Unattended is no "magic". Go ahead and inspect the xml file created by that utility, all the customization and debloating is practically same as running a script post install.
If you really want to debloat before it's installed you want this: https://ntlite.com/
Some run post install, most during, NTLite is good as well but too much work since unattended.xml just works so well.
There was another one too at some point called MSMG Toolkit (IIRC) that worked wonders but who knows what happened to that.
After 30+ years of using every OS I just don't want to deal with an OS that constantly fights with you just to try to make it usable, unattended.xml is MY path of least resistance, configure once, check/update every now and then, no need to learn new tricks.
Been using Linux on and off for 30+ years and I’ve always always had second thoughts about using anything outside the main 3-4 distros, and I mean forks, blends etc. let alone vibe coded distros, even *buntu feels like a stretch.
I really like DHH’s enthusiasm and what he’s trying to do but I will never touch that “distro”.
Debian/Devuan, Fedora/RHEL/Alma/Rocky, Arch/Artix, FreeBSD/OpenBS/NetBSD are all anyone will ever need.
You feel more adventurous? NixOS, Gentoo, Slackware, Void.
That’s it. No forks, no blends.
I keep Xebian and LMDE ISOs in my flash drive to show people but I don’t personally use even those.
People jumping all around these new distros that only seem to change a wallpaper without knowing the basics is a bad choice, like the first comment says, isn’t this the reason you wanted to move away from Windows in the first place?
Just take your time and enjoy learning, they are all so simple today compared to decades ago it’s crazy.
As to why, Gary didn't say.. or even contribute again, so we could surmise it was a made-up name to make sure the company he worked for wasn't identified, but some of the replies to his mail went into more detail about why they did, you can find them here
freebsd = utility: performance, gnu software compatibility, drivers, closest thing to useful as a desktop (still not very), but almost x86 only
openbsd = security: internet exposed services
netbsd = portability: already ported / most easily portable to every cpu arch & platform including old and new obscure ones. If you want a big-endian os for whatever academic reason, it's netbsd on an old sun sparc or pi3. I had an HP Jornada that had a SH3 cpu and shipped with wince, the only alternative os on that was netbsd.
NetBSD runs beautifully (but not quickly) on a 32-bit Raspberry Pi Zero. I hosted a mail server on that platform for about 7 years. I absolutely love how spare the system is when you start it up. You don’t even get a fancy shell, just sh. Running top on a new system is hilarious. It’s like init, your shell, and something else.
Linux was not quite that spare, but pretty spare when I first started using it (1995). I liked watching the text crawl while the kernel brought itself, init, and a few daemons up; and having to type "startx" to even get into a graphical environment (and even that was just fvwm).
It was... cyberpunk. I can't think of any other way to describe the aesthetic, the feel, of early Linux. All these bits and bobs written by many hands yet somehow working together, none of them beholden to how some corporate overlord felt I should be using my computer. I became aware of the suck of proprietary software even in 1995.
NetBSD is a lot like this, still even today. I love working with/in/on it.
The sloppotrons are getting confused about old hardware support in the Linux kernel, so the kernel maintainers are simply removing it. NetBSD's portability is at significantly lower risk of being compromised like this, not least because the project bans sloppotrons outright. We may yet see a resurgence of NetBSD as "the OS for your toaster".
The original iPhone cost $500 and adjusting for inflation that is about $800 today. I don't remember phones costing $300 since before the smart phone era. Even Walkman phones cost $500 in the early 2000's.
You do know the modern smartphone is the most technologically advanced consumer good that has ever existed? Like at no point in history has there ever been something so small, complex and intricate in the hands of so many people. The new iPhone is going to be very expensive - it’s a luxury item and marketed like that.
They can definitely make phones for $300 and you can buy a smartphone that is more powerful than the original iPhone for $50. It probably will be a bit slow running modern apps but it may possibly still be workable for a while.
It fundamentally has the same capabilities as the original iphone. You can browse the web, check your emails, watch movies, play simple games.
The only difference is that now you can play graphicially intense desktop-style games, but no one really does that. And also it has some sattelite phone functionality. The cameras are also better, the battery life is better, but it all doesnt fundamentally change the way you use it. The complexity over last year's smartphone is unnessisary.
