Microsoft Terms of Service

[OneWorld]

I keep getting emails 'Microsoft Services Agreement' has anyone takern the trouble to read these rules of engagement with Microsoft? Can anyone sum them up in a paragraph or two.

Last time I examined such a 'contract' was when I read through Facebook's ToS and came across the condition that said "By using Facebook you implicitly give Facebook the permission to monitor all or your communications, including those that are not not part of Facebook"

Or words to that effect, in fact we agreed to allow Facebook to read emails, whatever. I took Facerbook off my computer and never used iot since and I am going 10 years or so now, pre-GDPR came into being.

I guess Microsoft will bury the same permissions within their ToS

I have looked into suchj issues on the internet, and it said Google, Apple, Facebook are the most pervasion and intrusive nosey-parkers on the planet, scavenging every bit of data they can get hold of, and all of it, in US law, is available to US authorities

LINUX is looking better and better all the time. If I could get Cubase on LINUX, I'd be off like a shot and de-coupling from Windows/Office

[N i g e l]

Reaper and Audacity do LINUX but I dont think VSTs work.

LibreOffice is LINUX, Ive used it on PC, very similar to MS office

[James Perrett]

Reaper and Audacity do LINUX but I dont think VSTs work.

There are ways of getting many VSTs to work using an emulator like Wine. There are quite a few major programs (like Davinci Resolve) that are properly cross platform these days - although not so many audio programs.

[merlyn]

There are a few Linux native plugin formats. LV2, Linux VST, and CLAP works, although it would have to be a Linux plugin. Some plugin companies that support Linux are u-he, Audio Damage, Audio Assault, Harrison and Applied Computer Music Technologies, which is the Linux arm of Overtone DSP.

There is a database of Linux audio software at https://linuxmusic.rocks/

It is possible to bridge Windows VSTs using WINE, but they're not guaranteed to work. Most do, but stuff like Native Access is a pain whatever OS you're using.

Windows and Mac have got you because of the sunk costs. You would have to be really, really fed up with Microsoft or Apple to dump all the money you've spent on Windows or Mac software over the years.

[sonics]

You can remove most of the metadata snooping from Windows, enough for me. Google/Facebook are far worse. IMO Linux is and always will be so far behind the mature, stable Windows and macOS platforms that it is only worth considering for a hobbyist who wishes to tinker.

For office and limited general computing it's great, and has been for a few years now.

I noticed Resolve for Linux years ago. Can it use VSTs I wonder?

[merlyn]

... IMO Linux is and always will be so far behind the mature, stable Windows and macOS platforms that it is only worth considering for a hobbyist who wishes to tinker. ...

I wouldn't imagine you're in any position to comment.

[OneWorld]

You can remove most of the metadata snooping from Windows, enough for me. Google/Facebook are far worse. IMO Linux is and always will be so far behind the mature, stable Windows and macOS platforms that it is only worth considering for a hobbyist who wishes to tinker.

For office and limited general computing it's great, and has been for a few years now.

I noticed Resolve for Linux years ago. Can it use VSTs I wonder?

I think you might have a point there. BTW I just wondered if anyone had read these new Terms of Service?

I too get the impression that LINUX is for tinkerers, there are a 1001 versions and in some when you update it's this way, in another it's that. But I get the feeling there is a version out there somewhere that suits me.

It's not that I am anti-Windows, it is that I am against the ever more snooping, spying, nosying that these US companies do.

Case in point. I signed up for dental plan because my local dentist has gone private (step 1 in the dearth of the NHS - the NHS being privatised is well on the road to being sold off - that's another subject)

I was assured when I signed up to the dental plan that my data will not be shared ok, then how come within 2 days my inbox is deluged with spam from dentists, tooth correctional wonder goo etc etc etc - all from the USA, knowing my name, my email, the cut of jib - why can't they just f**k off and leave me alone - "Data will not be shared" yeah sure, and lucy Letby will get the lead part in a Mary Poppins film

I would be perfectly happy to pay for LINUX, if only Cubase + VSTs were available, Kontakt, is so perplexing I could get by without it. Or could Native Instruments take the initiative and create a DAW + Kontakt, all for LINUX?

