* Posts by kmorwath

46 publicly visible posts • joined 28 Jan 2025

Microsoft 365 price rises are coming – pay up or opt out (if you can find the button)

kmorwath

Re: The procedure I found to switch plan

Dark patterns all the way...

kmorwath

People are not trusting Microsoft - it's just there are little alternatives, if any. Instead I see more people trusting Google and Apple as if they were better - enjoy your new Chrome without working ad-blockers...

FOSS has turned IT into a data hoarding business, because that's were the money come from now. And Microsoft too wants a a slice of that business, especially under Nadella who despise software development, that money are better spent dividends - which also fatten his bonuses.

The big investments in AI are made in the hope to make people even more dependent on those few companies, once they can't put two sentences together without AI help.

kmorwath

The procedure I found to switch plan

I have recurring bill (yearly) active so to switch plan I had to:

- Open subscription management page

- Select disable recurring billing

- In the page that opens, you can choose a different plan, the plan without AI appears

- Select it and set the payment methods

If one just select change plan, that option does not appear.

Agent P waxes lyrical about 14 years of systemd

kmorwath

Those who do not understand Unix are condemned to reinvent it, poorly

That sentence is true, but not in the way most of you think. Those who don't UNDERSTAND Unix, but just WORSHIP it blindly, are incapable to understand its many design flaws and mistakes, so are doomed to repeat them, and reinvent a poor operating system alike it, just it was done with Linux, instead of deigning a better one. So we are still here with a fifty year old design showing all its outdated designs, like its tty interfaces.

And speaking about printers, the author of the article shows exactly that. If as a low level device a printer gets a stream of bytes - it's at the of a USB or Ethernet connection, how could you send that to it otherwise? - from an application point of view a printer is not a file, it's much more alike a graphic card, it's a "canvas" where the application set the page size and draws upon it. Then sure, some process has to convert that in a stream of data to be sent to the printer, but if you want a true high level printer API that cannot be a file-like API. That's something Windows got right with GDI in 1990 - thirty years ago. Linux got CUPS, which will be even worse in the upcoming version, because advanced printer features are "garbage" for their maintainers. And many actual high-end photo printers don't use Postscript-

Of course in 1970 printers were just teletypes printing lines, time to move on from there - even for CLI windows.

Why users still couldn't care less about Windows 11

kmorwath

Re: @kmorwath - The only reason to update to Windows 11 is to satisfy Nadella's cost cutting.

Yes, "enshittifcation" means that there is only the worse choice among the worst ones - depending on what you need to do with a PC.

kmorwath

Re: The only reason to update to Windows 11 is to satisfy Nadella's cost cutting.

I do routinely use Linux too. And everytime I use a desktop version I feel in the early 1990s. Both Windows and macOS has a unified API to write desktop applications. Linux has a bunch of different widgets from different vendors (and quite ugly, all of them) - because Torvalds & C. are paid to develop the kernel only.

Sure, with some efforts and coping with an ugly UI you can do almost everything, like you did in 1990. But there are far better alternatives.

kmorwath

Re: The only reason to update to Windows 11 is to satisfy Nadella's cost cutting.

Linux makes developing and selling desktop commercial software much harder - and moreover lacks good desktop development tools. Blaming the developers is quite silly, the problem is Linux itself. But until it don't understand it, it can't change. Anyway the big money are on server development, the big users couldn't care less about its desktop versions, there are no money to be made there.

kmorwath

Re: @kmorwath - The only reason to update to Windows 11 is to satisfy Nadella's cost cutting.

Unluckily many developers like to paid for their work, and have a decent life. The problem with FOSS is the money to develop software need to come from some other interests - often interests far worse than selling software, like gathering your personal data and use them against you. FOSS in an exploitative business model. Stallman is one of the greediest person I knew. People working for peanuts are serfs or slaves. Exactly what the industry wants today.

I have no problem to pay for software just like I pay for every other product. Being a developer myself, I like to be paid for my work. And I don't want to be forced to insert into my applicatio data-stealing features to make a living.

With more competition, there would be less risks of lock-ins. But since free software kills competion, everybody flocks to a small set of products, lock in si more probable. And worse software also. It is true that in the desktop space in the past 25-30 years we went backwards - there was better desktop software in 1999 than today.

