It’s almost like “you have to buy a new laptop to install it and help train our AI on your private documents” is somehow not convincing enough. Maybe if they also removed local accounts and forced you to have an online MS account? Nah scratch that, it would be stupid
It was possible to skip Vista and go straight from XP to 7. You could even use the same PC.
It was possible to skip 8 and go straight from 7 to 10. You could even use the same PC.
This time around, Microsoft is forcing Windows 11 as the only option, forcing people to throw away their machines, and it is backfiring on them. People are rejecting it and the competition (Linux) has never been as good as it is today.
The executive also noted that 500 million PCs don’t meet Windows 11’s system requirements
So much unnecessary e-waste. I never want to hear about how ‘green’ or ‘sustainable’ Microsoft is again.
You could install windows 10 on something designed for windows XP, provided it has enough RAM
The reason w11 needs a new PC is pure marketing, it doesn’t actually need some specific feature that is present on 8th gen Intel CPUs but not on 7th gen Intel CPUs
They need it to run ai and bloat whithout it grinding to a halt.
They need you to have tpm 2.0 in order to push passkeys which are stored on tpm 2.0
Very good point. Especially with how broken pricing has been on home computers for years, throwing away your machine for something impossibly expensive is a tough sell to say the least. Especially in this economy. It‘s more feasible to switch to Linux.
they are forcing it earlier to stave off thier AI bubble bursting
Anyone who asks me about this is getting the “At least try Linux for free first before buying a new computer.
Another example I have is that my mother-in-law is retired. You think she needs a new computer? Nope! She’s getting Linux before a new computer. The only other option for her would be an iPad since she’s just browsing the web anyway.
The only other option for her would be an iPad since she’s just browsing the web anyway.
Give her a Steam Deck and some cozy games. 😁
Apparently some are even opting to reinstall Windows 7 rather than the trash fire that is 11. It seems like 10 was never loved, merely tolerated, and as MS continues to enshittify 10 in an attempt to force people onto 11 some are just going back to the previous good version of Windows.
I reinstalled Windows 7 on my laptop and dual-boot Linux and Windows 11 on my desktop.
I love it, but is anyone supporting the bug fixes for security?
Windows 10 was when the stupid accounts became a thing on Windows and candy crush being installed after a fresh install so makes sense people never really loved 10. And they managed to make 11 even worse than it was at launch with the copilot crap.
Those people are stupid. Run a version of windows that won’t make you part of a botnet and make you my problem or don’t run it at all.
If they are taking the time to install windows 7. I’m sure they are at least smart enough to not run random stuff on thier windows machine.
I don’t care what they’re running. Don’t connect an unsupported OS to the Internet or you’re eventually going to become my problem.
Sounds like the systems you are using should focus on that problem and not how to integrate ads and AI into everything. While trying to extract every molecule of value for shareholders.
That’s not how it works, especially since everyone doing this is behind a modern router.
Nothing will happen if you have a Windows 98 computer connected to the internet when the home internet router is on default settings. And modern internet browsers implement security in themselves on systems they still support.
Firefox still supports Windows 7 via the ESR channel, and every new install gets redirected to on automatically on Windows 7, 8 and 8.1.
Worry the unsupported systems behind pure internet or providing public internet services, or the users installing the free PDF editor Google advertised as first in search. Those are many more than older Windows enthusiasts.
especially since everyone doing this is behind a modern router.
Are they? If they’re irresponsible enough to run an ancient OS it wouldn’t shock me if they’re also running “retro” network equipment
They are not, come on now.
Retro networking is a different community, and all is still done behind a modern router. They are a subset of the retro computing community, but they don’t run such systems as their daily driver.
Most of the legacy OS enthusiasts running on as their daily driver are not interested in matching their networking to be period correct, they just want it to work well and quickly like everybody else. For that you need basic modern equipment, that is often included into ISP plans.
