• Reddfugee42@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    214
    arrow-down
    8
    ·
    13 days ago

    The real answer?

    “We once gave you commoners this power and you used it to fuck your computer up and then blamed us for it, so we learned you can’t be trusted with this power. We hid it behind a kind of skill test, and you’re failing that test.”

  • John Richard@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    187
    arrow-down
    21
    ·
    13 days ago

    Andrew is not very smart. Windows isn’t very good, but he is very clueless. There are legitimate things to complain about, but Andrew just complains.

    • Skull giver@popplesburger.hilciferous.nl
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      90
      arrow-down
      8
      ·
      13 days ago

      Andrew doesn’t know how file system permissions work. He complains that computers demand he keeps up, but these ACLs have been a thing since Windows XP (for consumers, much longer for older NT versions) so clearly the 14 years he had to catch up weren’t enough.

      I’m not sure why he brought up moving to 64 bit (guess he came from XP, perhaps?), I don’t think thats relevant to anything here.

      He doesn’t seem to know what an administrator account is (so his normal account probably is an administrator account) and rants something about “owners” as if that means anything to a computer.

      He also concludes that this needs to be done for every file (it doesn’t) and then gets mad about that.

      Fixing ACLs sucks, it takes forever and the UI isn’t very good for novices, but this guy’s anger seems to be misdirected towards his own misunderstandings about how Windows works and has worked for over a decade at the point he came to the forums.

      None of this is because of “changes”, if anything his problem is exacerbated by the fact Windows still has the Win2000 permissions dialog on ACLs to this day.

      • John Richard@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        30
        arrow-down
        4
        ·
        13 days ago

        Windows permissions can be tricky… I’ll give them that. A lot of the tools Microsoft provides are not very straightforward.

        However, PowerShell and tools from Sysinternals suite, or open source tools as well, make it a lot easier.

        Managing permissions on Linux, especially if doing the ACL thing, can be complicated too. I’ve really never ran into many permission issues myself. psexec has been helpful too when needing to access things as the SYSTEM user and not get those stupid prompts asking me to change permissions for protected folders.

        • Skull giver@popplesburger.hilciferous.nl
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          18
          ·
          13 days ago

          Having used secured SELinux enterprise code, I’ve learned that Linux permissions can be even more complicated than Windows’ when multiple permission models suddenly overlap. There’s an endless supply of special bit flags, security contexts, and sandboxing features that all overlap.

          I’ve run into very complicated Linux permission issues when combining SELinux (properly configured, not just neutered and standby) and system services in some specific configuration. Once you start applying the permission systems that Windows comes with by default in Linux, you get the same problems (or worse ones, as Linux has a multitude of permission systems stacked on top of each other).

          On Windows, I recall one particularly messed up drive from another computer that not even NT_AURHORITY\SYSTEM was allowed to alter the ownership of. Luckily Linux happily stripped out all the permissions for me because Linux can plainly ignores ACL if you’re root and provide the right flags. Probably a terrible way to break ACLs in a managed environment, but this time it was a feature!

          • ericatty@lemmy.ml
            link
            fedilink
            arrow-up
            7
            ·
            12 days ago

            Omg, it’s an inside-joke at our company now.

            Anytime something happens on a server that’s been running great for years, like a hard drive going bad or the time one literally caught on fire…

            98% of the time it is selinux that is the reason it is doing weird things after the main fix because selinux changed a setting on the reboot.

            “Have you checked selinux?” is the go to question whenever anything breaks now, even if it’s not a computer.

          • frezik@midwest.social
            link
            fedilink
            arrow-up
            4
            ·
            12 days ago

            We tend to forget about it these days, but the Unix permissions model was criticized for decades for being overly simplistic. One user having absolute authority, with limited ways to delegate specific authority to other users, is not a good model for multi-user operating systems. At least not in environments with more than a few users.

            A well-configured sudo or SELinux can overcome this, which is one reason we don’t bring it up much anymore. We also changed the whole model, where most people have individual PCs, and developers are often in their own little VM environment on a larger server.

            • I agree with the critics, the Unix permission model is too basic. I’ve run into this myself doing the very difficult operation of “reusing an ext4 USB drive on another computer” because all the files were suddenly owned by a user that didn’t even exist on my laptop.

              NTFS fixed this issue by having the OS generate user IDs across systems rather than reusing the same IDs and making the administrators match everything up. I don’t think selinux can fix that, though.

