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Windows 10 is EOL in October 2025

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ml/post/15988326

Windows 10 will reach end of support on October 14, 2025. The current version, 22H2, will be the final version of Windows 10, and all editions will remain in support with monthly security update releases through that date. Existing LTSC releases will continue to receive updates beyond that date based on their specific lifecycles.

Source: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/lifecycle/products/windows-10-home-and-pro

DScratch ,

You can recommend what you like. As soon as Windows 10 can’t play the latest games I’m off to Linux.

Eat my whole ass, Microsoft.

Bahnd ,

Come on over, the water is fine. I switched to Pop_OS a few months back for the gaming rig and Proton+Steam works almost flawlessly. Older titles sometimes have hiccups, but so far ive only been blocked on one title.

mesamunefire ,

Yep it's pretty easy and my computer runs so much faster than Windows on the same machine.

metaStatic ,

Windows running on a VM under linux runs faster than windows on bare metal ...

JackGreenEarth ,
@JackGreenEarth@lemm.ee avatar

Not for me, but that might have been a slight exaggeration.

fartsparkles ,

You joke but it actually boots faster in a VM for me than on bare metal. And that’s with fastboot enabled. Would love to know why!

metaStatic ,

the best jokes have a kernel of truth.

The VM is optimised for the OS, the OS is usually a fresh install with just that 1 program you need to use instead of you're entire life scattered across the desktop, it can be a snapshot of the system in an optimal state right after running an unfuck windows script that removes default system malware which doesn't let it reinstall, it has less system resources to deal with for the simple fact it can't use them all at the same time as the base OS.

catloaf ,

Probably a BIOS that has a very well known hardware configuration. It doesn't have to worry about weird legacy shit, it's only ever going to be the VM hardware. (Plus whatever you pass through, but I imagine the BIOS doesn't care, or if it does it'll slow it back down).

DichotoDeezNutz ,
@DichotoDeezNutz@lemmy.world avatar

I just switched from W10 to Pop_OS and have had lots of trouble. I'm trying to stick with it but from audio glitches to many games not running unless I find a random CLI arg that someone mentioned on Reddit, to my UI freezing, it's not been an easy switch.

Nevoic ,

Any chance you have an nvidia card? Nvidia for a long time has been in a worse spot on Linux than AMD, which interestingly is the inverse of Windows. A lot of AMD users complain of driver issues on Windows and swap to Nvidia as a result, and the exact opposite happens on Linux.

Nvidia is getting much better on Linux though, and Wayland+explicit sync is coming down the pipeline. With NVK in a couple years it's quite possible that nvidia/amd Linux experience will be very similar.

Lemminary ,

I wish I still had my AMD card but it decided to brick itself for no apparent reason after it made horrible humming noises whenever it chose to ever since I bought it. I have an Nvidia card now and haven't had a single issue on Windows yet, but maybe my days are counted to the moment I switch to Linux.

DichotoDeezNutz ,
@DichotoDeezNutz@lemmy.world avatar

Yeah I'm on a 3070, I thought Pop had improvements for Nvidia stuff which is why I chose it.

metaStatic ,

it's not a drop in replacement and anyone looking for one will be disappointed by literally anything available.

You're learning an entirely new operating system, don't think of it as an upgrade, this is a time sink. You'll be under the hood more than on the road for the foreseeable future, but what's the alternative?

DichotoDeezNutz ,
@DichotoDeezNutz@lemmy.world avatar

I get that, and I love Linux, it's just annoying to see people say that they switched with 0 issues and trying to sell it off like people won't have problems.

InFerNo ,

I don't understand why people can't simply believe that someone could actually have very little issues with performance or settings after switching.

What About™ people who have issues when installing windows, as if that never happens.

I put both kinds of operating systems on a myriad of computers and sometimes it's smooth sailing and sometimes it's like stepping on rake after rake.

DichotoDeezNutz ,
@DichotoDeezNutz@lemmy.world avatar

Its not that I don't believe it, rather they are "selling" Linux as if there won't be any problems, but whoever is making the switch will have to learn about troubleshooting. That's a good thing, but something that they should be aware of.

InFerNo ,

I don't really have a problem with "selling" Linux. You gotta take all things with a dose of skepticism.

Has anyone ever recommended a product of any complexity as an OS and then also listed all of the common issues people might encounter? When people talk about a product they like, of course it will highlight the positive things, but anyone who has ever touched a computer, hobbyist or not, knows these things might sometimes shit the bed in unexpected ways. I think that's common sense.

