Windows 10 is EOL in October 2025

You can recommend what you like. As soon as Windows 10 can’t play the latest games I’m off to Linux.

Eat my whole ass, Microsoft.

Come on over, the water is fine. I switched to Pop_OS a few months back for the gaming rig and Proton+Steam works almost flawlessly. Older titles sometimes have hiccups, but so far ive only been blocked on one title.
- Yep it's pretty easy and my computer runs so much faster than Windows on the same machine.
- I just switched from W10 to Pop_OS and have had lots of trouble. I'm trying to stick with it but from audio glitches to many games not running unless I find a random CLI arg that someone mentioned on Reddit, to my UI freezing, it's not been an easy switch.
- I've seen a lot of people recommending Pop_OS lately. Out of curiosity, what's the benefit over something like Mint?
- If iRacing and my other sim racing gear worked with Linux I'd make the switch asap. I already have popOS on another hard drive and everything other than iRacing has worked well
- I did the same a few months back. No problems so far. Some older games require switching up the compatibility layer occasionally but no deal breakers so far.
- I switched to Pop!_OS about 3 months ago and have been loving it! First Linux distribution that just worked for me, and every app works better than any other Linux or Windows 11 on the same hardware.
- Running OpenSUSE Tumbleweed right now and it's great!
We need a successful replacement to DirectX for this to happen.
Look how desperate they are now for their web browser, imagine when people start abandoning Windows because there are other options that work just as well. I can't wait.
- We need a successful replacement to DirectX for this to happen.
  Vulkan?
- Honestly even the as-is directX with Wine is already quite good. With Vulkan, game over :-)
- We already do?
  DXVK and VKD3D have been translating DirectX 9-12 to Vulkan for a while now, allowing DirectX games and applications to run on hardware and/or operating systems that don't support DirectX.
  Intels ARC GPUs don't even support DirectX on a hardware level, like it's just straight up not there. Intels drivers instead just translate it to Vulkan, and their at times insane FPS boosts from driver updates was due to them improving that translation and getting closer to 1:1 performance.
I haven't touched my Windows PC since the steam deck came out. If you only care about games you don't need Windows.
That was my choice too. I made the jump to Mint earlier this year and couldn’t be happier. It took a little effort to get updated GPU drivers, and my games sometimes need an extra CLI argument added, but those things have been pretty quickly and easily found on the Mint forums, Ubuntu forums, or ProtonDB comments.
Switched to arch linux last november, didn’t had to launch my backup VM Win10 at all. I even managed to play at StarCitizen with better performance than under Win 10...
Just wow the progress of Linux, Wine & co since my last linux try (Ubuntu, around 2010).
I just need now to find a linux way for my music stack and all the VST (my steinberg usb card is recognized and play properly oO) and Windows will be history at home...
- Yeah ive also had s Star Citizen running in Arch. My setup didnt support game updates though so every update needed a complete redownload of the entire game which got old real fast.
  Also had Microsoft Flight Simulator running very well too which is peak irony. At first there was issues with satellite terrain and imagary as the networking was broken but a Proton update actually fixed that.
  Im incredibly impressed on the type of heavy duty window games ive got working in linux, some working very well others with slight occasional issues.
  Linux gaming isnt perfect but windows has never been either. Ive had plenty of experience over the years with some games just not running properly or at all in windows even though they should.
  Ive found many older games generally run better in Linux now in respect to modern windows, despite the compatibility layers.
It's funny seeing this every couple of years. People get up in arms about something with Windows, some switch to Linux because they outgrew Windows and the time was right. By now I think you guys could be primary source of Linux users.
- Yeah, I’m guilty of this tbh. It’s just the massive unknown of leaving something you’ve been so close to for literally the majority of my life.
  It’s scary!
Why not start today, man? It's good to practice.
- Uncertainty, really.
  What distro works with my setup: 3700x and rtx 4090?
Give pop-os a try if you're running an nvidia. It was very much plug and play with my laptop and it works great.
If you had any real intention of making the shift, you'd have done so already. Protip: You know I'm right!
- Genuine question, what’s the point of this comment?
You made my day!

This one is particularly harsh since win11 has ridiculous artificial hard stops on installation based on made up hardware requirements. Also it sucks.

