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Microsoft ending support for Windows 10 could send 240M PCs to landfills
- DrNosferatu 3y agoIt will be the year of the Linux desktop!
- ptek 3y agoSend them to developing nations with windows XP and office XP?! As long as people learn the basics with them, VBA scripting in Excel, Basic HTML and Javscript Design and the most important Spider Solitaire.
- scohesc 3y agoAbsolutely disgusting that Microsoft and all these silicon valley companies preach that they're green, eco-friendly, safe for the world, etc. - but when push comes to shove if they want to push changes that make millions of computers obsolete to make a quick buck, they will. You don't need a TPM to run an operating system. You need a TPM to enable Microsoft to lock down your operating system more and more into their walled garden ecosystem under the guise and excuse of "security". All this e-waste because Microsoft says so... Didn't they get their feet held to the fire for anti-trust reasons? Maybe it needs to happen again along with all the other silicon valley companies.
- kova12 3y agoCan I have some of these PCs? I have no problem running Ubuntu on them, just send me.
- jzombie 3y agoIndeed. A landfill is the worst possible solution for this.
- dragonmost 3y agoWhat's really going to happen is absolutely nothing. People won't throw away anything because people won't even know or care that Windows isn't being updated anymore. The landfill isn't the solution because there isn't a problem.
- jzombie 3y agoI don't know if I totally agree with this. Maybe it's not nearly as bad as how the article frames it but just doing a Google image search of "landfills of old PCs" returns some pretty convincing images.
- dragonmost 3y agoHardware does become obsolete at some point and people will get rid of them but the EOL of an operating system is not the reason for it. As long as people can boot up and do whatever they want to do with acceptable speed then most won't upgrade. Unless a big pop-up warns and nags users about it, I don't see Windows 10 PCs getting thrown out anytime soon.
- add-sub-mul-div 3y agoAre the people running machines after EOL aware of the official EOL date, or even necessarily that there is one? Ridiculous idea, that people will just march out to the dumps with their still functioning computers.
- FirmwareBurner 3y agoNo, obviously people aren't gonna throw away their PCs after next year just because Win 10 won't get any more updates, the same way how they don't immediately throw away their Macs and Androids that stopped getting SW updates. People are just throwing hissy fits over nothing burgers. I wish editorialized click-bait garbage articles like this would stop ending up on HN frontpage. If I had a cookie for every FUD Windows 10 EOL article on HN frontpage I'd be diabetic already.
- cyanydeez 3y agowell, normally, one could upgrade windows but w they're artificially gatekeeping hardware upgrades so, it's not exactly hyperbole. also, business doesn't Play around.
- Lammy 3y agoI'm already living in this world due to my motherboard[0] maxing out at Windows 10 ver 19H2 for reasons I don't understand. It's honestly really refreshing to just be able to use my computer without it rebooting out from under me all the time and leaving "presents" for me afterward, like how Edge got re-pinned to my taskbar any time any update required a reboot. I'm sick of the update treadmill and especially sick of all the scare-mongering about not being on the update treadmill. I even have some XP machines and they've all been fine too. Come hax0r my Gibson and prove me wrong. [0] https://www.supermicro.com/en/products/motherboard/X10SAE https://www.supermicro.com/en/products/motherboard/X10SAE “Note: Win 10 OS can't support beyond 19H2 version”
- SilverBirch 3y agoI have all my important documents in a folder called "Documentation". OneDrive decided to sync these to OneDrive. I took my laptop out, no wifi. Oh look, all the documents are fucking gone! No problem, I'll uninstall OneDrive. Oh great. They're permanently gone. Fucking terrible product. Don't produce products that are worse than not having the product in the first place!
- niutech 3y agoThis is stupidity. Windows 11 can be easily installed on computers without TPM 2.0, Secure Boot or <8th generation Intel CPU: https://www.tomshardware.com/how-to/bypass-windows-11-tpm-requirement https://www.tomshardware.com/how-to/bypass-windows-11-tpm-re...
- ericswpark 3y agoDefine "easily"? Non-tech-savvy users will never even touch an install USB or know what regedit is. They'll just see the dialog saying "your computer doesn't support Windows 11", chuck it in the bin, and buy a new one.
- niutech 3y agoThen they should ask their tech-savvy friends how to do it using a simple tutorial. Tech illiteracy shouldn't be an excuse for stupidity by throwing away good hardware.
- acd 3y agoInstall Linux, these PCs will be better with that. More secure with less malware, more stable. I suggest distros such as Ubuntu, Fedora and Debian. Enable automatic security updates. Also Linux distros such as Alma Linux, Rocky Linux, Red Hat enterprise Linux / Suse is an option. That will offer longer support upgrade cycles.