Windows is said to have less problems, but the cryptic errors and non descriptive "wait while we do something" message without any other output actually makes solving problems harder. It has more users, so luckily that means someone out there probably has the issue documented so solutions are easier to find.

I use both, at home primarily Linux, at work primarily Windows. I had troubles in both that caused serious headaches, but generally they both work without too much problems.

This might have been a bit rambling 😅

SidewaysHighways ,

Try bazzite? It's been cool with my setup. Intel processor with GTX 1660 ti.

Mint has been cool too! on a laptop with a 1650 on it

Statlerwaldorf ,

I did the same a few months back. No problems so far. Some older games require switching up the compatibility layer occasionally but no deal breakers so far.

kakes ,

I've seen a lot of people recommending Pop_OS lately. Out of curiosity, what's the benefit over something like Mint?

natedog526 ,
@natedog526@lemmy.world avatar

Curious about this too. I was gonna spend some time trying some different distros. Both mint and PopOs are on my list.

HeyMrDeadMan ,

I'll try to offer an answer to both you and @natedog526.

Pop came heavily recommended for a while because it's relatively light-weight for a modern desktop, had some fresh UI ideas with its COSMIC plugins for Gnome, and ships with some nice bonuses for gamers like built in Steam and Nvidia setup scripts.

Unfortunately, it's become pretty stale lately. I still use it daily on my main desktop, but lately it's becoming harder and harder to keep from hopping to something new. A few pain points include Pop shipping older version of some important software like the Kernel, Wine, and Mesa, persistsant audio bugs like the other user mentioned, and basically no support for Wayland at the moment.

A lot of these are because System76 has been heavily focused working on its COSMIC desktop, which should function a full standalone desktop environment instead of Gnome with duct tape. It's looking forward to seeing it which has so far kept me from switching, but with no release date and other distros offering what Pop offers, it's harder and harder to stay put.

Defaced ,

Running OpenSUSE Tumbleweed right now and it's great!

rdrunner ,

If iRacing and my other sim racing gear worked with Linux I'd make the switch asap. I already have popOS on another hard drive and everything other than iRacing has worked well

HeyLow ,

Looks like iRacing is working on proton experimental as of 3 days ago
At least according to a user on protondb

poleslav ,

Yup, similar boat but with planes instead of cars. Most inputs Linux can support on a single usb device is 86 or so, my throttle alone has well over 150 buttons on it. Add in all the stuff for my sim cockpit (probably around 1000 buttons), my haptic feedback chair, and then VR… as much as I’d like to use Linux, I don’t think it’d be possible for the foreseeable future for me to switch.

kennebel ,

I switched to Pop!_OS about 3 months ago and have been loving it! First Linux distribution that just worked for me, and every app works better than any other Linux or Windows 11 on the same hardware.

NRay7882 ,

We need a successful replacement to DirectX for this to happen.

Look how desperate they are now for their web browser, imagine when people start abandoning Windows because there are other options that work just as well. I can't wait.

impure9435 ,

We need a successful replacement to DirectX for this to happen.

Vulkan?

NRay7882 ,

Definitely, I'm not saying that there aren't any viable candidates out there now, but the title base for games that support Vulkan seems to be not even 1/10th of what DirectX 11 can support. It needs more acceptance I guess is what I mean.

Enoril ,

Honestly even the as-is directX with Wine is already quite good. With Vulkan, game over :-)

MentalEdge ,
@MentalEdge@sopuli.xyz avatar

Wine doesn't do DirectX. A wine environment set up for gaming uses DXVK or VKD3D to translate everything to Vulkan.

vividspecter ,

Wine does do DirectX as well (and did well before DVXK and VKD3D-Proton were a thing). But it translates to OGL instead of Vulkan so it was always relatively slow and has issues with compatibility. There's also some other built in work to translate to Vulkan (including the original VKD3D), but they are behind the third party projects too.

MentalEdge ,
@MentalEdge@sopuli.xyz avatar

Yes, that was WineD3D, which still has to be used in some cases.

But that's still not DirectX, what I was saying is that you don't actually run DirectX in Wine. You have to translate it to Vulkan or OpenGL.

Not that this stuff isn't part of Wine.

MentalEdge ,
@MentalEdge@sopuli.xyz avatar

We already do?

DXVK and VKD3D have been translating DirectX 9-12 to Vulkan for a while now, allowing DirectX games and applications to run on hardware and/or operating systems that don't support DirectX.

Intels ARC GPUs don't even support DirectX on a hardware level, like it's just straight up not there. Intels drivers instead just translate it to Vulkan, and their at times insane FPS boosts from driver updates was due to them improving that translation and getting closer to 1:1 performance.

