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Microsoft is reportedly banning Palestinians in the U.S. for life for calling relatives in Gaza (www.windowscentral.com)

submitted 4 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

277 comments fedilink hide all child comments

A BBC investigation reveals that Microsoft is permanently banning Palestinians in the U.S. and other countries who use Skype to call relatives in Gaza.

Reportedly, Microsoft has been banning and wiping the accounts of users who have leveraged Skype to contact relatives in Gaza. In some cases, email accounts over a decade old have been locked, destroying access to banking accounts, OneDrive storage, and beyond.

United States resident Salah Elsadi lost his account of over 15 years in the dragnet. "I've had this Hotmail for 15 years. They banned me for no reason, saying I have violated their terms — what terms? Tell me. I've filled out about 50 forms and called them many many times." Eiad Hametto from Saudi Arabia echoed the report, "We are civilians with no political background who just wanted to check on our families. They’ve suspended my email account that I’ve had for nearly 20 years. It was connected to all my work. They killed my life online."

Many of the users affected by the bans expressed that Microsoft may be falsely labelling them as Hamas

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[–] [email protected] 93 points 4 months ago (61 children)

This is the final nail in the coffin for me. My next PC is going to be a Linux machine.

[–] [email protected] 85 points 4 months ago (29 children)

Your current PC can become a Linux machine by lunchtime. What are you waiting for?

[–] [email protected] 33 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago) (18 children)

The last time I used a Linux PC was around 2012 with something called "Egyptian Hax" that my sister set up because she wanted me to play NetHack, so a guide would be a great start. I'm aware that WINE has gone through some vast improvements, but beyond that I don't really know where to start, what distro would be good for me, or anything else.

Edit: not getting mocked for admitting my ignorance would be a huge encouragement as well, tbh. It's hard not to be resentful when a community is hostile to new members. Calling someone a slur for not already being a part of the in group is a great way to keep people from joining. 👍

[–] [email protected] 31 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago) (1 children)

Start with Linux Mint. It should be a very pleasant and straightforward experience right out of the box, and is just in general very beginner friendly. I recommend to create a live USB (basically, download the ISO from the Mint website, then use something like Balena Etcher to put it on a USB stick). You can then boot off that stick, and try Mint out to your heart's content, without risking your Windows install or data at all.

Can I ask, what are the programs you wager you'll have to emulate through wine?

[–] [email protected] 6 points 4 months ago (1 children)

I'm saving this so I can look at it again this weekend.

I'm not one for making bets unless I know something that I suspect someone else doesn't, but I wouldn't be surprised if most of the games I have on steam need wine to run on Linux. My understanding is that wine is a compatibility layer, hence the name, correct?

[–] [email protected] 12 points 4 months ago (1 children)

Ah, good news in regards to gaming, esp. Steam gaming!

Steam invested quite a bit of energy into "Proton", essentially a new kind of compatibility layer. If you remember tinkering around with wine and winetricks from years ago, that's basically gone nowadays.

For most games, just go into the Steam settings for that game, and under "Compatibility", check the box.

Then click download, and play. That's it for most games 🎉

Also check out protondb.com - it's basically a community-sourced database cataloging how well Steam games work on Linux.

Good luck on your Linux journey, and feel free to ask questions if something comes up! :)

[–] [email protected] 7 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago) (1 children)

And if you've been letting Steam store your save data, you should find that your save files for most games will still be available in Linux! Mileage will vary per game of course, but jumping between OSes has been pretty seamless for me!

[–] [email protected] 2 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago)

I got a steam deck last fall and so far the only game I've run into that doesn't work with my windows cloud save is Dark Souls 2

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