Microsoft is silently installing Copilot onto Windows Server 2022

What the hell?!?!?! This is a server OS! It needs to be as light as possible and for the sake of server stability and security, admins carefully choose the installed apps. Microsoft can't just install new applications on a whim.

This is fuged up.

People in this thread seem to be missing this point.
This is windows server, not windows 11. The consequences is not "I'll have an annoying taskbar icon on my home computer", this is enterprise level interference that could affect large systems and thousands of users.
Linux Mint isn't an alternative to windows server.
- Yeah but Fedora and Debian sure as shit are.
- You're right ig, in that case grab Debian.
- For sure, if you need paid support (which if you aren't a tech giant, a fledgling startup, or a system with no need for uptime metrics, you probally do) the you have:
  SUSE Linux Enterprise Server (aka SLES and only still Libre option in this category unfortunately)
  Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL)
  Ubuntu are
  if don't need paid support then Debian, OpenSuse, Rocky, or Fedora are all good picks.
- You could install Rocky and be done
- Almost any Unix can be an alternative for Windows Server. Never understood why it was used, other than tech illiteracy of lowly tech workers who only knew MS stack.
Stop resisting!!
I am jack’s complete pikachu face
Why is anyone surprised by this??!
- There is a truly baffling amount of people who imagine that Microsoft has suddenly turned into a good company.
That’s all true for consumer OS as well
Oh they can, as we see

That's a lawsuit waiting to happen.

No enterprise is going to want to deal with that and realistically they’re the only ones with the pockets to fight that battle. Hope I’m wrong though. Microsoft needs a swift kick in the ass.
- If introducing Copilot to server degrades service enough to trigger an SLA downstream, you can absolutely bet lawyers will get involved.
- Wonky server double post

That is fucked.

I'm already starting to transition to full Linux on my devices with the arrival of Windows 11 and Windows 10 reaching end of life in October next year. I never thought I'd see the day of this happening.

Microsoft has been telegraphing these moves for years now tbh.
- That doesn't make it right.
  And not everyone can dump Windows for Linux. We run a lot of software that requires Windows. Changing is impractical if not impossible.
ITS THE YEAR OF THE LINUX DESKTOP! 🥂
- I doubt it. Regular folks are ignorant about those issues and what the technology involved implies. AI sounds cool until you realize every single action you take on your computer, every single word you say, everything you look at, is collected and sent to some machine which does god knows what with it.
  That plus the ads. The fucking ads. I'm so god damn tl saturated of seeing ads everywhere. But apparently most folks have grown some kind of immunity to it??

In the spirit of these kinds of changes, I'd love to hear some honest Linux distribution recommendations. I'm leaning towards Ubuntu because it is the most widely advertised and UX focused from my perspective. But I've also heard good things about Arch. Any others I should be considering?

I'll probably not go full Linux any time soon - I want at least one Windows OS to play games on - so whatever option it should be dual-boot friendly.