NRay7882 ,

At times, yes. But at most times, no. Certain games can capitalize on ARC and I was just as enthusiastic as everyone else when it first started making the rounds. But theres a reason the cards haven't caught on and most people seem to rely on them more for offloading things like streaming and AV1 encoding/decoding

MentalEdge ,
@MentalEdge@sopuli.xyz avatar

They're new.

I didn't claim they're worth recommending yet. AFAIK they're pretty great now, and with more issues worked out on the hardware side, Battlemage has great potential.

Enoril ,

Switched to arch linux last november, didn’t had to launch my backup VM Win10 at all.
I even managed to play at StarCitizen with better performance than under Win 10...

Just wow the progress of Linux, Wine & co since my last linux try (Ubuntu, around 2010).

I just need now to find a linux way for my music stack and all the VST (my steinberg usb card is recognized and play properly oO) and Windows will be history at home...

Dablin ,
@Dablin@kbin.social avatar

Yeah ive also had s Star Citizen running in Arch. My setup didnt support game updates though so every update needed a complete redownload of the entire game which got old real fast.

Also had Microsoft Flight Simulator running very well too which is peak irony. At first there was issues with satellite terrain and imagary as the networking was broken but a Proton update actually fixed that.

Im incredibly impressed on the type of heavy duty window games ive got working in linux, some working very well others with slight occasional issues.

Linux gaming isnt perfect but windows has never been either. Ive had plenty of experience over the years with some games just not running properly or at all in windows even though they should.

Ive found many older games generally run better in Linux now in respect to modern windows, despite the compatibility layers.

misk ,
@misk@sopuli.xyz avatar

It's funny seeing this every couple of years. People get up in arms about something with Windows, some switch to Linux because they outgrew Windows and the time was right. By now I think you guys could be primary source of Linux users.

DScratch ,

Yeah, I’m guilty of this tbh.
It’s just the massive unknown of leaving something you’ve been so close to for literally the majority of my life.

It’s scary!

imecth ,
@imecth@fedia.io avatar

It's little grievances that eventually pile up and one day you'll just have had enough and switch.

blind3rdeye ,

Yeah, for me it is the ads. No one likes ads, but I hate ads more than most people. So when Windows started putting more and more 'recommendations' into various places... I've been building up a list of registry tweaks to turn it all off - but as more ads got added, just couldn't tolerate it any more. I installed Mint with dual boot (defaulting to Mint). I thought I'd be booting into Window every so often for one reason or another, but as it happens - the only reason I ever loaded Windows was to check that the dual booting was working.

cosmicrookie ,
@cosmicrookie@lemmy.world avatar

Linux can play most games nowadays. You can check if your games are compatible and to what extend they are not here https://www.protondb.com/

neutron ,

Why not start today, man? It's good to practice.

DScratch ,

Uncertainty, really.

What distro works with my setup:
3700x and rtx 4090?

7U5K3N ,

Folks will say arch.

But honestly any modern Linux system with 3rd party drivers will work.
Mint pop_os arch Manjaro Debian Ubuntu etc

I'm running a 1660 and an i5 64xx on kubuntu 24.04
Granted that stuff is older but you'll have the same experience.

Unless you're running the absolute bleeding edge... You'll not have a lot of problems.

*Ymmv of course but majority of folks won't have issues.

HeyMrDeadMan ,

The the Arch software repos are incredible and the Arch Wiki is, quite frankly, a work of art that should be celebrated with the same reverence as the Mona Lisa or David's uncircumcised cock.

But anyone recommending Arch to a Linux newbie needs a psych evaluation.

I've lost count of the number of times I've read stories to the effect of, "yeah, a regular package update bricked my desktop, but I just rolled my face across the keyboard and recompiled the offending software and got back to work, no big deal."

Cool. I'm so glad you can do that my guy, I really am. But how the hell do you expect average computer user to figure that out? The first time a software update leaves them at a command prompt with some cryptic GDM error message or a Nvidia kernel panic or something, they're going running back to Billy Gates' warm walled garden embrace. Shit, I like to think I'm half competent with Linux and I'd shit myself if that happened to me.

EDIT: Sorry, @7U5K3N, I didn't nessicarily mean to direct any of that to you specifically, it's sort of just my standard copy pasta whenever I see Arch reccomded.

7U5K3N ,

Haha I agree arch is the meme recommendation. It has its benefits like you've detailed out.. but it's not for a windows convert. I've ran it, it can require more fiddling than some of the other distros. Tinkering that newbies can't do.

