Microsoft is a major provider of cloud services and artificial intelligence for the Israeli military, according to internal documents related to the contracts between the Israeli Ministry of Defense (MoD) and Microsoft Israel obtained by Drop Site News. The leaked documents show that Israel’s usage spiked dramatically in the months following October 7, 2023 when Israel was using AI and other technology to wage its brutal war on Gaza.
The trove of documents reveals that Microsoft’s ties to the Israeli military are deeper and more lucrative than previously known, exposing the tech giant’s role in supplying advanced cloud and AI services during the war that multiple international bodies, including the International Court of Justice, ruled may plausibly constitute a genocide.
Leaked data show a dramatic spike in Microsoft cloud storage used by the Israeli military, jumping more than 155 percent between June 2023 and April 2024, and peaking just before the Rafah offensive in May 2024. Storage use is an important indicator showing the extent of AI usage, since storage usually grows along with the usage of other cloud products.
Install Linux
And libreoffice, and stop using copilot or game pass or any of their services
Stop using copilot? Has anyone started?
Unfortunately, a lot of people. Probably not so many here on Lemmy but a lot of people. And I even know a couple of them irl :(
How does Linux fair with gaming, game dev, and modding? I don’t wanna get on Linux and have to jump through hoops just to get Vortex working for Nexusmods or something.
Any Renpy-based visual novella is a first-class citizen.
There’s Wine, with PlayOnLinux as the old way to make it easy, and Lutris as the new way to make it easy, and Proton as Steam’s patched downstream of Wine. That covers a lot of Windows games. There are native games, in native Steam too. I mentioned Proton, one can choose it as compatibility option for Windows games in Steam, with varying success.
Problems I’ve had are with video drivers more than with Wine and such.
Anyway, I’m using FreeBSD now, even here one can spend some time and have Linux Steam with some things working. That’s if just Wine or just Proton or PlayOnBSD/Mizuma (FreeBSD analogs of PlayOnLinux) are not enough.
Pretty well unless you’re playing AAA games with anticheat. Check out protondb for steamy details.
Modded Cyberpunk is kinda my thing right now, would that be a problem on Linux?
I can’t remember specifics but I remember a bunch of games i’ve modded don’t have tools supported on Linux.
I’d have to check. I know Cyberpunk was supported very early on Linux but haven’t looked into modding it.
I’d be cautiously optimistic.
A quick search turns up this page which definitely sounds like it basically just works.
https://wiki.redmodding.org/cyberpunk-2077-modding/for-mod-users/users-modding-cyberpunk-2077/modding-on-linux
Holy shit that’s a lot just to be able to play a game. Is there any hope of Linux becoming more user friendly and streamlined?
For vanilla games the process has become “enable the Steam Play checkbox one time on your computer, then download and press Play”. How much easier does it need to be?".
Each of the following things can add a layer of complexity:
That’s not “just to be able to play a game”. Mods are always whole ‘nother thing, that’s not exclusive to Linux.
It’s much easier on Windows. When it’s just as is easy if not easier to do on Linux is the day I switch without hesitation. I’m far too setup and comfortable with Windows, I’m a pleb I know but it is what it is.
I mean the TLDR covers it pretty well. It’s only like 3 steps. YMMV but use what you’re comfortable with. Linux will be here waiting if you ever decide to dip your toes in (or take the plunge)
TL;DR
You need to
Install
d3dcompiler_47Install
vcrun2022Adjust the Steam launch option to be:
WINEDLLOVERRIDES="winmm,version=n,b" %command%If you want those mindless online shooter games who slobber all over that absolutely useless anticheat software, then stay on windows honestly. Everything else is mostly even better on Linux because you have less overhead. Every single game I play works 100%.
But i’m currently on Windows and I don’t play those games. What I want is an alternative that I don’t have to jump through hoops and follow a recipe just to boot up games, and have access to modding tools that most if not all are only built for Windows.
I use Linux daily for work and gaming. Honestly, it’s not there yet for gaming. The closest you’ll get to “it just works” is with the Steam Deck, and even then, modding is not as straightforward most of the time. Very few things, gaming-wise, are easier than Windows and I would’ve struggled had I not already known my way around Linux, thanks to work.
Wow thank you for the incredibly balanced argument. I really want to switch to Linux for all the obvious reasons, but it’s the same cliche reason why I don’t - I’m too much of a bitch-dude to make such a big change to something I use and operate on the daily without certainty. But as i’ve said, the moment say Valve come out with a SteamOS for desktop which is basically Windows through and through minus the bloatware and corruption (that isn’t to say Valve isn’t corrupt but they’re not making weapons for Israel) is the day I switch with no qualms. Like many I’m far too used to the interface and compatability of Windows still.
You’re most welcome. I completely understand your situation and is why I don’t constantly tell others to switch. I’m very happy using Linux, but I had to do a lot of learning to get here. I know it’s not realistic for everybody to have the motivation to make the move.
Keep in mind, SteamOS is going to be smooth for gaming, but possibly challenging for other things. Modding will still have some challenges to it and anything that isn’t gaming might not be so easy too. If you plan to use SteamOS when it comes out, the closest experience to it is Bazzite OS with KDE Plasma. If you’re curious enough, setup it up in a VM and try to get your non-gaming software working.
I’m not sure about modding, as I never do any mods nor develop them. That’s why I talked about the shooter games, since they’re a major issue for people who play them and want to move to Linux. Because most of them don’t work. I know some modding software works on Linux through proton/wine, but I’ve never tried them.
It’s like that feeling on the diving board before you jump in the pool without knowing how warm or cold the water is. I’m still afraid of getting wet, if you know what I mean.
Simple. Just don’t switch to Linux 100%. I’ve used Linux only for about 7 years then there was this game that wouldn’t work on Linux and I really liked that game. So I dualboot now. If you have an extra SSD/Sata in your PC, definitely use that to put Linux on it(to make sure both systems are separated from each other). Once Linux is installed, then install osprober on it and make sure you set your grub timeout to at least 5 seconds. That way both systems show up in grub. Grub is a boat loader for Linux. And the reason why I’m suggesting to separate the two OS’s is because windows always takes over the bootloader when it gets a feature update, and if you have both systems on one drive, it’d be a nightmare to recover your Linux partition. But if you have them separately and windows takes over, it becomes a matter of going into your bios and changing the boot sequence to make the Linux drive primary. Go in there and reinstall osprober/grub and you’re in the game.
I’m there with you but my understanding is it’s free to try and you can dual boot both of them easily without major changes.
That being said, I have not tried Linux myself in over 10 years.
I just wanna stop feeling bad when Muta yells at me.
There isn’t just mindless online slobber shooters on Windows, y’know. Those same shooters exist on Linux too.
I’m talking about the games themselves, not where they exist.