They should just run Linux, but if they have to do Windows then 7 is just as good as 10 now, they’re both equally unsupported. Blame Microsoft for fucking up 10 and 11 so bad nobody is willing to run them. If they had at least left 10 alone people would still be using that but they’re too greedy for everyone’s data and they couldn’t leave well enough alone. It’s also not like there aren’t an absolute ton of Windows 10 and 11 installs that are part of bot nets. Running a new version of Windows makes it slightly harder to get rooted, but doing stupid stuff no matter what you’re running is ultimately the problem, not the version of Windows. The age of worms self propagating through service 0-days is largely over, it’s almost all phishing and trojans these days. It would be one thing if we were talking Windows 98 or XP, but 7 is fairly solid out of the box.
My 78 year old mother bought a new laptop, windows 11.
Immediately I had to remote in because of some S mode BS which just put you in the MS only application environment.
3 months later and somehow she fubarred her login and can’t use her new laptop. There’s probably an easy fix, but since she hates windows 11 and wants to go back to 10, I suggested Linux.
So it will be a Merry Christmas for my mom when I visit and install IDK? Some version that’s super simple. Anything is better than what she currently has
Try Zorin OS, its Ubuntu based they have a windows 11 theme.
Do they still offer a Win10 theme? When I first tried it, they still had a Win7 theme.
I think so, if not there are 3rd party themes.
Can’t go wrong with good old Linux Mint
I think KDE Neon would be nice for a new user. I like Pop OS and it’s really cute and sleek but the shortcuts are needlessly different from windows a bunch of times, if she’s somehow used to alt+tab to change windows and not just window groups she’s gonna have a hard time learning another way to do it.
I couldn’t be happier, ditching Windows for Linux.
Considering all of the comments saying that a big part of this is people not wanting to buy new computers and choosing linux because it will run on their old machine, I’d like to add insult to injury and say I built a new PC before Oct and windows was never even a consideration.
And despite it being my first Linux install I planned to play games on, everything went smoothly and I’d even say the “setting up the PC to my preference instead of the defaults” step was better because there wasn’t a “figure out how to disable the shit ms really wants you to run for them” substep, or a “figure out what new shit ms added that I’ll want to disable” discovery mode that, with win 10, lasted most of the time I was using it and included “figure out if a recent update reset settings to annoying defaults”.
I bet this is why people are so vocal about switching to linux whenever there’s another complaint about ms. It went way better than expected, like I was about to do something that would cause ongoing pain and frustration to get away from something even worse, but there’s been nothing at all that has made me miss windows.
Yeah. I built my PC two years back and Linux was the main idea for it. I’d used Linux on and off since 2007, and it’s honestly been fine this entire time, with WINE and such only improving over time. I remember how baffled I was back in 2007 when I didn’t have to install any drivers myself, everything just worked out of the box, even fucking printers.
This is the time of Windows Vista, where nothing worked.
Yeah, I’ve got a logitech mouse but didn’t want logitech’s software on my machine, so I just used the mouse by plugging it in. Which worked, but I had no way of knowing the battery level until the mouse itself started blinking low power.
When I installed fedora, I was confused a bit because it had a system tray icon saying the battery was charging. I was thinking it thought it was a laptop until I realize it had just picked up the battery information from my mouse. A feature I had written off under windows just worked without me even considering it or needing to install software that was partly about using my hardware and partially about advertising more ways to get my money.
For a Logitech mouse on Linux I use Solaar. Pretty much why I go with Logitech mice now. Solaar works well for me
Ah, it may be the decreased quality and increased openly aggressive data collection
Maybe it‘s not slower, but smaller? I don‘t use Windows on my computer anymore.
I use windows 10 at home while I use windows 11 at work. The only thing I like about windows 11 is tabs in the file explorer. Besides that I’ve had to deal with Windows Explorer crashing on a daily basis, task bar freezing completely multiple times a week, certain software straight up not working that I need to get work done, programs crashing that work perfectly fine on 10, internet connectivity issues (usually DNS for some fucking reason), periodically hearing the disconnect sound for a device even when everything is still working, awful drop down menus, needing to change the registry just to get basic features that 10 has, and the list goes on and on. At home everything just works. I’ve been testing Linux and have been getting better stability than Windows 11 and I feel like every week there’s a new problem.
