Yes, there's several... Personally, I'm choosing Linux Mint for browsing, email use, etc.. Staying also with my tweaked, fully stable, (Windows updates under my control) Windows 7 till it's end of support. 7 will mostly be used offline to run all my software, until I can replace them with anything comparable in Linux. And I'll watch for anything better that might come along over the next few years...
Smorgan, the people saying no because of the learning curve don't have either the time, knowledge, experience or wherewithal to do what is being suggested. I do believe however that if Linux (any distribution) gets a large enough market share it will become a target also.
Only solution is education and sadly most people don't care. To those here, do what you feel you need to do to protect your privacy, encourage your family and friends to do the same but don't sweat the stuff you can't control.
@Edd: Fear is a terrible thing. It's the cause of so many of the ills in our society. Education is the best weapon in the fight against fear. Show a person the truth, and encourage them to read and research. Then, be prepared to answer their questions in as sensible a fashion as possible. Without insulting them. By doing this, We get to learn as well. We are sometimes forced to rethink our own stance on a subject, simply because the questions showed answers that weren't realized before. That's why Teachers are a special breed. I'd like to share something I learned 4 decades ago... By Dorothy Law Nolte 1972 :MJ
That's the wrong answer, imo, as there is certainly something you can do--all you have to do is to unplug from the Internet. Start doing everything offline and only go online in spurts... It's not enough to ask questions...if you don't have answers to your questions then you have no rational basis on which to assume that anything nefarious is going on. I'm not sure why people don't understand and acknowledge that every single marketer and advertiser on the Internet wants their marketing data. They don't much care about having your name, address, or phone number--if they want those things they will ask you for them. They want your advertising data, pure and simple. That's it. End of mystery. Before the Internet was, there were the Nielsen ratings for television in the US that did/do exactly the same thing: find out which shows are popular so that advertisers who want to spend the money will think their advertising dollars are well spent. There are also the Arbitron ratings in the US for radio broadcasting. With the Internet, it isn't "shows" or "radio stations," it's web sites they want to know about. That's it--as sinister as it gets. I mean, unless people have some evidence to suggest that Microsoft, Google, Apple & all the rest of them are using information for the purposes of blackmail, then there is no reason to think anything at all is awry. The Internet is not something which organically grows in the wild and is there naturally, free for everyone. It costs a lot of money to create and maintain the Internet--and advertising is the backbone of the Internet (true for TV, radio, and even movie theaters these days!)--it's what makes 90% of all web sites even possible, else their creators could not afford to build and maintain them. Characterizing advertisers' desire to best spend their advertising money as "evil" is tantamount to wanting to "bite the hand that feeds you," metaphorically speaking, of course... The alternative to advertising is that all web sites drop behind pay walls and we all pay for whatever web site we wish to frequent. The alternative to that is that the Internet as we know it today just dries up and blows away. Asking questions for which you have no answers is proof of absolutely nothing. (It's a well-known fact that conspiracy theorists require no proof in order to believe in the veracity of their own conspiracy theories...) Questions with no answers don't move me...evidence moves me, and so far I haven't seen any.
What's interesting to Me is that your statements cut both ways, so to speak. Personally, I couldn't care less if a marketing company is effective in selling a companys' product. I have no stock in their folly. if I want a product or service, I'll go and search for it. Once I find what I'm looking for, I'll decide whether or not the results are adequate, and either continue my search or be satisfied with whatever search results I have. But I don't enjoy targeted ads popping up in my face while I'm looking at a website. Or, automatically triggered hyper-links popping up in my face while I'm trying to read an article. It's annoying and offensive to Me. And many people feel the same way. If that were not true, there would be no market for popup blockers. As far as your statement about the internet costing money, many of us are painfully aware as to how much money internet service costs. Some of us are forced to pay exorbitant amounts of money for poor internet service, simply because the backbone is not available in our respective countries. And this service is metered, meaning that we pay based on data usage. In effect, these people are being forced to pay for advertising. And now they're being forced to pay for unwanted telemetry as well? Oh, and another thing. Asking questions for which you have no answers is a common practice, except in the case of sarcasm. :MJ
I disagree with that rationale completely. It tells me that the people are so consumed with their lives they don't have time to learn anything. The problem with this statement is that in order for the linux market share to grow people need to learn how to use it. And Ubuntu does not count because it is linux for dummies. We have come to the point where certain members are spreading fear and uncertainty. The newer members do not have the background to counter it at all. The mass media has not helped much either as they are busy spreading their own version of it. The other issue is that though we know Windows 10 has privacy issues people are still panicking over it. We have gotten pass that to accepting that there is an issue which is being dealt with. @MJ Continuing the toll the bell is worthless as it spreads fear and uncertainty to a crowd. The crowd I am seeing is one that does not want to get past the first layer. The ones that really want to use something that is brand new but don't want to go out of their way to look into the problems. In other words enough with the paranoia it is not helping.