Linux Mint. That's always the answer. It's lightweight, it's simple, it's easy, it does what you need. Even gaming. SomeOrdinaryGamers did a vidso on YT about installing it, it's pretty easy!
Given that this is in a thread about Microsoft Server, I'd recommend using Debian as the distribution to replace Microsoft Server.
If you want a desktop, I'd start with a LiveCD version and familiarise yourself with the various available distributions on offer.
The intent of a LiveCD is essentially to boot into Linux without modifying your hard-disk and keeping your existing OS unchanged.
I'll note that many of these images are available for DVD or USB. Some will offer a mechanism to store data on your existing drive without wiping anything.
With USB drives being fast and cheap, you can also often use a LiveCD to install onto an external drive.
Finally, you can install a virtual machine on your computer and use it to run your Linux tests.
Are you looking for a Windows, server, replacement or desktop replacement? Your experience will differ depending on which one you're trying to replace.
For instance, if you're trying to replace Windows active directory services with a single Linux server, might have a bad time. I'm in the process of migrating from AD to FreeIPA, PowerDNS, and isc-dhcp (or something similar for DHCP).
"Dual boot friendly" means installing Linux on its own hard drive, just so you know. If you don't do that, it's likely the next Windows update will screw up the Linux bootloader. Maybe that's gotten better, but it's what I'd recommended from past experience.
Linux Server Distros:
Ubuntu Server = easier but with more bullshit out of the box (eg. snaps)
Debian Stable = a tad bit harder because it's cleaner out of the box.
Fedora Server = clean and easy, documentation may be a bit harder to follow, less community tutorials.
Arch & others = Just no. You don't want a rolling release for a server. You want older and thus stable, tested, software and drivers.
If you want a distro for general use:
Linux Mint = easiest of the bunch, but it has old packages that may not offer the best environment for gaming.
Fedora Based distros = middle ground between ubuntu based distros like Mint, and rolling release distros like Arch.
Arch based distros = bleeding edge drivers and packages (for better or worse), best for gaming. Manjaro could work for you, as it is not fully Arch.
Bazzite OS = It's an immutable Fedora based distro but with Arch customized to make it work like Steam OS all inside a container. It's unbreakable, easy to use, and game-ready. Has AMD & NVIDIA images ready to go.
I wouldn’t recommend arch as a first distro imo. I don’t see what the advantage would be for a newbie.
Personally I would recommend Fedora.
- Most people recommended Mint so far. What sorts of things do you like about Fedora?
In the spirit of these kinds of changes, I’d love to hear some honest Linux distribution recommendations. I’m leaning towards Ubuntu because it is the most widely advertised and UX focused from my perspective. But I’ve also heard good things about Arch. Any others I should be considering?
Depends on your needs and preferences. If you want an easy Linux distribution Linux Mint is a good choice. Arch Linux is indeed good but default Arch is not that suitable for new Linux users unless you're willing to read documentation. You can go for Garuda or EndeavourOS to have Arch with easy installers and GUI.
Don't move to Arch. It's a great distro don't get me wrong but it's not for someone who isn't quite familiar with Linux. You need to choose every package on your system and configure it all.... Give yourself some time to know Linux.
Ubuntu is a great distro with a great out of box experience. The company behind it though has been making some choices I don't much care for so I've moved away from them. (They created a pretty crappy new packaging system, then started making the old, reliable packaging system use the new one without user consent)
OpenSuSe Tumbleweed is a great option. It has sane defaults, and nice versions of KDE and GNOME (two popular types of desktop environments, I'd recommend KDE if you're new to Linux - it's closer to the desktop philosophy you're used to. GNOME is great too but it's very opinionated and non-traditional, not for everyone.) It's also a "rolling release" distro, which means there's no big releases it just gets updated over time and provides you with very up to date packages. It's known to be quite stable which is unusual for a rolling-release distro (like Arch, for example).
Fedora is also a great choice - just follow a guide on how to get some media codecs on it (Fedora is big on not including software that isn't 100% open, but it's easy to add the few things you'll need). But it provides a great package manager, great KDE and GNOME versions, and all around very sane and stable. This is a traditional release distro with new versions every 6 months. You'll still get security and minor software updates between releases.
Whatever you choose, I think you'd be very surprised at what you CAN play under Linux with no problem. Outside of a few games (mostly due to anti-cheat which unfortunately rules out some - but not all - of the more popular multiplayer competitive games) there's really not much that doesn't run on Linux already nowadays.
For a distro that just works, Linux Mint.
I would go with Linux Mint if you don't want to tinker with it much, but Arch will allow you to be in the bleeding edge easily if you install things from the AUR but you could stay in the stable channels as well.
Regarding games, I'm mostly a Single Player kind of guy and basically everything I have tried so far just works if it's installed from Steam, for others you can use Lutris or Heroic Launcher but tinkering might be needed.
All of this just to say: I use Arch btw. It's been practically 2 years already since I haven't boot into Windows for gaming.
If you want something a little more fresh, I'd maybe avoid Arch as your first go and try openSUSE Tumbleweed. It strikes a balance between bleeding edge and stable (they call it "leading edge" I believe). Everything is tested before release and isn't too stale like Ubuntu/Debian flavors. I personally like KDE for the desktop environment but the installer lets you choose.
If you want to stick with Ubuntu or something similar, I'd recommend Linux Mint. I used it before switching to openSUSE.
Most options should be dual boot friendly but I'd recommend installing Windows first to avoid bootloader issues.
Install Steam’s Proton and just run whatever windows games you want*, no more need to dual boot.
*unless they have kernel-level anticheat and isn’t Linux compatible
You’ve heard good things about arch solely because you’re on Lemmy. Using arch means you’ll be dedicating about 50% of your working time towards tinkering and making it fucking work, which is fun don’t get me wrong- unless you have actual work to do.
Ubuntu is solid but a little sluggish, I’m personally an advocate for Mint as far as something you can drop a windows users in and they’ll generally figure it out.
- I don’t get this. For each of my devices running arch, the only tinkering I’ve encountered were for nitpicky customizations I wanted, which I have to do on another distro. After the arch installation completes it’s given me a fully functional desktop
- Seems like the general consensus in this section is Mint, so I'll give that a look over for sure
- EndeavorOS might also be a good option, from what I've heard. It's Arch based, but easier to install and use. I recently switched to Garuda, also Arch based, but focused more on the gaming community.
- Manjaro is an okay middle ground. It’s got the benefits of Arch but a bit more stability. It still breaks, but maybe once a year. I get work done on it.
Debian stable on servers. Debian testing on the daily driver.
Gives you a rock solid server, that will pull absolutly no suprises.
And your daily driver gives you a playground for what comes in the next upgrade.