This also makes it easy to block Win 10 from upgrading to 11, just disable tpm in BIOS. From where I'm sitting, that's kinda convenient.
- Ok, but where will you be be sitting on Oct. 15th 2025?
- I have a PC I built that was absolutely top of the line 9½ years ago, that still plays most games in high to max settings. It's a little powerhouse for its age, I often use it for rendering video and it still smokes everybody I know 's devices.
  Windows 11 is too powerful for my PC according to Microsoft and I've been so pleased about that. If it wasn't for the fact that I have no issues with my current windows 10 setup, I'd put in some time to jump to Linux. I'm just too lazy to give it the weekend it would take to learn, set up and move my content over properly.
I've the newest AMD hardware available and I'm not able to upgrade. No idea what they want.
- Hopefully you bought your fully assembled pc with an official Microsoft sticker already on the case right?

Lemmy probably isn't the target audience for this, here's the steps to bypass the MS account requirement when setting up W11:

Configure your keyboard, but before you select your wifi network press Shift+(Fn)+F10 to open Command Prompt.
Type in the following command and press enter. Your computer will reboot: oobe\bypassnro
After the reboot, configure your keyboard and location settings, and click the option at the bottom of the page to say that you don't want to connect to the internet
Click the link on the next page to "Continue with limited setup", then follow the prompts to enter a username and password.

If you use rufus to make a windows usb you can select to not require Microsoft account and bypass tpm right in the program, just get a windows 11 iso off the site instead of media creation tool
- Having checked a few Reddit threads by the Rufus dev, this seems the way to go!
Lemmy is exactly the audience for this, thanks!
It just seems like there are are more Linux users because they're constantly bleating about it in smug, self-congratulary comments
Thank you. Now that I've showed you my appreciation, are you fucking kidding me?
Also, if you have windows 11 pro, you can do:
Sign in options Domain join instead Make local account
If you have windows 11 home you can:
put no@thankyou.com Use whatever as the password Hit next after the error message Make local account
I do this shit at least three times a week at my job. It's the fuckin worst.
I wouldn't try it for a permanent machine as it could backfire when Microsoft trys to enforce it and could lock up the machine somehow (because bigs not because evil corpo)
Great mini guide.
I love the weasel words "continue with limited setup" that Microsoft uses.
- I agree, but I find something else even more weasel-y and annoying when I'm adding a second user to an already-configured W11 computer. If I'm adding them as a local account without a Microsoft account, I'll use Tab to navigate through the process of creating a username, password, and security questions. After the last security question, I'll hit tab to navigate to the "Okay" button at bottom left of the window, which seems like a reasonable expectation. Instead, Windows will highlight the "Back" button at the bottom right. If you aren't paying attention and hit enter or space bar, you have to start all the way back at the beginning.
  I know that is a small dumb complaint, but when I'm setting 5 computers up in a row and tabbing through everything, my habits get the better of me, and I'll have to redo it two or three times out of the five.

This sounds like a problem for October 2025 me

- Haha I remember having to help a school upgrade to Windows 7. Took a year just to get the approval, then another year to get the budget and keys.
- Yup. Microsoft's income depends on keeping them on the move.
- That's my feeling. I've been through this before.
Same.
And if it's like the last four Windows updates, I'll go right through EoL for a year or two, and finally upgrade because I wanted to play a specific video game, upgrade my graphic card, or it came free with my new PC.
October 2025 me: what the hell, why didn't anyone tell me about this before!?!

Why? Only hardcore computer nerds would ever want that.
- Because a bunch of government and business uses 10 and they really don't want "Recall AI" in there for a plethora of reasons.
- .
  <.<
  ...no reason.
Can they do that?
It already exists. Most of the requirements that break with current W10 machines are artificial and can be removed at install time with rufus (memory requirement, secure boot, TPM2, microsoft account).
Still not a solution; you should not have to fight against your OS design choices that much.
Shouldn’t they just support Linux more? Maybe fund some driver development but otherwise - win?

Yeah it's nice to know I have to build a new machine next year whether I want to or not. I've been coasting on a desktop PC I built circa 2015 because the thing works still. Problem is it doesn't meet the hardware reqs (TPM 2.0) to upgrade to Win 11.

Whether I build a machine in 2025 or not I think I will be making the switch to daily driving Linux. I am sick of the amount of time the end user has to spend debloating Windows and blocking its telemetry.