Me I'm an apt man. So I tend to suggest distros that center around that package manager.. it just so happens that they are some of the newbie ones.

I once installed mint on my ex father in laws machine and it ran perfectly for ages for him (with auto updates)
They were spending $$$s a quarter on windowa system cleanup due to viruses. As he was an online slot machine / junk flash game player. So of course he would get all the viruses. Once he went mint, he had 0 issues (with the os) the issues he had was more user error with online behavior.

Anyway. No problem for the gruffness of your reply, as I agree with what you've said. :)

Assman ,
@Assman@sh.itjust.works avatar

I haven't touched my Windows PC since the steam deck came out. If you only care about games you don't need Windows.

AdamBomb ,

That was my choice too. I made the jump to Mint earlier this year and couldn’t be happier. It took a little effort to get updated GPU drivers, and my games sometimes need an extra CLI argument added, but those things have been pretty quickly and easily found on the Mint forums, Ubuntu forums, or ProtonDB comments.

PotatoKat ,

Give pop-os a try if you're running an nvidia. It was very much plug and play with my laptop and it works great.

Moorshou ,
@Moorshou@lemmy.zip avatar

You made my day!

Tregetour ,
@Tregetour@lemdro.id avatar

If you had any real intention of making the shift, you'd have done so already. Protip: You know I'm right!

anas ,

Genuine question, what’s the point of this comment?

Tregetour ,
@Tregetour@lemdro.id avatar

The 'as soon as Windows 10 can’t x I'm off to Linux!' refrain is so routine in our circles it's practically a meme. All someone says when they pontificate like this is that their true priority is can kicking rather than action.

anas ,

I feel like someone who likes Win10 and is used to it would want to use it for as long as they can, before having to change to Linux.

Toes ,
@Toes@ani.social avatar

I really want to see the EU force Microsoft to release a stripped down version that continues to support older hardware.

RiQuY ,

Can they do that?

Toes ,
@Toes@ani.social avatar

It's not out of the realm of possibility. They have been known to force Microsoft to make changes in the past. As well as Apple and other major software companies.

Edit: Grammar

homesweethomeMrL ,

Shouldn’t they just support Linux more? Maybe fund some driver development but otherwise - win?

Toes ,
@Toes@ani.social avatar

I'm not too familiar with that side of things but I do believe they do. My understanding is that some organizations are set up as nonprofits and they contribute to the development of Linux.

Some European governments also use foss software for things like email and office.

But it's easier to throw darts at a big company than lots of small things that add up to something big.

snownyte ,
@snownyte@kbin.social avatar

One would think.

Linux costs next to nothing compared to Windows. So if companies want to cry about having to save on budget, go with the better option for it.

Who the fuck needs Office 365? Nothing has really changed on that software for years, it's still the same shit. I don't see anything different on Microsoft Word 2007 from it's 365 counterpart. People are getting scammed.

Fiivemacs ,

The UI keeps changing...

FordBeeblebrox ,

My gf recently took one of those dumb ability tests on Indeed for an office job, shows you two screenshots of document editing and you answer which buttons achieve the desired effect. I opened Word on my laptop and all of the buttons were in different places compared to screenshots.

MS, just go sit down somewhere and stop fiddling with shit

Lemminary ,

BuT It HaS aI SuPpOrT NoW!

What a selling point.

fuckwit_mcbumcrumble ,

Why? Only hardcore computer nerds would ever want that.

phdepressed ,

Because a bunch of government and business uses 10 and they really don't want "Recall AI" in there for a plethora of reasons.

catloaf ,

Then they can use LTSC until 2027 or pay for extended service until 2028. After that, they'll just be unsupported.

I'm sure there's going to be a group policy setting to disable the Recall AI thing anyway.

FaceDeer ,
@FaceDeer@fedia.io avatar
Classy ,

Kind of feels like giving my toddler a loaded gun, but saying that it's safe because the safety is on.

Toes ,
@Toes@ani.social avatar

A devastating amount of computer hardware is about to be e-wasted because they decided to drop support for anything older than roughly 2017/2018.

It's an arbitrary limitation as people have succeeded in forcing it to work on much older hardware that still works well enough for your avg person.

Additionally, windows used to be a tool now it's a platform for them to essentially market any number of things and user privacy appears to be the least important thing on the table.

The only reason we don't see mass adoption of Linux has been 4 decades of software development and marketing that let's them continue to wear their crown.

A regulatory party needs to humble them and return windows to being a tool.

Imagine if the gasoline companies one day announced that they will be changing gas so only cars bought in the last 5 years or so could refuel.

