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I can’t believe a paid OS needs a tool like this. Here’s a GUI tool called OFGB (Oh Frick Go Back) to remove all the ads in Windows 11. It’s understandable if a free OS or app needs ad support, but this is just crazy github.com/xM4ddy/OFGB
[Screenshot Of a GUI Tool To Removes Ads From Various Places Around Windows 11]
I would love another plug and play experience like I get with windows so I can spend my very limited time on playing the games I like out of the box. Any ideas on how I would do that please?
Get a Steam Deck.
No seriously, Steam Decks run on an immutable Arch (edit: I thought my steam deck was a Ubuntu distribution until just now when someone corrected me, see how much of a fool I am and yet I still find my steam deck easy to use when I am exhausted and don’t want to troubleshoot/learn new shit!) distro of Linux. Immutable means every update addresses the core of the operating system in a way that you can’t fuck up anywhere as easily as a normal operating system.
The desktop UI is great, there is a flatpak App Store pre-installed, I mean you can search for Xonotic or any other utility you need and install it in 30 seconds flat. It is just a Linux desktop with decent presets.
The thing is the Steam Deck doesn’t boot to desktop, it boots to a big picture mode where the UI looks like a console. It is easy to browse your games and it feels like you are using a very focused, locked down device from the likes of Apple or Nintendo, not a full blown portable Ubuntu computer running a slick wrapper around one of the most extensible constructions of software ever made (no unfortunately the Steam Deck isn’t a LISP machine).
The clever bit though is that SteamOS (basically a Ubuntu distro) has Proton which is designed to emulate windows (closely related to the other windows emulator WINE). This allows you to play the vast majority of windows games on your Steam Deck and because the windows games are ran in a virtual environment…. when you press the power button to sleep your Steam Deck it just pauses that virtual environment which means that ALLL kinds of games old and new that were never designed to be abruptly paused and resumed end up with wayyyyyyy less issues on the Steam Deck than they would if you were running them in Windows natively and trying to do the same thing (with say a microsoft Surface or something).
I regularly play Steel Panthers WinspWW2 on my Steam Deck. I run it on dosbox which either comes preinstalled on the Steam Deck or is available on the “app store” I can’t remember (not really a store because no one is selling anything).
https://www.shrapnelgames.com/Camo_Workshop/WW2/WW2_page.html
^look how shit this website looks, this is an ANCIENT game running on DOS and it honestly barely runs on native windows anyways, you can’t full screen it without it crashing on windows.
All I had to do was add the launch file to steam and now I can open up my steam deck, scroll down to WinspWW2 and start playing the best turn based tactical strategy game ever made… on the go…… that came out in 1995 and has been updated continually since and is basically being kept functioning by an elaborate janky lifesupport system that most people with windows computers don’t even want to bother with because the experience of playing the game is too annoying….
It just runs on my Steam Deck tho!
The virtual dos environment lets me not have to worry if the game will crash when I pause and alt tab to a different program or abruptly put my device to sleep without giving the game time to save or something…. the Steam Deck just suspends the virtual environment and from the perspective of WinspWW2 no change needs to happen. The program just sits open and frozen waiting for me to press the power button on my Steam Deck and keep playing.
Not saying you have to do nerdy shit with your steam deck, what I am saying is that you can do whatever you want to with your steam deck and not have to worry that a company like Microsoft is going to take a dump on a nice thing you had worked out between you and your gaming setup.
Get the Steam Deck it is the best of both worlds, slick and polished when you want it to be, customizable and extensible when you need it to be.
I haven’t looked at a steam deck but will have to see about it. I am keyboard and mouse though I have tried control pads before and I cannot use them
I understand, you can use the steamdeck docked liked a normal desktop of course.
You just have a fairly hardware limited extremely lightweight gaming desktop that you can throw in your backpack, but it still does a damn fine job of that too so shrugs. I mean get a Logitech k780 or whatever Bluetooth keyboard you like, a mouse too, Bluetooth works just as fine on the Steam Deck as any other laptop.
I like plenty of indie games and I have a deep love for entire genres of video games that categorically don’t require any computing muscle to work (cataclysm dark days ahead I love you) so I don’t care as much about having a super powerful gaming computer at this point in my life but it is definitely a valid criticism of the deck.
Interesting I will definitely take a look. Thank you!
I never considered old DOS games until now. Thank you!
Check out this tutorial if you are interested, it looks like a good quick visual run through of how to get a game running on your steam deck with dos box.
Here is an alternative Piped link(s):
https://m.piped.video/watch?v=jiIDEfznP6g
Piped is a privacy-respecting open-source alternative frontend to YouTube.