Linux can have all desktops it likes as long as there is a common API (like Win32, for example), under them. Having standard widgets that depends on the underlying desktop, and having to install different ones, is a big issue for software development - from tools to final applications.

Until them, and as long as even proprietary GPU drivers are a no-no, Linux is not a viable alternative to Windows and macOS for too many users. "Purism" is an ideological stance. And stubborn ideology only makes the world worse - read Karl Popper.

kmorwath

The only reason to update to Windows 11 is to satisfy Nadella's cost cutting.

Since Nadella took the helm, he's trying to cut development costs as much as he can. Do you believe he adopted FOSS because is superior? LOL - he understood he can save a lot on development if most of the software id developed by people he doesn't have to pay. Azure is a money cow because the investment to develop and run it is much lower than if Microsoft had to develop all that software itself. And it cashes the profits and bonuses.

Windows feature elimination is again a cost-cutting measure. A simplified UI is far easier to code, and to be coded by cheaper and less skilled developers. The "new" Outlook can be coded by the same outlook.com developers, and you don't have to pay expensive C++ developers. As a side bonus, you get all the users' emails to train your AIs.

And we saw the uncaught bugs in updates - and the abysmal security in what should be flagship products.

In ten years Nadella's Microsoft has been unable to port all the settings to the "new" control panel (and what was ported has often been simplified up to the point of being almost useless), or to ditch it. Windows 11 hardware requirements means Nadella can cut even more in development and tests. You have to replace a working PC? Not an issue of his, dalit.

People liked to bash Ballmer - who had his own defects. Nadella's Microsoft is far worse. He doesn't care about software and its development, he does care about services he can get cheaply, and then sell them dearly.

Unluckily, the only real competitor is macOS. Until Linux offers a unified desktop UI API, backwards compatibility, and ends its ideological hate for commercial software, it won't be able to replace Windows regardless how much Nadella cripples it.

Remember it'll cost ya to keep the lights on for Windows 10

kmorwath

Latest Adobe software requires AVX2.

And I have the last Intel Extreme processor before it was added... need to replace the CPU anyway.

Call of Duty studio co-founder pleads guilty to crashing drone into firefighting aircraft

kmorwath

"Move fast, break things..."

But sometimes you need to connect all your neurons and understand when it is time to tell you ego to shutdown.

CompSci teacher sets lab task: Accidentally breaking the university

kmorwath

Re: walked to the lab to disconnet the switch?

The whole Uni in the same broadcast domain? It has to be a long time ago... I hope.

Want Intel in your Surface? That’ll be $400 extra, says Microsoft

kmorwath

Re: MS performed a miracle

Your post lacks so many details (i.e. - which versions) and apple-to-oranges comparison (Office on iPads...), plus your "benchmarking" procedure that is just marketing for Apple.

kmorwath

Re: Why?

Because when it comes to real, desktop, local applications they just run on Windows or macOS. So you have to choose between those two. Linux sorely lacks too many real, modern, native desktop applications. If you run just a browser, you can run whatever OS you like. But if you happen to run Chrome, you're not in better hands than Microsoft.

kmorwath

Re: Why would anyone want any Microsoft Surface?

Probably a Dell. My company now issues HPs, and my Zbook has a far lower build quality than my previous Dell Precision. And while I never got a BSOD with the Dell, they became quite common with the HP - there's something in the hardware that isn't good, although a memory test didn't report anything. Support just said to update BIOS, firmware and drivers - which I did more than once, they mitigate somehow the problem, but never fully resolved it. Never had a BSOS with my Surface as well.

You might be interested in Surface laptops if you need the touch screen, pen input and other accessories. For an average business use they might be too expensive, but that's true for Apple as well.

kmorwath

Re: Why would anyone want any Microsoft Surface?

Because you have a useful light tablet/laptop combo which can use real applications, not mobile apps. I use mine a lot, I can easily fix it to my tripod, for architectural phtography and still-life focus stacking, and run the real Lightroom on it (and other applications), and store images locally, not some "app" that can use cloud storage only. The pen is also very useful for such tasks - Apple too had to "rinnegate" Jobs and add a pen to its tablet.

