5 ms·

Can we please have someone make and maintain a safe, good, minimal and reliable Windows distribution like Alpine Linux?

Koshkin 9mo ago
Funny you should mention Linux.
TacticalCoder 9mo ago
> Can we please have someone make and maintain a safe, good, minimal and reliable Windows distribution like Alpine Linux? First: "safe" and Windows never ever matched. Not in Windows 98, not in Millenium, not in Vista. Not ever. I, reluctantly, after having confiscated my mother-in-law's Windows laptop and replacing it with a Chromebook about two years ago (which still works fine for her btw), ordered her a new desktop PC six months ago, running Windows 11. Six months. Six months is all it took for this piece of shit to become infected to the point of being unusable. Malware over malware took over: whatever 0-click or 1-click exploit in Edge that took over the machine and tells her to call indian scam center to help her "get her PC rid of viruses", blinking left and right, covering half the screen. In other words: good old Windows. It's 20-fucking-25, nearly 26, and Microsoft still cannot ship an OS that's not rooted when a grandma is browsing for less than six months. Pathetic. Windows is a mediocre piece of insecure (and now spying) turd. I fully agree with you: reliable Linux distros are the Windows replacement. And as we've reached a point where everyone except some part of the corporate world can do everything they need from an Android smartphone and these same people are just fine with a Linux distro on their laptop or desktop, people can be switched. And some are. And the numbers of "desktop Linux" users are slowly but surely growing. I don't care about the snarky "2026 is the year of Linux on the desktop". Linux conquered everything: all the servers, all the routers, 500 of the world top 500 supercomputers, etc. Linux shall conquer the laptop and the desktop too. And those who don't switch have two choices: MacOS (pricey hardware) or be slaves to that turdery on bits that Windows is. P.S: actually I don't even care: be it Linux or MacOS or BeOS or Atari's TOS: anything but Microsoft.
- janandonly 9mo ago
  My mother is almost 80, bless her heart. I gave her an iPad Owh, 10 years ago? And I’ve never had to troubleshoot her system ever again. No spyware. No viruses. Nothing. The worst that happened recently is that the Starlink antenna had te be realigned after a particularly heavy wind blew it off the roof almost. Oh and her printer needed new toners after printing for x years without problems.
  - intrasight 9mo ago
    Printer model?
    - pepoluan 9mo ago
      Why, you want to buy a new printer? If you want inkjets, buy those with ink tanks. More expensive up front, but operating cost is so cheap. And no more "you have to replace a whole cartridge just because Magenta is low"; if Magenta is low, buy a bottle of Magenta, and fill. For laser printers, buy those whose toner cartridges are separate from the drum, and those whose toner cartridges can be reset mechanically. And refillable. My go-to brand for printers is Brother, btw.
    - devilbunny 9mo ago
      A classic that's still true: https://www.theverge.com/23642073/best-printer-2023-brother-laser-wi-fi-its-fine https://www.theverge.com/23642073/best-printer-2023-brother-... Mine is... 15+ years old? I replaced the toner once. And it doesn't have Ethernet or WiFi, so I bought Printopia for my iMac (to which it's attached) to enable AirPrint.
- lomase 9mo ago
  Safe and computing never ever matched.
  - pepoluan 9mo ago
    Safe and living also doesn't match.
wongarsu 9mo ago
Isn't that pretty much Windows IoT LTSC? There are even more minimal Windows versions, but easy, convenient, legal distribution is kind of tricky
apexalpha 9mo ago
That is what you're looking at. Any more than this you get sued for distributing MS owned code.

Funny you should mention Linux.

> Can we please have someone make and maintain a safe, good, minimal and reliable Windows distribution like Alpine Linux? First: "safe" and Windows never ever matched. Not in Windows 98, not in Millenium, not in Vista. Not ever. I, reluctantly, after having confiscated my mother-in-law's Windows laptop and replacing it with a Chromebook about two years ago (which still works fine for her btw), ordered her a new desktop PC six months ago, running Windows 11. Six months. Six months is all it took for this piece of shit to become infected to the point of being unusable. Malware over malware took over: whatever 0-click or 1-click exploit in Edge that took over the machine and tells her to call indian scam center to help her "get her PC rid of viruses", blinking left and right, covering half the screen. In other words: good old Windows. It's 20-fucking-25, nearly 26, and Microsoft still cannot ship an OS that's not rooted when a grandma is browsing for less than six months. Pathetic. Windows is a mediocre piece of insecure (and now spying) turd. I fully agree with you: reliable Linux distros are the Windows replacement. And as we've reached a point where everyone except some part of the corporate world can do everything they need from an Android smartphone and these same people are just fine with a Linux distro on their laptop or desktop, people can be switched. And some are. And the numbers of "desktop Linux" users are slowly but surely growing. I don't care about the snarky "2026 is the year of Linux on the desktop". Linux conquered everything: all the servers, all the routers, 500 of the world top 500 supercomputers, etc. Linux shall conquer the laptop and the desktop too. And those who don't switch have two choices: MacOS (pricey hardware) or be slaves to that turdery on bits that Windows is. P.S: actually I don't even care: be it Linux or MacOS or BeOS or Atari's TOS: anything but Microsoft.

janandonly 9mo ago
My mother is almost 80, bless her heart. I gave her an iPad Owh, 10 years ago? And I’ve never had to troubleshoot her system ever again. No spyware. No viruses. Nothing. The worst that happened recently is that the Starlink antenna had te be realigned after a particularly heavy wind blew it off the roof almost. Oh and her printer needed new toners after printing for x years without problems.
- intrasight 9mo ago
  Printer model?
  - pepoluan 9mo ago
    Why, you want to buy a new printer? If you want inkjets, buy those with ink tanks. More expensive up front, but operating cost is so cheap. And no more "you have to replace a whole cartridge just because Magenta is low"; if Magenta is low, buy a bottle of Magenta, and fill. For laser printers, buy those whose toner cartridges are separate from the drum, and those whose toner cartridges can be reset mechanically. And refillable. My go-to brand for printers is Brother, btw.
  - devilbunny 9mo ago
    A classic that's still true: https://www.theverge.com/23642073/best-printer-2023-brother-laser-wi-fi-its-fine https://www.theverge.com/23642073/best-printer-2023-brother-... Mine is... 15+ years old? I replaced the toner once. And it doesn't have Ethernet or WiFi, so I bought Printopia for my iMac (to which it's attached) to enable AirPrint.
lomase 9mo ago
Safe and computing never ever matched.
- pepoluan 9mo ago
  Safe and living also doesn't match.

wongarsu 9mo ago

Isn't that pretty much Windows IoT LTSC? There are even more minimal Windows versions, but easy, convenient, legal distribution is kind of tricky

apexalpha 9mo ago

That is what you're looking at. Any more than this you get sued for distributing MS owned code.