I’m open-source; check me out at GitHub.
Arch not Ubuntu
I’d say literally any distro other than Ubuntu.
I even avoid downstream distros now.
I’ve mostly settled comfortably on Debian due to it’s stability. Nothing whatsoever against Arch, though.
I was correcting op about the steam deck. Although I do agree with you, personally I run nixos for stability while still being fairly bleeding edge
Hahahaha well I am an idiot
I do love that this is basically like being a devout worshipper of a cult but realizing 5 years in that I got the wrong address, showed up to the wrong cult, but then everyone was so dark and moody and only spoke in deceiving rhymes so that nobody realized the administrative mistake, including me AND the innocent villagers going about their day outside the cult complex who I continually tried to convert to worship a god which was quite obviously in fact not the god lovingly illustrated on the sign atop the cult mansion’s roof either in name or description but in point of fact the god worshipped by the other cult mansion two blocks south on Michael Street not Michel Street (? Is that even a name?).
An understandable mistake for a citizen passing by from the other side of the city, but when you are actually in the wrong cult and don’t even know it? Oof that is some next level shit.
- (W)INE (I)s (N)ot an (E)mulator. It’s not a virtual environment either. It’s just a compatibility layer that wires up calls to Windows libraries to their Linux counterparts. Proton is an enhanced fork of WINE.
- Sleep mode is just… sleep mode, and consumes 10% of your battery per day.
- DosBox runs on Windows, too.
- The Steam Deck is a weak ass PC. I love mine, but it does not compare to a modest gaming PC.
I haven’t gamed on Windows since buying my Deck, but you’re testimonial here isn’t very convincing. It’s a portable gaming device that requires a dock (or hub) to even play on a monitor. It’s underpowered by design. Not even all top Steam games run on it.
you’re testimonial here isn’t very convincing. It’s a portable gaming device that requires a dock (or hub) to even play on a monitor. It’s underpowered by design. Not even all top Steam games run on it.
Damn sorry I can see why you don’t like it and those are valid points about doing a bad job with my testimonial, I don’t really know that much about any of this I just type things into google and yell excitedly at the words that pop up most of the time when I am programming (I am looking to learn how to automate this with AI).
Also ok my confusion in thinking WINE is a virtual environment and an emulator when it isn’t, is something anyone could get confused about, if they wanted to make sure everyone knew they should have Put It In The Name and instead they named it after that sour grape drink I would always see my parents friends drink who think the New York Times is a genuinely progressive news organization.
But whatever, I am a fool as I keep telling people and if anything my post should be more convincing because I love my steam deck and find it easy to use even when I am downloading and installing utilities in desktop mode like Qutebrowser and tailoring custom keybindings to use it. I can still figure this out, which is a miracle if a very mundane one at that.
You are clearly right here, and if I was going to make a good argument for the Steam Deck I should have come off as someone who evidently loves their Steam Deck and wants to chat with people about it in a critical fashion where commenters with various different perspectives acknowledge the ups and downs of the device and it’s inherent limitations while refraining from the need to correct newbies sharing their love for the device on incorrect technical details that other newbies aren’t going to care about.
I haven’t gamed on Windows since buying my Deck
Wait
Yeah, your overall point is 100% correct and well made. Just a few things that don’t really matter to an end user they were complaining about
I installed pop_os after Ubuntu murdered itself for undisclosed reasons, quite a nice experience and my setup is notorious for windows because of my mismatch of components. (10+ years of difference in components)
First, I’d take a look to see if there are any games you really want to play to make sure they’re Linux compatible. ProtonDB is a great resource for this. The amount of games that work on Linux is actually pretty great, and the coverage is only increasing. That said, the biggest gap comes from games that require anti-cheat software, since that tends to require Windows. It sucks, since it’s a one-sided decision from publishers, and there’s not much to do besides keep Windows around, at least in a dual-boot. If you’re mostly a single-player gamer, you’re probably good to go. If you play AAA competitive multiplayer games, you’re probably out of luck. Best to check before getting started.
Secondly, I’d take a look at Nobara. It’s designed from the ground up to deliver what you want: a plug-and-play, out-of-the-box experience geared towards gaming. I can’t speak from personal experience, but I’ve heard good things. I’ve also heard good things about Pop_OS, which I think makes gaming a priority, too. Linux Mint is also great for offering a smooth transition, but I’m just not sure if there are any hurdles for gaming specifically.