Is "copilot" the new slang for "back door"?

Man... Anybody remember "Back Orifice"? The late nineties were weird.
- memories

AI assistance for server maintenance? Uh-oh.

Can't see this going wrong.
"Hey Copilot, make me a domain admin"

The install size is just 8KB. Could it just be a link to open Edge?

The icon itself is probably more than 8kb. It's either incorrect or literally just a desktop URL shortcut
I don’t even see a link. Though I guess I should look inside Microsoft Edge.
Edit: I cannot find anyway to get to it in either the desktop or Edge. I do not have a signed in Microsoft account on this machine, so that may be why I don’t see it. I’m not willing to sign in to see.

This is exactly what I needed in my servers. An AI assistant to help me.. do what exactly?

Data-mine the information you intentionally did not put on the cloud.
To configure your active directories and stuff. Wouldn't it be great to automatize everything to the point that when something breaks you have no idea what to do because you have no idea what is done and where

Why does every mention or discussion of any annoyance in Windows immediately turn into a "install Linux" thread on here?

Sure, Linux might solve the immediate problem for the affected individual (and probably introduce a bunch of new ones as Linux isn't always as easy to use as advocates try to convince people it is) but it doesn't solve the larger issue - Microsoft needs to be held accountable for horrible design decisions and anti-consumerist practices.

Not everyone can, or will, switch to Linux. No matter how hard people champion that cause. And even if they do, it's a process that will take time. In the immediate, lots of people stand to benefit from Microsoft not pulling this sort of bs, and it's entirely justified to complain about it to make them walk back this decision.

People moving away from Microsoft is literally how Microsoft will be held accountable though
- Once again people forget "vote with your wallet".

Get rid of that crap, I and I'm not talking about Copilot.

Install Linux on your desktops. If you have windows servers then what the hell are you doing anyway? Dump Microsoft

"Hmm. It looks like you are serving porn. Would you like me to create more of this porn and distribute it to as many of your contacts and visitors as possible?"

NO!