[James Perrett]

Linux is widely used for science. When I was working in oceanography I set up a Linux virtual machine on my computer so that I could run all the Linux software that we used.

Nowadays it is much more similar to Windows and OSX than it used to be - in fact I often have to look very carefully at our son's screen to work out if he is using Linux or Windows.

[Folderol]

The thing is it's possible to do anything you want to do in Linux - not always so easily, and usually a slightly different way. Many vst's are accessible (not that I ever use them). A DAW like Ardour (the parent of MixBus) is a monster, and can create industry compatible stems and finished audio. Reaper is available, but again not something I use.

What you usually won't get is all the pretty graphics - which suits me fine. I want it to sound good not look flashy.

P.S.
In another life I was the guy running audio separates when everyone else had music centres.

[James Perrett]

What you usually won't get is all the pretty graphics - which suits me fine. I want it to sound good not look flashy.

In my experience Linux software looks pretty much identical to the Windows version. If the Windows version has flashy graphics, the Linux version will too. I'm thinking of cross platform tools like Blender, Scratch and Resolve.

[Folderol]

Well, Blender is a graphics program, so that's hardy surprising! The other two I've never actually seen.

[merlyn]

Linux isn't for everyone. I think that's pretty obvious as Windows isn't for everyone, and macOS isn't for everyone either.

I don't imagine many of you use the OS as such. You use Cubase, Ableton or whatever software. The OS is simply something that allows you to double click an icon on the desktop.

And that seems a sensible way of going about it. Decide what software you want to use, not the OS. If you want to run Logic, then it's macOS or bust. Cubase and it's Windows or Mac. Reaper and you now have the choice of Linux, Windows or Mac.

Stability is not the most sensible area in which to compare Windows and Linux. Obviously Linux is super stable, as the internet runs on Linux. 'Stability' can also mean that the software isn't updating every five minutes, so in that sense Windows 10 wasn't stable.

My idea of a stable machine is running the Prime95 (mprime on Linux) torture test in blend mode for 24 hrs. I really wouldn't suggest you try that at home unless you know what you're doing. Stability in this case involves the whole machine -- the hardware and the software.

[Drew Stephenson]

...the condition that said "By using Facebook you implicitly give Facebook the permission to monitor all or your communications, including those that are not not part of Facebook"

Or words to that effect...

This is how Facebook (et al) are legally allowed to moderate content on the site. The bit about stuff not being part of facebook allows them to look for hashes on illegal (e.g. CSAM) material and allows them to deal with any legal requirements for client-side scanning.

[OneWorld]

...the condition that said "By using Facebook you implicitly give Facebook the permission to monitor all or your communications, including those that are not not part of Facebook"

Or words to that effect...

This is how Facebook (et al) are legally allowed to moderate content on the site. The bit about stuff not being part of facebook allows them to look for hashes on illegal (e.g. CSAM) material and allows them to deal with any legal requirements for client-side scanning.

I learned of this watching a BBC Panorama programme, where a uk expert in such matters said the practice was illegal, it broke data protection rules, in this country but as Facebook is outwith the jurisdiction of this country, certainly in some respects, the law isn’t invoked

[Drew Stephenson]

Well that statement in and of itself isn't in breach of GDPR or the DPA, but other aspects of their T&Cs almost certainly are, that's why there's an ongoing dispute in the Irish courts about it.
Fundamentally they're a US-based company and they're primarily going to follow those laws, which is convenient for them as the US has no meaningful federal privacy law for the internet.
There are plenty of reasons to suggest that the GDPR and DPA go too far the other way but I'd still rather be on this side of the pond in that respect.

The thing about reading these T&Cs in isolation is that they're part of a wider set of functionality. I remember a lot of noise going round a few years ago when people noticed that you grant Facebook the right to access your camera and microphone. Cue much handwringing about Facebook listening into conversations and all that nonsense, in reality it's so that you can create reels and share photos within the app.