Dear friends,
As many of you know, I only use GNU/Linux for all my computer needs, from my desktop to my Android phone. In fact, I have not used any Microsoft products since 2000, almost 20 years ago. But now there is an entire list of software which I (and a few family members) need to run which run only on a Windows platform. So I have finally decided to get one, just one, Windows computer (either laptop or notebook size) to put all my non-free software onto that one machine (which I will probably multi-boot anyway). To be honest, I am not too happy with this option, but my hardware is not fast enough to run Windows on a virtual machine and, besides, even if I wanted to install W10 on a virtual machine, I would not know where to acquire the Windows 10 OS (and I sure don’t want to give even a penny to the MS Corporation to begin with).
I don’t care about looks or signs of wear and tear or about esthetics (-: my favorite laptops have always been ThinkPads :-). I would need a reasonably fast machine with a halfway decent graphics card, but screen size is irrelevant.
So, if any of you has a Windows 10 laptop or notebook to donate or sell, please drop me an email.
Thanks a lot in advance,
The Saker
If the Linux computer has enough ooomp, Oracle makes a free-for-personal-use program called Virtual Box, and you can run Windows 10 and windows software inside the Virtual Box you create. Just a thought in case it helps.
he just said that his hardware is not powerful enough to run win10 on a virtual machine …
yes, but my GNU/Linux box is an old one and while I could run a virtual machine on it, it would be very, very slow.
Just created an account on patreon or whatever that alt-donaton site name was.. SubscribeStar(Made in Russia btw)
You will be getting regular donation automatically to fulfill your needs.
You might say that you do not want a donation and it feels wrong or such. But really it is your duty to gather resources to fight the good fight. You don’t get anywhere without money, all organization you are fighting know that and make sure they act as centralization points for their members, so their numbers can be translated into real actual power for the cause… 3 usd is nothing to a single person but 1000 people donating 3 usd every month automatically to a single cause, that can make a difference.
Subscribe star and patreon automates that process.
How about a surplus “HP EliteBook 8570p Laptop – Windows 10 – $14.99 Shipping”?
I bought one and then found a docking station on eBay.
8770w’s are also available but I wanted the full keyboard.
https://www.publicsurplus.com/sms/all,az/browse/cataucs?catid=1
The audio codec isn’t quite up to Windows 10 standards but it’s working fine. The Windows 7 audio driver/software had additional non-essential features.
Hello Saker,
You will be amazed at how much data will be constantly flowing off Windows 10 machines to their real owners.
You may want to start your search for new hardware using the following,
https://www.fsf.org/resources/hw
One day of legal representation will cost you more than any of the free software laptop alternatives.
I wrote the following article in 2013, https://geneva-observer.blogspot.com/2017/02/after-edward-snowden-are-core-banking.html
It describes the craziness of the current situation in some detail. I have been blacklisted from working in Switzerland because of this article… The situation has continued to go downhill since.
The move to SSDs means your computer will be completely noiseless if and when a rogue program is rifling through your data. Do not count on the LED to inform you of any unexpected data access.
The Windows 10 machine will be used to infect any connected data device, to jump to your Linux machines, as was done with the Stuxnet virus. With this website this is “highly likely”.
You risk having kiddie porn placed on your machines, then having a police raid, where you are hauled off for an indeterminate amount of time or worse…
This will not only jeopardize yourself but also your family, friends and correspondents.
DO NOT DO THIS, for your own personal safety as well as others.
Cheers
No worries, I am aware of that (I am a card carrying member of both the FSF and the EFF).
On this windows box I will *only* install the MS-only apps I need for very specific limited purposes (mostly flashing firmware and running some specialized apps).
All my real work ONLY goes on my GNU/Linux boxes and even them I trust very moderately.
If something is really important to me, it never goes on any computer connected to the Net.
Yours already-paranoid truly :-)
The Saker
Glad you only trust them moderately.
Just a couple of days ago it was released all intel processors since 2011 are completely open to serious exploits. That could be achieved only by actors inserting payload at processor design time. That requires very special actors indeed ;)
So, not even linux /open source can save you from something like that.
Payloads can also reside on firmware. Soundcard and hard drive firmwares with exceptional payloads have been known for quite a while. Those will stay behind even with full formatting.
There are also payloads to leave virtual machine (they allow to jump from the virtual machine environment, which is supossed to be self contained, to the actual machine)
Even an airgap can’t protect. Payloads that comunicate using infrasounds to jump airgaps are known for quite a while.