- ewweezdsd 3y agoAlternatively people could just install some beginner-friendly Linux distro, and enjoy a much better desktop experience without ads and bloat.
- absrec 3y agoA very feasible option for the casual user as most software has moved to the web. Few years ago a casual user would have major concerns about office suites but now with office365 and the whole google docs/slides/sheets offerings a browser is all you need.
- TheLoafOfBread 3y agoNo people are going to use Windows 10 on those computers and will be happy that they don't need to restart for updates anymore. Emphasis is the B from BFU.
- wkat4242 3y agoYeah as if. You know bit going to happen. They could just as easily install windows 11 because the limitations are easily bypassed and purely commercially motivated.
- lemoncookiechip 3y agoI'll probably get downvoted for this, if not push-back, but. Linux is great for customization, and freedom of expression, but it's also not so great if you don't like troubleshooting every time you want to use some new software or when something updates and breaks your system. Obviously not all Distros are the same and some are more reliable than others, but my experience with Linux is just many hours of troubleshooting why XYZ doesn't work out of the box, granted this has gotten better over the years, but I dunno if a non-tech-savvy user would be able to fix these problems (if they occur) without calling me every month.
- ttt3ts 3y agoWindows UI has gotten considerably worse for casual users who just want a web browser. There are so many ads and pop ups in the OS now. I installed Ubuntu on my grandma's machine after she installed malware on her windows machine. I get less questions because it doesn't update with "features" constantly.
- ralph84 3y agoI lost track of how many times the article uses the words “could” or “potentially”.
- deafpolygon 3y agoWould it make a suitable drinking game?
- jzombie 3y agoCould potentially.
- gumballindie 3y ago> Microsoft aims to discontinue support for Windows 10 by October 2025. The next generation of the OS, anticipated to bring advanced artificial intelligence technology to PCs, could potentially boost the sluggish PC market. Planned obsolesce so they can push ai, a cancer of the software world.
- deleted 3y ago[deleted]
- rany_ 3y agoIt's not even on device AI, so that's really no excuse.
- jzombie 3y agoI think nano LLMs are the next trendy thing, but I agree with your sentiment.
- vitorgrs 3y agoThat's not true. There's currently several on device AI on Windows 11 already (and even Windows 10!). I believe the only cloud AI is... LLM, because there's no GPT4 level LLM that is able to run locally.
- rany_ 3y agoPretty sure they were referring to LLMs here.
- theropost 3y agoWindows releases should have some regulatory review to determine if it is actually a valuable upgrade, that results in productivity gains, etc. It seems Windows it just forcing upgrades through monopolization of their desktop product at this point.
- akagusu 3y agoForcing upgrades through monopolization of PC market is exactly what Microsoft has been doing since forever.
- blibble 3y ago240 million new potential sales of Windows licenses...
- tmtvl 3y agoHow about we round up the MS board of directors and give them each one lash for every computer available sold the last 5 years which supports W10 but doesn't support W11? We could also gather their immediate families and lop off their hands and feet, but that'd be a bit cruel.
- crest 3y agoTie them to four stakes hammered into the ground and start stacking such computers on top of them until they understand that a TPM isn't required to run an operating system?
- deleted 3y ago[deleted]
- jiggawatts 3y agoEveryone here is ignoring that Windows 10 was released in 2015 and security update support will end in 2028 — that’s thirteen years of support! Sure, sure, hardware can last longer than that, but would be hilariously outdated by that point. For industrial and special-purpose usage such as kiosks or embedded controllers there is the Long-Term Servicing Channel, which will have extended security updates until 2029: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/lifecycle/products/windows-10-enterprise-ltsc-2019 https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/lifecycle/products/windows... For comparison, there aren’t any other mainstream operating systems with even vaguely comparable support longevity. Everyone here advising people to install Ubuntu should look at its support lifecycle table: https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Releases https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Releases The version released in 2015 is already in extended support and will reach EoL in April 2024, just months from now. I doubt it’ll be a smooth experience installing a 2028 or 2029 version of Ubuntu on a PC made in 2015 or even earlier!
- bombcar 3y agoIt’s not when the first one was sold, it’s when the last one was.
- wmf 3y agoYeah, Windows 10 PCs were still sold in 2021 so they'll only be four years old in 2025. 7th gen processors that can't officially run Windows 11 were sold in 2017 so they'll be eight years old.
- kevincox 3y agoI think the bigger issue isn't so much that they are dropping support for 10 but that 11 has seemingly unnecessary requirements that block it from working on modern systems.
- niutech 3y agoYou can easily bypass it: https://www.tomshardware.com/how-to/bypass-windows-11-tpm-requirement https://www.tomshardware.com/how-to/bypass-windows-11-tpm-re...