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Something this article glosses over is the fact that Microsoft knew all of the web URLs he was visiting. I don’t know if that’s because he was dumb enough to sign into Edge with his Microsoft account or if they were collecting that a different way, but the GDID wouldn’t have been nearly as useful without that info.
And able to identify the specific accounts he was logging into. How are they able to do that?
Year of the Linux desktop anyone?
Seems like the answer is never. The masses are too addicted to PC games to give it up.
It’s not the PC games keeping people so much. Proton solved a lot of that problem. It’s inertia.
Most people don’t care about things. They just don’t. Their brains just don’t have the juice.
A lot is professional software. Many people have one or two pieces of software they use a lot which doesn’t run on Linux.
This is my issue. There are two specific pieces of software that only run on Windows. Even worse, there is one program that only runs on Mac. So in order to properly do my job, I need to maintain both a Windows laptop and a Mac. And ditching them is virtually impossible, because the Windows machine is used to control/configure a lot of gear, and the Mac program is an industry standard program that virtually every technician is expected to know.
I don’t think that’s actually very many people. Not for their personal computers. Most people don’t run much more than a web browser, if they don’t play games.
People tend to use the stuff they’re already used to. They could probably use Linux but if they buy a Laptop which has Windows preinstalled and they’re used to Windows it’s hard to get them to make the jump
Right. Inertia is the metaphor I used to express that idea.
The bigger problem is that most people just aren’t up for installing an OS themselves. I’ve certainly never had the chutzpah to replace Android, and I’m more tech savvy than most
100%. I think a lot about one of my friends when trying to think about that kind of user. Smart lady. Advanced degree. Has her life together. Would absolutely not want to try to install an OS. Wouldn’t even know how to start.
But I’m confident if I handed her a Linux laptop, she’d use it just the same as a Mac or Windows machine.
Gaming hasn’t been an issue for years
There are certain games that refuse to enable anticheat on Linux. So if you play one of those games, you’re forced to use Windows. But that isn’t Linux’s fault. It’s simply the game makers refusing to enable Linux support. Multiple game devs have even stated that it’s basically an “enable on Linux” checkbox on their end, but the publishers want that sweet kernel-level access on Windows.
The same user posted a thread in this comm about the Linux equivalent, device-id, which is possibly more problematic.
The complaint quotes a Microsoft representative describing the GDID as “a persistent, device-level identifier designed to uniquely identify an installation of a Windows operating system on a device, either a physical device (e.g., a mobile phone or laptop) or virtual machine, across certain Microsoft services and scenarios”
A Global Device ID (GDID) is a permanent, unique digital fingerprint that Microsoft automatically assigns to your computer when you install Windows or sign into a Microsoft account.
Don’t forget the unique identifier of Edge and Chrome.
Does MS track what you do in Edge and Windows, yes. Does Google track you in Crome and any app of theirs, yes. Does Apple track everything you do on their devices, yes. Does meta, twitter, all social media sites track the fuck out of you, also yes.
Does Linux track you? Does LibreWolf track you? Does GrapheneOS track you? Does Vanadium track you? Does SimpleX or Signal track you? Does…
Never mind, I think you get my point.
Those idiots are so tiring, you’re wasting your time.
Those idiots are so tiring, you’re wasting your time.
tracking is a core function of pretty much all commercial software at this point
Yes, all of that is true.
Were you building up to making a point, or…
Then there’s activation. Massgrave, the group behind Microsoft Activation Scripts, notes that Windows setup sends hardware info to Microsoft and gets identifiers back, the same tokens later used for Store access and licensing: “It’s impossible to prevent Windows from getting a GDID without breaking activation and UWP app[s].” Anyone who lost a license after swapping a motherboard has already met a smaller version of this.
I guess this is why people always said it was impossible to remove the watermark that appears when you are not activated, when it was rolled out many years ago.
Defeating the reasons for activation might’ve lead the more tech-savvy to figuring out the nature of the identifiers being sent for activation and seeing where else they are sent.
why would a hacker use windows?
Probably bc its the most used os
My company is moving to Windows 11, I had one of my service desk teammates tell me that for an IT support person I’m very critical of change
Before Windows 11 I was critical of change because every change came with no new training for my team and a giant email to the company explaining very lazily about the changes and with the same text at the end of every email… “Any problems call the service desk”.
Now we’ve lost active directory… Now I’m in a position where an incredibly incompetent IT security have restricted our access to intune and Entra and then the business wants me to still perform my daily duties as normal.
Upside is that same IT security is getting removed in the next few weeks.
Probably to be replaced by someone else even worse.
I just want to learn how to use Entra and Intune… Everything Microsoft touches turns to shit.
Active directory just worked… It was built when people at Microsoft actually knew how the operating system worked… None of those people are still at Microsoft…
This sounds so much like the snitch code from Thieves’ Emporium by Max Hernandez, written in 2014.
Or at least I believe it was 2014.
Removed by mod