So, in summary, I would upgrade the moderate trust to almost no trust at all. ;)
You should go for a Elbrus-2SM or Elbrus-4s computer available on MCST.ru
You can buy a copy of Windows 10 on ebay pretty cheap. One kind is OEM stuff that comes with some busted hardware that the vendor will throw away for you — but it allows you to install it on a VM. These run about $30 to $40 USD. The “real” unrestricted Windows 10 runs about $200 USD. You can buy copies of Win 7 cheaper if it doesn’t really have to be Win 10. I run it using Virtualbox on my linux machine and it works fine.
I also have a “real” Windows box that I use to run Quicken and TurboTax. I’ve been using those for a couple of decades, and don’t like to have my financial information on a machine attached to the internet longer than it takes to do upgrades. So, I turn this box on for about 30 mins a month for reconciliation, and about three or four hours during tax time.
For this latter stuff, I change boxes about once every three or four years. I go to Wal Mart and buy the best machine they have that’s less than 400 bucks.
The real question to ask is not what’s the best machine around, but what’s the minimal machine that will work for whatever limited software you want to run on it. If you are like me and just want to run Quicken now and then, then you don’t need much. There’s no reason to pay for a big gaming graphics card, a slippery fast SSD drive, high quality display, etc. If you are running an application with big memory requirements, then get a lot of RAM and an SSD. If you are doing 3d modeling or gaming, then invest in a box with a decent graphics card. If you are doing image processing, you might want the 17 inch display.
I’ve had decent results with low end HP boxes, and a lot of mail order places will let you configure them specifically for your needs. I bought a Dell a couple of years ago and it pissed me off. My charger went out and it turned out that Dell puts sofware in their system that makes it mandatory that you buy the $100 HP AC adapter instead of the $20 “compatible” charger. The same thing is true with batteries. You can buy a $20 Dell replacement battery, but it won’t charge because Dell puts in a software barrier. That really sucks. My last ASUS was about 10 years ago. Do a search on that.
Saker, FWIW & entirely at your own risk, buyer beware etc: https://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/get-windows-10-free-or-cheap,5717.html
Can your software be run
1) under Linux WinE ?
2) in voirtual machine under ReactOS ?
ReactOS and WinE share a lot of codebase (except places where they have very different mindsets of”right ways” – like windows network file I/O – SMB/CIFS), so your applicati onwould probably either run on both (maybe wit hproper ocnfiguring) or fail on both.
Also
https://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/get-windows-10-free-or-cheap,5717.html
https://forums.tomshardware.com/threads/windows-for-free-or-dirt-cheap.2762204/
Wine – maybe. I just don’t have the time or energy to configure/troubleshoot it.
as for running a virtual machine, I don’t have the hardware for it :-(
cheers
Hi Saker
Just a few hints, while you might not have been visiting the Windows world too much lately:
-I would try to find a cheap and used machine on e-bay. You’re not going to use it much anyway.
-Be careful with Wine, this might be a security risk. Read too much about this from real IT blokes.
-W10 spies so much, that they might even know what you feed to the goldfish. Suggestion to install (Freeware): https://www.oo-software.com/en/shutup10?gclid=CjwKCAjw8e7mBRBsEiwAPVxxiM6lE0dByO_bP5B_6J4aw5pI-70FiK3xjAb2JRO-yOdGtaTu3SsafhoC1vIQAvD_BwE
-Only use LAN cable when on the net, when finished take it out. On modern routers you can activate a guest account, that is completely separated from the rest. At least, on my FritzBox that is the case. Never use Cisco Routers, than you can just as much put your office at the NSA HQ.
-Put a piece of tape over the camera, and put a loose jacket into the microphone adapter.
-You might want to have a security package on W10. Good and not too expensive is Kaspersky, I paid EUR 60 for two years for my W10.
-Be careful with using a browser on this machine. If needed, only use Firefox or Opera with add-on NoScript security Suite (protects against cross script attacks, and this happens more than you might think). Opera also has a Standard VPN. Put the reference header in the browser out or at value 0 (this is a browsing tracker).
-Install CCleaner and run regularly. It cleans the mean LSO/Flash cookies, that can be installed on your HDD. Virusscanners don’t recognize it, but it’s pure spyware written in an innocent looking format and can include keyloggers.
