Paranoia over Windows 10’s privacy policy is reaching its apex with the news that users of the operating system have been banned by a number of torrent trackers. The excessive prohibition has been implemented over concerns that Microsoft’s newest Windows iteration could share data related to torrents and associated servers with the company.
Windows 10 has been attacked from all quarters for its invasive approach to user privacy, from sharing WiFi access with other people to its storage and sharing of user data gathered through software, apps, and the Cortana personal assistant. Erroneous reports even emerged that Microsoft’s Software License Terms allowed the company to delete pirated files from Windows 10 computers.
One of the torrent trackers to ban Windows 10 over privacy concerns, iTS, told TorrentFreak that Microsoft’s lack of transparency over what data the operating system collects and how it is used has driven the block.
“Unfortunately Microsoft decided to revoke any kind of data protection and submit whatever they can gather to not only themselves but also others. One of those is one of the largest anti-piracy company called MarkMonitor,” a spokesperson for iTS said.
“Amongst other things Windows 10 sends the contents of your local disks directly to one of their servers. Obviously this goes way too far and is a serious threat to sites like ours which is why we had to take measures,” they added.
Trackers BB and FSC are also considering a ban on Windows 10. “We have also found [Windows 10] will be gathering information on users’ P2P use to be shared with anti piracy group,” BB staff told its users. “What’s particularly nasty is that apparently it sends the results of local(!!) searches to a well known anti piracy company directly so as soon as you have one known p2p or scene release on your local disk … BAM!”
In the same vein, FSC informed users, “As we all know, Microsoft recently released Windows 10. You as a member should know, that we as a site are thinking about banning the OS from FSC. That would mean you cannot use the site with the OS installed.”
If you use torrents, it might be expedient to ditch Windows 10.
Thank you TorrentFreak for providing us with this information.
Image courtesy of ITPro.
Windows 10 is the best thing that happened to the Linux world.
You are either a troll or incredibly dense.
Troll or not, but might be right. Someone someday will finally design one of the Unix systems to be extremely friendly for ordinary user. Extremely friendly means so easy to use, like couple of mouse clicks in any aspect of operating. If we add the fact: our own privacy being left for us, not gathered by someone – the success is guaranteed.
We, MS users need to be happen. Why? Because only then MS will turn their policy of “have it all” by 180 degrees… They wouldn’t get the trust back, but it is no matter any more. The point is they will be trying to get it – and that will move themselves far away from invigilate everyone – ever.
Ubuntu? Linux Mint? Elementary OS? Even OSX. These are all very user-friendly. The reason why the vast majority of people use Windows is that it comes pre-installed on almost every PC.
I don’t think so. It’s mostly because of software compatibility
Software such as browsers or office suites? The vast majority of people aren’t even aware of other operating systems, let alone possess the skills to install one (which is really just clicking “next” for ones like Ubuntu or Mint, but whatever).
Software isn’t the real issue, and compatibility is extremely high for Linux, with Wine allowing you to use a lot of Windows programs. The problem is marketing and lobbying by Microsoft and Apple. Linux doesn’t have that kind of money to sell itself, because it doesn’t make that kind of money (most distros make no money at all).
Only a small fraction of users will require specific software, and the Wine project works on compatibility for the biggest of those, such as MS Office, Photoshop, etc. Furthermore, there are almost always FOSS alternatives to commercial software: LibreOffice, Gimp, Blender, VLC, etc. People like to complain about a different interface or missing functions, but it’s mostly complaining for the sake of it, as the programs work extremely well, in many cases better than commercial software. Gaming is also no longer as much of an issue as it used to be, because Steam developed a gaming OS based on Ubuntu and are now actively trying to expand into the Linux market.
Even if I do have to sacrifice certain functions, I feel that I gain a lot more than I lose with Linux. But that’s just me, you’re free to choose whatever suits you.
Software such as browsers or office suites? The vast majority of people aren’t even aware of other operating systems, let alone possess the skills to install one (which is really just clicking “next” for ones like Ubuntu or Mint, but whatever).
Software isn’t the real issue, and compatibility is extremely high for Linux, with Wine allowing you to use a lot of Windows programs. The problem is marketing and lobbying by Microsoft and Apple. Linux doesn’t have that kind of money to sell itself, because it doesn’t make that kind of money (most distros make no money at all).
Only a small fraction of users will require specific software, and the Wine project works on compatibility for the biggest of those, such as MS Office, Photoshop, etc. Furthermore, there are almost always FOSS alternatives to commercial software: LibreOffice, Gimp, Blender, VLC, etc. People like to complain about a different interface or missing functions, but it’s mostly complaining for the sake of it, as the programs work extremely well, in many cases better than commercial software. Gaming is also no longer as much of an issue as it used to be, because Steam developed a gaming OS based on Ubuntu and are now actively trying to expand into the Linux market.
Even if I do have to sacrifice certain functions, I feel that I gain a lot more than I lose with Linux. But that’s just me, you’re free to choose whatever suits you.