I’ll also add that, while you might need to do some tinkering on Linux, even the regular distros don’t actually have it that bad. For the most part, it’s enabling an option on Steam, maybe downloading a package, maybe some settings here and there. Yeah, Windows still has it smoother, but it might be worth it to not have to fight Windows elsewhere, like with all the ads and privacy invasions. YMMV. For me, the juice is worth the squeeze, because the squeeze isn’t actually that hard once you get a little know-how. :P
Also… you can dual boot. Say you need Windows for some games, or don’t want to futz at all to get them running. You could do that to game or use whatever software only works with Windows, then reboot into Linux for more basic computing. Maybe it’s not worth the hassle of rebooting for you, but it’s yet another option if you don’t want to compromise on gaming, but also don’t want to deal with Windows the rest of the time.
Makes me wonder how long till video game load screens are sold as ad space.
https://finalfantasyxv.fandom.com/wiki/Cup_Noodles
They also had a bunch of Coleman camping gear as a major feature of the game.
As ad placement went, I thought it was kinda charming and cute. More like a goofy Superbowl ad than an obnoxious “BUY ME NOW!!!” splash screen or pop-up insert. But I’m glad the latest FF7 Remakes didn’t continue this trend.
Delete this comment
Makes me wonder how many seconds till they realise the users won’t be able to tell if the game is still loading or it’s just monetised delay. Bonus points if a user finds out, lobbies to get it banned and then they just include bullshit extra processing to justify it.
The future looks so bright.
If its a pc game people will just find a way to turn that off and tell everyone else how to do it.
You can turn off stuff that the programmers allow you to through a settings menu (that they wrote), configuration files (that they make their program to read) or fiddling 3rd party stuff that it’s using (like your driver settings, external libraries, etc.).
Similarly to how GTA V’s (could be GTA Online) extreme loading time was caused by a very inefficient way of loading data. Users couldn’t change the algorithm themselves; they could investigate what was going on, but the developers were the only ones being able to actually change it to a recommended version.
Obviously the story is a bit different with an open source code which you can compile for yourself.
Thanks for putting this idea forward to the industry.
Oh, please, do you really think they didn’t have this idea already?
EA games have done it already, since early 2000s. Practically any EA BIG game has in-game ads for real brands, all over the overworld billboards
Just dont look at Ubisoft. 💀
Ad/promotion appeared in offline games whenever you opened the map…
if I see that shit, I get a refund immediately and talk shit about the company forever. I already saw it with MW3 with propaganda quotes from war pig Bush’s generals on the load screens. fuck that. I don’t do M.I.C. propaganda in my VIDEO GAME. And fuck you if you think I’m gonna put up with any of it, ads especially. I’ve already boycotted most big companies AND I’M NEVER GOING BACK. And there are farcry or sims games I want to play. But I boycotted those fuckers and I stick to it!
you ever play a mobile game on an android phone?
“loading” screens
Artificial delay periods that are used to show ads, yeah
Slightly better than artificial delay periods used to discourage behaviors to save costs.
Mr. Zuckerberg, if you think I’m referring to reporting spam messages on Facebook desktop, you’re correct.
Honestly, who really uses Facebook (except for boomers)?
Work :(
Damn
NBA 2K has had ads in it for a while, though I can’t remember if they’re specifically in the loading screen or not.
I think EA also did this with the ad boards around the pitch in FIFA one year IIRC
Settings ads? I had no idea it got THIS bad.
When it’s against the law to not maximize profit for shareholders we get into some really disgusting territory when you can’t innovate anymore and need to squeeze every dime out of everything.
What the hell is microsuck going to do in another 10 years? Infinite growth is more of a fantasy than working Communism yet we swear it will work somehow…
they used to call this malware
“It’s okay when we do it.”
If its pre-installed, its typically called “Bloatware”.
And I remember having bloatware on my machine going back to the 90s. The first really high quality gaming computer I got was a Sony Vaio and it had tons of bullshit excess software I had to mop out of it before I was ready to really use it.
Is it actually malicious, though? Ads by themselves aren’t malicious.
Adware then, which is generally unacceptable in a large full featured paid product.
Does anyone know if the EU protects against this? I am in Europe (well Switzerland, so technically not EU, but GDPR etc. nonetheless) and using windows 11 as my daily driver on two machines (one with beta) I have never seen ads.
EDIT: except for the ‘finish setting up’ stuff after bigger updates, those I do get.
EU gets Windows 11 ‘N’. It’s gdpr compliantnane doesn’t include the ads. I don’t know about the telemetry though.
Anyone can install Windows N, just select it during the installation
I’d still recommend debloating it using some script though
Does that actually work?
Yes, if I need to install Windows I always pick the N version. Just make sure to install the Media Feature Pack from the “optional features” area in the Settings app, otherwise some apps like Spotify might not work correctly. It took me days to figure this out, I was incredibly frustrated (that’s often the case with Windows lol, that’s why I switched to Linux).