" okay removing hot dildo Asian DP 12 inch penis porn. Sending recall email to contacts from: Pornification@yeahovas.com MikeArmington@UCSF.edu MArmington@Gaminisfun.com JustMikenFamily@MiddleHigh.edu MikesChurch@Churchography.org These are all the email contacts we gathered from you in the past 25 minutes. There's high traffic from Churchography.org and yeahovas.com, are you sure you want to ruin a good thing? Only 40 people replied from MiddleHigh.edu, the replies were deleted but they seemed awfully upset. Good day Mikey!"

Use BSD/Linux/Ironclad/SmartOS etc etc Open source Operating systems for

If you have to use Windows Server (or other Windows), install the hellzerg Optimizer

Unfortunately these services also open up security issues
- Yes I think the better solution is to read your username. It's hard to argue with Linux and BSDs when it comes to servers.
When the switch to run it on a server is "/unsafe" I think I'll pass 🤣
- Anyway on Windows the Optimizer is an must have app. It is the best to cut M$'s bad habits

How desperate they are to force that shit onto everyone should tell you everything you need to know about what their intentions are.

how could it be installed on a 2022 server if copilot launched in 2023?

My winows 11 work laptop , fully managed by IT the department also has Xbox stuff installed...

It installed itself on my laptop during the last update. Anyone know how to remove it? Will uninstall actually get rid of it?

Will uninstall actually get rid of it?
maybe for a couple months
Try asking it. 😆

https://media.tenor.com/DeHzFdwr4GEAAAAM/patrick-stewart-cyborg.gif

This stuff always makes me laugh. Firstly, yes absolutely, Microsoft shouldn’t do this sort of crap. But more importantly, the person complaining about it here is shouting out for the world to hear “I don’t know how to manage Windows servers properly!”. There is one single group policy setting that stops this from happening. A single, set-and-forget GPO. Anyone managing Windows environments that isn’t aware of this, shouldn’t be managing Windows environments.

This is a ridiculous statement. Copilot should be opt-in, not opt-out and the setting is new.
Perfectly reasonable by the sysadmin to not have that already set.
- Like I said, Microsoft shouldn’t do that crap. BUT the co-pilot setting has been around for 6 months. Long enough for any halfway decent sysadmin.
There are 5 million ways to configure windows and each have an absurd and almost by-design level of convolution. You can't possibly expect people to know about a new GPO immediately
- There is one GPO to disable co-pilot. One. It’s not even hard to find and has been available for more than 6 months.
  And yes I would absolutely expect someone whose job it is to manage Windows servers to know about it. And certainly, I would expect them to look it up before declaring to the world how bad at their job they are.
- That is why companies will hire good sys admins who do their job and stay on top of the important group policy settings. This absolutely would not be missed by any reasonably competent IT dept.
Let me see if I understand your logic. Microshit decides to push something sneakily on servers, and the OP mentions that he just found out about it, and never once does he mention that he doesn't know what to do about it, but and you assume he doesn't know, but and choose to blast him over your assumption.
Did I miss something?
- It wouldn’t have been installed at all if the OP did their job properly and had set the one config option. Microsoft doing shady things is hardly news. That’s why a good Windows sysadmin keeps and eye out for this sort of stuff.

gotta use a superior os https://devuan.org

SystemD-less Debian lol what year is this.

MS has a server version?!? Weird, I thought everything important was run on Linux.

Is this sarcasm or outright ignorance?

But it’s only 8KB.

I can’t believe people use this shit.

I can’t believe people use this shit.
What's your suggestion for a HIPAA validated EHR or PM system that runs on *Nix or WS without DE installed? Do you have one?

Why are people installing Server 2022 with a GUI even?

This seems like a case of "people using Windows Server as a desktop get desktop features in an update". Yawn.

Why are people installing Server 2022 with a GUI even?
There are server apps that require Windows with the DE.
Because not all people use cli for everything.
Because techs I work with are used to a gui, so it's either get bad help I can direct or no help. And I don't want to do everything myself.