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Microsoft is basically discontinuing Windows. What will happen, then?
- tonetegeatinst 2y agoLong term support of a Linux distro, and probably the ungogly amount of spaghetti hacking to get wine or to emulate or virtualized the programs.
- dartos 2y agoIsn’t this just windows vista all over again?
- patmorgan23 2y agoThe difference is XP was in main stream support until April 2009, Windows 7 was released just 6 months later in October.
- fuzzfactor 2y agoOne proven approach: Older stable Windows versions for office work and non-internet hardware, air-gapped away from internet access. Linux for the internet to concentrate on what it takes to avoid Microsoft's web, once you're more confortable there, then more smoothly migrate away from Windows for office work too. Hurry up before the new PC's no longer have drivers for the older Windows versions. Archive everything.
- kelnos 2y agoProven but unlikely. Linux on the desktop is still not a thing the masses will adopt, despite all the times we hear that someone put Ubuntu on their grandparents' computer and it turned out fine.
- Fire-Dragon-DoL 2y agoMy best guess is because the bar set low enough gets to people who don't install software at all, so ubuntu has a good default package. Once you get to a higher bar where people do need to install software, Ubuntu loses that audience (because they wouldn't find the software they expect to)
- gtvwill 2y agoI'll probably start offering Linux to business clients. 90% of mine just need an os with a web browser these days. The 10% that don't I'll push to migrate to cloud offerings of whatever software is keeping them on windows and migrate to Linux after that. It's been some serious consideration for me to go down this path but it's what I forsee happening. It'll be framework laptops and Linux. Gonna have to bite the bullet tho and do a whole host of work settling on a disrtro/rollout and support plan. I'm lucky tho and many of my clients are heavy on ethics, right to repair and so on, so apple won't get a look in at all.
- Fire-Dragon-DoL 2y agoI personally am going to bring linux to my whole family. I do still use Windows for gaming, although I do plenty linux gaming too thanks to the steam deck. You have some nice customers! I was lucky to join a company that allowed me to choose linux as OS, the previous company strictly refused. I'm strong on Linux, but I won't lie that sometimes things are pretty rough, even with widely supported distros (Fedora, Kubuntu)
- Simulacra 2y agoI switched to Linux from Windows and it was quite the burden for a while. Steep learning curve, a lot of time needed. I think for mass adoption it will need to coalesce around one distro and functionality. Iow, it's got to get really easy. Apple level "just works" before there is mass adoption.
- metacritic12 2y agoWhat about scenario 0: Windows 10 is discontinued, but unofficially supported for years afterwards with security patches all the while keepings its users anxious that "full support will really stop any day now", a la Real ID.
- discordance 2y agoRecall is off by default and opt-in: “ During setup of your new Copilot+ PC, and for each new user, the user can opt into saving snapshots using Recall. If you don’t choose to opt in, it will be off by default and snapshots will not be taken or saved. You can also remove Recall entirely by using the optional features settings in Windows. ” https://support.microsoft.com/en-au/windows/privacy-and-control-over-your-recall-experience-d404f672-7647-41e5-886c-a3c59680af15#:~:text=During%20setup%20of%20your%20new,optional%20features%20settings%20in%20Windows https://support.microsoft.com/en-au/windows/privacy-and-cont....
- rezokun 2y agoThis still literally means 'not saving snapshots,' rather than 'not making an analysis of your screen and sending some "telemetry" with hashed (of course!) data to our servers.'
- viraptor 2y agoIs that actually the latest status? They flip floped a few times and I thought that the latest decision was "we'll enable it by default, just not yet"?
- Gud 2y agoTo be honest, who cares anymore. We all know Microsoft will try to enable it by default with every update. I stay away from Microsoft products, both privately and professionally. They make the world a worse place.
- Eddy_Viscosity2 2y agoRecall is invasive malware and Microsoft will eventually make it non-optional in one way or another. It's like the story of the scorpion (microsoft) and the frog (users). They can't help but screw them over, it just their nature.
- juice_bus 2y agoOpt-in and default for now - how long until users are hit with dark pattern nagging to get it enabled? >Would you like to enable Recall? >(Yes), Later
- andrewstuart 2y ago"discontinuing Windows" is obviously a step too far and clickbaity. BUT the point remains - MS appears to not want people to run Windows. In the old days, Windows was welcome on any damn machine you could boot with and Intel compatible CPU. Windows 11 however has all sorts of restrictions on what it will run on - restrictions primarily designed to sell new computing hardware it seems. I feel like Microsoft does not want me to use Windows 11. So they point remains, despite the clickbaity title - Windows 11 ain't for me and Microsoft doesn't seem to want me to run it on all my old machines, so what now? Wait for SteamOS for general computing? Try Ubuntu desktop again? Just stay on Windows 10 till it's deprecated then never run Windows again? What is clear is that Windows users come last in MIcrosoft's calculations - before that comes Windows OEMs, Windows advertising sales group who put all the crapware and advertisements on Windows, and all Microsoft's other big businesses that have eclipsed Windows in importance such as Azure. It's strange - MS just doesn't seem to care at all any more about whether you want to run Windows or not. Steve Ballmer would turn in his grave, except he's alive and well.
