Yup, my Linux adventure once again ended in tragedy. I won't go into details 'cause it'll turn into a rant. It's too soon after the disaster. The TL;DR of it is that my WINE setup had been showing signs of slow corruption for weeks and then yesterday after a normal operation (deleting an unneeded profile in the Vortex mod manager), the window flashed and next thing I knew everything was reset as if it was a new install of Vortex. Moreover, replacing the "Bottles" WINE bottle (self-contained ecosystem that's supposed to be isolated and safe) from my Pika backup (poor man's Time Machine) didn't restore things to how they were earlier in the day when the incremental backup was made. What the heck?!
There's more but that's the gist. And sure, I could have set it up again... But why would I want to when it'll almost certainly happen again? Maybe not the exact scenario, but I've gone through this dozens of times before. I just thought that this one would work. I did make it almost three months!
So, here I am with a fresh Windows 11 install on my Lenovo Legion Slim 5 gaming laptop. A little different this time: I did the stripped-down method of installation. Mostly following this guide and script:
No bloat, no Edge, no Copilot, etc. And it seems to be fine. So far so good. I might be able to live with an ad- and nag-free Windows. Just need to finish by disabling auto Updates in the Registry like I did last time I had Windows. If it all blows up in my face down the road then, well, nothing new. Linux got me used to it. 😅
Y'know what? I'm not even annoyed anymore. Bazzite updates to Fedora 41 and my setup breaks. It wasn't the kernel since a rollback didn't help. Probably WINE or Flatpak or something.
Anyway, my 1TB SSD has a debloated Windows 10 on it now. Not 11 even though the laptop came with it. I read that all the "Windows 11" drivers actually were fine for Windows 10 and that seems to be the case.
[Edit: Probably not a good idea after all. I was having all kinds of display/graphic cards issues. e.g.--couldn't run Skyrim SE fullscreen after the usual tweaks that I've done dozens of times before with no issues; for some reason the incorrect Radeon drivers/Adrenaline software was installed, which might have screwed things up even after I installed the correct version. Anyway, unaltered Windows 11 is now installed and updating.]
After updating Windows 10 I got a little surprise: they put CoPilot on the task bar!
Resistance is futile.
This drive is purely for Skyrim. The 2TB SSD has Linux on it and will remain so because everything else except my complicated modding setup works just great in Linux.
Also...
"You could just join the Walled Garden and never have to worry about pesky Windows or weird Linux issues again."
Um, It was because my total installation of Skyrim SE blew up in my face due to a new update (WINE9 + Crossover) which couldn't be corrected that I left Apple. 🤣
Pretty good overview of the current OS landscape from someone who is staying on Windows 10 but will likely move to Linux with his *next* computer.
https://youtu.be/z3T63v_qaWs?si=3o3e4H7NeIjvEdOM
One of the comments mirrored my recent experiences:
"I feel your pain. I tried the same methods to disable Windows updates in the past. Removed all the entries from the registry, even did changes to the group policies, and managed to completely disable the updates. A few weeks later I noticed windows update was somehow miraculously back, and it was slowing down my system at the most inconvenient time as usual. I went through the list of services and noticed something called Windows Update Health Tool. That thing actually somehow installed itself on my system without me even knowing, and restored all Windows Update functions to its original state. It's crazy how far Microsoft is willing to go just to shove their stupid updates which no one even asks for, down your throat. Thank god I've made the decision to go back to Linux after their dumpster fire of an announcement about their new garbage AI "features"."
Windows Update Health Tool. So that was the tiny thing that slipped onto my laptop during the brief time I had to disable Metered Connection in order to pair a BT device that was already paired previously.
I nuked my Windows 11 install. Again. I'll get around my issues with Linux somehow. It's actually kind of fun to try different approaches... But I'm retired. It isn't my livelihood on the line.
I kind of expected this would happen sooner or later. Microsoft is now ignoring the Registry tweak that halts automatic updates. This one:
I checked and it's still set correctly, but I got Updated anyway. (Edit: okay, it says it's a tweak for Windows 10 and I'm on 11 so maybe it never was going to work?)
I still had it halted due to my Wifi being set to metered bandwidth (my last line of defense)... but they figured a way to get around that, too. Pairing a Bluetooth device will now fail if you're set to metered. And the instant you turn it off an Update slips in--just a tiny one at first which might be what and sets the system to ignore Registry settings and open the Update floodgate.