So September 2025ish is when I need to decide which Linux distro to go with.
You can start by putting Linux on that old machine. I'd use Linux Mint to begin with.
Why wait with the switch until 2025?
- Because theres no need to buy new hardware until then and the planned parts might get cheaper or a new deal is offered.
  For example my planned motherboard was on sale with a local seller because they opened a new location and offered a 20% discount on Asus parts.
You can bypass the TPM 2.0 requirements by pulling in your Windows 11 ISO into Rufus and then selecting to remove the TPM requirement in the prompt.
Drawback is when updating to new major releases of win11 (so I've heard) that you have to edit the registry.
Just going Linux is way cleaner.
I suggest slowly switching to cross platform apps so you don't find out an app you're using daily won't work after moving to Linux.
Are there TPM modules that one can drop in to motherboards to add that? I have TPM module headers, I keep wondering if I can get one to use with LUKS.
I think switching to Linux is the right choice regardless though.
Their hardware requirents don't make sense at all. I've built my new PC last summer with the best AMD tech available and I don't meet the requirements for some reason.

Excited to see the increase in Linux desktop usage.

I'd temper those expectations tbh. I've still got customers on Windows XP.
Out of support does not mean "can't be used".
- "Finally freed of those pesky Windows updates!"
- I agree. But using Windows XP these days is a huge security risk. W10 not getting security updates at least for the next 2 years is probably something that can be overlooked, but it will at some point be vulnerable to automatic attacks like XP. I'm sure there are some websites on the web that try to automatically exploit some major exploits that have been lrft unfixed in Windows XP. I'd advise them to switch to Linux Mint or something instead of using that old vulnerable system.
I have an elderly friend that I will probably need to migrate as 1 of their 2 computers doesn’t support win11. I am fully able to migrate them, but I really want it themed(Plasma6 probably ) to look as much like 10 as they a dealing with cognitive decline and I don’t want to force them to relearn using their computer.
I need to start investigating, but I got over a year to do so. The other part is making sure the 2 pieces of proprietary software they use runs in wine. I expect both will, but need to check.
This is obviously something that developers probably don’t think about as much as an accessibility issue in general.
- Yeah KDE Plasma looks and functions alot like W10.
- I was thinking about this the other day. I support some very, very technologically limited users and I wondered if anyone out there is working on a distro/DE that looks and feels just enough like windows to get them by
  I would never have considered this before they announced Recall. Now it feels like I'm waiting to see just how hard they push it
I'm already seeing more traffic across reddit and youtube

Time to learn Linux!

The steam deck is walking so we can run.
thanks, lemmy
- Yeah, that’s.. people need to stop prescribing Linux to solve everything from minor glitches ti major cloud outages to marital issues and erectile dysfunction..
- How do you know if someone is a Linux user? Don't worry, they'll tell you. Lump them in with Vegans and Crossfitters.

If they really wanted people to upgrade to Windows 11, they'd take out the TPM and SecureBoot requirements.

Truly the Kinect of Windows 11.

I still miss the Kinect. Shouting at people in Skyrim was awesome. They should have doubled down and added finger recognition for the Series K.
- I actually bought an Xbox 360 Kinect for a grand total of £6 the other month.
  Turns out you can use software called Amethyst for cheap full body tracking in PC VR games.
- Same honestly. Like it was a hunk of junk that didn't work half the time, but I think people kinda forget that the scope was pretty ambitious. Being able to scan people's bodies and get each limb's position in 3D, and to do so in many different lighting conditions and room setups, is stuff we still barely have working today even with AI.
  Like don't get me wrong, the tech was jank as fuck, but as a kid it was genuinely really cool.
upgrades don't give them license fees, they want you to buy a new pc.
They really want us to use Copilot AI, so that they can pushed more paying subscribers such as corpos and govts to use the service.
More money for microsucks, less jobs available to us
- My employer will likely pay extra to remove copilot AI. It has zero use for us, and we already pay extra for security enhanced Win 11 which is just the software without the tracking and screenshots.

It looks like Windows 10 is going to be my last Windows operating system. Thanks to Microsoft.

