friend about it, how much you like it and are thinking about getting it, taking lessons etc then see what happens over the next week on either your or your friend’s ads (turn off ad blocker if you use one).

I recommend something completely unusual for most people like an instrument (didgeridoo or cowbell)

I second this, it’s why I went with Bazzite on my main rig - it just needs to work and be reliable. The last thing I want to be doing in my spare time is funking around trying to fix anything that happens to break.

All my other devices run whatever I feel like so I can scratch that curiosity-itch but they get reinstalled if anything major breaks and I can’t fix it in a reasonable amount of time

https://youtu.be/kPIdRJlzERo

So far, so good but I haven’t really thought about it since. It may not suit a purist, hardcore or someone who tweaks their system endlessly but for someone like me, I don’t want to spend me free time fiddling, breaking, then fixing my home gear.

Until Win10, I never liked to “upgrade” any OS, preferring a clean slate approach and from what I understand, that’s what I’ll get here. A clean new OS with each upgrade that eliminates any gradual degradation due to a build up of clutter and abandoned packages. All while the flat packs and my data/config reside safely in the use partition (anyone, let me know if I’ve got this wrong!)

Thanks! I’m genuinely encouraged by learning Linux. That’s why I’ve been documenting things here, to share with those like me who have tried before or hesitant to make the jump.

Agree - software is the greatest blocker these days. My recent software restriction was simply a tool I was only using for study.

I was still skeptical that it would be so easy as I’ve been burnt before by Linux on YouTube or articles that exclaim just how easy it is but I usually run into at least a couple of major issues that become a pain to overcome. Not so this time! Every PC I’ve cut over during this process has been painless.

Literally the only issue I’ve had to date was my monitor not waking from sleep - a minor fault that was fixed by selecting any colour profile that wasn’t the default.

Definitely no hate for Arch, just me being a smart arse ;)

Too little, too late!

Something to remember:

Don’t think for one minute that “not-Trump” means “not-Project 2025”.

This plan will be on the back burner quietly simmering away until all those who support it are evicted from the RNC.

Fatal Racing

Yes! There is a website somewhere that has a tonne of fake os screens - updating/upgrading windows, bsod loop etc.

Run a scary looking one of those, disconnect mouse/keyboard so it can’t be interrupted and let the boss discover it

I’m not sure about this one - it’s definately not my experience but yours could be very different.

The system definitely reports data back to MS but I’ve never seen a box have issues because we denied it the ability to dial home or update. Unless the PC is online and the user is actively trying to prevent the updates installing? I’ve seen users pull the plug on a PC that started/midway though updates hoping to stop them and it would often make a mess of things.

We had a small handful of XP then Win7 boxes that were completely off the grid/standalone as SCADA access points/controllers? for several years without issues.

Likewise, we had one box where the vendor did not allow any updates despite it being networked and online. They had disabled win updates completely without our input. It ran just fine for a few years until it was picked up in a security audit. We didn’t understand why updates were disabled at that time so we switched them back on and updated. The PC ran just fine until it’s eventual retirement.

That’s right! I remember those signed drivers where also why early XP (pre SP2) had a bad rep. Not as bad as ME but users were swearing on the graves of dead relatives they would never give up W98 or W2k. Without new or signed drivers, a lot of hardware struggled but by the time SP2 rolled out, hardware vendors had mostly caught up and the OS had matured.

Vista had similar issues (so, so many issues with Vista) with it’s security changes which made life difficult for badly written/insecure software (wanting admin rights to run or write access to system folders/reg keys). Those changes in Vista paved the way for Win7 to be so much better at launch since most software had caught up by then.

I think the issue with disabling components is 90% how users remove them. Pulling them out via “official” methods hasn’t ever caused me issues - DISM is really handy - particularly for permanently removing the default apps. Those deeply connected functions can be a pain!

My dumb arse used to do this to win 98/me when I was a student. “Optimising” everything and deleting anything I would never use, trying to squeeze every mb out of my limited 2gb disk space but the damn thing was so unreliable I was constantly reinstalling windows.

After one reload, I finished late at night and just left it alone, forgetting to perform all my “power user customisation” until I remembered a week later when it suddenly dawned on me that it was running fast AND stable - I hadn’t had a single crash that week. As a final test, I applied all my “optimisations” again and “oh, look! It’s crashing constantly again”. I was a slow learner and turns out I don’t know better than the people that built the system!

I always think of this when I see threads about win7 - 11 being unstable, because it just isn’t. As you dig through the thread, the op reveals more - they’ve chopped out all sorts of system components with registry hacks and third party tools or blocked updates and then bitch about windows being garbage - don’t get me wrong, they simultaneously make it better and worse with every release so I sympathize why people try chopping out edge, copilot etc - but just don’t.

Disabling services and uninstalling functions the non-hacky way ‘should’ be fine (and likely reversable) but if someone wants to bare-bone their OS or be data gathering-free, they’d be better off learning Linux.

FK yeah!