Right now very few people seem to care. However, given that we tend to keep our devices for a lot longer than in the west, I feel that our complacency is misplaced.
statements like this are worth to be discussed on an upper level. Content fits for many issues nowadays, not only for IT biz etc. We are confronted with BS in all levels and countries have a real problem with though. Where to start with? With Windoze? certainly not
Smorgan, this forum is a microcosm with people who happen to care and are curious about how their computers run. It is not indicative of the public at large. The public at large is the problem, they simply do not know or care about privacy issues. I do not believe that my position is in the least bit paranoid. If anything it is defeatist.
I think everyone should stop being a tinfoil hat and think and test better, why all the options they provided to disable tracking and using local account are there just for show? thats what you tinfoil hats are saying. Then there are tons of tweaks and Group Policy options to further disable more of it so everyone says they are all for show ignored and everything i do is tracked,stored,scanned.Then W10 has the ability to delete/uninstall pirated stuff from my PC? what bulls**t that policy doesnt not even apply to w10 if you read it. Oh well, some people proved w10 still sends data even if you block everything, that to me makes no sense really. It means desktop has no future and we should start using consoles for gaming and linux/android devices for browsing and stuff. People who work on their wokrstation machines will upgrade to what if i may ask? most of professional work progs dont work on linux or other devices.
Why would people who work on their PCs upgrade to anything, if they are on Win7 already? No point. Win7 still has around 5 years till end of life support. If Linux gains traction from this Win10 privacy fiasco and gains market share, you can be sure that those applications will be ported over until Win7 support ends. Then there are games, what happens on that front remains to be seen, but Vulkan API looks promising and if it'll deliver and developers will actually use it as opposed to DX11, it will allow them easy developing for both Linux and Windows.
@Smorgan: And some have indicated that they do not care to get involved with Linux. That's their choice, they don't -have- to do anything. @Smorgan: I am seeing two messages here, being delivered by You. The first is that, because of a thread that I started, pointing out that the data collection policies of Microsoft have changed, that I'm somehow responsible for the other various posts that are taking place in the Windows 10 forum. The second message is that I am contributing to the melee, simply because I am recommending that we should be calm, and discuss matters in as sensible a fashion as possible. To be honest, I don't know if I should take offense or laugh at your post. Part of me wants to be offended, simply because You are blaming Me for the fears and actions of countless others; people who have joined this forum to see what's been discovered about Windows 10, and what they can do about any potential privacy issues. They ask questions, some of which have been answered, some of which are asked because they are afraid. Plain and simple. They are hearing all this NSA spying nonsense, and they are afraid to the point of paranoia. And they are greeted with snyde, and "Tinfoil Hat" remarks thrown at them in a condescending tone. People are being offended simply because they don't understand C or C++ ! And Here I am, urging every body to be calm and not snap at each other like a bunch of script kiddies. And You want to sit there and blame Me for "Tolling the Bell", as You put it? I feel that important concerns are being addressed here. Not necessarily in the threads posted from a position of fear (like this one). So, to tell me to "Stop Tolling the Bell" as you put it, is liken to telling Me to stop urging people to show respect to others and to stop trying to address these points in a sensible fashion. You are an intelligent man, are you not? Do You not see that You are blaming the wrong person for this?
How are you so sure Windows 7 has no spying built in? You did not install telemetry update, but what if there is telemetry "accidentally included" in a security update installed? MS shown absolute disregard for privacy in Windows 10, they could do same thing for Windows 7 now.
Time for everyone to take a side or sit back and pop a bag of popcorn. This is supposed to be about an exchange of information but more often than not if you do not agree with a prevailing opinion you run into accusations and insults. This is really starting to not be very much fun. I don't understand why people are taking this so personally.