              I welcome the extensions bringing Linux’ permission model to the 21st century, but the way they’ve all been implemented independently does cause some weird edge cases that clearly nobody has tested.

    • gravitas_deficiency@sh.itjust.works
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      50
      arrow-down
      1
      ·
      13 days ago

      I think Andrew might be a lawyer.

      My roommate for a couple years in college was pre-law, and did some internships after graduation but before gaining his own law degree. He mentioned at one point how absolutely and hilariously pervasive it was at the firm he was working for attorneys to just run screaming to IT every single time literally anything was even the slightest bit inconvenient or obtuse (to their understanding). Part of it was the logic of “I bill clients at $800/hr, I am not spending my time to resolve whatever this hiccup is”, but part of it was absolutely also some bullshit power dynamics.

          • datavoid@lemmy.ml
            link
            fedilink
            English
            arrow-up
            18
            ·
            13 days ago

            I was working with a doc on an IT problem a few months ago… It was a mildy terrifying experience, I would never want someone so ignorant as my doctor.

            • GreyEyedGhost@lemmy.ca
              link
              fedilink
              arrow-up
              24
              arrow-down
              2
              ·
              12 days ago

              I don’t know, I don’t think I want the best IT person in the world performing an appendectomy.

              Just because you’re an expert in one field doesn’t mean you’re an expert in every field.

              • MonkeMischief@lemmy.today
                link
                fedilink
                arrow-up
                11
                ·
                edit-2
                12 days ago

                I don’t think I want the best IT person in the world performing an appendectomy.

                “Okay so let’s start with the simplest thing by performing a power cycle and seeing if that fixes it…CLEAR!”

        • Dr. Bob@lemmy.ca
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          5
          arrow-down
          18
          ·
          edit-2
          13 days ago

          I was married to a lawyer for years. They have to bill somewhere from 1700-2200 hours a year to stay on partner track. And they can’t bill every hour that they’re working (although they can double up sometimes by using the minimum 2/10ths of an hour). My sympathy is with the lawyer. It’s not a power dynamic, it’s how the firm makes money and what you’re there to do.

          • mosiacmango
            link
            fedilink
            arrow-up
            17
            arrow-down
            1
            ·
            edit-2
            12 days ago

            Yeah, because being a raging asshole to your coworkers is justified as long as it helps you “stay on partner track.”

            Abusive people always find justifications for it.

            • MonkeMischief@lemmy.today
              link
              fedilink
              arrow-up
              16
              ·
              edit-2
              12 days ago

              “Look guys, their industry makes their boss abusive to them which makes them abusive to their staff, so it’s just how it is because money…”

              This is like "Well my drunk granddad had anger issues after the war so he beat my dad who beat me something fierce and I turned out fine " of the professional world.

              Some people think enough money or status is worth disrespecting other human beings who are just trying to do their already shitty enough job, and that’s concerning.

              I.T has to hit their “ticket targets” to stay on the “lights come on when they flip the switch at home” track, it’s how they make their money and what they’re paid to do.

              Playing coddling psychologist for grown adults who could pass a bar exam but can’t handle basic respect doesn’t make things any easier lol.

              To any of those types reading this:

              Stressed or not, it’s amazing how fast things move when you work with IT as teammates instead of underlings, using your level brain instead of your emotionally unstable mouth.

            • Dr. Bob@lemmy.ca
              link
              fedilink
              English
              arrow-up
              6
              arrow-down
              13
              ·
              12 days ago

              Because their continued employment depends on them hitting their targets so they need support staff to do their jobs.

              • mosiacmango
                link
                fedilink
                arrow-up
                16
                arrow-down
                1
                ·
                edit-2
                12 days ago

                Yup, there’s the justification right on time. They had to abandon basic civility and professionalism to “hit their targets.”

                Thats why they can be abusive, ignore the company process for tickets, threaten their coworkers, whatever they want. They need to “stay on parnet track” and “hit their targets.” No one else has any stressors or requirements at their workplace, just the lawyers.

                Nevermind that the “support staff” make sure lots of people, processes and services work, and may individually be more important to “hitting targets” for the company as a whole than any individual lawyer.

                How about the lawyers “do their job” by interacting with their coworkers professionally? By submitting tickets correctly and in a timely manner?

                Abusing your coworkers is never justified.