As a long time Windows user, my SSD just shat itself last week. MS has been pissing me off with the constant "upgrade to Windows 11" messages that I've finally taken steps to change over to Linux. My experience has been as follows:

Ubuntu has been hot garbage, half the things I've tried don't seem to work, and Gnome is hot garbage for a newcomer (this might just be an Ubuntu issue)
My current distro, Debian with Cinnamon, is pretty good. I don't want the cutting edge of OS, I just want something that works and won't bug me for major updates every other month.
There is a learning curve. No matter what anyone tells you, you will need to at least be able to google and copy and paste some terminal commands in Linux. Anything more is a bonus.
Linux can have a really pretty GUI after popping in a few changes to the default setup.
Gaming has actually been pretty smooth. 0 issues Lutrix running games from GoG and Steam is not bad even those without Linux support 👍🏾

Brand new Linux user and you already hate Ubuntu, welcome, you are fitting in perfectly already. Half the things didn't work probably because of their dumb Snap garbage.
For anyone else reading this and thinking about trying linux for the first time, be sure to use Linux Mint. It will give you the smoothest and easiest experience, and you pretty much never need the terminal. It even comes with a really nice software store (but everything is free).
- Second this. Wanted Linux as Windows user. Currently on Linux Mint, got it a few months now. Really easy to use, and allows you to experiment with the console if you'd like to, but almost never necessary. So far, I haven't encountered any problems with it (apart from a total lock-out while trying some weird shit in the console with printer drivers, but printers are evil anyway, so I'll give it a pass for now lmao)

Its the Data harvesting that's irking me. Not that data harvesting is new; but that i have a dreadful sense of M$' "AI" scheming just crosses a rubicon of data harvesting.

I'm backing away slowly. Dont care what games or executables i wont be able to run. Get ready for the accusations that im the "radical arch-loving myopic lemmy elite": it's finally time to run *nix as host.

Soon, you'll be saying "i use arch btw". It's only a matter of time. >:D
Dont care what games or executables i wont be able to run
Between Wine and Proton that's basically a non issue anymore, go ahead and make the switch. The era of windows exclusive software is pretty much over.

Year Of The Linux Desktop

Oh fucking great. My daughter's online school requires her to run "Windows 8 or greater," but we got her a used laptop that can run 10 to make sure it can keep up with security updates. I don't even know if it is powerful enough to run 11 because I didn't even consider the possibility when I bought it. Now we're going to have to buy a new one in a couple of years?

Fuck you Pierson and Microsoft.

- Thanks, I'll look into that. I appreciate it!
Do they actually require it or do they "require" it.
A lot of things that are browser based "require" Windows or Mac but don't actually require it.
- I don't particularly care to risk my daughter's education by trying to figure that out.
- If I could afford a lawyer, I wouldn't be concerned about having to buy a new notebook for her.
Most laptops that ship with windows 10 are capable of running 11. I recommend finding out if the schools provides a license. When I was attending Phoenix online a couple years ago they supplied me with a windows 10 education license through Microsoft.
- It does not unfortunately.

Ten years of support is not that bad actually. Having said that, Linux is better in almost every way.

Ten years of support is not that bad actually. Having said that, Linux is better in almost every way.
"Linux is better in every way except for those use cases specifically tailored by Microsoft & associates to not play ball with Linux".
ftfy. Fuck corporations.
I think while this is true, it's the time you have to switch over is much smaller.
Windows XP kept being supported until 2014, and up to that point you had Windows Vista (2007), Windows 7 (2009) and Windows 8 (2012). That's 7 years users had to move over.
Even if you consider something like Windows 7 with a shorter support cycle ending in 2020, you had Windows 8 (2012) and Windows 10 (2015), giving you 8 years to cave in and upgrade.
Windows 11 came out in 2022, and you have 3 years not to just upgrade the OS, but in a lot of cases your hardware too. I think this is why everyone is feeling the squeeze moreso than previously.

Well this will be the month where I install PopOS

I'd recommend doing a dual boot sooner and slowly shifting your files & apps. It took me about 3 months to find a distro and desktop environment i like, get my apps or alternatives installed, and get used to it.
If you wait until EOL, you may be overwhelmed and frustrated, increasing the likelihood of calling quits and accepting Windows 11.
- Thanks for the advice. I have run Fedora in the past so I have an idea of the alternatives I need. I will probably listen to your wisdom and dual boot
I'm enjoying Pop_OS for 3 months now. No issues.
i cant access my laptops bios anymore tho after installing pop os
- systemctl reboot --firmware-setup
  That will reboot to UEFI setup instantly.

