There is something so fundamentally gross about Microsoft's vision of what role an operating system should serve. That there is an aftermarket of software that attempts to disable (but cannot remove!) the invasive dark patterns is alarming enough, but Microsoft may simply just... undo that, with the next unstoppable update.
Then again, this is the company that answered complaints about Windows being bad for development by embedding an OS that is good for development and calling that an innovation rather than an acknowledgement that Windows is bad.
wtallis · 1h ago
> answered complaints about Windows being bad for development by embedding an OS that is good for development and calling that an innovation
Well, they actually did it twice in recent history: WSL 1 was relatively innovative, integrating Linux application compatibility into the Windows operating system itself. But that turned out to still be bad for development because it meant Linux software was now subjected to the performance problems of the Windows IO stack. So they responded with WSL 2, an ordinary Linux VM. And separately they also introduced the "Dev Drive" feature to let you create a filesystem that bypassed the worst parts of the Windows IO stack.
AndrewDavis · 17m ago
> WSL 1 was relatively innovative, integrating Linux application compatibility into the Windows operating system itself
Both FreeBSD and Illumos were running Linux applications (at various levels of compatibility) many years prior to wsl v1. Joyent even went as far as re-implementing the Docker api to allow running OCI images natively in LX zones. Hence, it wasn't even that novel of an idea.
PeterStuer · 1h ago
They allow these aftermarket products to work/exist as long as they remain niche. It keeps a select audience that would have jumped ship on Windows.
The moment these 'solutions' would get mainstream traction they will be shut down.
No comments yet
vivzkestrel · 1h ago
Microsoft should create a new windows option in addition to Home, Professional and Pro and call this one "Windows OPTIMAL" They can price this 3x if they want but it has 0 bloatware, 0 telemetry or atleast everything can be disabled at the time of installation. It is literally windows designed from the ground up for maximum performance, runs as smooth as windows 7 or xp used to back in the good old days
PeterStuer · 1h ago
They wont as it would be admitting their 'normal' offering is anti-consumer.
danieldk · 1h ago
Also, this is also the case with ad-disabling subscriptions, the people who have the disposable income to buy non-ad versions are the most interesting to a lot of advertisers.
xandrius · 46m ago
Already exists, just not to the normies.
IoT LTSC.
Works like a charm and no bloat.
hn-ifs · 17m ago
This is what I use in a VM on my Linux host whenever I need to run something Windows.
I don't game and all my software is cross platform. Windows still has a few things I miss, programs like notepad++ (for which there's no true Linux equivalent), and portable apps (with Linux equivalents not really coming close, but understandably so).
Windows really is a broken OS solely set up for spying on users.
It will also miss feature upgrades and so can be slower than the main distribution. It's probably fine if you don't play games.
closetkantian · 40m ago
Can I run this on my laptop?
dijit · 1h ago
isn’t this IoT LTSC?
thats what i use it for, comes with no new feature updates (which is sometimes annoying as some software depends on some Windows feature updates) and you have to buy 5x licences- and its more expensive. but it works.
QQ00 · 1h ago
for no telemetry and half the bloatware you can always use the enterprise version. it's also (n)x the price. there also the iot version which is more stripped down and get only security updates, no features updates or other craps.
I don't think we will ever see a new version the way you described it, the amount of information Microsoft get from spying and telemetry is so much more profitable they even gave 10/11 for free.
vivzkestrel · 1h ago
i want to be able to run games on it without a 100 programs running in the background. if Microsoft engineers really put their mind to it, they could create such an OS offering dedicated for gaming with literally nothing consuming your CPU and FPS except the game you are running
yifanl · 1h ago
BigTech arent interested in developing efficient products while they have a captive audience.
999900000999 · 1h ago
Ubuntu.
Fedora.
Arch.
Open Suse .
Pick one, stop trying to make Windows look like a decent os. My local Windows install just gave up. I'm very close to trying Windows 11 in a VM on top of Fedora or whatever, can't really do that on my 16gb ram value laptop though.
If Maschine offered official Linux support, that's what I make music with, I'd be 100% Windows free.
esperent · 52m ago
A few months ago I switched from Windows 11 to Ubuntu on my laptop. Coming from a decade of experience running servers with various flavors of Linux it's not much of a learning curve for me.