That said, again Nadella shows the contempt he has for customers. Why the Intel models should be available to business only? Whlie Apple can force develoopers to switch to whatever CPU it has decided to use because it control the hardware stack, Microsoft can't, and those getting a Surface do it because of the applications it can run. If I was running just a browser I would get an iPad.

Actually, business people just running Office and a browser are those who can more easily switch to the ARM version, the longer autonomy would also fit them well. Power users, less so.

Windows 10's demise nears, but Linux is forever

kmorwath

Re: If Linux is so secure...

So you t knew nothing about Windows hardening and delivered a bad product to a customer. Very few "embedded" Linux are Linux especially compiled for embedded devices. Most of the time, but very specific sectors, they are just "vanilla Linux with some of the features removed". And that's why we see those firewall/routers/VPN concentrators p0wned by the thousands.

kmorwath

Re: I don't run an OS, I run applications...

No. Because video calibration would go out of the window. Calibrating video for an OS running inside another means looking for troubles, and if the monitor is hardware calibrated it's even more difficult - if not impossible. I do also print from Lightroom, and having a good calibration means less inks and paper "wasted" to achieve the wanted result. I should use video pass-through and use the video card directly. That's also true for all the GPU-accelerated features of Lightroom and Photoshop - and they check the underlying video card. Sorry, I don't want to spend the time to get something working, if it is possible

If you don't calibrate your devices, and don't use one of the version with GPU acceleration, that doesn't matter to you, but matters for others.

And why should I every time boot Linux, launch VirtualBox (Oracle owned!) and then boot Windows? Just making life more complex, and what advantages do I achieve?

And that's how many other users think. Again, for most people the OS is irrelevant, or almost. What matters are applications, and how to get something done in the faster and easier way. Only IT people like to tinker with OSes.

I don't like what Windows has become, but neither like many of the FOSS assumptions - many based on ideology and not users' needs.

kmorwath

Re: I agree with the majority of the article...

Their podcasts will be ready by 2049, and then they should start anew with the new distros...

kmorwath

Re: I agree with the majority of the article...

That's what happened when first the idiotic web UI were taken as a model, then the smartphones ones. The problem are those users who think fancy fisher-price UIs are cool. Anyway many Linux desktop developers really need to follow a UI 101 course, because they don't understand the very basics. Do you think Microsoft is the spawn of Satan (and their latest idea really ugly)? Look at Apple, then, please... but don't reinvent the wheel, in various quadrangular forms.

Take Nautilus. It's almost unsable. Microsoft is trying to make Windows Explorer unusable as well, but it will take time to make it as ugly as Nautilus. And that's fhe first thing many users coming from Windows have to deal with.

kmorwath

" plenty of macOS users use the CLI"

IT people only - as in your example. People who could use Linux but use macOS because Apple it's shinier.

I have to still see a photographer, architect, graphic designer and the like to use the CLI on macOS...Often, they barely use the keyboard...

kmorwath

Re: If Linux is so secure...

Are you sure? Depends only on the connection - not all of them are behind CG-NAT, there are ones that gives you a public routable IP address. Some connection even give you now an IPv6 address..

kmorwath

Re: I agree with the majority of the article...

Why should someone waste time with unsupported hacks when there is a simple solution that "just works"? Unless your reason is exactly to look for a hack taht works, but many people are not interested in it - for them computer and software are just tools to perform a task as soon as possible and wiht less hassle, not their task itself.

kmorwath

Re: I agree with the majority of the article...

The lack of a coherent UI, unlike Windows and macOS, makes developing Linux desktop applications much harder. No surpire most users use the CLI instead. And that's the reason many application use Java frameworks (or web ones like Electron) to avoid that. It is true that Microsoft is doing its best to achieve chaos on Windows too (there must be a lot of young Linux fans there, who can't understand GUIs), but Win32 is still there. macOS avoids that wholly.

It's ironic anyway that Linux worshippers advocates of a single unified kernel OS for everything (no choice allowed there), but then want thousands of different GUIs. While most users can't give a damn about the kernel, but want a common UI thay can use easily everywhere. That's after all why CUA rules were devised.

kmorwath

Re: If Linux is so secure...