Now imagine if to buy a car you had to tolerate cameras and other forms of tracking your telemetry just to get to work and feed yourself.

Lunacy yes? They took the "my" out of my computer.

JackGreenEarth ,
@JackGreenEarth@lemm.ee avatar

Why should they have to support Windows 10 when Linux would run fine on your 'old' machine? That really puts the 'yours' back in your computer, no need for a company to do it for you.

Toes ,
@Toes@ani.social avatar

Yeah and abandon so much in the process.

Linux is wonderful and works plenty fine, but as a civilization we are not ready. There's still so much that won't work out of the box, for most manufacturers it's an after thought if any at all.

You can't walk into your avg store and be like I want a computer with Linux that will play fortnite.

You can't blindly buy a video game or a multifunctional printer without serious consideration.

Unlike Windows where it's the established norm that it will work 100% of the time.

Sure you can argue that a user should just learn to deal with that and teach themselves how to install Linux and cope with whatever comes up.

But that's just unfair to grandma and anyone else that hasn't made computers a hobby.

pHr34kY ,

I have two Surface Pros that are BIOS locked so I can't install Linux. They also don't support Win11.

I'm not sure what I can do with them.

barsquid ,

I am full of rage by proxy, sorry to hear that. I've been thinking of only buying coreboot motherboards from now on, but that's easier said than done.

fuckwit_mcbumcrumble ,

Imagine if the gasoline companies one day announced that they will be changing gas so only cars bought in the last 5 years or so could refuel.

They've already effectively did this, and by they I mean the US government mandated it. 5% ethanol has been mandated since 2006, and 10% since 2012. If your car is too old (lots of 90s cars) you'll have to find a gas station that has ethanol free fuel.

Feyd ,

I've read this a few times. If ethanol is mandated how are there stations with ethanol free? Do they just have a pay an extra tax or something?

zeppo ,
@zeppo@lemmy.world avatar

It’s allowed for certain types of vehicles, so people illicitly put it in to regular vehicles as well and gas stations turn a blind eye.

die444die ,

It’s not illicit to put non ethanol gas in any vehicle, and even if it were would you actually expect gas stations to confirm the type of vehicle that’s getting fuel for every transaction before the customer is allowed to swipe their card and fill up?

You may be confusing ethanol free gas with off road diesel, which is basically just lower taxed and not dyed. Even then it’s not up to the gas station to police who buys it.

zeppo ,
@zeppo@lemmy.world avatar

I think actually I was thinking the extra-high octane gas labeled 'for collector vehicles only'.

die444die ,

Ah okay I’ve not come across that one myself. It’s also possible certain states have different regulations (if we are talking about the US).

zeppo ,
@zeppo@lemmy.world avatar

It prevents knocking in sensitive vintage vehicles, which were designed for leaded gas, too. That article also covers why ethanol can be harmful for them.

Pyrarrows ,

Fun fact, there were still computers being manufactured with CPUs that don't support Windows 11 in 2020, got one of those at work that we will need to replace before then. Thankfully only one, so it's not too big of a deal.

Rolder ,

The real thing stopping mass adoption of Linux is that few people want to fiddle around with their machines to that degree. For the vast majority of users, it just needs to run and be able to run whatever programs are needed, and the easier it is to do so, the better.

dukethorion ,
@dukethorion@lemmy.world avatar

The majority of computer owners use their machine to open a web browser and maybe an email client.

Surely that can be done on any OS.

Rolder ,

Correct, and those people aren’t going to jump through hoops finding a distro and drivers when they can just install windows and call it a day

hydrospanner ,

This

And when I run into issues, I would rather be using the OS that is the most common so that I have more options to get good info for a fix. I don't want problems that nobody's ever encountered, or for which the fix is beyond my limited technical ability.

It's somewhat amusing when I see people on Lemmy proselytizing for Linux and literally while laying out their points to convince someone how easy it is, they'll talk about doing shit that is already beyond my ability. And I'm not some 90 year old who struggles to turn it on. I'm just a user that doesn't care to use any OS that I'll need to take time to learn to figure out how to use it.

When I start a Windows machine I just do what I need to do.

When even a Linux cheerleader is trying to convince someone how easy it is, they're already indicating more effort than I want to put into it.

e0qdk ,
@e0qdk@reddthat.com avatar

Now imagine if to buy a car you had to tolerate cameras and other forms of tracking your telemetry just to get to work and feed yourself.

Sorry to be the bearer of depressing news, but that's basically already happening in new cars.

https://foundation.mozilla.org/en/blog/privacy-nightmare-on-wheels-every-car-brand-reviewed-by-mozilla-including-ford-volkswagen-and-toyota-flunks-privacy-test/

https://jacobin.com/2024/03/car-spying-insurance-surveillance-data/

kakes ,

>.>

<.<

...no reason.