And look, I love Ubuntu. I'm sticking with it (although kinda wish I'd been less safe and chosen Fedora or OpenSuse). But, to be honest, I've had, and continue to have, a ton of problems related to hardware. Problems waking from sleep (I gave up trying to fix this and just restart every time now), problems with external monitor not reawakening after screen timeout, problems with the wifi speed suddenly dropping until I restart (apparently Linux doesn't play well with Intel Killer 6e laptop wifi), problems with my Brother printer (won't wake from sleep over wifi, works fine on Android and Windows though).
None of these are quite deal breakers. Sure, I have to open and close my laptop lid three or four times to get the external monitor to switch back on, and and the login prompt will only show on my laptop screen which gets set to 1% brightness every restart, so if it's sunny I have to stick my face right against the screen to see it.
Nevertheless, I persevere. I've fixed 70% of the initial issues. But you know what I will not do? Recommend Linux desktop to a non-technical person. My mother, my sister, my girlfriend, most of my acquaintances. They would hate to deal with this stuff, and simply don't have to on Windows, for all it's faults.
I think that people who recommend Linux desktop nearly all started by buying a laptop that officially supports Linux, or at least is known to not have issues like these. Then they forget how important this step was and go around recommending it to everyone.
Most people shouldn't install a Linux desktop on any normal Windows laptop. Not a decade ago when I last seriously tried it out, and not now either. Although the experience definitely has improved, so maybe in another 5 or 10 years.
ashellunts · 4m ago
Very similar to my experience. I also still use it because benefits for me as a developer are much more important, especially 30% docker performance win over wsl on same hardware.
cookiengineer · 1h ago
Pick KDE if you want the same integrated experience.
The Desktop on Linux has come pretty far already and most of the complaints are from people that made the wrong choice for their UX.
Sometimes setting up a WINE environment is worth it, but I'd argue that as long ss you still need to use the CLI to create environments, it's not there yet. Proton has been amazing for better support.
Also, don't pick Arch when you come from Windows, it's not the right choice for you. Pick a beginner friendly distro, everyone has to start somewhere. Debian, LinuxMint, or Ubuntu are incredibly easy to learn.
999900000999 · 52m ago
Debian based distros lag in hardware support.
KDE is heavy, but that's the magic of Linux. It's to you to figure out your perfect combination.
I'd argue that if you don't care how computers work, buy a Mac. If you actually enjoy the process Linux is great.
Krasnol · 1m ago
I don't understand this comments on forums like this one.
Who do you think you are addressing with this? People here are either on Apple, already on some other X or do use Windows because they have to.
Most of the rest of the people on this planet won't use either of your recommendations because they have no idea how to work this, how to fix errors, how to find programs they need, jump over compatibility issues with other Windows users, or don't even have a PC at home and have to work with windows at their workplaces.
So what is the point of your comment?
NexRebular · 56m ago
Or if you'd prefer not to contribute to linux monoculturalization, FreeBSD is available in addition to the other BSD variants and even illumos-based systems.
fruitworks · 28m ago
I prefer to contriubute to linux monoculturization
It's good to see that there still are some modders left in the community; there are others creating unofficial "distros" of Windows with most of the crap stripped out, and often useful additions: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=34654649
From my experience, Windows has always been somewhat modular (see 98lite for an early example), so it's not too difficult to pick and choose what pieces you want, but the main worry is that one of these hostile features is a dependency of a core component.
but do keep in mind that there is a risk associated with customizing your Windows installation in unintended ways
Of course there is this obligatory FUD from the Microsoft-fansite. In contrast to the risk associated with letting Microsoft absorb all your data and take control of your computer?
CommanderData · 2h ago
"Works for now"
There's been many such tools for other anti-features, they eventually stop working.
Zopieux · 1h ago
Still better than nothing. It's no secret maintainers need to play catch-up with Microsoft. This is the entire value-add of all those cool pro-consumer/user tools which use private & undocumented APIs, like yt-dlp.
everyone · 2h ago
Im assuming MS will always have one secret good version of windows for enterprise? Eg. I have Win 10 LTSC 2021 which runs out in 2032.. I assume when that runs out there will be some replacement good version of windows?