I have been running Linux for some time now, still had a Windows partition for gaming. Then I switched the motherboard and windows decided I no longer had a key for it... I stopped playing most of the windows exclusive games. Since last week I can't even boot anymore, something about missing drivers. Spent a day trying to fix it. Today I decided fuck it and I'm just leaving it behind! It makes no sense wasting so much energy on a vastly inferior OS that actively tries to fight me.

Then I switched the motherboard and windows decided I no longer had a key for it
The reason for this is that Windows builds an identifier based on the hardware of the machine on which it is installed. When that identifier doesn't match, it throws a flag that says "Hey now ..." I think that you still get a couple of "honor system passes" before the installed OS enforces anything.
Once that gets enforced, you can call Microsoft Clearinghouse, "I upgraded my hardware," and they'll give you a new key to enter.
- Whereas on Linux I recently upgraded the motherboard on my machine from a B350 to a B550, stripping it down to it's parts and rebuilding. Different network chip, audio chip, WiFi and Bluetooth, etc, etc. 6 SSDs plugged back in in a shuffled order.
  Linux booted and worked first time, adjusting which drivers it used automatically, mounting all the drives in their original locations. Similar thing when I upgraded my GPU. Admittedly the old one was AMD, same as the new one, but there was about 4 or 5 generations between them. CPU upgrades too.
  I've got a real machine of Theseus here. I think my case and my heatsink is all that's left from the original.
  ...oh...and the OS.
- Apparently there is 2 types of Windows licences. The ones that are bound to the hardware and ones that aren't. If you bought a PC with preinstalled Windows, it's probably the first and you wont get any new keys.
I have been running Linux for some time now,
Same. Windows 95 was the last MS install on my personal machine.

Of Note, Microsoft has a block on a lot of people moving to 11 without buying new computers. This will solidify their position as a corporate provider over personal devices and give more fuel to either Apple or Open Source.

What a coincidence. I had to install a W11 machine for a relative. The amount of backward decision in the first 20 minutes of checking the settings is mind boggling. Really? Can't open the start menu on "all apps"? Not even an option?

I got a new machine and put windows on it and the amount of registry tweaks to get it even close to my windows 10 is ridiculous. Significantly more than what I had to do to 10 to make it a bit more like 7 back in the day. (I know i know get linux, but you can't play Dragon Ball FighterZ online with linux and that's the game I play the most)
- Fortunately, the number of Linux compatible games is increasing, and companies are actually considering Linux support now for games. I doubt that particular game will get Linux multiplayer support (who knows!), but maybe the next game you get into will!
  So for anyone else who reads this: give Linux a shot! If it doesn't work for your games, try again in a year or so.
Windows has been more about telling you what you want instead of being intuitive for a few iterations now.
- "Intuitive" is basically telling you what you want and being right about it.
  The opposite of telling you what you want isn't being intuitive, it's being flexible and customizable.

WiNdOwS 10 wIlL bE tHe LaSt WiNdOwS

It will tho ;)
the last functional windows.
Well yes because customers will be sunsetting support for Microsoft products with the end of Windows 10 :P
I feel like most people at Microsoft must know it and don’t care, the upper execs are either out to lunch or they are pre-emptively throwing away away the consumer desktop market because they just don’t value it anymore for whatever reason.
I think for the richest and farthest looking powerful people at Microsoft, the desktop battle is over, desktop OS software has become commodified (even though… it hasn’t actually yet by the numbers just by the practicality of the alternatives) and it isn’t worth investing seriously in maintaining their operating system long term as anything but a skin for their particular corporate flavor of Linux.
Internet Explorer to Edge but repeated with Windows.
Good riddance I say, but the complete divestment from giving a shit is pretty shocking, I don’t know where they think the on-ramp for customers is going to come from that will bring people fed up with Windows 11 onto friendly Linux distro where they can still use Microsoft software and services. I think it is more likely the bulk of people will just stop using desktop operating systems and…. Microsoft lost the battle to have relevance on mobile years and years ago?
It is weird because it feels like if Kodak saw the digital photography revolution coming 5-10 years before it happened and pre-emptively gave up on the entire film photography market and started releasing crap film and film related products and invested all their money into R&D for digital cameras… except that because Kodak was by far the biggest player in the film market before Kodak could develop a decent digital camera (if they were ever going to do that) the personnel photography market collapsed, fed up customers left, and there wasn’t a market for Kodak to sell personnel cameras of any type by the time they finally got their shit together to make a good one.
Digital photography in this metaphor is a consumer computer market where most people run a Linux based FOSS operating system with proprietary Microsoft services bolted on top and thus Microsoft finally can truly tell its customers to fuck off when they demand their operating not be trash (not that linux is trash). Certainly many many people are going this route, the year of the Linux desktop is no longer a joke these days and I am hyped, but it will be nowhere near enough for a company the size of Microsoft.
monkey's paw curls a finger