                • ASeriesOfPoorChoices@lemmy.world
                  link
                  fedilink
                  arrow-up
                  2
                  arrow-down
                  1
                  ·
                  edit-2
                  12 days ago

                  edit: nix this.


                  they never justified anything.

                  they explained.

                  explained why they were raging assholes or whatever.

                  but didn’t justify.

              • hedgehog@ttrpg.network
                link
                fedilink
                arrow-up
                13
                ·
                12 days ago

                But being rude and abusive to support staff doesn’t help, encourage, or even compel the support staff do their jobs any better or faster. In fact, I’d wager it’s rather the opposite.

                I work in IT (not IT support, though) and I’m fortunate enough that none of my business partners are outright abusive. Even so, I still have some that I deprioritize compared to others because working with them is a pain (things like asking for project proposals to solve X problem and never having money to fund them). If someone was actively rude to me when I had fucked up, much less when I was doing a great job, I can guarantee I wouldn’t work any better or faster when it was for them.

    • Carighan Maconar@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      21
      arrow-down
      1
      ·
      13 days ago

      Yeah like, complain about the one thing MS is finally improving in recent years, clamping down on non-admin users and non-admin permissions.

  • onlooker@lemmy.ml
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    78
    arrow-down
    9
    ·
    13 days ago

    Andrew is ignorant. He could learn the basics of computer literacy, which would answer all his questions, but I’ll take a shot in the dark and say that Andrew doesn’t want to do that and is perfectly happy being ignorant. And also angry.

  • amio@kbin.run
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    61
    ·
    13 days ago

    “I shouldn’t have to use permissions or sudo, just all root all the time”

      • anytimesoon@feddit.uk
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        5
        ·
        13 days ago

        I don’t run as root because I’ve always been told I shouldn’t. I don’t know enough about anything to be contradicting stuff like this. It has always seemed weird to me that we don’t run as root and then just sudo everything, though.

        What is the reason we don’t run as root?

        • emergencyfood@sh.itjust.works
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          13
          ·
          13 days ago

          What is the reason we don’t run as root?

          We are human and make mistakes. Not running as root means the computer will ask us to confirm when we are about to do something major (like a software update, or formatting a partition). This reduces the chance of making big mistakes. (But I don’t see why VLC shouldn’t be able to run as root, if the user so desires.)

          • psud@aussie.zone
            link
            fedilink
            arrow-up
            2
            ·
            11 days ago

            (But I don’t see why VLC shouldn’t be able to run as root, if the user so desires.)

            You don’t run VLC as root because you don’t especially trust that build of VLC

            We don’t run random stuff as root because it’s a stupid risk. We try to only take necessary risks. Risks that make things easier. Running random programs as root gains you nothing and causes annoyance in that you need to fix permissions on its configuration files if you want to run out as a user

            There is nothing stopping you though if you want to set up a Linux machine where you log in as root, run a desktop environment as root, run apps as root. You’re unlikely to be taking an unreasonable risk as a home user.

            • emergencyfood@sh.itjust.works
              link
              fedilink
              arrow-up
              1
              ·
              10 days ago

              But I don’t see why VLC shouldn’t be able to run as root, if the user so desires.

              For the reasons you described, I won’t run VLC as root, and I don’t think 99% of users would need to. But if someone wanted to do it, the software shouldn’t stop them from doing it (beyond giving a warning and asking them to confirm).

        • MartianSands@sh.itjust.works
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          5
          ·
          13 days ago

          Because you might accidentally do something which breaks the system, or you might run a program which does something malicious without your knowledge.

          By gating dangerous (or protected for any other reason) commands behind sudo, you create a barrier which is difficult to accidentally cross

        • Trainguyrom@reddthat.com
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          3
          ·
          edit-2
          12 days ago

          A big part of it comes from the security model and Linux historically being a multi-user environment. root owns the root directly / which is where all of the system files live. A normal user just has access to their own home directory /home/username and read-only access to things the normal user needs like the /bin where programs are stored (hence /bin/bash in lots of bash scripts, it tells the script what program to run the script from)

          Because of this model, a normal user can only mess up their own files, while root can mess up everyone’s files and of course make the system non-bootablem. But also you can have user Bob signed in and doing stuff but unable to access user Alice’s files, and user Alice can be doing stuff and even running the same programs that user Bob is running (since it’s read only there’s no conflict) and then the administrator can log in as root to install something because they got a ticket to install suchandsuch for soandso.