I want to make a script for Linux that adds ads everywhere. It would be tricky with Wayland but not impossible. It could start by installing browser extensions.
Make it for Hannah Montana Linux plz!
And call the script “Windows”
I was thinking more along the lines of “optimizer”
There is a special place in hell for you lol.
If they were fake ads like in GTA and Cyberpunk, it could be fun, provided you could turn them on and off anytime.
I’ll use the Google Ad platform
From there I’ll encrypt all your files and make you watch an ad per file to access your data
Uh sorry, this is a big file. Here’s the second, unskippable ad.
It has a 1 in 500 chance of serving you a 300 hour ad you cannot skip, and if you attempt to restart the system to get rid of it, it’ll make a note of that and restart the ad from the beginning after the next reboot.
If you try it twice, it will delete the file you were about to access.
Now I wish there was an advertising studio where, like, they specialized in shitty ads for real things. Like “I made a game on newgrounds, you WON’T LAST TEN SECONDS” but it’s just a flappy birds clone or something
Na just throw ads into system logs. Or do what Ubuntu does and throw an advert every time you run apt upgrade.
Have you tried installing any packages from NPM recently?
9474733 packages are looking for funding
I think that is the better case. That is just NPM aggregating the metadata. There are lots of packages that print their own ad.
I haven’t paid for windows since like 2014. The fuck are you guys doing that you haven’t gotten a free legitimate license?
Genuinely where is the line for people still putting up with this stuff?
Putting up with the ads or putting up with the workarounds?
Since I’ve been running debloated windows since win 7 it has never bothered me to run a few scripts after install or use a modded iso. But if that wasn’t an option I’m not sure if the last few games holding me to windows would be enough.
Yeah that went out the window when American corpos found out during the pandemic they can literally just keep raising prices for shittier product and Americans just… keep buying it
Welcome to the end of human society, we’re just getting started. Should have chosen a birthdate a few decades earlier, too bad!
The worst thing about the future is that everything is fucking data mining and ads. Yes, EVERYTHING, from cars to fucking refrigerators.
And subscriptions. Once hyper capitalism got its whiff of subscriptions there was no turning back.
Follow this simple tutorial to get root access to your fridge and install a foss OS …
For bullshit like spinning rims or golf clubs that wouldn’t surprise me but it’s not like I can just choose not to eat. I HAVE to buy food.
I think for many people, me included the OS is more or less invisible bc I use so few OS elements. File browser and that’s it. Hardly any other gui feature comes to mind that isn’t a third party program.
I think that it’s one of the benefits of monopoly. People don’t think “I wonder if I should start checking out alternatives?” but instead “Damn, that’s annoying. I wonder if there’s a way to fix this?” Alternatives never even enter their head. See, there’s already a tool for the problem in the post!
If you absolutely MUST use Windows, use it with AtlasOS.
Otherwise, Debian w/ KDE Plasma is your panacea.
I hadn’t heard of Atlas… Looks like it’s a debloating tool? Does it work well?
Debian FTW
It disables security features!
That was what I read.
I’ve read about that one
Then there was a similar tool and some discussion about one or the other being either buggy or problematic?
Also - I remember NTlite or similar was out there and lots of talk of Chris Titus’ debloater - haven’t used any at least not in over 5 years
That was probably Atlas, it disables a bunch of security features as part of debloating, so I wouldn’t recommend it unless it’s an offline device
That was it!! Thank you!
Conditioning everyone to see their computers as media consumption kiosks instead of the powerful, productive machines they are. That’s where MS OSes are headed. They tried too early with Windows 8 Metro, but they haven’t lost sight of that concept.
“My TV shows ads so it’s only natural my computer does too.” - I bet a lot of people already think like this.
Ick
Pretty insightful, and quite possible as people are being trained on the “app experience” vs computing proper.
Pretty soon it’ll want to use your idle cpu net and disk for undisclosed purposes as part of the EULA.
The Telemetry collection service does a good job of that already, especially on laptops where it wakes them from sleep, and eats through the battery while idle in a backpack. I’ve been stung by this many times since Windows 8 - I now unplug then hibernate my last remaining Windows laptop, work-issued.
Also moved as much personal gear as possible over to various Linux distros a while ago, except my PC where some games cannot detect my sim peripherals & freetrack emulation under WINE
Ok this is just absurd if there’s really file explorer ads
i use windows 11 without that tool and i never get ads like that
clickbait posts are awful
I think it’s just for the cheap version of Windows, like “Home” or whatever.
“I’ve never died, so death is just a myth”
Yeah, these Linux ads are getting really annoying.
