Microsoft's full-screen reminders – upgrade to Windows 11 are back

https://www.techradar.com/computing/windows/microsofts-full-screen-reminders-to-upgrade-to-windows-11-are-back-for-windows-10-users-and-they-might-be-here-to-stay

by nehagup • 2 years ago

33 54 2 years ago

techradar.com

jqpabc1232• 2 years ago

Too bad Linux still can't offer a desktop alternative that is widely acceptable.

Personally, I am contemplating moving to a server version of Windows on my desktop. This AI nonsense looks like just a privacy invasion scheme.

rav3ndust5• 2 years ago

just out of curiosity, what's wrong with the more 'traditional' Linux desktops, such as Plasma or Cinnamon?

jqpabc1232• 2 years ago

To find the answer, try to convince a large number of people/businesses to use one of them.

hot_gril12• 2 years ago

A lot of the issue is that you were able to name more than one, and that was without mentioning Gnome or XFCE

cypress66• 2 years ago

Most distros can't even recover from a shutdown while updating (windows handles it since Vista).

hxii• 2 years ago

My biggest issue is gaming, as anytime I try doing anything with Proton I find myself screwing around with it too much which defeats the purpose IMO.

Otherwise I would’ve switched long ago, as at the very least the development environment is much nicer in Linux.

wkat42427• 2 years ago

I really like plasma. But above all I love that there is choice. I could never deal with gnome 3. If Linux were to pick that as the one standard desktop I just would leave the platform.

petre2• 2 years ago

I moved from a Mac to Gnome 3 and think it's fine, at least compared to MacOS or Windows.

simonblack4• 2 years ago

Too bad Linux still can't offer a desktop alternative that is widely acceptable.

Well, yes it can. But the choice of Desktop whether that be Linux, MacOS or Windows is just a matter of familiarisation.

I have the exact opposite view to you: "Too bad Windows still can't offer a desktop alternative that is widely acceptable." but that is because I have been using a Linux Desktop for over 20 years. I've been using the LinuxMint MATE Desktop for about 10-11 years.

If you feel happy with Windows, stick with it. It's your machine, and your choice.

prng2021• 2 years ago

I haven’t used Windows in over a decade and hate it but if you think Windows is not widely accepted for desktop users on planet Earth while Linux is, you live in an alternate reality.

beretguy• 2 years ago

Saw one yesterday for the first time.

rsolva4• 2 years ago

These fullscreen messages are so confusing to elderly people, most of my support calls from family and friends are related to the weird and unpredictable updates and invasive popups, or the consequences from these.

I have slowly been moving them, one by one, over to Fedora. I still get support calls, but not related to the OS, more like, "how do I add an attachment to this email, I forgot."

hot_gril12• 2 years ago

Would've never thought of having a non-tech-understanding person use GNU/Linux before, but nowadays I think Windows has managed to close the gap on its own by becoming horrible. Though there are other options like iPad or Chromebook.

Delk3• 2 years ago

If they're non-tech-understanding enough, it might not matter at all. Someone who's oblivious enough may use the computer as more of an appliance (plus web).

I had my ageing parents set up with a Linux desktop for some years in the past. I just -pre-configured everything they'd likely have needed. Browser, email, instant messaging (as it was at the time), a photos app, possibly something else I'm forgetting.

It's the somewhat tech-savvy (or at least somewhat tech-independent) for whom such a transition might be the most trouble.

(And, of course, those people who use specialized applications or hardware for which support may not be available, or who use workflows that require going somewhat below the "appliance" level and which could require significant relearning.)

belthesar• 2 years ago

I had my grandmother running on Linux since 2008, and she loved it. She wasn't gonna get a virus, she didn't have root/sudo capability on her user, which meant she wasn't going to break anything, and she had ad blocking in her browser. She was told two things: "1. If something wants to install something or update something, say no. If it keeps asking, call me. 2. You can't break this." This removed the fear she had using a computer, and went from "too afraid to turn it on lest she hear the sighs and frustrations of her now late technophile husband" to "doing everything from social media to online shopping". The last machine she had was an Asus Chromebox I bought her when the machine she was using was just not able to keep up anymore. She used Google Apps for word processing, Gmail for email, and had a ball.