- AStonesThrow 2y agoI purchased a Chromebook a while ago, and I've found it quite adequate as a "daily driver". It's vastly simplified compared to any other desktop OS, and I appreciate that the simplicity makes it lean and understandable, to beginners or power users alike. Pretty much everything I did was in the Google ecosystem, and PWAs are well-supported in Chrome, and as a bonus, I can run any Android app natively in the VM, and full-screen! It's fantastic for my astronomy work! My Thinkpad T580 is 6 years old at this point, and out of warranty, but still performing admirably. When it dies I will wait awhile to replace it with something else, as my Chromebook has taken over the daily duties, and performing great.
- sydbarrett74 2y agoMy only hesitation with recommending Chromebooks is the fickleness with which Google treats its offerings. One of MS's strengths is their support of legacy technologies. They may deprecate things, but one doesn't have to go out of one's way to keep such tech afloat.
- vivzkestrel 2y agomy major gripe with both windows 10 and 11 is how bloated they feel at all times. Even with 16 GB RAM it feels like a chore doing anything on them. It could be a perception issue or perhaps an actual one but Windows 7 was so much more faster at a time when hardware was not even that evolved
- ankurdhama 2y agoThis is a general trend in all propriety operating systems. The better the hardware gets, the more stuff they add like transparency effects, animations, other stuff that runs in background that most people don't event need. On Windows you can do certain things to make it more efficient by using those open source utilities that strips out a lot of unnecessary stuff from Windows.
- karmakurtisaani 2y agoJevon's paradox in action once again.
- sydbarrett74 2y agoYep, MS has to throw a bone to the h/w manufacturers every so often. That was probably a factor in MS backpedalling on Win10 being the 'last version of Windows ever' (that, and Apple advancing macOS beyond major version 10).
- goalieca 2y agoSure, but Mac and Linux runs better on 8 than windows on 16
- panarky 2y agoThe latest versions of both Android and iOS feel faster on modern hardware than older versions did on older hardware.
- sebazzz 2y agoIt is a trend in all operating systems. All operating systems and their desktop applications (the whole package counts!) run best on the hardware that is made around their release. Debian-derived (Ubuntu Mint) runs dog slow on an laptop of 10 years old.
- roschdal 2y agohttps://www.opensuse.org/ https://www.opensuse.org/
- kelnos 2y agoI think this article is getting all anxious about a non-problem. Microsoft ended up supporting Windows XP far, far longer than they expected to or wanted to. As long as people (especially corporate people) need to run Windows on hardware that Windows 11 rejects, Microsoft will extend the Windows 10 EOL date. They'll realize that charging all that for "extended support" will hurt them more than help them, and (mostly) drop it. It's a little weird that the author didn't bring this up as a possible scenario. I think it's much more likely than any of the others listed. I expect the scenario where Microsoft relaxes the Windows 11 hardware requirements isn't that realistic; they seem to think those hardware requirements are critical for security (regardless if they are or aren't). Eventually the hardware that Windows 11 doesn't like will age out to the point that Microsoft will actually EOL Windows 10. And the kind of people who will continue to still use that hardware are the kind of people who don't know what security updates are and/or won't care that they aren't getting security updates. This all feels like a big nothingburger. Worse, the headline is super clickbaity, and I regret clicking it.
- crthpl 2y agoWhy would charging for extended support hurt Microsoft? They "win" if you pay for it, or if you upgrade to windows 11. If you do neither, you'll probably get hacked down the line if you don't airgap, and Microsoft doesn't gain or lose anything (except goodwill, but that doesn't matter with the kind of monopoly they have).
- fuzzfactor 2y ago>Eventually the hardware that Windows 11 doesn't like will age out Until then it could be like covid, where older cars became more valuable. Many people might prefer to keep an older PC just so they can keep running Windows 10 until the hardware is not just old, but finally wears out completely. Kind of like a disease Windows is suffering from, people hope it will get better, but no drug company big enough is working on a cure and there should have been a vaccine against this kind of thing to begin with.
- deafpolygon 2y agoI don't think the situation is as dire as described. More people are ready for Windows 11 than most of these pundits assume-- they say they won't, but they will upgrade. And onward marches the sands of time.
- yarg 2y agoWINE gets a final version of its interface, and Gaben has a happy day.
- stargrazer 2y agoI thought Windows 8 was supposed to be Windows-ForEver. I think I heard the same for Windows 10. Weren't they supposed to be on perpetual upgrade?
- jhanschoo 2y agoYes, the biggest reason why they did Win 11 was the the security hardware requirements imo.
- OutOfHere 2y agoWhy should Nadella get a hanging for discontinuing Windows? If anything, there should be an award for doing it so insidiously.
- fithisux 2y agoThere is also another possibility. ReactOS becoming usable enough that people migrate there.
- skyzyx 2y agoPeople hate Windows, but won’t stop using it. Everyone gets to make their own decisions, I suppose, but let’s all tell the truth about what’s happening here.