Why not? Have you ever uses a USB key or phone theter to connect your laptop directly to the Internet? I can secure Windows as much as Linux. People believing Linux is magically secure are those who have their firewalls. routers, and servers easily p0wned. Do you believe that all those breaches around are only on Windows systems? Again, religious beliefs won't make the IT world more secure. And BTW, we really need a niew OS designed for 2025 - not OS designed in the 1970s and 1980s.

kmorwath

Re: I agree with the majority of the article...

I wouldn't call Hugin "easy". It has an "unfriendly" UI and it is to get the wrong result. To get a decent stich of a six image panorama with Hugin it took me a long time to set points and correct the image manually in some places because it couldn't get correcty some boats with ropes and flags. The same panorama created with Lightroom takes a few seconds.

That said if you take the time to learn it, and are willingly to spend some time to create a panorama, it works, lets you customize a lot, and it is free.

kmorwath

Re: I don't run an OS, I run applications...

The problem is the monitor vendor calibration utility - the monitor is hardware calibrated, the calibration data is loaded into the monitor hardware - runs only on macOS and Windows. I could calibrate the monitor without using its internal capability, but why should I? I bought it exactly because it has a more sophisticated control of display - for example it can also calibrate brightness of different areas of the monitor - the calibration utiliy draws a grid on the monitor and then each cell is calibrated separately.

The ICC profile are in a standard format which is OS independent, but the data they contain depend on both the monitor and the graphic card (for printers is even worse, it depends on the printer, inks and paper) - it might depend even on the GPU driver -too you can't just copy a profile from one machine to another, you'll need to perform a new calibration when something changes. And you need to perform calibration at regular intervals, since hardware "ages", especially monitors.

The fragmentation of Linux distro and the lack of binary compatibility means you can't write an application or driver and deploy on any distro. But that's something Linux refuses to address that, on pure ideological reasons. And probably even some from big web companies that wants people on their web applications so they can get data, not running their own appliations locally where it would be more difficult to get them (unless you're Nadella or Cook, and control the whole stack, of course).

Read the CUPS discussion about the new major release and dropping featurs. "Proprietary drivers are evil", "users don't need the printer advanced features", "printers advanced features are garbage", "IPP is good for everybody" (and close the thread as soon as they are shown wrong) - the worst of the FOSS mindset. But you're not a customer, so you can't complain. At the same time they ensure Linux printing can't compete with macOS...

Believe me, I really hate Nadella's Microsoft, he's worse than Ballmer. It crippled Windows (and Office - see new Outlook) to cut development costs and investments (enshittification at its best). but Linux still fails to be a real replacement. The only real replacement is macOS - but then you're hostage to Apple for the hardware too (with better support for third parties, though).

Thereby saying "Still using Windows 10? Switch to Linux!!" blidnly, without assessing users needs is not clever. It becomes just ideology.

I wouldn't care using Linux, I don't care much about the OS itself - although I don't believe it's magically better, I know well its shortcomings too - as long as I can use the hardware and applications I need. I don't care paying for the software - as I pay for the hardware. And I would prefer to pay, so they have to give me something I'm willingly to pay for, not something paid by other interests - especially those of a few big companies making money in a very different way.

BTW: I was installing Ceph from Ubuntu OpenStack.... and it couldn't create OSDs because apparmour blocked access to /dev/md[x] and /dev/rssd[x] devices... a battle between the clumsy way Linux names block devices and the overly complicated profiles of apparmour - again, something bolt-on to address Linux shortcomings. Under Proxmox more or less the same issue, since Proxmox whitelists only a subset of block devices. Different hardware? Good luck...

kmorwath

Re: If Linux is so secure...

And why Red Hat was sold to IBM? They were forced to sell it? No. They couldn't make enough money, so they sold it to someone who makes money in a different way. Face it, FOSS is not a suitable business model - it means software development is paid by other interests. And that's "enshittification" - the real customers are thoss "other interests". Just the idea of not paying for software makes many people utterly blind to that issue. Greed is never a good advisor.

kmorwath

Re: If Linux is so secure...