Good to be careful, you know what happened to the IT genius Hillary Clinton. Btw, BleachBit isn’t enough to clean it all, but they don’t know that yet at the FBI.
Oh and just an idea that I got via an E-Mail from Herb: don’t write mailaddresses full on the blog, but change the ‘@’ sign in ‘-add-‘. They are read by ‘crawlers’ on the web. Unless you want to have your mailbox full with incredible commercial offers, nice Ukrainian ladies that really want to meet you, or desperate Nigerian princes awaiting your help for their heritage.
Good luck and cheers -from a Fedora user- , Rob
i know your current machine can’t run a virtual machine, but maybe try to upgrade your hardware so it can? if you buy a new laptop/PC with W10 installed MS still gets paid. as for used ones, that’s riskier than just pirating software given that even new routers have been intercepted and infected with mal/spyware by government agencies.
another option could be booting from a flash drive. everything could stay in RAM or a persistent space on the drive itself and then unplugged when you’re done. not exactly an airgap but close enough. otherwise – short of trying the always irritating wine – is to find alternative programs that are *nix-friendly.
Booting from a flash drive is something hardly known of in the Windows world (I guess someone smart enough to know that trick does not use Windows ;-)). It used to be a hidden feature on bootinstaller Rufus, but this feature is no longer available in 2019. Sad! ;-)
Cheers, Rob
One thing I use on one machine that I use to run Windows 10 is a script called Blackbird. With it you can disable all of the telemetry, updates and all sorts of other things at a quite granular level. (command line tool, free too) https://getblackbird.net
Why win10 if I may ask?
I use some or other linux distro and win7 intermittently, as the need arises with no issues.
jes wondering…
In windows 10 there is still some level of control over features, but they are as hidden as posible. If you get the new computer, try to retrieve the original key, and make a fresh install (microsoft servers allow to download full versions of windows, just without the key). In the end of installation process, windows will ask authorization for a lot of the data-mining features so you can deny them (at least de jure) from the start. After that, go to “services.msc” and mow them after drivers auto-update, specially windows update. Also, any wireless connection set them as “metered connection” to force a reduction of bandwitch use in background. After all this, not only there will be a bandwitch use reduction but also a significant boost in performance. Physically blocking camera and microphone are also good advice.
In the end, as many should know, if decide to go nuclear, there is nothing to stop them since the entire x86/x64/SPARC CISC/RISC ecosystem has been being developed over decades around backdoors, and in “secure software” security protocols have always been requiered to meet “government standards”. Even they are so shameless that they include dedicated chips like intel’s IME.
Cheers
Hi – long time reader, but not much of a commenter. I’ve purchased three of these for family members and they are good solid laptops. A few point to consider – Buy a refurbished version if you can find them, many times they are open box, or have had a part that failed, and has been replaced (and tested after the repair). The power adapter tip is a little fragile – it wouldn’t hurt to buy an extra charger they are typically under $20 just match the model with the adapter:
https://www.amazon.com/Nicpower-Adapter-Charger-R5-571T-R5-571T-59DC/dp/B0744GBTN4/ref=sr_1_5?keywords=Acer+Aspire+R5-571T-57Z0+adapter&qid=1558120837&s=gateway&sr=8-5
Here is the laptop – shop around and shop for different specs to suit your needs: https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834315809&Tpk=N82E16834315809&ignorebbr=1
Thanks for all the fantastic content that you post – it’s very much appreciated.
Here a link to an affordable Windows 10 pro License. Costs about $13, also a couple of affordable Office offerings but I don’t think you’re interested in those.
I bought a Windows 10 pro license from a similar promo offer around black Friday from that same online key store and it is working perfectly to this day.
Here is a link to the promo on Guru3d.com
https://www.guru3d.com/articles-pages/promo-vip-scdkey-games-and-windows-10-office,1.html
And a direct link to the Windows 10 offer on which you can get a 12% discount with the promo code VIPGD
https://www.vip-scdkey.com/software/microsoft-pc-10-pro-oem_1227-20.html
Sure you know all this. Am not a computer expert. But as someone who uses linux but has been using a lent windows core i5 hp laptop also for a couple of years, (and of course everything depends on your uses)
1. As you must know, can get more computer if desktop rather than laptop. plus more customizable.
2. was surprised by how much memory the windows laptop needed. the linux desktop needed to go up to 2 gb memory for heavyduty browsing… but the windows laptop with 4 gb initial memory wasnt enough. both browser and laptop would keep crashing, had to boost memory to 8gb before crashes became occasional…
3. many inbuilt programs feel unfinished compared to linux. e,g, the basic notepad program wont autosave after a set duration. so can lose everything if the computer crashes.