MrZweihander ,

I wouldn't be surprised to see the EU require M$ to remove the artificial requirements and let 10 users on older hardware update.

cley_faye ,

It already exists. Most of the requirements that break with current W10 machines are artificial and can be removed at install time with rufus (memory requirement, secure boot, TPM2, microsoft account).

Still not a solution; you should not have to fight against your OS design choices that much.

dont_lemmee_down ,

I have been running Linux for some time now, still had a Windows partition for gaming. Then I switched the motherboard and windows decided I no longer had a key for it... I stopped playing most of the windows exclusive games. Since last week I can't even boot anymore, something about missing drivers. Spent a day trying to fix it.
Today I decided fuck it and I'm just leaving it behind! It makes no sense wasting so much energy on a vastly inferior OS that actively tries to fight me.

Nougat ,

Then I switched the motherboard and windows decided I no longer had a key for it

The reason for this is that Windows builds an identifier based on the hardware of the machine on which it is installed. When that identifier doesn't match, it throws a flag that says "Hey now ..." I think that you still get a couple of "honor system passes" before the installed OS enforces anything.

Once that gets enforced, you can call Microsoft Clearinghouse, "I upgraded my hardware," and they'll give you a new key to enter.

wewbull ,

Whereas on Linux I recently upgraded the motherboard on my machine from a B350 to a B550, stripping it down to it's parts and rebuilding. Different network chip, audio chip, WiFi and Bluetooth, etc, etc. 6 SSDs plugged back in in a shuffled order.

Linux booted and worked first time, adjusting which drivers it used automatically, mounting all the drives in their original locations. Similar thing when I upgraded my GPU. Admittedly the old one was AMD, same as the new one, but there was about 4 or 5 generations between them. CPU upgrades too.

I've got a real machine of Theseus here. I think my case and my heatsink is all that's left from the original.

...oh...and the OS.

Nougat ,

Windows will do the exact same thing. It'll even boot and run just fine, only telling you that Windows isn't activated. And you can get vendor support if you need it. I had a Windows system that started as XP and got upgraded and passed around among newer and newer hardware up to Windows 11 with nary a problem.

dont_lemmee_down ,

Apparently there is 2 types of Windows licences. The ones that are bound to the hardware and ones that aren't.
If you bought a PC with preinstalled Windows, it's probably the first and you wont get any new keys.

Nougat ,

I think you're right that OEM licenses are more strict on certain hardware changes, as in they wouldn't give you a pass on a single mainboard change - but you would still get a key from clearinghouse. As far as I'm aware, all retail and OEM keys are hardware bound. KMS/MAK are not.

kent_eh ,

I have been running Linux for some time now,

Same. Windows 95 was the last MS install on my personal machine.

BroBot9000 ,
@BroBot9000@lemmy.world avatar

I installed Linux Mint for the first time the other day and I’m thoroughly enjoying myself.

Thanks M$ for getting me to enjoy my pc again, as a Linux.

AdamBomb ,

Same! It’s been great.

MisterFrog ,
@MisterFrog@lemmy.world avatar

This is what will push me over to Linux too, just will be procrastinate a bit because I don't have lots of time to work out all the kinks

snownyte ,
@snownyte@kbin.social avatar

Unless you're on Enterprise/Education - 2027

NarrativeBear ,

But I don't want to buy all new hardware! Thought MS was sustainable. Instead MS is BS.

Thorry84 ,

Always has been.

And I've been using Microsoft since my first computer in 1984. Recently got DOS 2.0 with hacked FAT16 running on my first computer, would have blown my mind back then.

Imgonnatrythis ,

This one is particularly harsh since win11 has ridiculous artificial hard stops on installation based on made up hardware requirements. Also it sucks.

Creat ,

This also makes it easy to block Win 10 from upgrading to 11, just disable tpm in BIOS. From where I'm sitting, that's kinda convenient.

Imgonnatrythis ,

Ok, but where will you be be sitting on Oct. 15th 2025?

cm0002 ,

That's a Oct 14th 2025 me's problem

Creat ,

Dunno yet, sounds like future me's problem. Mist likely some version of Linux unless win 11 drastically changes course (unlikely).

scottmeme ,

That's where you grab a W10 Enterprise LTSC iso which has support until 2032.

Already got a surface running it.

JamesFire ,

Where would you... find one of these? For a friend

scottmeme ,

There are a few copies floating around torrent sites.