I also installed Linux Mint which I am trying to do as much as possible on. Its really fantastic, its crazy how it "just works".. The most intuitive and user friendly OS ive ever used.. I just do a lot of weird game and game-dev stuff that I still need Windows for.. If I didnt do that stuff I would 100% be on Mint..
And that is changing with Steam, Wine, Bottles, Proton, Lutris, the amount of stuff u cant do keeps shrinking and it keeps getting easier and easier.
Most people on earth should be using Linux, it would be objectively better and easier to do everything they want to do on their computer compared to all the other popular OSes.
lock1 · 1h ago
> Most people on earth should be using Linux
I don't think the current state of the Linux desktop is ready for that. Linux desktop still loves to show its sharp edges from time to time. Sure, I do also think most of Windows stuff now "just works" on Linux; Proton & Wine already cover a lot of "Windows-only" app I need and I only boot to Windows when I need to change some proprietary driver config.
However, I think "just works" here is different from the general population definition of "just works". HN folks probably don't even mind writing their own patches or compiling stuff for themself. But for the general population, people don't even change the default settings, let alone follow a tutorial or type in some commands on their terminal. People delegate this stuff to more "techie" people around them or dial customer support.
I don't think there will be a mass adoption of Linux desktop until this part gets ironed out or somehow everyone is forced to install Linux by their employer/school.
incone123 · 52m ago
Work issued me a Windows 11 laptop and even clicking on a window in the task bar does not reliably bring it to the front. There's sharp edges and there's wtf
lock1 · 37m ago
Yeah, sure, I have a fair share of complaints on Windows too. Since Win XP, I think there has always been some kind of jank around Windows auto-hide taskbar, and it still persists on Win 11 which irritates me quite a lot.
Closed-source doesn't help for a poweruser; I'm fine with fiddling around with the code or config, just give me the code and manpages.
But again, my argument is that all of this is not applicable for the general population. Excluding loud internet forums, people seem fine sacrificing this kind of jank behavior as long as it doesn't interfere with their task that much.
I think Apple's recent Liquid Glass is a kind of stupid attempt to try to copy Win Vista-7 Aero style with terrible execution. But as long as it still allows Apple users do their things, I don't think they're going to switch to Linux just for customization.
nhinck3 · 41m ago
Windows 11 can't even reliably work out how big a maximised window should be, forcing me to have to restart explorer multiple times a day.
everyone · 1h ago
What would a normal person need to open terminal for though? In my recent experience with Mint I never needed it for anything normal.. eg wifi and bluetooth on laptop all just worked perfectly after install.. for installing software there is a gUI app store type thing.. for games u just install steam and it works exactly like on windows.
lock1 · 49m ago
Installing stuff with your package manager?
In my experience, it's still quite annoying and fragmented in Linux desktop to install stuff here. GUIs like KDE Discover exist, but sometimes it doesn't do the things I expect them to do. For example Wine. Last week I tried to install it from Discover but it doesn't work like expected for apps I need. After figuring things out, it was some kind of regression bug, and I had to open a terminal to install the version I needed.
Games, sure. I think Steam + Proton does a very good job making things seamless; you don't even need to do anything other than press the install button on your library. This is what I expect if you try to sell Linux to the general population.
Drivers, it's kind of a mixed bag. I've had some bad experiences with Nvidia drivers lately, and it just got fixed in the latest patch. Proprietary drivers also rarely support Linux distros. It might be useless, but some people might find their RGB mouse and peripherals not working anymore to be a dealbreaker.
Still, I've been using computers for 30 years and I'm starting to feel the itch to look for Linux alternatives and I'm pretty old. Change does do not comes easily to old people. This is bad for ms.
mamonoleechi · 1h ago
If you want to switch to linux but not feeling overwhelmed at first, you can stay on windows and work with something like Virtualbox running your linux distribution of choice alongside.
