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> As a mass-exodus to Linux and macOS curretly seems unlikely, their strategy appears to be winning so far. ... or people just install windows 7 / avoid upgrad

> As a mass-exodus to Linux and macOS curretly seems unlikely, their strategy appears to be winning so far. ... or people just install windows 7 / avoid upgrading to 10. Hard to call that a "win" Take everything with a grain of salt, but metrics still point to Windows 7 dominance: http://gs.statcounter.com/os-version-market-share/windows/desktop/worldwide http://gs.statcounter.com/os-version-market-share/windows/de... https://www.netmarketshare.com/operating-system-market-share.aspx?qprid=10&qpcustomd=0 https://www.netmarketshare.com/operating-system-market-share...

deleted 10y ago
[deleted]
criddell 10y ago
Isn't Microsoft starting to block updates to Windows 7 on new hardware?
- clouddrover 10y ago
  Yes: https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/4012982/discusses-an-issue-in-which-you-receive-a-your-pc-uses-a-processor-tha https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/4012982/discusses-a...
  - Mithaldu 10y ago
    They're not "blocking" updates, they've stopped writing and compiling them with the backwards compatibility shims that made them work on older hardware. They probably do this because it drives updates AND because it's cheaper, but please try to describe it accurately.
    - clouddrover 10y ago
      > they've stopped writing and compiling them with the backwards compatibility shims that made them work on older hardware That claim doesn't stack up. Windows 10, for example, works fine on older hardware. As Microsoft said, they're blocking updates to Windows 7 and 8 if you try to run those OSes on newer hardware.
Pica_soO 10y ago
How hard would it be to replace the ads with instructions to do a parallel Ubuntu install?
- sova 10y ago
  I like the way you open source.
- H4CK3RM4N 10y ago
  Assuming they're on a network you control, probably around as hard as upside-down ternet. Wait, what if you were to redirect the download links for the automatic updates to a Linux installer? Assuming Microsoft's security is still as lax as it was during the XP era, you could get this to work without much difficulty.
  - dTal 10y ago
    Alas, the narrow window of time in which a novice could reasonably be expected to install Linux without undue hassle came to an end with UEFI and SecureBoot.
    - vetinari 10y ago
      Linux distributions work fine with UEFI a Secure Boot[1]. Maybe even better than with BIOS and MBR, because now, there is no excuse to just overwrite the MBR. OS Installers are supposed to just add an entry into UEFI boot manager. [1] Secure Boot comes into play only when 1) you use distribution in SecureBoot enforcing mode (RHEL, CentOS, Fedora) and 2) want to build your own kernel modules. Then, you have to enroll your Machine Owner Key into UEFI and sign your modules with it. However, building kernel modules is not something that grandma is going to do. For normal use, all the mainstream distributions come with a signed bootloader (shim.efi).
khedoros1 10y ago
I did that recently on a laptop. It involved finding some relatively-obscure drivers from the actual hardware manufacturers and inserting them into my Windows 7 install media (NVME and USB, I think). It took me a few hours of research (having never had to add drivers to get a machine to boot into a Windows installer before). I imagine that a lot of other people wouldn't have had any idea where to start. And even after getting everything working smoothly, the touchscreen doesn't work (no drivers available, and the hardware isn't detected at all; good riddance), and there are some bits of power-management hardware that still show up as question-marks in the device manager. New hardware will be increasingly difficult to run a reasonable Windows OS on. At least in my case, there were drivers for everything that matters to me.

deleted 10y ago

[deleted]

criddell 10y ago

Isn't Microsoft starting to block updates to Windows 7 on new hardware?

clouddrover 10y ago
Yes: https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/4012982/discusses-an-issue-in-which-you-receive-a-your-pc-uses-a-processor-tha https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/4012982/discusses-a...
- Mithaldu 10y ago
  They're not "blocking" updates, they've stopped writing and compiling them with the backwards compatibility shims that made them work on older hardware. They probably do this because it drives updates AND because it's cheaper, but please try to describe it accurately.
  - clouddrover 10y ago
    > they've stopped writing and compiling them with the backwards compatibility shims that made them work on older hardware That claim doesn't stack up. Windows 10, for example, works fine on older hardware. As Microsoft said, they're blocking updates to Windows 7 and 8 if you try to run those OSes on newer hardware.

Pica_soO 10y ago

How hard would it be to replace the ads with instructions to do a parallel Ubuntu install?

sova 10y ago
I like the way you open source.
H4CK3RM4N 10y ago
Assuming they're on a network you control, probably around as hard as upside-down ternet. Wait, what if you were to redirect the download links for the automatic updates to a Linux installer? Assuming Microsoft's security is still as lax as it was during the XP era, you could get this to work without much difficulty.
- dTal 10y ago
  Alas, the narrow window of time in which a novice could reasonably be expected to install Linux without undue hassle came to an end with UEFI and SecureBoot.
  - vetinari 10y ago
    Linux distributions work fine with UEFI a Secure Boot[1]. Maybe even better than with BIOS and MBR, because now, there is no excuse to just overwrite the MBR. OS Installers are supposed to just add an entry into UEFI boot manager. [1] Secure Boot comes into play only when 1) you use distribution in SecureBoot enforcing mode (RHEL, CentOS, Fedora) and 2) want to build your own kernel modules. Then, you have to enroll your Machine Owner Key into UEFI and sign your modules with it. However, building kernel modules is not something that grandma is going to do. For normal use, all the mainstream distributions come with a signed bootloader (shim.efi).

khedoros1 10y ago

I did that recently on a laptop. It involved finding some relatively-obscure drivers from the actual hardware manufacturers and inserting them into my Windows 7 install media (NVME and USB, I think). It took me a few hours of research (having never had to add drivers to get a machine to boot into a Windows installer before). I imagine that a lot of other people wouldn't have had any idea where to start. And even after getting everything working smoothly, the touchscreen doesn't work (no drivers available, and the hardware isn't detected at all; good riddance), and there are some bits of power-management hardware that still show up as question-marks in the device manager. New hardware will be increasingly difficult to run a reasonable Windows OS on. At least in my case, there were drivers for everything that matters to me.