So much for the "last version of Windows we'll do" then.
Seems my support for Microsoft might end up for good at October 2025. Might replace my aging 1080 Ti with an AMD card and start gaming on Linux. Seems the time has come to start evaluating.
I recently did this because Windows 11 was becoming increasingly cluttered with crapware and AI. I have an NVIDIA and chose Pop!_OS.
I have a pretty large collection (https://steamosaic.com/#skhaz) and all the games I've tested work, even the recent releases.
The only issue that sometimes occurs is some games defaulting to the lowest possible resolution instead of 4K, which is my desktop resolution. And Red Dead Redemption 2 had a crash on a mission that was resolved when I switched to the experimental version of Proton.
Occasionally, I play StarCraft 1 and 2, and Diablo 2, and Lutris works perfectly for that.
Besides, I personally find Pop!_OS to be a great distro.
Do it! Every day Linux is better and better than before, where as windows is... not so good.
Sure there are edge cases like having to use Libre Office instead of Word, but just think of that $100/y saving you'll be having by switching! & Possibly even get a more responsive system!
been playing on a 3070 quite happily on linux for the last year or so, on a dual boot win11/fedora box... but after i installed fedora i never booted into win11 again!
Just forked out for a 4070 ti super so i toy with some AI stuff... when it arrives I'm doing a clean fresh build. Fedora only. no windows at home anymore.
While I would loved to have bought an AMD GPU, the power suck on those high end cards is an order of magnitude more than the Nvidia
I wish i could find the nice charts I found when i was looking. but here:
>Club386 specifically gave the example of the RX 7700 XT compared to the RTX 4070. The former is rated at 245W of power consumption versus the latter's 200W TGP. The RX 7700 XT also reportedly performs worse, targeting the RTX 4060 Ti.
Sure but, proprietary blob and all. Who knows what else is there. Going to Linux but still using a super-privileged driver that can extract almost anything out of my system and send it outside does not sound productive to me.
Not that there's any guarantee there isn't something similar in the AMD drivers, open-source or not. But I'd like to think the community would notice at one point if that was true.
I wonder if this could be classified as an environmental crime? Microsoft are forcing to e-waste a considerable percentage of the world's computing devices, and forcing new devices to be built and consumed.
And for no reason other than to force people onto Windows 11.
Corporations MUST be held responsible for these actions. If not at the legal level then there must be divestment of Microsoft shares by investment groups.
Yes! My desktop PC is almost 10 years old at this point and it works perfectly, I've upgraded the CPU to an i7-4790K (the best of that generation) and added some RAM (32G total) which makes it very good for most of my work and even for occasional gaming. Thankfully I don't use windows that much, but I know I can't upgrade to windows 11, so according to Microsoft I would just have to throw it away in a year or two, which is completely ridiculous.
I still happily develop on an i7-950 with 24GB of RAM from 13 years ago. I just haven't been able to justify the minimal performance improvements from upgrading vs all the other things my family needs.
Nope, that machine has a 512GB SSD and runs just as fast as modern corporate dev spec laptops I've used with the same core count. That being said, my static analyzer would definitely benefit from a more modern CPU!
How? They arbitrarily blocked new versions of macOS from being installed on older macs (even if they are perfectly capable of running it after you install it with a workaround).
Compared to MS they basically don't care about backwards compatibility at all. For instance, good luck running most moderately old games (e.g. even from the 2010s) even on Intel macs after they stopped working because they were using any 32bit libraries. Or you can not update (even if Apple lets you) but good luck running any recent software then.
Microsoft isn’t forcing anything to be e-waste. They’re dropping support for what will be a 10 year old OS. You’re not forced onto Windows 11.
You just won’t get support or security patches. While people should upgrade, industries will still keep w10 around for a long time, just like they do with XP, 98, NT4, etc.
Ostensibly this was the same deal they made with Windows XP: "We're not forcing anyone to move to Vista, we're just dropping support for XP. You don't have to upgrade if you don't want to - but of course you do want, who doesn't want to have the latest and greatest, right?"
Turned out, a lot of people accepted that deal and stayed on XP. So many that MS got increasingly upset and put up pressure by adding nag screens, etc.