          Back to your point with sudo, sudo is Super User Do, so you are running a single command as root. By running it as root you can potentially be messing up with Alice and Bob might be doing, and most importantly whatever you are running with sudo can potentially affect any file on the computer. So if you run the classic rm -rf / it will delete every file that the user has write access to, so if bob runs it it’ll delete all of /home/bob/ but Alice will be unaffected, and the admin can still log in as root to do stuff. But if you run it as root you’ll quickly find the server unable to boot and both Alice and Bob will be very upset that they can’t access the server or their files

          If you host a website you’ll generally take advantage of this by giving the www folder read-only access so that web users can only see webpages and can’t start reading random system files, or for server software you can create a dedicated user to run that server software as, so if someone were to somehow exploit a vulnerability and gain access to that server user they can only mess up the software and no system files

        • Laser@feddit.org
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          2
          ·
          13 days ago

          You’re not supposed to “sudo everything” though. It’s mostly for changing the system configuration (editing config files in /etc/, running your system package manager etc.). It shouldn’t be a “oh, I got a permission error, better sudo the same command again olol”

  • yuri@pawb.social
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    50
    arrow-down
    2
    ·
    12 days ago

    In defense of Andrew, until windows 10 never had I ever installed a program that made it’s own files untouchable unless you did some real fuckery with permissions.

    As soon as they introduced that little warning screen in program files it was clear shit was going downhill for power users.

    • DudeDudenson@lemmings.world
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      10
      ·
      12 days ago

      I discovered basic versions of windows are even more restrictive when I was unable to install my favorite lightweight pdf reader in a friend’s laptop because Windows home just said that for my safety I wasn’t allowed. With no option to bypass this limitation being hinted at.

      Ended up installing it anyways but had to run the installer from an admin terminal (luckily it was windows 7 so it was a local account with admin rights instead of a bullshit Microsoft one)

      • yuri@pawb.social
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        1
        ·
        11 days ago

        I make that same mistake enough that at this point I figure I’m just contributing to the paradigm shift of modern english grammar.

        Making the oxford comma mandatory is my next big target.

  • TCB13@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    37
    arrow-down
    3
    ·
    13 days ago

    Andrew complains, Microsoft makes a root mode so Andrew can have his way. Andrew breaks his computer the next second by deleting a system file and proceeds to call Microsoft support. :)

    • Honytawk@lemmy.zip
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      29
      arrow-down
      4
      ·
      edit-2
      13 days ago

      Most of the annoying stuff that Linux users hate about Windows are because Windows has to cater to even the least technologically knowledgeable users.

      It is why Windows updates are forced, why so many files are locked behind SYSTEM user and can’t easily be circumvented, why some settings are registry or Group Policy only, why some settings are opt out, …

      Without those, their support center would blow up.

      So if Linux wants to become mainstream, it will have to cater to those users as well. And Linux will slowly turn into Windows.

      • TCB13@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        13
        arrow-down
        1
        ·
        13 days ago

        Most of the annoying stuff that Linux users hate about Windows are because Windows has to cater to even the least technologically knowledgeable users.

        Isn’t that the whole idea of GNOME? Always considering users as stupid and lowering the bar?

      • NekuSoul@lemmy.nekusoul.de
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        6
        arrow-down
        1
        ·
        13 days ago

        And Linux will slowly turn into Windows.

        Some distros maybe, but I’d say that instead we’d quickly have another golden era of malware.

    • Clbull@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      36
      ·
      edit-2
      12 days ago

      He could alternatively go to…

      Stackoverflow or Superuser, where the answer will be “use the search bar you imbecile, locked.”

      Quora, where every question is blatant rage bait like “my 14 year old son got a B in his test. I took away his PS5 and chained him in the basement as punishment but his grades aren’t improving. How can I make him better at math?”

      Yahoo Answers which is dead, and was basically Quora before Quora was a thing.

      Or Reddit, where you can’t even post on 95% of subs without hitting a minimum karma threshold and where some basement dwelling mod will likely ban you for breaking hidden rule #263, then modmail mute you for 28 days without reply if you try to appeal.

      I think any Q&A site is absolute dog water now.

      • luciferofastora@lemmy.zip
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        19
        ·
        12 days ago

        They could come to lemmy!