You keep on testing/experimenting daily, slowly getting the hang of it one software at a time. And once you found how to do everything you have to on linux, you're just ready to switch.
majkinetor · 1h ago
The same. I used Linux a lot a decade ago, and all this MS mumbo jumbo with Win11 is totally disappointing and irritating, to the point that next OS will definitely be Mint. I envisioned that this might happen eventually, so I never locked in to any Windows tools, I use exclusively cross-platform tools. I live most of my OS time in powershell, vscode and firefox, so no problems there.
Constantly fighting MS irresponsible decisions makes no sense any more.
magic_hamster · 2h ago
Mint is in a good place right now. I enjoy it immensely on most of my daily devices. Still stuck with MacOS for work which I lament.
anal_reactor · 1h ago
I've said this once because we've already had discussions "Windows bad", but I jumped ship too. My experience is different though. I installed Linux Mint - it doesn't work and it won't work. Quick search shows that Fedora KDE is the only distribution that actually supports graphics stack from current century, and doesn't have community drama around it (Ubuntu). I installed it. I keep running into weird issues like graphical glitches, devices randomly not working, shit needing fixing with complicated terminal commands, programs not behaving in expected ways, update regressions, and all the good stuff that Linux on desktop is known for. But we're definitely way closer to Linux being a working desktop system than we've ever been, and it gives me an impression that a dedicated tech-savvy person could potentially actually use it. I haven't booted into Windows for two weeks, and I think there's a decent chance I won't need in the foreseeable future.
PhilipRoman · 32m ago
Ironically the more "user friendly" a distro is, the more issues I seem to have with it. I'm running Arch with a window manager, the only issue I ever had was a kernel regression, after which I switched to LTS.
Meanwhile whenever I had to deal with Ubuntu or other such distros, I keep getting issues in the most basic functionality even on fresh installs. Can't launch firefox, random non descriptive errors from package updates, poor device support...
majkinetor · 1h ago
Your experience with Mint is definitely discouraging.
anal_reactor · 52m ago
My screen expects HDR signal and when it receives SDR signal, it caps maximum brightness at "you can't see shit during the day". And that's what I had on Mint.
ChrisNorstrom · 3h ago
I'm honestly still shocked there isn't some kind of lawsuit or federal investigation on how Microsoft is able to get away with dropping support for CPUs that are only a few years old. Thus forcing unknown millions of people worldwide to upgrade an ENTIRE CPU and Motherboard just for the next version of Windows. What are we supposed to do with all that e-waste?! People who spent thousands on a 32 core threadripper from 5 years ago are now suppose to just... throw it away and buy another 32 core threadripper?!
None of the 7 computers in our house have processors that are supported. Just the AMD Threadripper 2000 series and earlier that launched in 2018 (just 7 years ago) are not supported. That's a massive amount of CPUs about to hit ebay probably at huge discounts.
I'm hoping the Linux community takes advantage of this moment and focuses heavily on converting Windows users to Linux + Bottles.
Aurornis · 2h ago
If you’re talking about Threadripper 2000 series, just grab the official ISO and install it. Should work despite not being on the officially fully supported list.
> I'm honestly still shocked there isn't some kind of lawsuit or federal investigation on how Microsoft is able to get away with dropping support for CPUs that are only a few years old.
There is no law that requires a company to make their new product compatible with a different company’s 7 year old hardware. I don’t know why you’d expect this to become a lawsuit or federal investigation.
No comments yet
whyoh · 2h ago
>dropping support for CPUs that are only a few years old
Isn't it only 2017 CPUs and older? So that's at least ~9 years of free updates (free updates stop at the end of 2026 with the extension), which is frankly better than most other OSs.
If you include paid ESU updates it's at least ~11 years and if you include LTSC it's even way longer than that.
There are many things we can complain about when it comes to Windows, but I wouldn't say long term support is one of them. It's generally better than macOS or Linux distros, not to mention smartphones.
SSLy · 29m ago
> Isn't it only 2017 CPUs and older?
MSFT lies to our face about not supporting Kaby Lake, except the one single CPU that was sold in Surfaces when W11 was announced. What an coincidence.
troupo · 2h ago
> Isn't it only 2017 CPUs and older? So that's at least ~9 years of free updates (free updates stop at the end of 2026 with the extension), which is frankly better than most other OSs.
That's the indictment of the industry, not a praise for Microsoft.
dbetteridge · 2h ago
It sucks but it's not illegal?