Sibling commenters have it right - if a computer is an appliance to them, then going for the simplest, least likely to accidentally mess up option is the best one.

rsolva4• 2 years ago

Linux (in my case Fedora) has been fantastic, especially for the non-techs who have not gotten used to Windows or a Mac! All they need is a browser (with adblock) and maybe a simple word processor. Fedora does not nag about updates, it just chugs along and keeps everything up-to-date in the background. Major OS-updates is a one click in the app store, which I do once a year-ish. Soooo much less hassle then MacOS and Windows!

tapoxi• 2 years ago

I can see it now...

"How do I share my screen?"

"Well grandma, the Google Chrome Flatpak you're using defaults to Xorg so it runs in XWayland, which means it can't see the desktop because the rest of your shell is native in Wayland. If you go to chrome://flags and set prefered-ozone-platform to wayland it might work, but some people in this reddit thread also mention you need to install xdg-desktop-portal-gnome so it can call the screensharing API in GNOME. This also might not work in the Flatpak at all and maybe just the RPM."

hot_gril12• 2 years ago

I usually use my Linux workstation headlessly at work, but maybe once a year I turn on the screen. It's an entirely different GUI each time. Last time this somehow had to do with the Xorg vs Wayland thing, which also partially broke Chrome Remote Desktop. It's hilarious.

rsolva4• 2 years ago

Yeah, this used to be a problem, but it has been working fine since Fedora 39. I can share a single window or the whole screen with the video conferencing tools I'm using, mainly Signal, sometimes Google Meet, Teams (both in Firefox running natively on Wayland) and Zoom.

Flatpak has made it so easy to install most common apps, just press the Super key, search for the app, click on it in the list and "Install". Usually takes less than 10-30 seconds from start 'till the app is installed and running. Very grandma-proof, actually!

EDIT: But I will say that the road to where GNOME / Fedora is today has been a bumpy ride, like a car that is under maintenance while driving :) It's the FOSS / Linux way. In the end, the result is actually quite amazing and user friendly.

rsolva4• 2 years ago

Oh, and for screen sharing for support, I use the built-in Remote Desktop functionality (RDP). I have set up a Wireguard connection from the laptop to my home network which makes it possible for me to jump at any time in without 'grandma' having to do anything. Such an improvement over TeamViewer (which also had trouble with Wayland for a long time, maybe still does?).

Remote support is a breeze now, and we save the usual 30 minutes of guiding an update of TeamViewer over the phone (because of an old and incompatible version) etc.

nailer• 2 years ago

I tried to read this article attempting to find any instance of the aforementioned Full screen reminder and about 10 images in I gave up.

wdb• 2 years ago

I think I just read a news article about Windows advertising about the many notifications on Macs?

Havoc• 2 years ago

They're increasingly becoming UX hostile.

Also, what's up with the random "welcome to your new device, lets set everything up". Seen that about 4 times already on my current W11 install.

simonblack4• 2 years ago

I usually keep a minimal Windows partition on my machines by reducing the Windows install that comes with my machines down to 100 gig or even less.

But over the last few years, the Windows 10 and Windows 11 installations are being booted occasionally merely to update the Windows itself.

More and more I'm considering that to be a waste of time, because I don't use Win 10 or Win 11 for anything practical. I only use Win 7 when I do use Windows.

It's probably time to blow away those Win 10 and Win 11 partitions entirely, I think.

hulitu• 2 years ago

Microsoft's full-screen reminders – upgrade to Windows 11 are back

Even if you filter *.microsoft.com and other domains in firewall ?

Microsoft's full-screen reminders – upgrade to Windows 11 are back

Related Stories