Because it costs money. Face it. If people had to pay for Linux licenses, it would have gone nowhere. RedHat had to close the CentOS stable because it didn't made enough money. Linux is fine because it is free. Facebook, Google, etc. pays for it a tiny fraction of the money they should have spent if the had to buy an operation system or build their own.

And you see how large is the investment in such embedded systems - a comprehensive application built tailoring the OS deeply? No, a bunch of scripts written by someone cheap enough.

kmorwath
Devil

If Linux is so secure...

Why all those router/firewalls running some flavour of Linux are routinely p0wned? Palo Alto, Fortinet, etc... maybe building applications as a bunch of chained shell scripts as if it was 1975 is not a great idea?

Moreover, less diversity, the greates the danger of a a "mass extiction". If a single software rules the world, a critical vulnerability will put the work on its knees.

Unluckily I'm afraid FOSS is the manure of the enshittification process... since you don't have paying customers, only "consumers" - you'll look for other ways to make money. And "consumers" can't complain, they "don't pay" - what they want?? Adapt and shut up.

kmorwath

"People now in their 70s abd 80s literally invented computers and computing. "

Yes, but only very few of them. Many of the others couldn't use a typewriter correctly.

kmorwath
Thumb Down

I don't run an OS, I run applications...

I'm starting to be tired of the relentless push towards FOSS by The Register. Anyway, most people run applications and have to use specific hardware devices - and still Linux dektop can't run many of them, especially the higher ones. I wil be forced to move to Windows 11 or macOS, because:

- I have a large number of photos processed with Adobe Lightroom. And there aren't really comparable Linux applications (Darktable is not). Anyway moving to any other application implies to re-process them.

- I use Helicon Focus and Helicon Remote for focus stacking. It doesn't run on Linux

- I have Canon professional photo printers to print them. Again, no drivers for Linux. CUPS maintainer even mocked recently those having to use such printer features, because the new major relaese will be even more limited. Good luck getting more users - printing "office" documents is dwindling, printers will be more and more specific devices.

- I have a Logitech Creative Console to use with Lightroom - again, it doesn't work with Linux

- I have a monitor with hardware calibration - again the utility to calibrate it works only on Windows and macOS.

And no, I can't run Windows in a VM because then color calibration would become a major issue, with two OS displaying images at the same time. And if any time I boot the OS I need to boot a VM also, I prefer to boot directly a single OS.

So sure, if all you need is a web browser, a text editor, a a WP/spreadsheet and do not need Office compatibilty, you can run whatever OS you like, Linux included.

Anyway is true Nadella is doing his best to kill Windows - I believe he wants to cut on development costs, increase data gathering, and push users to Azure. He will discover that without an OS and especialli its applications, Microsoft is just a cloud provider like the others, especially if everythign is run on Linux. But for a while he's safe because Linux is still a bad choice for desktop commercial software - and no, not everything will become open source one day, it's not a viable business model - it needs money to come from some other source, and we see which are the sources today.

You're going to do what to the feature? Microsoft defines what it means by 'deprecation'

kmorwath

Well, there are people who believe Unix was written by Moses under the guide of god on stone tables, and thereby cannot be changed.... but probably Shakespeare would have written Windows better.

Trump admin's purge of US cyber advisory boards was 'foolish,' says ex-Navy admiral

kmorwath

The board previously investigated Microsoft's "cascade of security failures"

Oligarchs don't want to be accountable. They wanted Lina Khan out of the job even if Democrats won. Now the panel has been disbanded after grilling Microsoft, even if they were so kind to grill an underling, not Nadella himself, as they should have been, since that abysmal security stance was due to the very CEO decisions.

Even Windows 10 cannot escape the new Outlook

kmorwath

Evidently if MS is ready to give away "for free" all the needed storage to keep a copy of all users email, regardless of their mailboxes size, evidently it has a return.

That said, it could be interesting to set up systems to fill MS servers with petabytes of useless stuff...

kmorwath

Re: New Outlook

I think that today in Microsoft if Nadella hears you saying "on-prem", he gets you fired.

kmorwath

Re: You nearly had an up vote

Did you read? I compared the new Outlook to GMail - they are both bad, but if people feel that using one or the other is the same thing, Microsoft is going to lose the advantage a native mail client gave to them. Probably Nadella doesn't know why Outlook won and Lotus Notes lost.

kmorwath

Re: I'm sorry, *what*?