I switched to Arch a month ago because of Microsoft forceful integration of their shit AI tools into 11. Easy switch.

So that is what it means, people wont support w10 anymore after oct 2025?

Hi, KDE. Can we be friends?

My PC that I've just built last summer is not able to upgrade to W11 despite still having the best AMD components available. How is this going to work out?

Edit: I figured it out. I needed to reset my CPU settings in BIOS. Now my system reaches the requirements.

Unless you built with like, really old parts, I'm not sure how this would be a problem?
- Probably the motherboard. That's why I can't go to 11.
- The newest available even to this day.
You can still install 11 by disabling its requirements with Rufus.
Or could swap to Linux as most of Lemmy would probably tell you.
All the new AMD Chips have had an integrated fTPM for quite some time. Dunno what else the problem could be. But as long as you don't really need Windows, I'd go Linux.
- You actually need Zen+, the 1000 series Zen CPUs aren't compatible but the 2000+ series are!

you wouldn't believe how many middle class families and small businesses in southeast asia are officially fucked

They will most likely continue to use win 10 oblivious of its EOL. I have seen many using windows 7 even now. Some tech-aware will install win11 in the same machine by registry hack or sth. Very, very few will consider the possibility of alternatives.
- the ransomware groups will be very happy
- Win7? I've seen public computers still using XP.
That's just sad :(

Yeah... I'm not gonna worry about it until maybe September next year.

September, the year after... maybe.
Do I trust hackers or Microsoft less with my gaming partition?

I'd love to comply, but unfortunately the last time I tried Windows 11, my Ethernet and WiFi quit working and I had to roll back ¯(ツ)/¯ how do you screw up something as basic and necessary as the internet connection?

I think you have too uhhhh... Download the drivers from the internet

At this point, I can use Linux for most things except older fangames, reliable printing (seriously, cups is pain), and some mmorpgs.

Once I get a month without the university shitting its pants and changing policy overnight, I'll eat the learning curve and switch (actually learn to troubleshoot wine rather than relying on searches).

When I move, thinking mint with cinnamon because I love that desktop.

cups is pain
It's hilarious because it was FAR easier for me to get printing going on my Linux machine than with W10. It's an old printer, 1320n from HP, maybe 15 years old, but the damn thing is amazing for document printing, and I had to hunt for drivers and do a lot of compatibility shit to get my computer to recognize it. Arch (EndeavourOS) seemed to just natively recognize the printer and gave me zero fuss. When I was using Ubuntu, I used CUPS and it wasn't terrible. I liked it better than driver fishing, for sure.
Being serious: what MMORPG or old game isn't able to run on Proton or Wine by now?
Literally everything I've tossed at Linux Mint and told "use proton 9" has just worked? Currently playing the most heavily modded FNV run I've ever done while also experiencing actually 0 crashes for the first time and I'm not actually 100% sure how that's happening?
I've been shocked with Linux's game capabilities through proton 9 at this point and would love to hear of a use case where it's not working just to see if I could get it working for the fun of it if I get some time
I have had pretty much no problems printing, probably because I got a good printer (Brother laser printer). It just works every time.

I'm dreading what will happen at work. I even paid for the Win11 upgrade on my personal desktop, used it for a month and then installed Mint and never looked back. Not being able to move the start bar is such a minor thing, but it's a great indicator of how locked down that PoS is and how little they care about what users want.