How dare people post about Linux in /c/linuxmemes
I read it as a joke, like to think lemmy doesn’t need that dumb /s nonsense
Lol. I was on 11, haven’t seen the ads, probably due to nextdns, even ran the beta versions. But 24.04 came out and upon testing it seems my WiFi isn’t crapping out like if used to so I guess I’ll stay.
Man win11… Wtf…
Man win11
I don’t think it comes with man pages.
I mean, technically powershell “get-help” but… yeah.
Look, I agree, but let’s not kid ourselves on our experience not being shitty too 🤣. We’re capable of using it only because we’re really good at computers, but there are literally millions of people who don’t even know or care about knowing how to change desktop background
It’s not too bad. They probably wouldn’t have Windows either if they had to set it up themselves. My dad has been using Ubuntu for years, but he doesn’t know it. It’s just a laptop that works as far as he’s concerned.
there are literally millions of people who don’t even know or care about knowing how to change desktop background
I’ll cede “know”, but I heavily dispute “care”.
Plenty of Boomers are painfully aware of how awful the internet has become over the last decade. Hell, they got to experience it before the rest of us precisely because folks who never knew how to migrate off AOL or Yahoo got enshitified first.
My own mom hates using the computer in no small part because she takes too much of what she sees at face value and ends up with tons of spyware, bloat, and scams rampaging across her laptop. I have to clean it out for her every few months, and I’m constantly fighting with her over what’s actually garbage and what she’s convinced she needs.
But the end result is that she just… won’t check her email because she hates it. She won’t answer her phone because she’s afraid of scam callers. She won’t trust ANY website, so she doesn’t use Amazon or Uber or Netflix.
It isn’t that people like my mom don’t care. They care immensely, because modern technology has become unusable for people like her.
Put linux on her computer, i think it would make her a lot less annoyed
I’ve never tried to install linux on an Apple before.
I have. It mostly works, but the network drivers are a pain at best and simply non-existent at worst, often forcing you to add a USB dongle.
If it is an intel based machine, it’s no really much different than any other machine. The only difference would be in how you get to the boot menu. That’s about it.
I’d have to check the specs, but I believe its an M1 or M2.
If it is M1 or M2 Asahi Linux is the way to go, but it is still in development and probably not ready for your mom
probably not ready for your mom
leg stretches
cracks neck
This is the moment I have been training for…
Does lemmy have any communities for unintentional “yo mamma” jokes?
Linux on an Intel-based MacBook Air was my daily driver for years. It worked perfectly fine; battery life was lower than on macOS though.
I think this is a too much pessimistic point of view. People with difficulties will be people with difficulties, but the fact is that the boomers actually are a little incompetent at it, simply hecause they had to deal with many more pressing things. They wouldn’t be stupid to learn as much as your average person wouldn’t be, they’re just understandably lazy. I too am lazy, so I’ll never cook as well as my grandma.
I just saw a post the other day from a guy who dumped fedora because it couldn’t be installed with a Bluetooth mouse.
Allegedly the installer requires a mouse click, and he had no other pointing device. They also said the keyboard navigation was not helpful and was also unable to switch to a console to manually pair his mouse.
I think it might be possible to get around all their menus with just tab and enter, but it’s less of a pain with a mouse last I tried.
He’s right, the installer should either make mice work or have a GUI that doesn’t expect them.
I think I vaguely remember something about that, but I would be pretty upset if the keyboard navigation was unusable. It is almost as bad as the stupid mouse enabled BIOSs that never work. It doesn’t even work on the Dell laptop I have for work. The keyboard navigation is always extra special in those cases and involves a lot of button mashing to get to the correct thing, if I can figure it out at all.
I don’t use wired mice either and had to dig the old gaming mouse out recently so I could get to some menus on a new machine to pair the mouse. I have done the mouse pairing thing through console and it isn’t the best experience, especially if you are trying to figure out if things are working in the first place. For me, I could figure it out. For a new user, you are asking a lot.
Just give me an old school OS installer with simple menus, easy keyboard navigation, and the bare minimum guidance needed to not entirely fuck it up.
I would argue there are facets to many people’s life that they leave “at default” because they “don’t care enough to fix it how they want”.
Take random Linux User XYZ; They still have to nudge their front door to get it open after unlocking, because they’re not a home improvement afficionado that wants to look up door repair videos on YouTube and attempt to put a stabilizer of some kind on the hinge. Or, they might accept the terrible interface in their car because they don’t know of easy ways to get it replaced with something simpler. Or, they don’t have their money invested anywhere because they don’t like/trust researching investment tips.
For us, it’s just that computers are something we’ll always tune to our preference. For others, it’s other things.
