Microsoft has a big Windows 10 problem, and only one year to solve it
Microsoft has a big Windows 10 problem, and only one year to solve it
Microsoft has a serious problem on its hands, thanks to competition from ... itself?
I know it's not a hardware compatibility problem. People just don't want ads/tracking/AI bullshit, a removed control panel, settings that are hard to find/hidden, etc.
All intel processor 8th gen+ (and even some 7th gen IIRC) are win11 compatible, motherboard have TPM2 for years, even my intel 6th gen MB have TPM2.0.
Next year the intel 8th gen will have 8 years, people have PC/laptop more recent than that. Problem is that win10 will not get security updates and all.
I'm using MX Linux BTW.
I'm just waiting for the EOL of window 10 to see which of the following will happen:
- Many PCs will stop getting updates, people don't care
- Many PCs will be replaced for windows 11
- Turns out people already have replaced their PCs due to other reasons
- Microsoft removes the hardware requirements
- People switch to another OS
- People just don't buy a home PC anymore
- ????
- Profit???
Many years ago, I attended a Windows XP launch event. The Microsoft presenter had the perfect line to describe how MS views this:
"Why should you upgrade to Windows XP? Because we're going to stop supporting Windows 98!"This was said completely unironically and with the expectation that people would just do what MS wanted them to do. That attitude hasn't changed in the years since. Win 10 is going to be left behind. You will either upgrade or be vulnerable. Also, MS doesn't care about the home users, they care about the businesses and the money to be had. And businesses will upgrade. They will invariably wait to the last minute and then scramble to get it done. But, whether because they actually give a shit about security or they have to comply with security frameworks (SOX, HIPAA, etc.), they will upgrade. Sure, they will insist on GPOs to disable 90% of the Ads and tracking shit, but they will upgrade.
If there was ever a time for valve to push advertising out for the steam deck and steamOS it's now. The final piece of the gaming puzzle is anticheat. If valve gets the proprietary anticheat makers on board then it's all over. Every major hurdle would've been overcome, but games like valorant and call of duty still don't work because of vanguard and ricochet.
With how terrible windows handhelds are, imagine how awesome it would be for those cod players to be able to play a round of warzone on the toilet? I joke, but seriously, that's the demographic that needs to adopt a platform like the steam deck. That's the barrier valve has to overcome, and I'm worried they just don't care or something even more legally gray is happening, like Microsoft giving game devs incentive to use proprietary anticheat or to just not flip that EAC flag in their code.
Three years ago, I bought my wife a laptop with Windows 10 to replace her 10yo windows 7 machine.
It had hardware issues out of the box, and went in on two repairs. It works fine now, AFAIK.
But, she still doesn't trust it, and she doesn't think that she can move her Adobe CS6 license over to it..
I even bought her the affinity suite.
I'm starting to think she'll never move on from Windows 7.
I think the major browsers stopped supporting it sometime during the last year, so my best hope is that some included certificates will eventually make her favourite websites stop working. That has to force her over to something more recent.. right?
I use arch, btw.
Yeah it's convincing people that Windows 11 is actually good
obligatory 🐧 that must be in every thread
If Linux didn't exist, we would actually end up with a lot of e-waste, and I mean a fuck ton of it. And it's all thanks to you, Microsoft.
Hell, Linux does exist, and people just don't wanna use it because they're so used to Windows that anything else is basically as steep of a learning curve as a literal cliff. And to those people I say: "just add some mint on it and life will be easy. Maybe even drizzle some cinnamon on it as well"
Another vote for Linux Mint. I finally switched from Windows 10 months ago and I love it.
I'm really enjoying the learning curve with Linux because I'm not always fighting the operating system. On the other hand, every time I've had to go "under the hood" with Windows (edit the Registry, change config files) it's been to stop Microsoft from doing something sh*tty to me.
I stopped following 11 news after they cancelled the native android framework, only thing that got me excited since a BlueStacks installation gets huge extremely fast, I'm not going.
That problem is that there isn't a better version (not that it was peak in the first place anyway..)
I use Win10 for one single program only and I'm currently testing on how to take that machine offline, but still be accessible locally. So far all I got is a blacklist regex in pihole. Blocking internet access to that machine via my router does not work for me, as I dual boot that machine with Linux for gaming. Tips per DM are very welcome actually.
The only reason I'm on 10 with my main pc is because the 7th gen intel in there isn't compatible with win11. I have another pc that is 7th gen, which I put windows 11 on and there is just something weird about it. When I do anything on that machine it doesn't do it immediately, it sits for a few seconds before actions are done. Really aggravating. Clicking on a program on the taskbar takes a few seconds before it opens. File explorer, firefox browser, settings pane, ... Once programs are running it's fine to use said programs, but I wonder what they did to make it feel this way.
I have Linux on both machines as primary OS and they are super snappy, it's not the hardware.
Probably a lower adoption rate than Vista
I'd guess that major UI revisions are a big reason for average users. People don't like having to relearn how to do something or find a setting. If M$ implemented a legacy UI setting that by and large mimicked the interface and controls in W10 they'd clear a major hurdle preventing less technologically inclined users from upgrading.
My question is this: Do Microsoft ship crap-infested versions to people who could make their lives uncomfortable, like, say, intelligence agencies, or do those agencies take a crap-infested version and have their IT security strip all the crap out?
Because if I was in charge of an intelligence agency I'd be asking - with dangerous smile - for the crap-free version, turn IT loose on it anyway and then be, shall we say, horribly invasive to Microsoft if there's anything still left in it.
... and if I wanted Windows, I'd want whatever the end result of that is.
On the other hand, maybe this has already happened and that "horrible invasion" is the cause of all the spyware crap in the consumer release.
Sigh.
does it take a year to build an OS that doesnt track/sell you and try to hide its doing so?
I have a feeling that Microsoft will release an update that will at the very least make Windows 10 miserable to use if not downright unbootable the day support ends
“On Windows 10 PCs without an ESU subscription, however, any security flaws found from that day forward will remain unpatched, making those PCs increasingly vulnerable to online attacks.”
“Windows unpatched […] increasingly vulnerable to online attacks” is a facetious statement since the operating system is inherently malware.