4. windows keeps trying to download huge updates 4gb plus, so if you have limited spare harddrive…. in linux you can get just the security updates separately
5, as someone else mentioned, on linux WINE is an option, a for-profit emulator also used to be available…
the hp laptop mentioned above is windows 10 btw. its about 2-3 years old now and the screen is already showing 5-6 thin black partial horizontal lines…
fwiw 3 dell e6430 laptops for $ 355 latest bid…
https://www.publicsurplus.com/sms/all,az/auction/view?auc=2344317
A nice thing about Windows inc. ver 10 is that it runs most old software including even DOS progs, and the bad thing about W10 is W10, its nauseating bombast etc.
Using different computers for the Internet vs. for the rest is an obvious start. Using Linux is also an obvious solution, but it’s difficult to get around each distributions’ quirks, around eternal pestering with newer, “much better” and different versions etc, and I never found a way to be able to use Wine for anything productive. So I’m using Win-whatever for work, and W10 for furtive Internet use. Used laptops are cheap these days, and they have W7 or W10 on them, with “Home” versions crippled e.g. in how much you are allowed or not to block or throw out unwanted stuff. My standard Internet device (used right now) is a lousy little W10 Lenovo with 2GB RAM, bought in Sofia BG for 65 Euro inc warranty, which is slow but in the end always works – no need for 8GB RAM so far.
Using such half-new win puters I found that not only some new gear (e.g. external hard disks over 2TB) needs 64bit hardware and therefore a 64-bit OS (W7/64 or W10/64), but also downstairs: some older win or dos progs are not accepted by the newer win laptop I am using at that moment. Thus, depending on your “old” software there might be a need for an older win version, i.e. a not updated initial version of W7 (if such can be found and kept at this stage), no, never W8 or W6!, and finally Glorious Win XP, which runs everything. The most complete version of it, “Last Windows XP”, used to be sold in the Balcans, but today, since they want to become serious Europeans… perhaps one should get a copy of an old CD – God in Heaven may be one of those who know where to find one.
Wishing you success,
bp
Just use WINE to run your windows programs.
I needed more hardware capabilities to do that
but a friend sent me his used W10 laptop
I now also have the latest Linux Mint on dual-boot
thanks!!
The Saker
Windows10, Windows 7, Windows XP
I will explain why installing Win10 on a naked machine won’t fully work unless you pay for it.
If you need a Windows 10 install DVD or ISO image you can get it from Microsoft’s site free. https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/software-download/windows10
Download the tool from Microsoft’s website to create the ISO image. Make sure you pick the right architecture and version.
More info on how to download Windows ISO legally
https://www.howtogeek.com/186775/how-to-download-windows-7-8-and-8.1-installation-media-legally/
But Activation is the issue and requires an internet connection. Windows 10 Installation disks do not contain Registration information or CD keys nor will the computer after install. Product Activation is done via Microsoft’s servers which identifies your motherboard. Drive swapping is permitted, and activation allows hardware changes such as hard drive and graphics card. You can’t change the motherboard. When doing a clean install on a computer that has been previously installed and activated does not require a registration Key known also referred to as a CD Key. You just skip the window that requests it during installation and it authentication will automatically identify your computer via the Microsoft servers. So Activation will be successful only if the computer is licenced even if you use WINE.
For more information on non-activated limitations:
https://www.howtogeek.com/244678/you-dont-need-a-product-key-to-install-and-use-windows-10/
Windows 7 will soon be unsupported on the 14th Jan 2020. I assume Win7 will be abandoned after this date. Is it correct to assume that the installation disk and activation hacks will be available to download without penalty after this date? DirectX 11 will be the maximum version supported.
KUC is a great site for updating Win7 offline. However updates from Microsoft may not be available from Jan 2020. Use KUC to download them now for future installs.
Windows XPSP4 is available from http://ryanvm.net/forum/viewtopic.php?t=10321
It was further developed as a free to use project, because it comes under the name of abandoned software. But 32-bit has its limitations. Good for playing the old games.
This info is to the best of my knowledge. Please correct me if I am wrong.