Now that everyone in the world is basicially required to use a smartphone, the only way for big smartphone to make more revenue is to sell each consumer more smartphone per smartphone.
You're correct. Ultimately 99% of the stuff you do on a phone is identical to 10 years ago. I know exactly 0 zero phone gamers. I do know some who play, like, the pokemon trading card game.
Cameras have improved, but less than you think. Most of the improvement is in low-light, but in well lit scenes we actually sort of peaked 10 years ago. It's gotten slightly worse now, believe it nor not.
But you can't legitimately run a phone from 10 years ago, because while everything is the same, the software uses 100x as many resources. That sort of tricks people into thinking "oh it must be doing so much more!"
But... is it? Think back. Instagram 10 years ago, YouTube 10 years ago. Yeah... it's basically the same. Some argue they've regressed. I'm sure we've more than 10x the code size, but nobody sees that.
Web browsers have also gotten much more complex, but again, you won't notice it. We have a lot more fringe web APIs like webusb but like... the regular web browsing experience for 99% of tasks is identical.
I think there have been some niceities in web apis like webgpu, websocket, webrtc, PWAs. But they are limited in weird ways, and the fingerprinting has never been worse
People used to buy new phones every year or 2 because the technology differences were enormous.
Nowadays a 4 or 5 year-old phone is perfectly usable and you're not really missing out on anything. That changes the economics of phone manufacturing, ultimately you're still paying about the same for an equivalent measure of time using the phone.
I get more value from my smartphone than I used to, and I upgrade it less often.
The photos I take with it are genuinely precious to me, and I'm more than happy to shell out 800-1000€ every 3 years so as long as yhe cameras keep getting better.
I have zero interest in folding phones though. Theyre less durable and have worse cameras so im sitting this fad out.
Surprise! Used cars are no longer 1000 dollars. If you want something that's not an absolute beater, as in ~150,000 miles, that's three grand baby. You can probably find something for 1000 dollars at 200,000+ miles with body damage but... probably shouldn't buy that.
I think if towns and cities want to be more economically resilient (both privately and publicly) they really need to think about reducing car dependency.
Although, implementing such changes are generally unpopular for those that are already car dependent.
Your feeling is right, but you got the numbers wrong.
In today's money, they used to be around the $400-$700 range. Now they start at ~$1000, which is insane; especially considering a last-gen, extremely performant laptop with a 5x larger screen and battery can be had for those $700.
> Now they cost like a used car, everyone buys $1000+ iPhones without batting an eye, insane.
It appears you haven't attempted to buy a used car lately either. Details vary, but in the US, generally you are looking at $6k floor for a running car.
Edge is dropping support. Helium is not a major browser.
Brave is the only one that might be considered a valid point. However, because of Chromium dropping support they've had to implement a custom bypass to support Manifest v2 and they are also hosting a version of uBlock Origin for Chromium on their own servers.
It's really questionable how long this state of affairs can go on for. Brave has said they will support it "as long as they are able" but Google could easily just remove the `webRequest` API from Chromium or the engineering burden to keep it alive might just get to be too much
Unfortunately, I think it has an expiration date on any Chromium-based browser.
Brave blocks those ads anyway so no point in Ublock, maybe that's why it's left out. It does inject it's own ads though, and then there's all the crypto nonsense.
Ads on Brave are opt-in (and not embedded on webpages anyway) and the "crypto nonsense" is a way for them to try to stay afloat without having to accept money from Google and the likes.
It's my primary browser since a few years. If you are talking about sponsored backgrounds, good luck finding any "major" browser that doesn't have something sponsored on it (opt-out).
Me too, in the general case, but the square display was a key requirement. And i can see it; op is displaying LP covers; it needs to look good
I think i'd just make the bezel for the display and putty an SBC onto the back with an HDMI converter dongle. I'd likely order a custom picture frame with some rococo moulding, for the anachronistic effect, and display nondescript oils when not streaming.
https://wpd.app works well too for extra telemetry and https://github.com/builtbybel/privatezilla still works with Windows 11 but again autounattend.xml works magic.
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