Private business has made the choice to not support a set of processors on their os.
Run Windows 10 ltsc or move to Unix or Linux if that's an issue
lloydatkinson · 2h ago
Haven’t seen anyone mention it yet but 11 runs perfectly fine on older provided your CPU has POPCNT - which apparently was introduced in 2008.
Rufus can create a bootable USB drive with the 11 installer modified* to bypass the other artificial requirements like TPM and bypass the stupid “need internet access to force you to make a Microsoft account” requirement too.
"Thus forcing unknown millions of people worldwide to upgrade an ENTIRE CPU and Motherboard just for the next version of Windows"
I don't know why you must come conclusion at this point, no one force you to upgrade into next version
as far as I know, when you buy windows 10 license, you tied into certain edition that would work for that edition. nothing mention next OS (in this case windows11) should backward compatible with last edition
if you think 7-8 years is bad, think how much smartphone that not receive update for years, most often that this phone didn't receive update at all
and google and apple literally making new edition of android/ios that break depedency every year
Moru · 1h ago
Windows has always been backward compatible with old hardware. There has never been a big problem where you couldn't just upgrade to next version on the same computer. This big jump is not a good one for MS, it is locking out a lot of people that would be customers and are now getting Linux Mint instead. I have several friends that are non-techies and installed Mint on their own without any problems. No support needed even, nothing close to how they need support for Windows. They have dualboot so their old games work on Windows and everything else on Linux. Sooner or later that will be gaming on Linux and Windows never get booted again.
tonyhart7 · 44m ago
"Windows has always been backward compatible with old hardware."
mac os always have been backward compatible with old intel hardware, nothing changes or stopping you to still use your old intel mac either
"Sooner or later that will be gaming on Linux and Windows never get booted again."
that never gonna happen
sixtyj · 2h ago
This.
The worst death is from fright. So let’s keep calm. Because Win 10 will work after October 2025.
rolph · 2h ago
I'm honestly still shocked how much of this malarchy users will just lay down for.
the way MS gets away with it is by making people think they have no other choice.
userbinator · 1h ago
just for the next version of Windows
...which you probably didn't need either, so just refuse to upgrade and start pushing back that way.
Then again, this is the company that answered complaints about Windows being bad for development by embedding an OS that is good for development and calling that an innovation rather than an acknowledgement that Windows is bad.
Well, they actually did it twice in recent history: WSL 1 was relatively innovative, integrating Linux application compatibility into the Windows operating system itself. But that turned out to still be bad for development because it meant Linux software was now subjected to the performance problems of the Windows IO stack. So they responded with WSL 2, an ordinary Linux VM. And separately they also introduced the "Dev Drive" feature to let you create a filesystem that bypassed the worst parts of the Windows IO stack.
Both FreeBSD and Illumos were running Linux applications (at various levels of compatibility) many years prior to wsl v1. Joyent even went as far as re-implementing the Docker api to allow running OCI images natively in LX zones. Hence, it wasn't even that novel of an idea.
The moment these 'solutions' would get mainstream traction they will be shut down.
No comments yet
IoT LTSC.
Works like a charm and no bloat.
I don't game and all my software is cross platform. Windows still has a few things I miss, programs like notepad++ (for which there's no true Linux equivalent), and portable apps (with Linux equivalents not really coming close, but understandably so).
Windows really is a broken OS solely set up for spying on users.
thats what i use it for, comes with no new feature updates (which is sometimes annoying as some software depends on some Windows feature updates) and you have to buy 5x licences- and its more expensive. but it works.
I don't think we will ever see a new version the way you described it, the amount of information Microsoft get from spying and telemetry is so much more profitable they even gave 10/11 for free.
Fedora.
Arch.
Open Suse .
Pick one, stop trying to make Windows look like a decent os. My local Windows install just gave up. I'm very close to trying Windows 11 in a VM on top of Fedora or whatever, can't really do that on my 16gb ram value laptop though.
If Maschine offered official Linux support, that's what I make music with, I'd be 100% Windows free.
