I live in a 3rd world country and I can promise you that this is going to lead to a large percentage of the population using an insecure version of Windows 10 or just using mobile devices.
I doubt many people here will switch to Linux, but I can only hope. Maybe businesses will do that instead of buying new hardware. Recently, I saw a shop using Banana Pis as their checkout terminal.
Every time this has occurred before, there's been a very easy registry tweak to make Windows Update pull these "paid extended support" patches for free.
MANY devices have hardware that's just outright not supported by windows 11. Even CPUs just a few years old aren't supported. I don't own a single device that supports Windows 11, and my stuff isn't exactly ancient. I imagine poorer countries have resold/used hardware in the majority of cases that aren't new enough for it
My last laptop I bought with the top of the line latest CPU at that time, and Windows 10 on it. I think originally that processor wasn't even going to be supported by anything older than 10, which created a big stink at the time.
That proc generation isn't supported by 11, so really, it was only ever a Windows 10 processor.
I'm generally okay with ending hardware support at some point, but that was really quick to cut off something like the processor that could easily have 10+ years of usable life.
In my case the Intel Core i7 processor family is not supported for windows 11. Granted my rig is over 6 years old but it still does everything I want it to and I have no reason to upgrade.
i7 isn't a processor family its a marketing segment. Every generation of intel CPU has a i3 i5 i7. i7 means you have a nicer version of whatever year processor you have but you could have something 14 years old or released yesterday. I know it is absolutely confusing and awful and it makes it very hard to compare different generations without a spec sheet and benchmarks.
I have a machine in the basement that I use solely to run Zwift (an online cycling program). Windows update says it's not compatible, but I bought the machine in 2021, so it should be. My guess is that TPM 2.0 is disabled in BIOS, but I haven't looked for it. I don't recall what processor it has, nor should I really need to care.
If the processor is older, while reading this thread, I've seen that it likely is likely to work fine, even if Windows Update claims it isn't, but I might have to install it differently or edit the registry. So, basically, it can be done, but Microsoft is making it harder than it has to be. And Windows update (and the link they provide) aren't clear as to what the issue with upgrading is, if memory serves (I looked a while ago, so I might be wrong on this point).
I guess Microsoft makes money when we buy a new computer with Windows installed, so they aren't exactly upset that most users aren't going to bother figuring out how to install Win 11.
I mostly run Linux at home (the computer I'm typing this on, and my laptop, and my server). I love the reminder of why I do that.
Someone put Zwift into a docker image, so maybe it's time to investigate that further...