        …where people will definitely give helpful answers and not just dunk on them for not using Linux before diving into an extended argument about distros, sudo and run0

        • Amelia_@lemmy.blahaj.zone
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          7
          arrow-down
          1
          ·
          12 days ago

          You’re completely right, but there’s a good reason why this happens. Why are people so insistent on trying to find fixes and workarounds for a broken system?

          It’s absolutely the same mindset as boomers complaining about technology these days because they don’t want to learn how to download a mobile app. These people grew up with Windows and are too stubborn or insecure to learn something new, even if it’s consistently better in multiple different ways. Yes, there are a few exceptions to that argument, but for the most part the arguments against switching to Linux are flimsy excuses, or outdated, or both.

          • Clbull@lemmy.world
            link
            fedilink
            arrow-up
            4
            ·
            edit-2
            12 days ago

            It’s absolutely the same mindset as boomers complaining about technology these days because they don’t want to learn how to download a mobile app.

            I’m really not too sure about that.

            Used to work in customer service for a major right wing (Daily Mail) newspaper, and that included tech support for their rewards club website, their newspaper reading Android/iOS/Kindle Fire app, and their bookshop website.

            Pensioners struggle with technology and I really don’t think it’s just stubbornness and ignorance. I genuinely think that your ability to learn and remember things diminishes greatly as you grow older.

            It was one of the worst jobs I worked in, not just because trying to explain how to do basic things like open a web browser, type in a URL or force stop and clear the cache on an Android app to a 90+ year old is like pulling teeth, but because we were paid like crap, treated like children by management, treated like shit by a lot of customers, and because we used to get a lot of editorial calls from people thinking we could put them through to a journalist so they could spout their often bigoted views. So glad I work in accountancy now. The worst customer support jobs are the ones where callers frequently go full Karen on you.

            • GelatinGeorge@lemmy.world
              link
              fedilink
              arrow-up
              3
              ·
              12 days ago

              Good grief, that might be the worst customer service job I’ve ever heard of. I’ve worked Sainsbury’s ‘head office’ - which was just the outsourced customer service centre for people who phone store chains to complain about cucumbers - and that was bad enough, but at least I got some good stories out of it (“My watermelon has exploded and I’m afraid of the second one. Can a man come round and take it away?” First ever call).

              You were getting Mail readers who are already a self-selecting group of thick cunts and you were getting the worst of them. Jesus Christ, that must have been rough. So, so happy for you that you’re out of that, I can’t imagine what that would do to someone’s mental health!

              • Clbull@lemmy.world
                link
                fedilink
                arrow-up
                2
                ·
                edit-2
                10 days ago

                For the record, this was for a customer service outsourcer I used to work for. I wasn’t directly employed by Associated Newspapers and I’d say a good deal of the internal managerial and pay issues I had were down to my employer, not the client. Only thing I miss about that place were my colleagues. I had made some life-long friends in that place and there were a lot of great people who came and went.

                As for management, one or two team leaders aside, they were a clique of nepotistic assholes.

                I was fired from that job nearly three years into my employment (long after we lost the AN contract and I moved to a different campaign) for ‘capability’ reasons, after they dragged me through a month-long PIP and disciplinary process for failing to hit targets. Our whole email team was failing to hit performance targets and I was effectively scapegoated and bullied out of the company by a team leader who didn’t like me. In retrospect it was the best thing to ever happen to me, because had I not been sacked, I’d probably still be there on min wage and not working in commercial finance today.

            • Churbleyimyam
              link
              fedilink
              arrow-up
              1
              arrow-down
              1
              ·
              12 days ago

              My condolences on having had to work for the Mail!

              My mum really wants to use her smartphone but we’ve been struggling to teach her.

              Do you have any tips?

              • Clbull@lemmy.world
                link
                fedilink
                arrow-up
                1
                ·
                10 days ago

                Can’t say much about iPhones because the last time I used iOS was about a decade ago, but I’m not a fan of Apple for how often they ask you to sign in to your Apple ID just to do anything on the App Store.

                As for Android, learning how to open an app’s settings menu to force stop it and clear its cache is a godsend. It solves about 99% of technical issues I may face.

          • luciferofastora@lemmy.zip
            link
            fedilink
            arrow-up
            4
            ·
            12 days ago

            Retraining people to use new tools on a corporate scale is an immense endeavour, probably a huge cost given the dip in productivity, and that’s assuming there is an equivalent Linux tool in the first place.

