6d ago

Microsoft Gives European Union Users More Control: Uninstall Edge, Store, and Say Goodbye to Bing Prompts

blogs.windows.com Updates to Windows for the Digital Markets Act

As part of Microsoft’s ongoing commitment to compliance with the Digital Markets Act, we are making the following changes to Windows 10, Windows 11, and Microsoft apps in the European Economic Area (EEA). We’ll update this post as these changes a

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Linux gives all global users more control: Uninstall Windows, say goodbye to Microsoft
- I would love to, but we stiill use Windows specific software (and sometimes even Dos specific software!) but we already do that through a VM. The other issue is the extensions we have for Microsoft Office just won't work on the Linux alternatives and even then Libreoffice isn't good enough for half the staff in my accounting firm because it lacks certain features for now.
  Most companies who work in browser based software + email can easily switch to Linux and they would barely notice it.
  
  even then Libreoffice isn’t good enough for half the staff in my accounting firm because it lacks certain features for now.
  The worst part is where some functionality breaks in a document bigger than a holiday card. I mean formulae vanishing.
  I think OOO around year 2009 was very stable and without such annoying bugs. But I haven't tested it there TBH.
  Seriously, feature parity is a dead end. If there were a cross-platform office suite that would at least support the absolutely necessary things with a format not much more complex than org-mode, big documents (300 pages without degrading performance) and UTF-8, it would be fine. I think. That format can even be XML-based, just ... why would you have vanishing objects in a document past their certain number? Do they have an unsigned byte counter somewhere?
  
  I would love to, but we stiill use Windows specific software
  If I had 1 cent every time I read that... and I pulled those cents together... and then paid software developers to build that missing software for other OSes like Linux... then we'd gradually see less of those comments.
  It's as if the isolation was the business model, proprietary software insuring that alternatives do not exist because users do not bother to get together and unstuck themselves from glowingly dangerous (security wise but probably even financially dependencies.
  Hopefully initiatives like NLNet are precisely trying to alleviate such challenges. Until them compatibility layers like Proton are showing the way with arguably some of the most complex and demanding in terms of performance software, namely games.
  
  If I had 1 cent every time I read that… and I pulled those cents together… and then paid software developers to build that missing software for other OSes like Linux… then we’d gradually see less of those comments.
  There is a version of the software that works in the browser, but it's not really that great. That's what you get when you legally need to use specific software (even the Dutch tax office still use the same old version we use). There are other alternatives, but it's a massive investment of time to test and switch to that. Something we are forced to do in the near future, but it's gonna take a lot of time inclusing a lot of time of people with hourly rates of over the 200 EUR excluding VAT. I estimate it will cost us maybe 50% of our yearly revenue to fully switch an organisation to Linux and we will loose a lot of people working here where there are a lot of issues with finding new people for accounting firms.
  I have been trying to install Microsoft Office in Linux mint on my personal PC cause I have more issues with LibreOffice when using MSOffice files (and the people receiving the files will be using MSOffice as well) than I have with games. I tried it using Bottles (Wine) with multiple different installers, but no luck so far.
  Not sure what NLNet is going to do about software lol, I believe you mean something different. NLNet is an instance that is there for people living with lymphedema and/or lipedema and their loved ones.
  
  Because laws were made by incompetent and malicious people.
  Laws should mandate protocols and formats, not implementations. Protocols and formats mandated by the law should be simple. The whole humanity was just fine transmitting telegrams by Morse code consisting of letter groups. Then it was just fine with fax. If what we absolutely require to stay productive needs to be so astronomically complex that one programmer, given ready libraries for XML, encodings, compression etc, can't write a fully functional and usable by everyone editor for that in 1 month - then such a protocol or format is not good enough to be mandated by law.
  
  Blame the US for that, they are generally the country that goes most against international countries, things like ISO codes for dates, accounting standards, but also things like the way they make invoices etc.
  The ISO standards are generally made to make it easier to communicate with each other and here in Europe we also have some really good things going with the VAT rulings and later on with the invoice exchange protocol that is mandatory in Belgium from 2026 onwards.
  I also think that beliving that "laws where made by incompetent and malicious people" is a glass half empty way of looking against it and as somebody who has a decent amount of hours learning national and international laws (mostly about taxes) I understand that a lot of them where just made in a different time and people abusing the system cause "quick" fixes to be applied instead of rewriting the enitre relevant law.
  
  Not sure what NLNet is going to do about software lol, I believe you mean something different.
  That NLNet https://nlnet.nl/ funding FLOSS project.
  There are also BlueHats in France showing how administration is using AND consequently funding FLOSS https://code.gouv.fr/en/bluehats/ by paying for sysadmin, feature dev, maintenance, etc.
- I'd love to at work, but I'm using some win-only software with a f-ed up licence manager that I cannot stuff into a VM.
- Now switch package managers and run all your drives on different obscure file systems! Make every login cycle through plasma gnome an unhinged custom DE and raw terminal where a camera with sign language recognition is the only valid input!
  Create a script to revert to systemd every third startup!
  
  Which distro hurt you?
  
  Arch, obviously, but it was all arranged before hand. After care was lacking. Forgot to load that though, so it's kind of my fault.
  
  Sounds like half of the process your average Windows debloater goes through every time they update?
  
  On like 8, maybe, sure.
  
  You're doing something wrong, maybe ask someone knowledgeable for help with your system. It doesn't happen to other people.
  
  doesn't happen to other people
  Because they're fucking cowards.
  
  Yeah, you need to be really brave to setup your system incorrectly.
  
  'incorrectly'
  That word absolutely reeks of being no fun.
  What, may i ask, is the correct way to configure and use my computer?
  
  The one where you aren't frustrated by the usage of it.
  
  Oh, so there's only one of those?
  
  What made you think of this idea?
  
  Not being a coward.
  
  Edit: I read further down...Arch is a bit of a motherfucker. Sorry.
  
  Sorry for what? This was consensual.
  
  For slagging you pre-edit

183 comments