I have to use Windows 11 for work. Maybe this is because of CrowdStrike or something, I don’t know, but I often encounter a problem where the main section of explorer, where you can actually click files and stuff, just breaks. That entire region becomes unclickable and unusable, even though the rest of the Explorer window (like the icons on the top part) all still work. So I just have to close the window and then reopen Explorer, re-navigate back to where I was, and proceed from where I left off.
Never, in the decades I’ve been using computers, have I ever encountered something as stupid as this with this amount of regularity. Windows 11 is a uniquely bad OS compared to every competitor option, including prior versions of Windows.
I run into that same issue from time to time. Another one I run into is when I click on items on the task bar it doesn’t bring it up as the active window even when everything else is working. I have to ALT+tab to bring up any Window or minimize every window just to find the one I want and it is absolutely infuriating.
YES! Same!!!
I haven’t used windows for over 9 years now, and it still blows my mind that I read about these constant bugs just like when I used it, only back then there was a bug every now and then and they usually got taken care of within a week, but now it’s like 1 bug gets squashed, but only after 5 more are already in place. Not trying to shit in anyone here, because if you need Windows, you need it, end of story. But I can’t recommend that everyone tried Linux for at least a month enough. Give it a shot, install it in dual boot, spend some time in it, if it doesn’t work for you, that’s that, but at least you tried it.
For almost 20 years, I’ve never lost hours of work due to the OS. The Crowdstrike incident was one of three times I was interrupted by the OS in the last 2,3 years. All of the interruptions are from Windows 11, not 10. This week for, for some reason, Windows is slower to respond than usual, when going to different tasks. I’m one formatting away from getting rid of the Windows 11 in my laptop. I was thinking of dual booting Mint there but it’s looking more and more I don’t need Windows. Bazzite has been fantastic.
I’ve been a full time Linux user at home for over six years. It’s why my username is what it is :)
I can’t say it’s flawless. Sometimes you get what you pay for. But in most every significant way it is the better choice.
On the positive side though, following all that backlash, Microsoft acknowledged Windows has issues, and as if on cue, the company in a new support article has admitted that there are problems on almost every major Windows 11 core feature. The issues are related to XAML and this impacts all the Shell components like the Start Menu, Taskbar, Explorer, and Windows Settings.
- Explorer.exe crash
- shelhost.exe crash
- StartMenuExperienceHost issues
- System Settings silently fails to launch
- Application crashes when initializing the XAML views
- Explorer running but no taskbar window.
- other XAML island views fail to initialize.
- ImmersiveShell problems
LMAO says the guy typing from a Windows 7 Desktop purchased in 2012. This PC still works amazingly well for a 13 year old Alienware. Anyone who has ever owned one will tell you this a unicorn. I will never click the update icon sitting in the tray for years now. Get fucked. This OS still rocks. If I want to play a current game I open up my laptop and close it when done.
micro$oft is getting desperate though
https://kotaku.com/windows-11-pro-upgrades-going-for-pocket-change-for-black-friday-2000647371
Is that site just an ads disguised as articles site now? Like it’s not just news about the sale, it’s actively trying to sell win 11 (and not doing a great job with its list of “I thought it already did that”, “underwhelming feature”, “no, I still don’t fucking want onedrive; I no longer trust you with my own files on my computer, let alone saving everything on yours”.)
This article is trash, it mentions existing windows 10 features in windows 11 like it’s a groundbreaking new technology.
Virtual desktops and clipboard manager? Cmon man we’ve been having that for years now
having that for years now
since abaout the late 90’s to early 00’s. KDE 1 released with virtual desktops, and from what I can tell, Klipper either released with it, or a few years later
fvwm, 1993. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FVWM
Blows my mind seeing people look on windows 10 as some kind of last bastion, apparently not realizing that was Windows 7 at best.
