What kind of hacker uses windows?
WTF
this post was submitted on 24 Jul 2026
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I have a Windows PC?
It’s news to me. I gotta get Mint on it.
CachyOS has been phenomenal for me. Coming up on 7 months now without using windows beyond as a moonlight client on an ARM64 laptop (and windows server, because sysadmin gotta sysadmin.)
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you wouldn't download an operating system
How else can you appreciate your RAM’s obligatory RGB features?
My joke was not clear enough. I appreciate you for your helpfulness.
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Microsoft continues to outdo itself as the best advertisement for migration to Linux.
For Microsoft Linux, right? Right?
There is actually a Microsoft Linux distribution: Azure Linux (previously named CBL Mariner), based on Fedora. And funny enough, it's initial release was appropriately on a April 1. Even Microsoft understood the joke, have to give them that.
Still too cursed.
Fuck this OS, left it behind a long time ago and nothing ever will bring me back. This platform should die, they turned everything good about the platform to trash over years.
I finally made the switch a couple of weeks ago. Running Cachyos and it's a dream. I'm not going back to MS anytime soon. Now I dread work because I have to use that POS there.
Court filings in the Scattered Spider hacking case reveal Microsoft provided the FBI with a complete IP history tied to something called a Global Device ID (GDID)
It's kinda like a MAC address
Except the MAC address isn't propagated through gateways, only on your local network(because that is their job).
I don't have a Windows PC
I do.
Though, those socket A boards kinda suck even after a recap. 98 runs great when it boots!
Gotta power cycle the PSU to get it to boot the first time. Tried 3 PSUs before the recap and nothing changed.
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Your Windows PC Has a Permanent ID That Follows You – Even With a VPN
Yes, it's bad, but worth pointing out, they didn't identify the user directly by somehow extracting GDID from their traffic, they identified them because their GDID happened to be in the same place at the same time at their hacking efforts that became statistically impossible to ignore.
Realistically this kind of tracking could be accomplished with any software with a unique ID that does, say, daily update checks or usage pings. This one is just extra bad because it's ubiquitous (on Windows) and almost impossible to change, so they have a 1-stop-shop for spying.
All tracking is done by amalgamating as many different overlapping signals and indicators together as you can, and then establishing basically a confidence score/threshold.
This one is extra bad because it was never disclosed previously.
Trust = Gone, what else is MSFT hiding?
Which trust?
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Does it follow me after Linux install?
Well, there is /etc/machine-id on Linux...
Just want to point out that /etc/machine-id is unique to systemd systems. AlpineLinux, for example, doesn't generate this file on install.
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windows is the virus
Well shit.
I have Linux, so I don't gave that feature either! What am I supposed to do now? I want to be visible everywhere and tracked by everyone, but I had to chose Linux and again I'm left out!
This sucks
I bet you don't get those aggravating pop ups and ads either.
You're missing out on the typical PC user experience
There are lots of unique identifiers in computers, not just Windows.
MAC address, serial number, bios uuid.
Linux even has /etc/machine-id
yes, but what secret undisclosed id systems, that weren't definitevely known to exist untill legal proceedings 'oopsied' them into reality?
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Windows
What's that?
Well that's terrifying,
but not unexpected...
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