4 ms·

I have an anecdote too. Last week Windows update corrupted itself and was boot looping i spent two days trying to debug and fix it. Even repair from disc didn't

I have an anecdote too. Last week Windows update corrupted itself and was boot looping i spent two days trying to debug and fix it. Even repair from disc didn't help. 30+ reboots later i decided to just reinstall it. Meanwhile my two Linux desktops have no issues, and when they do i can fix it without rebooting million times and i never had to reinstall them just because they get corrupted randomly.

scrollaway 10y ago
Windows, FWIU in the majority of cases (and at least every time I did it) still does not support being moved to a new motherboard. Every time I upgrade a Windows PC's motherboard, the windows install becomes unbootable. Linux doesn't care.
- chungy 10y ago
  It supports moving to a new motherboard if you don't forget to run sysprep first. If you don't or can't (hello new hardware because the old died!), you're basically SoL.
  - parenthephobia 10y ago
    It would help if this wasn't the first time I'd ever heard of sysprep. Microsoft don't exactly go out of their way to advertise it. It doesn't even show up when searching from the start menu. Searching online, the easiest results to find seem to be either to manually uninstall hardware-specific drivers in the device manager, or simply to assume that motherboard upgrades will just magically work. Whilst one can find results that mention sysprep, how is a user to know that the sysprep method is the right one? And now I read: When sysprepping an existing Windows setup, it only works if the Windows was installed clean and has never been upgraded or repaired using repair install. So that's great.
- witty_username 10y ago
  Linux actually doesn't care at all. I used a laptop hard drive in a desktop which had a AMD processor instead of an Intel one (both have iGPUs) and it worked perfectly fine.
- bildung 10y ago
  In support of your "Linux doesn't care.": It works so well that I stopped installing Linux on every new Thinkpad I buy but instead just switch my SSD on demand. Need mobility: put the disk into the X series. Want to work in the garden: put it into the T series with the outdoor display. Need to do graphics on the road: Put it into the T series with the higher resolution and the Radeon card. Using Debian.
  - chetanahuja 10y ago
    Not a (current) thinkpad user. What's the effort involved in swapping out the ssd?
    - bildung 10y ago
      I don't have the newest models, either. On my devices, there's an enclosure fixated with a philips screw. I removed the enclosures, so the SATA bay works essentially like a pc card slot for me.
- infinityplus1 10y ago
  I put my hard-disk with Windows 10 installed for Gigabyte H61M motherboard(i3 3rd gen) to Asrock H91M S1 Plus(Pentium 4th gen) and it booted properly. It was slow for about half an hour(probably installing drivers in background) and then it worked fine afterwards.
- TheSpiceIsLife 10y ago
  Last year I diacovered I can remove the SSD from my Linux laptop while it is on and come back later and put it back in and it continues as if nothing's happened.
apetrovic 10y ago
Heh, it's funny how "no issue at all" is a flexible thing. Not talking about your case, maybe you really don't have any issues, but recently I had sort of revelation - I spent good part of my professional life (20+ years) on Windows. I dabble in Linux, I have a home server and know my way around it, but my proficiency was always Windows. And I never understand the amount of complaints about Windows - for me that thing just worked. My last Windows machine was Thinkpad W520, and in three years I didn't had one single Windows crash. Then I moved to Mac. I was puzzled first couple of months - comparing to Windows, the platform was, for me, almost an utter shit. Yeah, some things were cute, some things are better from the start (application installation, for example) but OSX crashed on me couple of times (which Windows never did), Finder is an atrocity compared to Explorer, etc, etc. Some time passed (three years). I learned how to use Mac. Somehow OS stopped crashing. Pain points disappeared. Finder isn't so bad after all, it have some nice tricks. And now, when I need to work on Windows, I want to kill someone out of frustration - nothing works exactly like I want. Because I forgot things about Windows. I don't know about you guys, but when I'm familiar with something, when I understand how something works, I tend to use that thing (Windows, macOS, Linux, whatever) in a way that will not make me problems. When I said "Windows is rock stable" I mean it, but I learned that it was rock stable for me, because I knew how to use it. I assume that's the reason why there's so many opposing stories about linux - people who knows linux doesn't understand how someone can have any problem with it, because linux just works for them. Forgetting and not thinking about million simple, small things they do every day to ensure that Linux is working correctly.
- fleetfox 10y ago
  It's not an issue of familiarity or stability for me. I've been using Windows more or less daily since Win98. I'm more frustrated about not beeing able to fix it in sane way when things go wrong. I'm able to patch and compile kernel, but i'm unable to fix Windows update. It does not make any sense to me.

