Honestly I think it’s a terrible precedent to set. Now the government can just say they don’t like XYZ website and are banning it. That wasn’t really something they did 10 years ago. Unless of course it was illegal activity. But I don’t think this is a net win for the internet. Regardless of what decision has been made, freedoms were removed and citizens’ rights were sidestepped for political means. I think it shouldn’t be the government’s job to protect us from ourselves.

I was totally onboard with banning tiktok on government computers and I was completely on board with the government publicly expressing concerns over the motives of tiktok as a business. That’s where I personally believe this should have stopped. Inform the people of the danger and then let them decide what to do with that information.

The problem with that idea though, is that nation-wide, citizens’ trust in the government is at an all-time low. So even if the government said tiktok is bad and you shouldn’t use it, people already don’t trust the government. Maybe they should work on regaining the trust their people had for them 65 years ago before it tries to get people to behave how they think we should.

And silicon valley

Cool man, you’re still saying two completely different things. You either know what you’re doing or you spin your wheels installing windows fresh for an ENTIRE WORK DAY. There is no both.

Here, since you don’t know how to do it efficiently, let me learn you some. I configure my installer using a 3rd party program more often than not but that doesn’t make the biggest time difference to me. I use Rufus which gives you the option to preconfigure a local admin profile as well as skip the various check boxes about tracking info. You can also skip use the Rufus app to set up an installer that will work on unsupported CPUs. Easy and fast. Lastly, when you get into the OOBE, before you click anything, shift + f10 pulls up an admin CMD where you can run OOBE/BYPASSNRO to skip the network requirement.

Windows 11 is virtually the same installation as windows 10 at that point

By the way, you have not been in IT since before I was born. Come on down off your high horse. 25 years is long enough to be stuck in the old ways. There is still room to learn and plenty of time to choose not to be angry at strangers on the internet.

It’s not harder to cancel than to sign up though. It’s a one or 2 clock process to cancel and a whole lot of card details entering to sign up.

They disabled the local account for offline devices on all versions including IOT. The solution is to hit shift + f10 for CMD and then running OOBE\BYPASSNRO which enables that feature. But 90% of people setting up windows for the first time just create an account or use one they already have. Not that it’s better to do it that way. Just that it isn’t that difficult.

Cool story bro. You must be so good at computer yet you can’t install windows. Also very cool that you think you know how old I am or what my experience is. I can do either blindfolded and have been doing so for decades. It’s really not that impressive. This is low level IT shit. Let’s all stand and applaud this guy who can’t install windows. Lol

https://partner.steamgames.com/doc/features/keys

It’s OK to run a discount for Steam Keys on different stores at different times as long as you plan to give a comparable offer to Steam customers within a reasonable amount of time.

What about that is unreasonable considering you’re using their platform to deliver your software and their multiplayer framework. Steam makes no money on the sale of your keys.

Also, if your issue is that steam is a monopoly, then go make accounts in other places and stop supporting that monopoly you’re mad about…

I got a ton of my games through humble bundle, Which distributes steam codes. I’ve also gotten steam keys through Itch.io.

As for your price argument, price matching is only for the lowest price steam has ever sold the software for. So you can sell your games at steam sale prices 100% of the time and have a higher price on steam. So you’re literally just wrong.

Except it has gotten progressively worse as a product due to misuse, corporate censorship of the engine and the dataset feeding itself.

But steam isn’t trying to be monopoly. They don’t pay developers to only sell on their platform. Games that are only on steam are only on steam because steam is the only place that developer wants to sell the game.

That lawsuit is ridiculous and misses a ton of huge boons to developers. The fact is , valve only takes that sales cut for games sold on their platform but they never require you to make that sale on their platform. In fact, they are totally cool with you making the sale elsewhere and giving a steam code out which means steam makes nothing on that sale and they still host the software distribution for said sale. You can use their multiplayer infrastructure, their distribution infrastructure, and their communication infrastructure without paying them a dime if you sell your game on your own website. And it’s by design that you can do this.

As for consumer benefits, steam has a system that allows you to give your friends and family members access to your library. They are constantly selling games at steep discount (after getting permission from developers to do so). They allow a huge range of content with very light handed censorship policies. They have a robust multiplayer system and communications platform that integrates seemlessly with the games they sell and distribute. I won’t get into the Linux stuff but all I will say is Proton wouldn’t be where it is without valve and steam.

Steam is single handedly the most pro-consumer and pro-developer platform on the market. When developers put their games on steam, everyone wins. And it’s never a requirement that those games only exist on steam. When steam is the only place a developer sells their game, it’s because steam is legitimately the only place that developer wants to sell it anyway.

Probably the fact that you can collaboratively work on the same documents as other users. Or that syncing files to local devices is pretty easy and straightforward. Sharing is also dead easy. From an IT perspective, file retention and versioning is a game changer. I just restored a computer that an angry user attempted to delete all files from when they had been fired because all the data was backed up to OneDrive. I think people just hate OneDrive because it’s often advertised. I think very few people who actually make full use of it, actually hate it.

It sure does.

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/office/sync-files-with-onedrive-on-macos-d11b9f29-00bb-4172-be39-997da46f913f

You can also use steam as a distribution platform completely free of the 30% cut by selling steam keys through your own site. Steam specifically gives developers unlimited free steam keys and games no cut from the sale of said keys. And it’s not even a work around, it is intentional.

Again, you’re in the Linux memes sub. Normie knowledge is getting you an enjoyable Linux experience no matter how you slice it. If we are talking about difficulty curve of installing an OS, you are already eliminating all the normies.

Oh so you’re bad at using computers. Got it. I can have windows 11 without telemetry in 10 minutes and with a local user profile instead of a Microsoft account. This argument about what you were able to do and how long it took you doesn’t make you look cool or smart. It makes you look like you have no idea what you’re doing.

I do it every day for work. You must be doing something wrong.

How often are you installing windows? I deploy probably 7-8 a week. I can have an image usable without telemetry in 10 minutes.

Just learn how to install windows the way you want it to be just like you learn the best way to install a distro. Debloated windows takes minutes to install and takes so little actual effort if you know what you’re doing.

You’re in the Linux memes sub. Linux users are the ultimate example of special knowledge PC users…