            For some people, learning new stuff isn’t as easy, and they just don’t have the investment to do so when all they want is to go about their day. The expectation that people shouldn’t be so reluctant to learn something new ignores the inflexibility that long-established habits bring in some demographics.

            Conversely, while that demographic is locked into using Windows by virtue of the cost-benefit function to learning something new just too… not be using Windows anymore? is just unfavourable, others will have to cater to them.

            Technology is advancing way faster these days, and it’s unfair to demand that everyone keep up with it. Hence, while recommending Linux is a good thing, being an elitist about it (as the people my previous commend alluded to tend to be) is unproductive.

            • Amelia_@lemmy.blahaj.zone
              link
              fedilink
              arrow-up
              4
              arrow-down
              1
              ·
              12 days ago

              Corporate adoption is Linux is absolutely a completely different discussion. Users of corporate devices are not the owners of their device, they have no expectation of control or freedom, and the tasks completed on these devices are typically simple and restricted. So yes, very little of my initial comment applies to that.

              As for your other arguments, I would agree that the general everyday public with very little knowledge of Linux or the differences from Windows should have little expectation of switching over unless they decide to investigate for themselves. The main target my complaints are those people who come in to threads like these who do have the technical understanding to complain about Windows and understand that Linux is different, but constantly whine that they could never switch because this reason or that reason and oh won’t those Linux nerds please just accept that Windows is better even though we’re talking in the eighteenth thread full of people who hate it.

              • psud@aussie.zone
                link
                fedilink
                arrow-up
                1
                ·
                edit-2
                11 days ago

                I think we’ll see more office drones happy with Libre Office (perhaps even on Linux) to avoid the monthly fee for MS 365, not in the office, because few care about what the boss provides (except for the crap screens) but at home

          • yokonzo@lemmy.world
            link
            fedilink
            English
            arrow-up
            2
            ·
            11 days ago

            This is absolutely the attitude he was just talking about, you can’t agree, then add a “but”

            Linux is not the fix for all that ails you, and it’s especially not the fix for non tech-savvy people, which as a reminder, is most people. Lemmy is not a good baseline for this because we’re all savvy enough to get onto the fediverse in the first place, which in itself is very confusing if you’re non tech savvy or coming from a place like reddit, where things are so fundamentally different.( Which i know for a fact most of you have experienced at some point)

            • psud@aussie.zone
              link
              fedilink
              arrow-up
              1
              arrow-down
              2
              ·
              11 days ago

              Linux is especially good for normal boring people. It’s only bad for tech-adventurist idiots. It does email, web, documents just like windows. There’s no learning curve (though it isn’t great for users unwilling to log in, as their keyring won’t be unlocked by auto (or biometric) log-in, so they need to add their login password before they can get email or have their browser log into Reddit for them

              • yokonzo@lemmy.world
                link
                fedilink
                English
                arrow-up
                1
                ·
                9 days ago

                Bet, go ahead and grab your parents or the nearest old fart you know who isn’t tech savvy and try to get them to install linux, libre Office, and thunderbird and attempt to use it.

                $100 says they won’t make it through using rufus without help

                • psud@aussie.zone
                  link
                  fedilink
                  arrow-up
                  1
                  ·
                  9 days ago

                  I wouldn’t do that. I installed the software for them and set up their email and showed them how to do things. Linux was harder to set up back when I did that. Printers were a headache especially

                  But once set up a Linux box is no harder to use than a windows or apple one

  • madcaesar@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    29
    ·
    12 days ago

    Man, I kind of feel for the poster.

    A while back I was tinkering with some website and installed some npm packages.

    Then I tried to delete the nodes modules folder… NOTHING worked… Safe mode, permissions change, command line deletion,… I spend like an hour googling and raging, it’s my fucking computer I put the fucking file there, let me delete it!!!

    I was ready to give up and finally stumbled on the answer on stack overflow. The npm folder that was created (I forget exactly what it was) had the ~ symbol in path name and that basically made the folder invincible.

    Luckily the poster also posted the command line to nuke the fucker and I was finally able to delete it.

    So yea, I kinda get it. Seeing that stupid you don’t have permission to delete this file pop-up is rage inducing.

    • psud@aussie.zone
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      2
      ·
      edit-2
      11 days ago

      Always know your escape characters! Usually \ works

      (I wonder how many clients show that as double backslash)

  • adksilence
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    33
    arrow-down
    4
    ·
    12 days ago

    Yeah, that guy’s issue isnt a matter of “Microsoft has control over my PC!!!”; more like “I’ve been using a computer for years and never actually looked at how things work under the surface”.

