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Josh Wells
@josh@fediscience.org  ·  activity timestamp 2 days ago

If you're looking to avoid Windows 11, I suggest the newest version of Ubuntu. I just loaded it on my personal device, a Lenovo IdeaPad from 2020 that came with Win10 installed. The Lenovo was a pandemic purchase in May 2020. My personal device was an old laptop running Linux at the time. My work office machine was a Windows desktop and I didn't have space for it at home. I needed Windows for work in 2020. I don't need it now. Yay. I still use my personal computer a lot for work, and because my employer is bought into Microsoft hook-line-and-sinker I avoided using Linux for work although I use it a lot other places and have taught my kids to use it.

In the last few years the movement of Microsoft services to the web, plus availability of the Edge browser on Linux, is a game changer for me. I can now do my work on Edge for proprietary web app experiences when Microsoft utilities are unavoidable. There is also a Microsoft Teams clone which uses the web version of Teams and focuses only on Teams behaviors.

Frankly, everything for work seems to run faster than on my brand new Dell laptop running Windows 11 at my office. That's a pretty sad statement about Windows.

I should have made this change a year ago.

#linux #windows #Windows10 #win10

Ubuntu 24.04.desktop. Middle of screen shows a Firefox browser window open to DuckDuckGo. Dock/Taskbar on right shows from top to bottom icons for Firefox, Edge, Chrome, Brave, File Manager, Zotero, LibreOffice Write, LibreOffice Calc, LibreOffice Impress, Zoom, Teams for Linux, ClamTk antivirus, Ubuntu App Center, Ubuntu Settings, Ubuntu Help, Trash
Ubuntu 24.04.desktop. Middle of screen shows a Firefox browser window open to DuckDuckGo. Dock/Taskbar on right shows from top to bottom icons for Firefox, Edge, Chrome, Brave, File Manager, Zotero, LibreOffice Write, LibreOffice Calc, LibreOffice Impress, Zoom, Teams for Linux, ClamTk antivirus, Ubuntu App Center, Ubuntu Settings, Ubuntu Help, Trash
Ubuntu 24.04.desktop. Middle of screen shows a Firefox browser window open to DuckDuckGo. Dock/Taskbar on right shows from top to bottom icons for Firefox, Edge, Chrome, Brave, File Manager, Zotero, LibreOffice Write, LibreOffice Calc, LibreOffice Impress, Zoom, Teams for Linux, ClamTk antivirus, Ubuntu App Center, Ubuntu Settings, Ubuntu Help, Trash
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Christian Meesters
@rupdecat@fediscience.org replied  ·  activity timestamp 2 days ago

@josh many of us in academia are working in a windows-only environment (at least, when it comes to Desktops, Mail-Servers, User-base management (AD), etc.).

My view is probably slightly different from yours: I am working _in_ an IT department. And happen to know what "bought into Microsoft" means from that side. Change would be hard: There are few who would know how to run the same services using FOSS, only.

Yet, there is absolutely zero demand for change. Seems, like we in the Fediverse wanting to opt out are a tiny minority. It is hard time we look for other levers. 😉

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Josh Wells
@josh@fediscience.org replied  ·  activity timestamp 2 days ago

@rupdecat
Very true. I should expand my anecdote about how we've "bought in," several years back the university won an award from Microsoft for being the most pervasively Microsoft-using university in the US. Beyond the back end, that has real costs in how our graduates, IT degrees or otherwise, understand how to build, work, and live in sociotechnical environments. The university has doubled-down and purchased enterprise level MS-AI for everybody, faculty, staff, students. They're raising tuition, slashing benefits (except for leadership), and flooding us with AI software services nobody asked for which come with huge costs. Because I work at a smaller branch campus with a commuting, 1st generation, and working class population of students, the hardware and bandwidth costs these institutional choices create can be real financial hardships. I teach my students about FOSS all the time as survival and community support, the uptake is growing but definitely far from modal, maybe I need to start requiring it (live with Linux for a week ...)

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Christian Meesters
@rupdecat@fediscience.org replied  ·  activity timestamp 2 days ago

@josh oh, wow. THAT really reads more messed up, than we are.

I wish you patience, whenever you need it!

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Josh Wells
@josh@fediscience.org replied  ·  activity timestamp 2 days ago

@rupdecat
Thank you. I often find myself in need.

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Animated gif of Mugatu from the movie Zoolander, shouting "I feel like I'm taking crazy pills."
Animated gif of Mugatu from the movie Zoolander, shouting "I feel like I'm taking crazy pills."
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