Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Microsoft's big lie: Your computer is fine, and you don't need to buy a new one

technical.ly

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

81–90 of 156 posts

Re: Microsoft's big lie: Your computer is fine, and you don't need to buy a new one

#81

Post by dismalaf »

kgwxd wrote: post #3
FlipperPA wrote: post #2

Microsoft's latest lie is primed to created the largest single E-waste event in human history, argues Timothy Allen, Principal Engineer at the Wharton School, in an article for Technical.ly. The article gives practical suggestions, and argues the migration from Windows 10 to Linux Mint is easier than Windows 10 to Windows 11.

> and argues the migration from Windows 10 to Linux Mint is easier than Windows 10 to Windows 11. This message needs to stop. I use both heavily, because 1. I need to work and 2. I believe it's my duty to attempt to escape the prison MS/Apple/et al have built around us. But running Linux is fucking hard, unless all you need is available in a browser, and even then... If someone is going in expecting an easy replaceme…

> But running Linux is fucking hard

Running Linux is easy. Literally everything is easier from installation to installing drivers (they're all in the kernel except Nvidia, which you don't have to worry about if you're on Ubuntu as it installs it for you), installing software, updates, upgrades...

The only difficult part is all the shit advice on the internet and the idea that you *need* certain software.

Re: Microsoft's big lie: Your computer is fine, and you don't need to buy a new one

#82

Post by k0tan32 »

ryao wrote: post #22

Every time this happens, I wonder why people do not just drop Windows entirely.

I often notice that Linux (and maybe some BSDs) can accommodate two extremes on the tech competence spectrum especially well: the least opinionated users may treat their computer as a black box and just enjoy web browsing / chatting / media with some help, while the most savvy can extract value from tailored and private setups (like stability of Debian or power of Nix).

At the same time, Linux on the desktop fails often for everyone in between: the learning curve is still higher (especially for people coming from Windows), and some very specialized professional proprietary software can be missing.

Luckily, as mentioned in the article, Microsoft tries to make the balance more equal.

Writing this as a person who has used Linux for the last 15 years with a 2-year break for macOS and back.

Re: Microsoft's big lie: Your computer is fine, and you don't need to buy a new one

#83

Post by RajT88 »

ryao wrote: post #22

Every time this happens, I wonder why people do not just drop Windows entirely.

That is the funny thing - this regularly happens when a new OS comes out. People have been observing for decades now how Microsoft keeps the hardware industry afloat.

Re: Microsoft's big lie: Your computer is fine, and you don't need to buy a new one

#84

Post by add-sub-mul-div »

andrepd wrote: post #38
add-sub-mul-div wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The funniest thing about this is that any major security indicent with Windows 10 after EOL would obviously get fixed by Microsoft because it would be so existentially terrible for them to point to the fine print and ignore it. But you can't stop outrage journalism.

So the piece is right: it's not actually end of life.

It's ending, it's a good idea to work towards upgrading, but yeah there's no one magic date after which a wall collapses and viruses waiting outside your computer rush in.

The worse an outcome with an outdated product the more the vendor has to support it because it would harm them to let any version of their product become synonymous with security risk.

Re: Microsoft's big lie: Your computer is fine, and you don't need to buy a new one

#85

Post by osigurdson »

anonymars wrote: post #78
osigurdson wrote: post #71

Only in software there seems to exist this idea that everything is free.

Only in software does otherwise perfectly functional hardware have to be thrown out

It doesn't have to be thrown out, just keep using Windows 10. Oh, but you still want security patches for your old hardware and insist that it must be free - got it.

I suspect if you were willing to cough up a few $B you could get companies to support any old hardware that you want, indefinitely.

Re: Microsoft's big lie: Your computer is fine, and you don't need to buy a new one

#87

Post by HWR_14 »

pjerem wrote: post #16
kgwxd wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> and argues the migration from Windows 10 to Linux Mint is easier than Windows 10 to Windows 11. This message needs to stop. I use both heavily, because 1. I need to work and 2. I believe it's my duty to attempt to escape the prison MS/Apple/et al have built around us. But running Linux is fucking hard, unless all you need is available in a browser, and even then... If someone is going in expecting an easy replaceme…

> running Linux is fucking hard Changing your habits is hard. But that's also true for Windows > Mac. Linux (Mint) in itself isn't hard. You need to understand what's different. If you have no hardware issue, the biggest different lies in "how do I install [software]" ? But now most distros (incl. Linux Mint) are hidding the package managers (including flatpack which provides a lot of software) behind nice "App Store…

The bigger issue is probably less "how do I install software" and more "how do I not install malware". I'm not saying that Linux is more prone to malware, but that the steps we teach people to avoid issues on Windows don't translate over.

Re: Microsoft's big lie: Your computer is fine, and you don't need to buy a new one

#88

Post by jasonthorsness »

I don’t understand why Microsoft is planning to die on the TPM 2.0 hill. If they actually go through with trying to charge customers $30 for extended support it will be a PR blunder and many won’t pay leaving systems vulnerable anyway. It’s not like they need more revenue.

Re: Microsoft's big lie: Your computer is fine, and you don't need to buy a new one

#89

Post by account42 »

ryao wrote: post #22

Every time this happens, I wonder why people do not just drop Windows entirely.

Some people do. Some of them even stick with it.

But also new people grow up with their school-provided Windows/Apple/ChromeOS laptops and only know mobile phones beyond that so the trend is probably not all that positive.

Re: Microsoft's big lie: Your computer is fine, and you don't need to buy a new one

#90

Post by coldtea »

marcusb wrote: post #28

> Microsoft has a long history of playing fast-and-loose with the truth. And that’s again the case with Windows 10 coming to its supposed “end of life” this fall. I can’t take an article seriously, whatever merits it might have, if this is the opening gambit. “End of life” is a fairly common term of art amongst software and hardware OEMs. Windows 10 is going to be end of life. No scare quotes needed.

No Windows ever has real EOL.

And this is such a minor point to refuse to take an article seriously, one might as well refuse the theory of relativity paper because Einstein had some mispelling.

Post reply on HN