Regardless of how they're doing it, it seems there's no stopping Microsoft from intruding and messing with my computer whenever they feel like it. 😡
It would seem that Bazzite is a no-go for laptops with Nvidia dGPUs. I can't choose what to use for a game, iGPU or dGPU, nor set the system power settings (with GameMode you do it there, but GameMode isn't included with this ISO for my kind of laptop). A search on the issue typically results in the answer that you should get an AMD system, or no answer at all.
Kind of a "you don't belong here" vibe.
I suppose that makes sense as it was made for the new handhelds with AMD APUs. Oh well, I'll look into something else or go back to Pop!_OS.
Hey @violajack how's Bazzite working out for you? I'm about to install it on my secondary internal SSD to give it a go. There's a nagging thought in my mind that I failed last time due to the non-gaming-oriented distro I used. Worth a shot.
Windows 11 Lite is doing fine but even stripped down I dislike using it. And I can't trust that MS won't find a way to disrupt my setup. Maybe I'll just have Skyrim modded on that drive and use the Linux drive for everything else. It was only the heavy modding that failed last time, after all.
After a couple days to get over the frustration and disappointment... It's a me problem, not really a Linux problem. If I was okay to just run Steam games like Hogwarts Legacy with few/no mods, use a web browser, write with stuff that works rock solid on Linux then I'd not only still be using it, I think I'd be happy for many years to come.
The main problem is that my main game--now and forever it seems--is Skyrim. With tons of mods made by hobbyist enthusiasts that sometimes have DLLs that might not use best programming practices, that were made on Windows for Windows. Ditto with the many tools used to create, tweak, patch, and manage these hundreds of mods so that they work nicely together.
Once set up, it's a precarious thing. Easily broken by an update to the underlying system or package dependencies. As I have experienced many times now.
So it's currently not for me. It may never be for me. I might be stuck with Windows forever. Even if I kick the Skyrim habit, this is not a new thing for me. I modded the heck out of Baldur's Gate 2 back in ~2003. I was even part of the mod creation community and contributed to projects. This is who I am. This is who I'll always be.
I'm not alone in the "me" problem. Here's a video from a guy who has a specific use case, who tried Linux and failed.
I particularly love the hammer skit starting at 10:30.
Linux is certainly perfectly good for many people. It may even be plug and play "it just works" for them. And it keeps on getting better. Unfortunately, at this time at least, it's not quite there for me.
The things I see you guys go through. Sheesh.
I tried Linux once, and had similar issues of it just being too finicky and too much work to maintain.
I think I agree with @Eltos point of view here. Windows makes money with software and AI, so they are not inclined to give me the simplicity I want. Back in the day I would have balked at paying a premium just to be left alone, and put up with ads. But I've been on MacOS and iPadOS for 4 years now, and it's quite nice just being left alone. Enough that I'm willing to do it again with my next upgrade. And I'll keep sacrificing not being able to play most games that are only on Windows. But that's fine. I'm making the compromises I'm willing to get the experience I want.
Interesting. I kind of went back to the opposite perspective. I looked over the ways in which MS makes money and Apple makes money and came to some hard conclusions. I think MS is going to get more and more aggressive with AI and continue to make it harder to avoid — here’s looking at you, Office 365 (I came for the forced Onedrive auto-save and directory save, and stayed for the Copilot integration). Couple that with the removal of local account installation on Windows 10, and I think it will continue to go down the path that is right in front of us.
So AI and selling data is just how they make their money.
Now, Apple repeatedly says they are privacy first. They got OpenAI to agree to allow queries without IP or data logging of any kind. Advanced Data Protection of user data, etc., etc. It’s clearly in their DNA and justifies their increasing subscription fees and high hardware prices.
So privacy (to justify subscriptions) and hardware is how they make their money.
And there is so much more “artisan” software in the Mac/iOS side of things. For instance, DEVONThink doesn’t really have a Windows equivalent. Same with Omnifocus (at least without a subscription), Ulysses, even Notability is only just now getting a Windows version.
So I use my Windows machine for gaming and remoting into Work all day, and my Mac/iPad Pro/iPhone for everything else.
Just my take on it. I don’t have to like it—I certainly don’t like how much I am going to have to spend on a Mac with a decent amount of RAM and SSD this fall.😫
An ad- and nag-free Windows sounds divine! Congratulations, and I hope Microsoft lets you have it.