10 is the one where they fucked up the UX beyond repair, made everything slow and added insane amounts of spying. If you willingly switched to 10 then don’t pretend like 11 is a bridge too far now.
I still can’t grasp that Microsoft, a $3.6 trillion company, developed a new settings interface but failed to migrate all settings to it, forcing users to use both. Even I know that’s day one UX shite and I’m quite stupid.
What’s hilarious is that this started with Win10 so its been an issue for over a decade now and two major revisions at least (possibly started on Win8).
It did start on win8
In their defense, we all try hard to forget that iteration.
People said they will never upgrade from 7 to 10, and now they are saying they will never upgrade from 10 to 11
The difference is that Windows 11 is locked behind behind hardware requirements. A lot of people simply can’t upgrade.
and now they are saying they will never upgrade from 10 to 11
The stats show people are committing this time. English speakers are jumping ship at historically unprecedented rates. Steam stats
^ This, I had to be dragged kicking and screaming from 7 to 10, and now looking forward to another 3 years of Win10 security updates, while fervently praying that Adobe and my online games add Linux support during that time >_>
Just ditch those games.not worth it
Maybe not worth it for you, but I’m enjoying them too much to ditch them 🤷
Ah yes the classic purist arguement.
If the applications I want to use don’t support Linux then apparently that’s their problem. I wish I didn’t have to live in the real world, but unfortunately I can’t pay my mortgage in moral righteousness. If I can’t use the programs I need to use my job, because I’ve decided to switch to an operating system that they don’t support, I’m the one that’s going to suffer.
So no you can’t just ditch applications that don’t have Linux support.
In the real world you have to dual boot and that’s a pain in the arse because it means Microsoft are still going to be getting some money from me.
It’s a catch 22. If you need applications to make money sure. But games. Come on.
I get a PC from my job, it has windows and that’s their choice.
The fuck sort of dipshit argument is this for video games…?
He was saying ditch video games man… VIDEO GAMES.
I can’t switch to purely Linux because I need windows in order to be able to do my job. The fact I also play games on the computer is irrelevant.
I don’t understand what you’re not understanding.
Yeah, some people get really defensive when you suggest they can get all the things they are asking for, and all they have to do is stop giving money to user-hostile developers. And saying kernel-level anti-cheat is hostile to the user is a massive understatement. Why would you defend Saudi Arabia having kernel-level access to your computer just to play a game? (It’s crazy that that statement isn’t even a joke in the context of EA.)
I understand if someone decides not to take the suggestion, but it is still a reasonable suggestion to make.
Will it make you even more frustrated to learn Steam has a Linux-native build of Substance Painter, but Adobe still won’t support it themselves?
It did :P
I was on Windows 7 until April of 2021, when I was taking a certification exam remotely, and didn’t find out that the software they used for it didn’t work on 7 until after I had paid the registration fee. Windows 10 was useable enough, but I never thought it was preferable over 7. Anyway, I’m on Bazzite now.
10 is the one where they fucked up the UX beyond repair
Was it? I gave up on 8 because of the UI, downgraded back to 7 and that was my last Windows machine. Was 10 worse?
8 was such a disaster that people don’t really consider it a real version of windows. 10 was actually better than 8 but that’s not saying much
I didn’t willingly switch to 10, though, that was my only choice
It took me ages today to work out how to map a drive letter because they’ve changed where the menu button is. You used to be able to do it from the taskbar at the top, but now it’s hidden in a right click menu in a different part of the file browser to where it used to be. I don’t understand the point of changes like that, by all means add more options but keep the old ones around for consistency.
Managing printers in 11 is the worst. The sad part is that the old-style devices and printers menu is still in the OS, you just have to dig for it a bit, and it works 1000x better.
the old-style devices and printers menu is still in the OS, you just have to dig for it a bit, and it works 1000x better.