    Simple permissions error, happens in Linux all the time as well.

    • ByteOnBikes@slrpnk.net
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      20
      arrow-down
      1
      ·
      edit-2
      12 days ago

      Right?

      This reeks of inexperience.

      We lock things down because a malicious program can easily be “owned” by the user through stupid choices. And now you got viruses.

      This is a way to stupid proof things. And the workaround isnt difficult, but it’s to stop people like Andrew. And so far, success.

      • laughterlaughter@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        3
        arrow-down
        1
        ·
        12 days ago

        Why are you assuming so much about Andrew?

        What are these workarounds? And why are they workarounds and not standard procedures?

        • stephen01king@lemmy.zip
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          1
          ·
          10 days ago

          The workaround is to log in as an administrator and give his user account the permission to modify the files. Why is it not standard procedure? Because giving normal users the permission to edit everything by default instead of just files that they own is how people used to be able to delete system32 and brick their windows install.

          • laughterlaughter@lemmy.world
            link
            fedilink
            arrow-up
            1
            ·
            edit-2
            10 days ago

            I understand all that. After all, Andrew is asking for the power to become an admin.

            But given your reply, it seems like Andrew is asking for that power from the get-go which, of course, is a no go.

    • miridius@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      11
      arrow-down
      2
      ·
      12 days ago

      Eh? On Linux you also aren’t supposed to log in as root, and you also have to individually set file permissions.

      This issue is unrelated to windows, it’s a safety feature that all modern desktop OSes have

      • laughterlaughter@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        17
        ·
        edit-2
        12 days ago

        Yes, but on Linux, if I am root, I am God. I do whatever the fuck I want with my machine, for good, evil or stupidity. That’s the poster’s point. It seems like Windows doesn’t allow you to do this, or at least not easily. So I guess people who want to have absolute control over their computer shouldn’t be using Windows, I guess.

      • Lemzlez@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        6
        ·
        12 days ago

        It’s quite common to login as admin on windows though (in home setups), you’ll still have to authenticate for administrative tasks (the UAC popups).

        The issue here is mostly that the user has probably upgraded and windows changed their account, resulting in the files being owned by their old account.

        In linux, that’s fixable with ‘sudo chmod -R’

        In Windows, there’s no built-in way, you need the take ownership script.

          • Lemzlez@lemmy.world
            link
            fedilink
            English
            arrow-up
            1
            ·
            11 days ago

            Pretty much, yeah

            I assume the equivalent would just be ‘takeown /r <folder>’

            As far as I can tell it always uses the currently logged in user as target though

        • Joe Dyrt@lemmy.ml
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          1
          ·
          11 days ago

          I am the installer and only user of my pc, but Windows neeeds other users. Note: Phil is USERS not ADMIN! Not even Authenticated Users.

  • KomfortablesKissen@discuss.tchncs.de
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    24
    arrow-down
    1
    ·
    11 days ago

    I want to say “Haha, Idiot trusting Microsoft”.

    But honestly I want the same stuff he wants. Including modems in mobile phones. Including EVERYTHING I own.

    • drathvedro
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      17
      arrow-down
      2
      ·
      11 days ago

      There’s an OS you might like. It has no UAC, no file permissions, no sudo nor chmod, as it has no multi-user support, no antivirus and no firewall, no protection rings, not even spectre/meltdown mitigations, and most of all - no guard-rails whatsoever: You can patch the kernel directly at runtime and it won’t even give you a warn. And yet, it is perfectly safe to run. It’s called TempleOS and it achieves such a flawless security by having no networking support whatsoever and barely any support for removable media. If you want a piece a software - you just code it in, manually. You don’t have to check the code for backdoors if it’s entirely written by you… only for CIA at your actual back door…

    • wizzor@sopuli.xyz
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      6
      ·
      11 days ago

      What does ‘modems in mobile phones’ mean? Isn’t the whole thing a modem strapped onto a screen? What am I missing?

      • AProfessional@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        9
        ·
        11 days ago

        I think they just mean they should have control over the modem. They are all locked down and proprietary with known backdoors throughout history, effectively bypassing any OS level security.

      • WaterWaiver@aussie.zone
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        4
        ·
        edit-2
        11 days ago

        A lot of phone modems ship with their own SoC (processor) running its own OS. It’s much smaller and slower than the main phone SoC but, depending on its implementation, it can have full access to all of your main processor’s memory through DMA.