I'm completely sure, should enough people here actually try and stay in Win10, they will do the same. Especially since the main motivation for Win11 seems to be additional capabilities for DRM/locking down the system, so MS has a specific motivation to get as many people as possible to switch.
It's not a 10 year old OS unless you believe Windows 11 is a fundamentally different kernel and Win32 API version with major backwards incompatibility - which we know isn't the case.
When they were pushing Win10 hard it was said to be the last Windows you would need to buy, not those exact words but what they wanted people to think. So now people who bought into that who have machines Win11 won't install on (no TPM or TPM Win11 is incompatible with being the usual reason), have been bait & switched into needing new hardware or switching away from Windows, a task that, as many will gladly tell you in other contexts, is only free if using your time has no opportunity cost, and might not work well anyway due to driver issues with hardware that has no decent published specs. Not directly forcing e-waste, but certainly making it very likely to happen.
If my main home machine didn't need some replacement anyway (there is something funky happening with USB connectivity, particularly for devices needing more than negligible power) it would definitely be moving to Linux rather than being replaced, even if I do upgrade it might anyway, but I am not the norm and I don't have time to help others make the same change and support them afterwards. To suggest that MS is OK to have performed this long-term bait & switch because other options exist is disingenuous at best.
> Microsoft is ending support for Windows 10 on October 14th, 2025, and you’ll need to pay yearly if you want to continue using the operating system securely. Microsoft will offer Extended Security Updates (ESU) for Windows 10 users, with pricing starting at $61 for the first year.
> The details and pricing structure outlined in this post apply to commercial organizations only. Details will be shared at a later date for consumers on our consumer end of support page. Educational organizations can find tailored information about Windows 10 end of support in the Microsoft Education Blog.
Give me the same taskbar as in Windows 10 and I'll switch to 11.
Otherwise I might just purge Windows and go 100% Linux.
All the Windows games are crap anyway that are coming out in the last decade.
What was the last good Windows only game I enjoyed?
Battlefield 2042, but it sucked and still does as a game.
BG3 works well emulated.
CP2077 not sure.
Jagged alliance 3 should have no issues. (Why does my phone annoy me with always replacing have with habe?)
We started switching to macOS ARM this year (using the same Office365 and Intune for MDM) and yeah, there were a few hiccups here and there, but in general happy to be off Windows 11 (in time for our W10 devices to ease into EOL) and don't think we could be happier any other way.
In the budget end the new MacBook Airs are about the same price as the low end Dell laptops we used to buy, and on the higher end the MacBook is competitive price for price but in all cases the quality is better per dollar.
Be careful - if you want 3 screens you have to go with MBP M3 Pro as a minimum.
macOS ARM is not a solution for getting more than 10 years out of a computer. 9-10 is about the max lifecycle of a Mac, including the trailing security updates following 6-7 years of support.
Assuming the SSD is still functional, yes, but otherwise it's probably functionally E-waste at that point unless BGA rework becomes accessible and commonplace. Even then, Asahi Linux is a niche solution to a mass-market problem. Surfdudes and winemoms who aren't also tech people aren't going to want to give up their entire app ecosystem and switch to Linux just to continue using their computer. They'll want the computer to simply keep computering, and will end up replacing it.
The only Windows box I have is an AMD-based gaming rig and last time I checked the hardware isn't Windows 11 compatible. Time to check out how the gaming experience on Linux is these days.
It's good enough I haven't even started my gaming rig for a few years now... Not painless, but my biggest problems were the System Shock remake that couldn't start a game (an update automagically fixed it) and terrible performances under Lutris with Planet Crafter (but somehow running it within Steam solve the problem). I also do not play the latest games though.
Nearly every game will just work, unless you play a Competitive Game with a kernel anti-cheat. (Looking at you valorant). Https://protondb.com search for the game(s) you play, and hey presto it's fine.
Obviously it's primarily targeted at steam games, Lutris will sort you out with any other windows game (a game manager like steam but for _nearly every_ game)
Seems my support for Microsoft might end up for good at October 2025. Might replace my aging 1080 Ti with an AMD card and start gaming on Linux. Seems the time has come to start evaluating.