Usually it's sku conversion changes so it's not an eval mode.

Or find a friendly neighborhood n3rd who might have one. 😉

Also you can entirely uninstall edge!

Imgonnatrythis ,

Hol up. So m$ is still making the patches they're just not releasing them to anyone but enterprise users? The whole end of service thing doesn't actually free up any of their resources its just a soulless push for upgrade purchases?

scottmeme ,

Yep! 100% on the 👃

daikiki ,

I imagine they'll have backtracked on this decision long before then.

Khrux ,

I have a PC I built that was absolutely top of the line 9½ years ago, that still plays most games in high to max settings. It's a little powerhouse for its age, I often use it for rendering video and it still smokes everybody I know 's devices.

Windows 11 is too powerful for my PC according to Microsoft and I've been so pleased about that. If it wasn't for the fact that I have no issues with my current windows 10 setup, I'd put in some time to jump to Linux. I'm just too lazy to give it the weekend it would take to learn, set up and move my content over properly.

Creat ,

Well to my knowledge there are (or at least were) workarounds to get win 11 to install anyway. It of course worked fine, despite saying it needed a TPM and/or specific minimum CPU.

From an eWaste perspective Microsofts decision to force literally millions of PCs into fake obsolescence is obviously horrible. And I honestly have no idea what their motivation even was for this.

As for trying Linux, these days it really isn't even a weekend. Sure if you want to tinker and learn, you can invest a weekend. But if you want to just use the PC just pick any of the commonly recommended distros and just go. It's installed in minutes and you can honestly just use the PC for whatever you used to use it before. Just backup/move your data off it and you got nothing to lose but like an hour, if it really doesn't work as you need it to.

Chev ,

I've the newest AMD hardware available and I'm not able to upgrade. No idea what they want.

Imgonnatrythis ,

Hopefully you bought your fully assembled pc with an official Microsoft sticker already on the case right?

Chev ,

I've built the pc myself.

xhieron ,
@xhieron@lemmy.world avatar

Windows 10 LTSC 2021 ends support in 2027 (although it doesn't matter quite as much). And it's likely that the Win 11 LTSC later this year will necessarily be free from much of 11's bullshit. Linux is still the right call, but for those of us who need to run a Windows machine for whatever reason, there are alternatives, so, you know... yarr.

_sideffect ,

Fu win11 with its abundance of spyware and ai bs

Jaysyn ,
@Jaysyn@kbin.social avatar

Jokes on them, over the last year or so I've installed Nobara, Mint & Xubuntu on every PC in my house.

So done with Windows.

AstralPath ,

The only thing holding me back from Linux (Nobara) is that my AxeFX's USB drivers don't seem to work. Losing the UI and USB recording capability is a huge deterrent.

treefrog ,

I guess that's when I switch my laptop over to Linux. Which is back how it was before I switched it to Windows for school.

My PC is already Linux.

homesweethomeMrL ,

Micro$quash makes 80 BEELYUN dollars a year in pure unadulterated profit, but it can’t keep security updates coming.

Well. I mean, they can, hahaha . . .ahh but they’re not going to.

sentient_loom ,
@sentient_loom@sh.itjust.works avatar

Will they start supporting old CPUs? I couldn't install Windows 11 on my pre-gen-8 intel laptops, so I had to go with 10.

shortwavesurfer ,

Nope, but they will support Linux. All the users who do not want Windows 11, AI spying on them, or don't want to buy new hardware, will be going to Linux. So thank you in advance Microsoft, we appreciate it.

JamesFire ,

How is Linux scheduling with intel's heterogonous CPUs? 12th gen and later?

shortwavesurfer ,

I have no idea. I'm rocking a Dell Latitude from like 2014 with an Intel Core i3 something.

JamesFire ,

Ah well I have a 13th gen laptop I use primarily for emulation on-the-go, so if linux was even halfway decent, I'd probably switch it over.

cosmicrookie ,
@cosmicrookie@lemmy.world avatar

Linux Mint FTW!
Changed partly because of this and partly because of all the ads, bloatware, spyware etc etc

Blaster_M ,

Controversial Take:

Windows 11 is actually decent

Kongar ,

It’s 10 with some extra BS. It runs. But I wouldn’t call it decent. Definitely a controversial take ;)

Take my upvote not because I agree, but because you are brave! ;)

applepie ,

give us 3 reasons why

FaceDeer ,
@FaceDeer@fedia.io avatar
  • Stable
  • Lots of features
  • Very widespread support
cyberpunk007 ,

The funny thing is I use Mac Linux and Windows daily. Windows 11 on my surface. This is my business computer. Mac for the employer I work for. Linux for my personal desktop. 11 crashes all the time. Start menu and task bar glitches. Random UI elements not loading properly. I frequently need to restart explorer.exe. I get thunderbolt dock issues and glitches. This does not occur on the MacBook. Or my old windows 10 work laptop.