Even if you use Wine, there are still workarounds needed to run games made to run on Windows. Not all Windows games run with Wine too. There’s also GPU drivers issue. Steam OS is also not used widely
Of course it’s not that easy and simple yet, but it is improving. If you play PC games a lot, but are worried about Win10, you can always dual-boot, or run a native Windows system from a virtual machine inside Linux, or screw around with Wine to make favourite games work. The options are limitless, and everybody can choose what suits them best.
SteamOS isn’t used widely, but it marks an important turning point where many games are being re-developed or re-packaged specifically for Linux.
Yeah, I’m not arguing about that. I was debating about why most people are using Windows instead of Linux
Then I rest my case 🙂 Lack of knowledge and technical skills, and simply lazyness coupled with lack of desire for change (and fear of the unknown perhaps). I remember how excited and adventurous I felt when installing Ubuntu for the first time. Now I use Arch and don’t think about it much, until I have to use a Windows PC, at which point I just sigh 🙂
Just think how non-tech-savvy the average person is. If all they ever knew was Linux, they’d “learn” Linux first and have absolutely no problem using it. If it came pre-installed on their computer, they’d never go out and buy a Windows CD and install Windows. Especially not when they have to pay extra.
I think the clue here is “how excited and adventurous I felt when installing Ubuntu”. Most normal people find the process of installing anything on a PC a tedious and frustrating waste of their lives.
I agree that I’m abnormal, but it is a shame that there aren’t more “normal people” trying out new things. Most of us use a computer every day, so trying out an OS that could improve productivity or the computer’s shelf life shouldn’t logically be seen as a waste of time.
Nice in theory, but in practice I seem to spend too much time trying to get new stuff to work, or undoing lovely “updates” that brick my computer. Like you said, most of us use a computer everyday, but most of us don’t enjoy wasting hours just trying to get our kettle to boil some f***ing water (which it managed just fine before I “upgraded” it 😉
That’s a shame. Maybe try a different distro? I spent a pretty long time installing Arch, but I’ve only had to install it once, now everything just works. Everything on my computer is updated with a single command, so far nothing has broken, but even if it does, I can just as easily revert to the previous state.
In the end, it’s about whatever suits you the most. You can use BeOS if that’s what rocks your boat.
Thanks for the tip (about Arch, not BeOS 😉 I think most people don’t want to spend days discovering which operating system is best for them. In fact they don’t want to be aware of the operating system at all. Most needs are basic, and stuff should just work…
Thanks for the tip (about Arch, not BeOS 😉 I think most people don’t want to spend days discovering which operating system is best for them. In fact they don’t want to be aware of the operating system at all. Most needs are basic, and stuff should just work…
The reason is that there is not ONE major distribution supported by the community. Even if there was ONE major distribution, 10 days latter we would have 50 teams creating their own distributions cursing that ONE major distribution that all supported the first day. So, in that chaos, no manufacturer will throw money and resources to try to support 1-2-5-10-100 different distributions by creating drivers and troubleshooting for every little stupid thing that could lead to a driver working on 99 out of 100 distributions, but something going wrong on the 100th.
Divide and conquer and Microsoft didn’t had to do anything about it. Linux community is doing for years everything it can to maintain Microsoft’s monopoly.
Drivers for a large amount of hardware are already included in the Linux kernel, and the rest do not depend on the distro. All the different distros use the same kernel with different desktop environments and package managers. Yes, the latter may introduce new bugs into the configuration, but ultimately Linux is about there not being just ONE distro (you have MacOS for that, or FreeBSD if you’re feeling nerdy), rather it’s about freedom to choose whatever the heck you want on your computer. To reiterate, hardware compatibility isn’t much of an issue for Linux (it is for MacOS, but they’re doing just fine).
I think the main reason why most people install windows is because of the VIDEOGAMES… Fortunately, thanks to the VALVe incursion into the Linux territory, the things have changed for good.. And the things will change even more in November 😉
The same was said about Vista. Nothing changed unfortunately.
Steam Client for Linux is nothing? STEAM OS is nothing? To play without Windows, big games like both Metro Redux and Shadow of Mordor is nothing?
For me, it was like magic to play Metro 2033 Redux without the need of Windows 7… I hope this is just the beggining of the change in the PC gaming.
I am watching Linux from it’s first steps. 15 years ago I was trying every major distribution there was out there. I still have somewhere old SuSe, Debian and RedHat CDs. I still remember trying something on Linux that could just kill Windows on an old Celleron 333A. Opening programs while reading and writing at multiple storage devices at once. Today I just don’t bother. I wish Linux to become a major alternative to Windows(for over a decade), but it is still at 1-2% market share. That didn’t changed. You have to understand that, being able to play Metro 2033 Redux and a thousand more games from Steam on Linux, didn’t really led people to install Linux. And thats the problem.
Agreed i was thinking to install mint
Windows-7 is the best of the best. I love Windows-7.