> (Having said that, my bypass strategy is to not use Windows 11 altogether. I don't depend on it, having used Linux since 21 years now,
I'm not quite that cool, but I have been using it full time since about 2009, so I'm not too far behind :)
The only time that I have to use Windows is because I have to play tech support for my parents, because despite considerable effort on my end, I have been completely unsuccessful at convincing them to move to Linux or Mac. It's a little annoying, because when I bring up the subject they act like I should just "live and let live", but that's a really stupid argument when they're saying this while I am fixing their computer. Somehow this is lost on them.
I have complained about this a bunch of times on here, but I'll say it again: If you work on Windows Update, then you should consider any career other than software engineer. Windows Update has made the world a worse place because it disincentivizes updating your computer, leading to an increase in open. Update software isn't allowed to suck.
Obviously it depends on your relationship, but it's not really nice of them to insist on your tech support like this AND refuse to make it easier for you AND be ungrateful (?) for it. You could set a date after which you won't help anymore unless they switch to Linux or Mac.
To be fair, they are always extremely thankful when I help them out with stuff.
It didn’t bother me that much until a few months ago when an auto update to Windows 11 bricked my mom’s computer, and since Windows won’t support filesystem that didn’t coexist with dinosaurs and because System Restore doesn’t work, and because the automatic repair tools never work, I ended up having to walk them through flashing a drive with a fresh copy of Windows 11 to get it working.
Oh, also, the diagnostic tools don’t appear to work, and they don’t really have “live USB” support for anything anymore, so I actually had to first walk my dad through flashing Ubuntu to a drive so I could tmate in, mount the NTFS drive and rsync all the files to my server. The only way to save Windows and NTFS is to use Linux, apparently:
If they were running Linux, I would have them set up with automatic system snapshots with ZFS and since ZFS is actually a competently built filesystem the snapshots would actually work.
I am ragging on filesystems but it’s not even inherent to filesystems. I run NixOS on my laptop and every time I do a rebuild it takes a snapshot, so if I break something I can just reboot and choose an older generation, and this works even on ext4. I think this is how Windows System Restore is supposed to work but it has the slight disadvantage of not actually working, or it is so limited so as to be useless (e.g. you apparently cannot restore a Windows 10 restore point from a Windows 11 install, a big problem if the auto update to Windows 11 was the actual problem).
I have debated giving the ultimatum, and I haven’t ruled it out, but in order for it to work I need to be willing to stick to my guns if they call my bluff, and I don’t know that I am there yet. I have been trying to plant the seed though it has not been successful.
I'm not quite that cool, but I have been using it full time since about 2009, so I'm not too far behind :)
The only time that I have to use Windows is because I have to play tech support for my parents, because despite considerable effort on my end, I have been completely unsuccessful at convincing them to move to Linux or Mac. It's a little annoying, because when I bring up the subject they act like I should just "live and let live", but that's a really stupid argument when they're saying this while I am fixing their computer. Somehow this is lost on them.
I have complained about this a bunch of times on here, but I'll say it again: If you work on Windows Update, then you should consider any career other than software engineer. Windows Update has made the world a worse place because it disincentivizes updating your computer, leading to an increase in open. Update software isn't allowed to suck.