I do value my privacy - to a logical point. I have disabled all 'send browsing history to MS' options, don't use a MS account as login. But if anything is still being sent, I don't really consider what little information is being stored as a violation to my privacy as long as it isn't published. I'm not important. Just one in millions. Very few people know who I am. Microsoft has no reason to look at my info, and that's why I don't really mind. What do I care if they know what's installed in my PC, for example? Now, if they were, say, getting copies of all my files, then I would have a problem, because that's going too far. But I'm not about to go tinfoil-hat over stuff that doesn't really mean much anyway. Yeah, neither do I. Mostly because I don't want my personal information to be publicly available. Then again, my real information is nowhere to be found on my computer either, so it's not like Microsoft knows much about me just by using Win10.
Bad comparison. The screenshot of OSX is clearly a promo image in "ideal conditions" (hence the 9:41AM and fake looking conversations) from Apple themselves, whereas the W10 image is from the technical preview where styles weren't completely figured out. Calling Windows 10 a headache of high contrast is an unfounded argument. I'm using it right now and everything is a nice shade of black/grey because I set it that way. No high contrast at all. What you don't realise is that by simply being online, using Google or a social network, companies already know everything about you and share your info. It's almost like when you see some Facebook post from someone saying "like and share if you respect your privacy from Windows 10!" - says he who already geotags all of his pictures, agrees to using cookies, has his full name + DOB + workplace + home street all over his FB details. Even if it IS tracking things from us (not that W7/W8/iOS/OSX/Android aren't either), there was no privacy to begin with and I trust the company enough to use that information for a decent thing like serving personalised ads or changing things to represent things I actually want to see.
How do you know they aren't getting copies of all your files? That's the one thing that drives me freaking insane is when people say "I have nothing to hide, so I don't care." In my opinion, there is no such thing as nothing to hide. If some bigshot tried hard enough they could probably psychoanalyze my intention to go shopping and eat a Wendy's cheeseburger later as an expression of right-wing extremist hate group sympathies (but then my avatar probably put me on that list a long time ago anyway). Also, I don't consider serving personalized ads to be a nice, decent use of personal information. Creepy and annoying in one obnoxious package!
Because no company in the world has that much storage, nor could they ever do it without you noticing because half the people they would steal information from have terrible bandwidth, and therefore would instantly know something is up.
Too bad. Use Gmail? Google reads all your emails, sent and received, to show you 'relevant' ads. Look something up in Google? Google knows, and your searches will contain relevant results. It's not just Microsoft - privacy is basically null these days.
@Shotgun Chuck it especially gets awkward when you start getting Metalhead Dating ads on YouTube when you have a computer visible to family members.
What people don't get (and treat MS as some kind of boogeyman for) is that they merely take metrics and metadata from you. I haven't seen one recorded case of anyone actually having a file copied from their harddrive, it's way too implausible.
I highly doubt MS would start copying files from your hard drive. That would be really bad for their business. It is in Microsoft's interest to protect its users. Although this discussion has resulted in me buying some new storage for my PC to try out some Linux distros and see if any of them appeal to me. Should be fun to play around with Linux properly. While I will be installing Linux on a separate physical drive is there anything that I should do to ensure that windows doesn't become upset about it?
Ironically, Microsoft's privacy statement says they may copy your e-mails and hard drive contents if its in the interest to protect their users.
That is probably from an anti virus standpoint as opposed to anything nefarious. But once again it is pretty shady and vague.
And since, c'mon we all know that nobody reads the terms and service, microsoft should make it more obvious.
How can they make it more obvious than literally presenting it to you before the OS can even be installed? The reason so many companies get away with shady shit is because they know people will skip over them and agree. It isn't the company's fault you don't read them, how can they possibly make it more obvious than before installation?
Honestly, I don't see why anyone cares about the whole Windows 10 privacy thing. I mean, I sure as hell don't. If they want to copy my hundreds of gigabytes of pirated games to prosecute me with, I don't care. If they want to copy the e-mails I'm sending to ISIS (Good God that was a joke), go ahead, feel good about yourself, MS. If they're interested in whatever kinky porn I watch, all the more power to them.
I have done that before. But I have never had much luck with getting VM's to run at any pace that I could actually use, also having GPU support would be nice. In essence I am hoping to start actually using Linux more as a more primary style OS on my PC. Win 7 will likely remain as the main OS that i use but for certain things Linux may be a better environment, especially considering that it has quite a bit of exclusive software.
I didn't consider GPU support actually, even though I should've (after fruitlessly trying to get Direct3D working in Win2000), so your best bet would probably be to just find some kind of dual boot solution.
Installing Linux can make the Windows drive inaccessible without the GRUB boot manager (it can be reverted with 2 commands in Windows though), at least if you're using MBR. If you're just trying them out, use VMs, or a live CD without installing. When you decide on a distro, go ahead and install it on the new drive. My main rig is running Windows since it's a gaming PC. Second PC (the C2Q 'scrap build' which I use to test stuff, file server and soon to be repurposed as dedicated game server) I switched from Win7 to Linux a while ago. Right now it's running Ubuntu 15 (I know - I just had the installer there and wanted to learn how to properly use Linux in a 'friendlier' environment before moving to another distro), runs really well and it's overall a nicer environment than Windows for everyday stuff and programming. On the topic of Linux distros, what's good for a dedicated game server? I was thinking Debian (to make things a bit easier) or Arch Linux since I've heard good things about it, though it's not exactly easy to get running.
I have Ubuntu on my hdd in a dual boot setup. It somehow broke (can't login in anymore) but it was pretty easy to use when It did work.
It is easy to use - if you want to do everyday tasks, you don't really need to use the terminal at all. Other linux distros are lighter, faster and overall better though.