scrollaway 10y ago

Windows, FWIU in the majority of cases (and at least every time I did it) still does not support being moved to a new motherboard. Every time I upgrade a Windows PC's motherboard, the windows install becomes unbootable. Linux doesn't care.

chungy 10y ago
It supports moving to a new motherboard if you don't forget to run sysprep first. If you don't or can't (hello new hardware because the old died!), you're basically SoL.
- parenthephobia 10y ago
  It would help if this wasn't the first time I'd ever heard of sysprep. Microsoft don't exactly go out of their way to advertise it. It doesn't even show up when searching from the start menu. Searching online, the easiest results to find seem to be either to manually uninstall hardware-specific drivers in the device manager, or simply to assume that motherboard upgrades will just magically work. Whilst one can find results that mention sysprep, how is a user to know that the sysprep method is the right one? And now I read: When sysprepping an existing Windows setup, it only works if the Windows was installed clean and has never been upgraded or repaired using repair install. So that's great.
witty_username 10y ago
Linux actually doesn't care at all. I used a laptop hard drive in a desktop which had a AMD processor instead of an Intel one (both have iGPUs) and it worked perfectly fine.
bildung 10y ago
In support of your "Linux doesn't care.": It works so well that I stopped installing Linux on every new Thinkpad I buy but instead just switch my SSD on demand. Need mobility: put the disk into the X series. Want to work in the garden: put it into the T series with the outdoor display. Need to do graphics on the road: Put it into the T series with the higher resolution and the Radeon card. Using Debian.
- chetanahuja 10y ago
  Not a (current) thinkpad user. What's the effort involved in swapping out the ssd?
  - bildung 10y ago
    I don't have the newest models, either. On my devices, there's an enclosure fixated with a philips screw. I removed the enclosures, so the SATA bay works essentially like a pc card slot for me.
infinityplus1 10y ago
I put my hard-disk with Windows 10 installed for Gigabyte H61M motherboard(i3 3rd gen) to Asrock H91M S1 Plus(Pentium 4th gen) and it booted properly. It was slow for about half an hour(probably installing drivers in background) and then it worked fine afterwards.
TheSpiceIsLife 10y ago
Last year I diacovered I can remove the SSD from my Linux laptop while it is on and come back later and put it back in and it continues as if nothing's happened.

apetrovic 10y ago

Heh, it's funny how "no issue at all" is a flexible thing. Not talking about your case, maybe you really don't have any issues, but recently I had sort of revelation - I spent good part of my professional life (20+ years) on Windows. I dabble in Linux, I have a home server and know my way around it, but my proficiency was always Windows. And I never understand the amount of complaints about Windows - for me that thing just worked. My last Windows machine was Thinkpad W520, and in three years I didn't had one single Windows crash. Then I moved to Mac. I was puzzled first couple of months - comparing to Windows, the platform was, for me, almost an utter shit. Yeah, some things were cute, some things are better from the start (application installation, for example) but OSX crashed on me couple of times (which Windows never did), Finder is an atrocity compared to Explorer, etc, etc. Some time passed (three years). I learned how to use Mac. Somehow OS stopped crashing. Pain points disappeared. Finder isn't so bad after all, it have some nice tricks. And now, when I need to work on Windows, I want to kill someone out of frustration - nothing works exactly like I want. Because I forgot things about Windows. I don't know about you guys, but when I'm familiar with something, when I understand how something works, I tend to use that thing (Windows, macOS, Linux, whatever) in a way that will not make me problems. When I said "Windows is rock stable" I mean it, but I learned that it was rock stable for me, because I knew how to use it. I assume that's the reason why there's so many opposing stories about linux - people who knows linux doesn't understand how someone can have any problem with it, because linux just works for them. Forgetting and not thinking about million simple, small things they do every day to ensure that Linux is working correctly.

fleetfox 10y ago
It's not an issue of familiarity or stability for me. I've been using Windows more or less daily since Win98. I'm more frustrated about not beeing able to fix it in sane way when things go wrong. I'm able to patch and compile kernel, but i'm unable to fix Windows update. It does not make any sense to me.