this post was submitted on 24 Jul 2026
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[–] phoenixz@lemmy.ca 12 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Well shit.

I have Linux, so I don't gave that feature either! What am I supposed to do now? I want to be visible everywhere and tracked by everyone, but I had to chose Linux and again I'm left out!

This sucks

[–] TrippingBalls@lemmy.world 3 points 1 day ago

I bet you don't get those aggravating pop ups and ads either.

You're missing out on the typical PC user experience

[–] TrippingBalls@lemmy.world 5 points 1 day ago

What kind of hacker uses windows?

WTF

[–] ForgottenUsername@lemmy.world 8 points 2 days ago

Well that's terrifying,

but not unexpected...

[–] RQG@lemmy.world 110 points 3 days ago (16 children)
[–] zane@infosec.pub 1 points 1 day ago

Well there's your problem.

[–] tanisnikana@lemmy.world 32 points 3 days ago (2 children)

It’s news to me. I gotta get Mint on it.

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[–] sp3ctr4l@lemmy.dbzer0.com 15 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago)

you wouldn't download an operating system

[–] HerbGrower@slrpnk.net 17 points 2 days ago (1 children)

People should stop doing that

[–] one_old_coder@piefed.social 2 points 2 days ago (1 children)

They should have stopped decades ago. Mint or Ubuntu are easier to install than Windows 2000 and way more powerful.

[–] HerbGrower@slrpnk.net 2 points 2 days ago

Yeah, been using Linux as my only OS since late 2000s

[–] Valmond@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) (1 children)

Congratulations!

Guess you won one?

[–] RQG@lemmy.world 2 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Is this one of those scam mails where you won something?

[–] Valmond@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 points 1 day ago

Oh No, no no no no, you just won a super pc gaming and all! Just send me your credit card number and I'll figure out where to send it! Promise!

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[–] christopher@lemmy.ca 25 points 2 days ago (1 children)
[–] ShankShill@sh.itjust.works 8 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) (7 children)

I do.

Though, those socket A boards kinda suck even after a recap. 98 runs great when it boots!

Gotta power cycle the PSU to get it to boot the first time. Tried 3 PSUs before the recap and nothing changed.

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[–] vk6flab@lemmy.radio 97 points 3 days ago (3 children)

Microsoft continues to outdo itself as the best advertisement for migration to Linux.

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[–] ZkhqrD5o@lemmy.world 48 points 3 days ago (1 children)

Fuck this OS, left it behind a long time ago and nothing ever will bring me back. This platform should die, they turned everything good about the platform to trash over years.

[–] Ibuthyr@feddit.org 6 points 2 days ago

I finally made the switch a couple of weeks ago. Running Cachyos and it's a dream. I'm not going back to MS anytime soon. Now I dread work because I have to use that POS there.

[–] lazynooblet@lazysoci.al 20 points 2 days ago (2 children)

There are lots of unique identifiers in computers, not just Windows.

MAC address, serial number, bios uuid.

Linux even has /etc/machine-id

[–] sp3ctr4l@lemmy.dbzer0.com 24 points 2 days ago (1 children)

yes, but what secret undisclosed id systems, that weren't definitevely known to exist untill legal proceedings 'oopsied' them into reality?

[–] GrindingGears@lemmy.ca 2 points 2 days ago (2 children)

I mean if you have a phone in your pocket, you are completely dicked. I'm not saying we should be accepting it (dont), but it's completely fucking hopeless right now. We are boxed in on all fronts.

[–] BCsven@lemmy.ca 1 points 17 hours ago

GrapheneOS, or Linux Phone

[–] sp3ctr4l@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 points 1 day ago (1 children)

I mean sure, if you're fully running a mainline corporate phone and OS, with none of your own privacy or security measures utilized.

I don't think its really possible at this point to actually bring your signature and foot print down to literally 0, but you can do a fair deal of uh... privacy hygiene, to minimize those.

It's not totally hopeless. You... just have to actually learn how to actually be private, with technology. It's not easy, but it is also not impossible.

And that is just passive resistance, becoming un-surveillable, to a meaningful extent.

[–] GrindingGears@lemmy.ca 3 points 1 day ago (1 children)

It takes a lot of finagling. People like you and me, we can minimize it. Custom Roms, PiHoles, VPN, onionized, etc. But the general joe? No chance.

I also don't fully 100% believe that there isn't technology at this point that renders all of the above moot. We probably just don't fully know about it all yet.

[–] sp3ctr4l@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 points 1 day ago

I don't disagree... yeah. Shit ain't looking good, but I refuse to simply give up.

[–] varjen@lemmy.world 5 points 2 days ago (1 children)

But those IDs stay on your local network.

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[–] nirodhaavidya@lemmy.world 30 points 3 days ago (1 children)

Court filings in the Scattered Spider hacking case reveal Microsoft provided the FBI with a complete IP history tied to something called a Global Device ID (GDID)

It's kinda like a MAC address

[–] Valmond@lemmy.dbzer0.com 8 points 2 days ago

Except the MAC address isn't propagated through gateways, only on your local network(because that is their job).

[–] Ludicrous0251@piefed.zip 16 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago) (2 children)

Your Windows PC Has a Permanent ID That Follows You – Even With a VPN

Yes, it's bad, but worth pointing out, they didn't identify the user directly by somehow extracting GDID from their traffic, they identified them because their GDID happened to be in the same place at the same time at their hacking efforts that became statistically impossible to ignore.

Realistically this kind of tracking could be accomplished with any software with a unique ID that does, say, daily update checks or usage pings. This one is just extra bad because it's ubiquitous (on Windows) and almost impossible to change, so they have a 1-stop-shop for spying.

[–] sp3ctr4l@lemmy.dbzer0.com 13 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) (1 children)

All tracking is done by amalgamating as many different overlapping signals and indicators together as you can, and then establishing basically a confidence score/threshold.

This one is extra bad because it was never disclosed previously.

Trust = Gone, what else is MSFT hiding?

[–] Valmond@lemmy.dbzer0.com 3 points 2 days ago

Which trust?

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[–] BigTrout75@lemmy.world 15 points 3 days ago (7 children)

Does it follow me after Linux install?

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[–] ratrace@lemmy.zip 14 points 3 days ago

windows is the virus

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