For the last 13 years this has been the most infuriating part of the incomplete control panel migration. I find myself struggling to use the new settings, and having to then resort to digging for the old ones that actually have the option I need.
Win 11 finally pushed me over the edge with ads and spying. But I still have to deal with Windows at work.
net use still works
I’d actually say it was 8.1, but the problem with 8.1 is that it died before people could discover how good it is combined with classical start menu. It was basically a fleshed out, faster, more stable Windows 7 with updated tech like newer directx and cached boot (aka. Fastboot). Almost non-existing market share, but I liked it far better than 7, 10 and 11 (only gave it 1 week). I installed a tweaked 8.1 version on all my friends/family’s PCs and never heard a single complaint, shit was awesome.
Obviously. There is no particular reason to switch from old 7th or older gen intel CPUs since with 16GB (or even with 8) of RAM one can browse internet and use OFFICE 365 with no issues. And what most of people do with their computers at work?
Unless PC is used to render 3D/Video/DAW Audio/heavy VMs - there is no fucking need to buy new PC just to upgrade to win11. MS shot themselves in a foot with this one.
Successfully booted up Linux mint today, stayed on windows for uni (thinking I might need one of those Microsoft apps). Missed Linux and now back :)
Gee, I can’t imagine why that could be.
“Why don’t you like our copilot features?” -Microshit-
Oh, I can think of a few reasons.
You know it’s bad when even I switch to linux. I don’t understand linux. I literally back up my entire hard drive everytime I attempt to do ANYTHING. Because I WILL screw up my whole system to the point it won’t boot. I’ve done it many times over the coarse of the past year.
Then I gotta spend a whole day waiting for things to restore from backup. And then whatever I WAD trying to do, still isn’t done.
That has been my experience using linux this past year.
But Windows 11? No.
That’s how you level up in Linux. You break things, learn what you did wrong and do better next time. Linux won’t hold your hand, you can and will shoot yourself in the foot.
You are doing it right by having backups and playing it safe. You’ll be ok.
Idk wtf you guys are doing.
Even my parents haven’t screwed up the Linux Mint I set up for them to use. I’m super curious what in the world breaks it so bad that it doesnt boot.
This happened to me when I installed a new GPU.
It’s definitively something along the lines of “knows just enough to be dangerous”
Like, sure, I’ve also broken my Linux system, but I’m deliberately running distros like arch and doing things that the average user would never do, like, say, messing with the bootloader.
If you just install something like bazzite or mint, and use it like a normal user would, the risk for something breaking should be really low
Yep. I’m fortunate enough to be on the other side of the curve, but “it just breaks” when you first start tinkering. The average computer user who will never open the terminal will never run into this problem
Probably Arch or Fedora
I think you need Bazzite in your life (or some other immutable distro). But hey, fucking things up and recovering from it is how I learned both Windows and then Linux so there are upsides.
Since switching to Linux I have nuked my system maybe 5 or 6 times?
When I initially installed it I set the EFI partition to ext4, that caused some trouble when I updated my kernel lol. Grub just stopped working a few times and then just recently I accidentally wrote a floppy disc image to the wrong drive and wiped out my /home partition. Luckily
testdiskis a thing.For everything else I can just rely on my BTRFS snapshots. My drive setup is more than janky, but it works. Every time something went really wrong I was able to fix it myself.
I’ve wanted to switch to Linux since Windows 10 and its inescapable trash “features”(looking at you, OneDrive).
I did upgrade to 11 and while I haven’t experienced any catastrophic failures with it (yet) it’s becoming increasingly aggravating with all the added bullshit they’re implementing and the amount of ads they’re trying to sneak in.
I’ve been bugging my husband for months to help me because he is near fluent in Linux and I’m a noob. He’s now building me a new PC that will have Linux installed and I can’t fucking wait to finally ditch Windows.
