I’m not saying my setup is any better, but it currently looks like this:

• Firefox
• UBO
• SponsorBlock
• Return YouTube Dislikes
• DeArrow
• Archive.ph

I’m open to suggestions if anybody knows any better alternatives. I’ve had mixed luck with services that filter out YouTube’s crap.

I have a few programs that will reach out to the internet when the user explicitly checks for updates. Feel free to rip apart my amateur projects: https://github.com/Jestzer

Yup. Programmers who have only ever been programmers tend to act like god’s gift to this world.

Fair enough, I respect that.

I don’t think that necessarily means your data will be deleted and not used to train their LLMs, though.

I think you’re partially right, at least, based off my personal experiences.

My wife who despises Windows is primarily a macOS user, but she’s fine with using Linux, assuming I’ve setup anything “technical” beforehand.

However, I think complacency will continue to thrive for Windows-only users. I think there’s only a small vocal minority that is switching from Windows to Linux. Most of the people I work with continue to use and complain about Windows, but are too intimidated by Linux to switch. I think the average Joe doesn’t even know Linux exists.

I appreciate your well-thought response. I’ll give you my 2¢ and I want to preface what I’m about to say with the idea that this not a hill I’m willing to die on, it’s just my personal experience.

On the contrary, I have accidentally ran into a number of people online saying “I’m so happy with the performance of my Linux box” but less so for Windows, but that’s likely due to the communities I’m a part of. I also made my original comment with specific, stubborn people I know in real life, who hate Windows and refuse to do anything about it.

The time you’ve seemingly spent configuring Windows sounds like the same amount of time an average Linux user would spend to setup theirs. I also use Windows, macOS, and Linux daily and have all kinds of weird issues on all 3 of them, but for Windows, since everything is closed source, there’s often nothing I can do about those issues other than wait for an update and hope those issues are fixed. The same goes for macOS but the number of issues I have with it are very minimal in comparison. But at the end of the day, if this setup makes you happy, then I’m happy to hear it.

This would be a lot more accurate if Windows users weren’t constantly complaining about Windows.

“Tall, dark, bad boy with power” = Darth Vader