    • Skull giver@popplesburger.hilciferous.nl
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      27
      arrow-down
      1
      ·
      13 days ago

      chown won’t alter the ACLs set by setfacl (which is much closer to the permission model Windows follows).

      On Windows, you can use takeown /f "path" /r to recursively set the owner on a directory. Powershell can do more fine-grained control if necessary.

      The problem with this and your proposed Linux solution is that most normal users don’t know any command line tools and just want a button to access their files. Windows does have this, but it doesn’t always work reliably. On Linux it depends on the file manager, but I don’t think any of them support setfacl-style permissions.

      • Carighan Maconar@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        12
        arrow-down
        1
        ·
        13 days ago

        In which case you could also go right-click -> properties -> security -> advanced -> click change where it lists the owner.

        It’s not as quick but hey, mouse-driven UI exists.

        • BleakBluets@lemmy.world
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          5
          ·
          13 days ago

          I think I had this guy’s exact issue and maybe even stumbled upon his comment in that Microsoft support forum thread. It looks very familiar, but I could have just seen the meme before.

          My problem was that I needed to do this for 100+ files, so using the UI individually for each file was out of the question. The eventual solution I found was in this tutorial for adding a context menu entry that changes folder/file ownership recursively. It’s been very useful!

      • PumaStoleMyBluff@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        6
        arrow-down
        2
        ·
        edit-2
        13 days ago

        The fact that Andrew might have to run this at all means Windows (or possibly the manufacturer of his camera) has fucked up. He should not need to learn about this to use his files. Obviously he shouldn’t have permissions to system files but that’s clearly not what he actually wants.

        • mosiacmango
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          3
          arrow-down
          2
          ·
          edit-2
          12 days ago

          Windows defaults to giving a user access to common folders like a desktop, pictures, etc. Most never need anymore access to internal folders.

          The fact that Andrew has the permissions settings open enough to discover “owner” but doesnt understand what any of it is means and instead launched a “don’t tread on me” screed about his “dominion of all things mine” implies that he fucked up, not Microsoft.

          • PumaStoleMyBluff@lemmy.world
            link
            fedilink
            arrow-up
            2
            arrow-down
            2
            ·
            edit-2
            12 days ago

            How did his user account lose permissions to a folder of pictures?

            He didn’t “discover owner” by opening any permission settings. He is simply asserting that he is the owner of the pictures he took, in a non-technical sense.

            • mosiacmango
              link
              fedilink
              arrow-up
              3
              arrow-down
              1
              ·
              edit-2
              12 days ago

              He doesnt talk about pictures at all. That was someone elses supposition.

              It’s not clear from the snippet of text what the issue is, but it sure looks like he opened up the folder ACLs and found that his account wasn’t “Owner” for some folder/files, and now hes mad that he is being made to elevate his own account for that folder, because “He is the OWNER!” of the files in a property rights context.

      • Laser@feddit.org
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        2
        ·
        13 days ago

        Ah, ACLs, had the pleasure of working with these again last weeks.

        It gets really curious when even the Arch wiki doesn’t really know what’s going on (talking about mask and effective permissions):

        The factual accuracy of this article or section is disputed.

        Reason: The original note about the --mask option (which was taken from setfacl(1)) was determined as inaccurate, but the new note does not seem correct either. See the talk page for details.

        From trying, I can confirm that the info presented further down is wrong.

        Once you read what it actually does and why it’s the way it is, it makes more sense - not that I remember it now - but at least there was a coherent design decision behind it

  • BlanketsWithSmallpox@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    18
    arrow-down
    1
    ·
    edit-2
    10 days ago

    People talking shit about Andrew but I’ve had seriously weird issues with Windows throwing out odd permissions errors on seemingly basic shit on files that are 0kb after restarting and doing all sorts of basic troubleshooting including CMD Prompt and Powershell guides only for none of them to work.

    It reeked of virus but never was. Just weird stupid shit that wasn’t easily explained, should’ve worked but didn’t, or various other things that the allmighty Lemmings here think is just beyond a google apparently.

    FWIW I’m pretty sure it was straight up related to corrupted files in weird shared folder spots.

    You have to pretend they don’t exist and never think about them again after hiding them then hopefully never remember or just reinstall because it’s been a couple years and probably good to do anyway.