And look, I love Ubuntu. I'm sticking with it (although kinda wish I'd been less safe and chosen Fedora or OpenSuse). But, to be honest, I've had, and continue to have, a ton of problems related to hardware. Problems waking from sleep (I gave up trying to fix this and just restart every time now), problems with external monitor not reawakening after screen timeout, problems with the wifi speed suddenly dropping until I restart (apparently Linux doesn't play well with Intel Killer 6e laptop wifi), problems with my Brother printer (won't wake from sleep over wifi, works fine on Android and Windows though).
None of these are quite deal breakers. Sure, I have to open and close my laptop lid three or four times to get the external monitor to switch back on, and and the login prompt will only show on my laptop screen which gets set to 1% brightness every restart, so if it's sunny I have to stick my face right against the screen to see it.
Nevertheless, I persevere. I've fixed 70% of the initial issues. But you know what I will not do? Recommend Linux desktop to a non-technical person. My mother, my sister, my girlfriend, most of my acquaintances. They would hate to deal with this stuff, and simply don't have to on Windows, for all it's faults.
I think that people who recommend Linux desktop nearly all started by buying a laptop that officially supports Linux, or at least is known to not have issues like these. Then they forget how important this step was and go around recommending it to everyone.
Most people shouldn't install a Linux desktop on any normal Windows laptop. Not a decade ago when I last seriously tried it out, and not now either. Although the experience definitely has improved, so maybe in another 5 or 10 years.
The Desktop on Linux has come pretty far already and most of the complaints are from people that made the wrong choice for their UX.
Sometimes setting up a WINE environment is worth it, but I'd argue that as long ss you still need to use the CLI to create environments, it's not there yet. Proton has been amazing for better support.
Also, don't pick Arch when you come from Windows, it's not the right choice for you. Pick a beginner friendly distro, everyone has to start somewhere. Debian, LinuxMint, or Ubuntu are incredibly easy to learn.
KDE is heavy, but that's the magic of Linux. It's to you to figure out your perfect combination.
I'd argue that if you don't care how computers work, buy a Mac. If you actually enjoy the process Linux is great.
Who do you think you are addressing with this? People here are either on Apple, already on some other X or do use Windows because they have to.
Most of the rest of the people on this planet won't use either of your recommendations because they have no idea how to work this, how to fix errors, how to find programs they need, jump over compatibility issues with other Windows users, or don't even have a PC at home and have to work with windows at their workplaces.
So what is the point of your comment?
From my experience, Windows has always been somewhat modular (see 98lite for an early example), so it's not too difficult to pick and choose what pieces you want, but the main worry is that one of these hostile features is a dependency of a core component.
but do keep in mind that there is a risk associated with customizing your Windows installation in unintended ways
Of course there is this obligatory FUD from the Microsoft-fansite. In contrast to the risk associated with letting Microsoft absorb all your data and take control of your computer?
There's been many such tools for other anti-features, they eventually stop working.
I also installed Linux Mint which I am trying to do as much as possible on. Its really fantastic, its crazy how it "just works".. The most intuitive and user friendly OS ive ever used.. I just do a lot of weird game and game-dev stuff that I still need Windows for.. If I didnt do that stuff I would 100% be on Mint.. And that is changing with Steam, Wine, Bottles, Proton, Lutris, the amount of stuff u cant do keeps shrinking and it keeps getting easier and easier. Most people on earth should be using Linux, it would be objectively better and easier to do everything they want to do on their computer compared to all the other popular OSes.
I don't think the current state of the Linux desktop is ready for that. Linux desktop still loves to show its sharp edges from time to time. Sure, I do also think most of Windows stuff now "just works" on Linux; Proton & Wine already cover a lot of "Windows-only" app I need and I only boot to Windows when I need to change some proprietary driver config.
However, I think "just works" here is different from the general population definition of "just works". HN folks probably don't even mind writing their own patches or compiling stuff for themself. But for the general population, people don't even change the default settings, let alone follow a tutorial or type in some commands on their terminal. People delegate this stuff to more "techie" people around them or dial customer support.
I don't think there will be a mass adoption of Linux desktop until this part gets ironed out or somehow everyone is forced to install Linux by their employer/school.
Closed-source doesn't help for a poweruser; I'm fine with fiddling around with the code or config, just give me the code and manpages.