I actually like 10 now. 11 is hot trash. I'll take 12 over it so far from what we know of it.

FaceDeer ,
@FaceDeer@fedia.io avatar

Whereas I use Windows 11 on all of my machines, including one I use for my job as a programmer and regularly put through the wringer, and I don't actually know what the Windows 11 version of the blue screen of death looks like because I have never crashed the OS. I can't recall the last time I saw a bug like what you're describing, either. So I don't know what you're doing wrong with your Windows 11 install, but it seems I've somehow avoided it without particularly trying.

cyberpunk007 ,

Me neither, I have mainly Microsoft software on there. It's Microsoft's own tablet lol. It probably would help if I reinstalled but I can't be bothered. It "works".

circuscritic ,

The major problems isn't Windows 11 usability, although those issues due exist. UI and workflow issues can typically get addressed, or mitigated, by 3rd party tools.

The real concerns are the exponential increases in spyware, such as the AI recovery tool that records all user interactions, or the native advertising inside of the system itself e.g. Start Menu ads.

If native AI data collection and advertising is baked into all nooks and crannies of the system, the ability of users to mitigate those threats becomes extraordinarily difficult, if not impossible to completely resolve.

FaceDeer ,
@FaceDeer@fedia.io avatar

You can turn off Recall with a simple toggle in the settings.

There's no need to switch operating systems, just turn it off.

dukethorion ,
@dukethorion@lemmy.world avatar

Do you trust that its off? Or just off for You?

FaceDeer ,
@FaceDeer@fedia.io avatar

I trust that Microsoft fears the lawsuits that would ensue if they were caught lying about it, and that they wouldn't derive any significant benefit from lying about it. Why would they?

dukethorion ,
@dukethorion@lemmy.world avatar

Because legal fees and fines are the cost of doing business for Big AdTech

circuscritic ,

Even if you trust that one feature will actually be disabled, that was just one example.

Do you really believe you can disable and remove all of the numerous data collection and spyware components that are baked into all aspects of the OS?

I'm not saying no one should use Windows 11, but they should be honest with themselves about the trade-off they're accepting.

FaceDeer ,
@FaceDeer@fedia.io avatar

Even if you trust that one feature will actually be disabled, that was just one example.

The other one mentioned was the start menu ads. Those can also be turned off with a simple toggle in the settings. Finding this was as simple as Googling "turn off windows start menu ads", it was the top result.

Do you really believe you can disable and remove all of the numerous data collection and spyware components that are baked into all aspects of the OS?

Yes. Because Windows is used by a lot of big giant corporations that would sue the hell out of Microsoft if it wasn't possible to disable those features.

ricdeh ,
@ricdeh@lemmy.world avatar

First of all, there are specialised Enterprise distributions of M$ Windows. Furthermore, what ground would any company have to sue M$ on what the latter put in their own operating system?

FaceDeer ,
@FaceDeer@fedia.io avatar

I work for a big giant corporation and plenty of its computers don't run Enterprise Windows.

A lawsuit would come in the case that Microsoft was lying about whether you could disable those features. Microsoft has put toggles for them into the settings, if it turns out that those toggles don't actually disable the things they claim to disable then that's where Microsoft is going to face legal issues. Do you really think Microsoft cares enough about the tiny portion of their customer base that's going to change the default settings that they would risk that sort of lawsuit to "spy" on them?

cyberpunk007 ,

Yes. Just like you can turn off a bunch of the windows 10 crap with registry keys and tools. Why. Why does a user need to go to such lengths to make their OS they paid for not soy on them and deliver them ads?

"Oh it's not that bad!" You'll say. Ya. Windows 10 wasn't THAT bad for it. Then came 11. Then 12 will come. Inch by inch it will turn to shit more and more, and that is the point.

FaceDeer ,
@FaceDeer@fedia.io avatar

But this really isn't a registry key or tool, though. Did you click my link? It's a simple on/off toggle in the system settings menu. You just open the settings and click "off." I don't see how much simpler they could make it.

cyberpunk007 ,

You need to consider the bigger picture. Not this specific thing.

FaceDeer ,
@FaceDeer@fedia.io avatar

I haven't had to edit the registry in as long as I can remember. Not just for this specific thing. What stuff are you talking about?

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