If Windows mail used SMTP/IMAP/POP I can't see why they should stop working unless MS decided to cripple them from remote. Or maybe, given the syntax of some of those messages, the ones writing them have no clue about what they are talking about.

kmorwath

"We recommend you move to new Outlook or Outlook.com"

Which is almost the same, since Nadella has decided he can take control of your email credentials and impersonate you to bring all of your messages into his Azure servers, where he's free to peruse them at will to train AIs, and if kindly requested, submit them to the US government because of the FISA and CLOUD Act. Even worse, MS is potentially able to send message using your credentials. Or it may be a good defense "sorry judge, MS has a copy of my credentials - it's not beyond any reasonable doubt that I, and I alone, sent that message..."

How this blatant Microsoft-in-the-middle attack is not under fire by privacy regulators probably shows how little they understand about technology. Hope Schrems kicks in and strikes a god blow to this attack on users' privacy by Microsoft, especially since MS is very quiet about his approach, and doesn't inform users correctly.

Mail providers should also launch a suit against Microsoft for anti-competitive behaviour, since users may end to directly store their emails on Azure since everthing ends alread there.

Did you think Balmmer was bad? Nadella is far, far worse. His contempt for all those dalits using Windows is incredible. And moreover, he's also killing the Outlook applications to save on development, assigning it probably to the same group developing outlook.com. Without understanding Outlook + Exchange are those few applications that kept people using Windows desktop and server. Give them a GMail feeling, and they can switch easily to something else.

So, unless you have already messages stored on Microsoft servers, stay far away from the "new" Outlook...

Microsoft talks up 'significant capital investments' in AI as sector reacts to DeepSeek

kmorwath

"a PC platform provider like us"

So why are you doing the best to kill it with sloppy releases, useless features while needed ones are crippled or removed, and stupid "applications" like the new Outlook? If all people can do is run a web application, they can do it on other platforms - and other clouds. Are people using more Microsoft applications on platforms you don't control, like mobile?

Fear of the unknown keeps Broadcom's VMware herd captive. Don't be cowed

kmorwath

Re: "eed to consider it a networking vendor first, a storage supplier second"

The problem might be exactly testing a complex networking/storage configuration, and their performance. Replication it takes time, resources and expertise, especially when you need to learn a new system. If yo can get **competent** professional support, it might be easier.

kmorwath

"eed to consider it a networking vendor first, a storage supplier second"

That's the real issue: Moving VMs is (relatively) simple. Rebuilding the virtual networks and the hyperconverged storage less so. Especially if you were used to use vCenter, and now have to go deep in cryptic CLI command often not well documented.

Trump tells Musk to 'go get' Starliner astronauts

kmorwath

Believe the Pravda and shutup, товарищ

I'm afraid eventually Russia won the Cold War. But not with communism, but showing how oligarchs can take the power and get enormously rich with the proper president.

Ubuntu upgrade had our old Nvidia GPU begging for a downgrade

kmorwath

Re: Linux is forever?

Actually, in this case there are nVidia Linux drivers, but:

- Proprietary ones are evil, as the Book of Linux says, so true believers keep them away

- Linux doesn't care about binary backwards compatibility, because of course you can recompile everything yourself.

That happens when an OS is designed by academic guys with their heads deeeply stuck in 1970s California sands...

We really need an OS for 2025 onwards - but there is none, especially now there's no money that could be made with a new OS (unless you're Apple and fully control the hardware too).

kmorwath

How many laptops do you see with a GPU or CPU non soldered to the motherboard? And many low-ends PCs, or small-factor ones, use soldered chips. So basically only desktops PCs have PCIe video cards... today, a minority.

kmorwath

Good article on the same page why everybody should move to Linux, which if "forever".

Thirty years later, Linux still have issues with hardware. Because it can't be compatible with itself - and proprietary drivers are evil. These are the issues that blocks its adotpion as a desktop system. An average user would have an hard time to fix such issue. But those are not the Linux customers.

PS: it is true Windows is trying to gain parity with Linux creating issues with hardware with each update. Probably it relies on many of the same developers, now that Nadella is cutting costs.