But again, my argument is that all of this is not applicable for the general population. Excluding loud internet forums, people seem fine sacrificing this kind of jank behavior as long as it doesn't interfere with their task that much.
I think Apple's recent Liquid Glass is a kind of stupid attempt to try to copy Win Vista-7 Aero style with terrible execution. But as long as it still allows Apple users do their things, I don't think they're going to switch to Linux just for customization.
In my experience, it's still quite annoying and fragmented in Linux desktop to install stuff here. GUIs like KDE Discover exist, but sometimes it doesn't do the things I expect them to do. For example Wine. Last week I tried to install it from Discover but it doesn't work like expected for apps I need. After figuring things out, it was some kind of regression bug, and I had to open a terminal to install the version I needed.
Games, sure. I think Steam + Proton does a very good job making things seamless; you don't even need to do anything other than press the install button on your library. This is what I expect if you try to sell Linux to the general population.
Drivers, it's kind of a mixed bag. I've had some bad experiences with Nvidia drivers lately, and it just got fixed in the latest patch. Proprietary drivers also rarely support Linux distros. It might be useless, but some people might find their RGB mouse and peripherals not working anymore to be a dealbreaker.
Still, I've been using computers for 30 years and I'm starting to feel the itch to look for Linux alternatives and I'm pretty old. Change does do not comes easily to old people. This is bad for ms.
You keep on testing/experimenting daily, slowly getting the hang of it one software at a time. And once you found how to do everything you have to on linux, you're just ready to switch.
Constantly fighting MS irresponsible decisions makes no sense any more.
Meanwhile whenever I had to deal with Ubuntu or other such distros, I keep getting issues in the most basic functionality even on fresh installs. Can't launch firefox, random non descriptive errors from package updates, poor device support...
None of the 7 computers in our house have processors that are supported. Just the AMD Threadripper 2000 series and earlier that launched in 2018 (just 7 years ago) are not supported. That's a massive amount of CPUs about to hit ebay probably at huge discounts.
I'm hoping the Linux community takes advantage of this moment and focuses heavily on converting Windows users to Linux + Bottles.
> I'm honestly still shocked there isn't some kind of lawsuit or federal investigation on how Microsoft is able to get away with dropping support for CPUs that are only a few years old.
There is no law that requires a company to make their new product compatible with a different company’s 7 year old hardware. I don’t know why you’d expect this to become a lawsuit or federal investigation.
No comments yet
Isn't it only 2017 CPUs and older? So that's at least ~9 years of free updates (free updates stop at the end of 2026 with the extension), which is frankly better than most other OSs.
If you include paid ESU updates it's at least ~11 years and if you include LTSC it's even way longer than that.
There are many things we can complain about when it comes to Windows, but I wouldn't say long term support is one of them. It's generally better than macOS or Linux distros, not to mention smartphones.
MSFT lies to our face about not supporting Kaby Lake, except the one single CPU that was sold in Surfaces when W11 was announced. What an coincidence.
That's the indictment of the industry, not a praise for Microsoft.
Run Windows 10 ltsc or move to Unix or Linux if that's an issue
Rufus can create a bootable USB drive with the 11 installer modified* to bypass the other artificial requirements like TPM and bypass the stupid “need internet access to force you to make a Microsoft account” requirement too.
https://rufus.ie/en/
*change some flags in the installer
I don't know why you must come conclusion at this point, no one force you to upgrade into next version
as far as I know, when you buy windows 10 license, you tied into certain edition that would work for that edition. nothing mention next OS (in this case windows11) should backward compatible with last edition
if you think 7-8 years is bad, think how much smartphone that not receive update for years, most often that this phone didn't receive update at all
and google and apple literally making new edition of android/ios that break depedency every year
mac os always have been backward compatible with old intel hardware, nothing changes or stopping you to still use your old intel mac either
"Sooner or later that will be gaming on Linux and Windows never get booted again."
that never gonna happen
The worst death is from fright. So let’s keep calm. Because Win 10 will work after October 2025.
the way MS gets away with it is by making people think they have no other choice.
...which you probably didn't need either, so just refuse to upgrade and start pushing back that way.