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

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

#91

Post by coldtea »

marcusb wrote: post #62
andrepd wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

No. If a vendor says “we aren’t going to support this product after X date - don’t call, don’t write”, that’s EoL. Doesn’t matter if they do one off fixes because they decide that’s the right thing to do - product is still EoL. You won’t get support if, say, Word crashes due to a core library bug. You can’t rely on them doing regular testing. EoL. Doesn’t matter if the DoD comes to some ridiculously expensive bespoke…

>Doesn’t matter if they do one off fixes because they decide that’s the right thing to do - product is still EoL. You won’t get support if, say, Word crashes due to a core library bug

You don't get that under regular contracts either. There are tons of bugs, including crashing ones going back decades.

EOL either means "no more fixes period" or means nothing.

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

#92

Post by account42 »

Cthulhu_ wrote: post #56
ryao wrote: post #22

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

What is the alternative for an average joe? That said, Steam OS for desktop (if ever) would be a serious contender, since a big chunk of high-end PCs are only used for gaming and internet browsing.

You're better off picking any popular normal distro over running SteamOS on unsupported hardware.

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

#93

Post by account42 »

bfmalky wrote: post #63
ryao wrote: post #22

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

I can't run Ableton or Lightroom on Linux, and Macs are almost 3x the cost of a similar spec'ed windows laptop. The apps are quite specific to me, but I imagine there are similar killer apps for other windows users.

Ableton or Lightroom both have some level of support under Wine but it depends on the version you need. But both also have alternatives and IME killer-apps tend to become a lot less important once users have sufficient other motivations. Nothing is really irreplaceable.

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

#95

Post by account42 »

jasonthorsness wrote: post #88

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.

> It’s not like they need more revenue.

You do understand how publicly traded companies work, right? The numbers must go up at all cost.

As for what their end game with TPM is we can only speculate - but they have been trying to push "trusted" computing for a long time now, with themselves in control of the master keys of course.

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

#96

Post by JohnFen »

k0tan32 wrote: post #82
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 of…

> the learning curve is still higher (especially for people coming from Windows)

I don't think the learning curve is higher at all. It's roughly the same as with Windows. But if you're coming from Windows, the fact that you have to mount a learning curve for the new OS can be a real friction point. When most people learned Windows, they did so over time, without pressure. If you're switching operating systems, you likely want to become competent in it very quickly. That can make it seem like the learning curve is higher when, in fact, it's just that you're trying to run up that hill faster.

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

#97

Post by account42 »

j_seigh wrote: post #67

ChromeOS flex. It will run on hardware that even Linux complains about. I've even installed it on a Chromebook that stopped getting updates. Though, you have to replace the firmware, which entails some risk of bricking, so you can do a UEFI boot. Also you can upgrade windows 10 to windows 11 even on hardware that Microsoft says is unsupported. Google for the workarounds. You only need to download the win11 iso from M…

ChromeOS uses Linux so your claim makes no sense. And there are certainly many distributions with desktop environments much lighter than ChromeOS.

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

#98

Post by anonymars »

osigurdson wrote: post #85
anonymars wrote: post #78

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Is Microsoft advertising their paid extended support as an option, or are they saying "buy a new machine"?

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

#99

Post by kgwxd »

baal80spam wrote: post #17
fainpul wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

People are also struggling with Windows (any version). Especially installing programs (clicking through wizards, answering lots of questions they don't understand) and installing device drivers (how to even know what to do, to the get a device working? where to find drivers?) are often too much for non-technical users on Windows. Both of these are much easier (or unnecessary) on most Linux distros. No matter which OS…

> installing device drivers This is not an issue for many, many years now. > Both of these are much easier (or unnecessary) on most Linux distros. Oh, now I know you are joking.

The situation is very hit or miss, I assume the downvoters don't have many problems because they're probably smart about the machines they try to put linux on.

Just this month, I put Linux Mint on an old dell laptop, and a custom built PC with a 1080 ti in it.

The laptop worked perfect, wifi worked out of the box, and it ran much smoother than it did with Windows 10.

The desktop was a pain because none of the 3 usb wifi devices I already had, worked out of the box. I started down the path of following some guides that got 2 of them "working" with the same steps, but they both behaved horribly. I gave up and ordered a device known to work with Linux for $50 because it just wasn't worth my time. It's connection speed is even faster than it runs on my windows machine, but there are frequent "blips" in the connection. Gah! Nothing is more demotivating than having trouble loading the web page trying to show you how to fix your networking issues.

The video card seems to work fine but none of the games I want to play via steam work nearly as smooth as I hoped, and they're old games, the newest one just turned 10 yo. I love what Steam is doing, and I'm sure I could get a lot of the games working pretty good with some more effort, but it's not the cakewalk it's often hyped up to be. I decided to just use it for old emulators, and stick to my Windows machine for other games.

On top of all that, it feels just about as "slow" as it did with Windows for basic operations. Again, I'm sure I could do some optimizing and get it blazing fast, but I don't have the time for that when I've already got things generally working fine on other machines.

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

#100

Post by account42 »

christophilus wrote: post #25
nottorp wrote: post #18

How's Mint? I'm asking because I installed a fresh ubuntu desktop in a VM today and the spam I got on first run reminded me of ... Windows.

My 2cents: use Fedora. Or, if you're technically savvy, Arch. I slightly prefer Arch simply because: - Firefox is up to date (Fedora is often 2 weeks late on security patches) - No upgrade cycle. Just `pacman -Syu` on a regular cadence, or whatever you're comfy with. When you go with the vanilla install of a major distro, I find you simply run into fewer shenanigans.

I strongly suggest considering a community-run distro instead of one mainly controlled by one corporation unless you desperately want to experience a Microsoft 2.0. IBM is not a charity, they will extract value from their investments.
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