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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.
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Was super obvious last year when Israel was running ads on blogs about their occupation. Super cringe AI stuff.
So I guess there is a use case for AI,
It’s almost like out of a movie, the technology can only be used to benefit evil.
And what are we gonna do about it?
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 :(
I used it only once, pretty mad about finding out that it was autoinstalled on my workingplace pc. Asked it “how do i uninstall this shit?”
It apologized to me and proceeded to copy the instructions to take bing out of the menu search bar.
I was impressed
Ah work PC is work PC. I’ll try to turn off Bluetooth when possible, local network access, and phone and microphone on anything not strictly necessary
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.
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.
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?
That’s not “just to be able to play a game”. Mods are always whole ‘nother thing, that’s not exclusive to Linux.
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:
- Mods/Mod Launchers
- Pirated Games (I’ve stopped pirating Steam Games for years since my financial situation is better now)
- Connecting non-standard input/output hardware
I think Cyberpunk is rated as playable on Steam Deck, which is a good indication of its general Linux capability. There’s no telling with mods, though.
Cyberpunk runs ±5 frames from windows for me on a 3070, I don’t mod it though so can’t speak to that
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%.
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.
If you want those mindless online shooter games who slobber all over that absolutely useless anticheat software, then stay on windows honestly.
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’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.
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.
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 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 own a steam deck, almost all games that have mods are as easy as
- Download mod
- Drag and drop files into the “Mods” folder, provided the game has one
- Run game.
To me, that’s just as easy as Windows is. That’s how all mods used to be installed 10 years ago.
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.
Ironically, IBM also does a lot of business with the Israeli military.
Until proven otherwise assume every United States Corporation supports the Likud Government and their genocidal aspirations in one way or another, especially US Tech and Military Corporations.
The irony is in the fact they sold databases to the Reich for asset manager and business process management (hey kids, did you know the Holocaust forearm tattoos were the database entry ID? Can’t go wrong buying blue!)
(12° 23’ 23.456", 66° 15’ 45.789", skin=brown, has_glasses, action=looking_for_food) -> copilot rolls a 24 -> 13/24 it’s a terrorist -> BOOM
“Copilot, read this map of Gaza, and prioritising plausible denyability, give me a list of coordinates of sites that I can claim were being used by Hamas. Rank them in order of increasing atrocity, and make the list really really long, so that by the time we’re literally just bombing schoolchildren, everyone’s kinda got used to it and it’s not much of a headline.”
“Sure thing, IDF, I am well trained to help you with the media management of your atrocities, and you can rest assured that I won’t let facts get in the way of your genocidal plans. I am engineered from the bottom up to sound plausible and like I know what I’m talking about, and I never cared much for the distinction between reality and narrative-confirming fiction anyway.”
Good for Israel! Thanks Microsoft, the one good thing you’ve done recently
You are closer to living in a tent like the people in Gaza than you are to the oligarchs that want to level it for their beachfront properties.
Remember that next time you want to dehumanize the 50 000+ people that are dead.
(And, no, I don’t support Hamas)
Don’t start a war if you don’t want consequences
one night in Gaza would break you
Lmaooo
Boy I hope no one blows up your kids school, daycare, hospital, etc.
Thanks! Same for your family and public service buildings!