I built a new PC last year and installed Windows 11. I honestly have no issues with jt and it runs fine. However the shitty practices of current Microsoft have started appearing and ground my gears. So much so that I got a second drive and installed Mint. It's not been easy adjusting and I often find myself booting into Windows for one reason or another but I spend the majority of my time now in Linux. I got a bit bored of Mint. I'm a sucker for new things so I moved to Arch. After installing a few packages I'm actually pretty happy with it. Proton has been the key for my move. Without it I simply wouldn't be able to use Linux.

Outside of Windows, moving away from Chrome, GMail and Google search it's a breath of fresh air. I don't feel like I'm constantly being tracked now and having products thrown in my face. I miss the old internet where harvesting everyone's data wasn't a thing.

Microsoft won't let me upgrade with an i7 6700K

they want you to buy a new pc So they get their license fee
That thing must be as slow as a Pentium 3, it obviously can't run a features packed OS like Win11. Go install Windows XP you dirt poor person. /s
Same exact cpu. It's a tpm issue. You might be able to "solve" it with some simple bios setting but some would consider it already fixed. I have.

Windows 10 21H2 LTSC IoT support ends in 13th Jan 2032. Just saying.

Or Arch...

And where does one get LTSC?
- Yarr, matey.
  I'd recommend asking around lemmy.dbzer0.com, in the sailing community.
  But it'd be easier to switch to Linux Mint, if you don't have a critical windows app that doesn't work in wine.
  Also @JamesFire@lemmy.world

If memory serves me, they usually do 5 years of extended support after they retire an os, so, I'm just going to wait and see.

Supposedly they're not doing that this time. That's part of the reason people are making a big deal out of it.

But I don't want to buy all new hardware! Thought MS was sustainable. Instead MS is BS.

Always has been.
And I've been using Microsoft since my first computer in 1984. Recently got DOS 2.0 with hacked FAT16 running on my first computer, would have blown my mind back then.

It will be interesting to see how this impacts the market share lol.

Probably not much, sadly.
- Yeah, IMO the majority of people that can switch to Linux already have. The rest are locked in by software they need for their livelihood that only works on Windows. Ofc you can tell them about WINE, but that doesn't always work very well and is outside of the comfort zone for most people (including me, who's been using Ubuntu since 2016).

I've got money on Microsoft putting a dead man switch in the last win10 update

I'm picturing in my mind, that they'll add an overlay that takes up your whole screen on login after October '25 that'll just say "Upgrade to Windows 11 now!" That you can't close.

I’ve decided I’m gonna have one crapbox prebuilt just for the windows things and nothing important or personal, but my work laptop and pc will most certainly not be windows going forward. I have a lot to learn but I’m over it with the ads and the privacy stuff is a genuine concern for work related items.

unfortunately the games I like to play require bare-metal windows and a beefy gpu.
- Are you sure? You checked them on ProtonDB or you checked them on your hardware?
  I have just bought a modern AMD gpu (rx 7700xt) and now I am very surprised how almost every game works on Linux (I miss you rainbow six siedge, but I know it's the developer's fault who just chose not to enable anticheat support on Linux 🥲). Before I had Radeon R9 380 so it was quite old at this point but performance wise it wasn't really as bad but I noticed that performance on Linux compared to Windows was trash or games even didn't work at all. Now I guess it was due to how old and unsupported my old gpu was. Now everything just works and I'm shocked. Hardware is unfortunately important on Linux 😭. It doesn't need to be beefy but it needs to be somehow modern. (At least for games... Everything else worked just fine even on my old hardware)
- Which ones?
I’m gonna have one crapbox prebuilt just for the windows things
I did that too. For older games.
Then I went ahead and installed Linux on that one too.

and we still can't get vmware to run properly on our company laptops. current theory is p/e core scheduling shenanigans. it's only been two years, what can you expect from the global leaders in virtualization and os.

i swear, before i upgrade I'll move my team to Linux. I've been mainlining debian for six years without issues, INCLUDING RUNNING VMWARE.

Dude fuck VMWare honestly
I'd bet any money they will go under in a few years, nobody is deploying a new vmware system after the shit Broadcom pulled
Who knows, by then Broadcom may drive VMware into the ground too, making the whole thing moot!
- we use vmware because customers do. if they migrate - which they might because of the licensing thing - we will too. so it's an actual possibility already.
  fingers crossed!

The period after MS stopped messing with it and before software stopped supporting it was the nicest time to use Windows 7, I expect it to be the same for Windows 10.

Jokes on them, over the last year or so I've installed Nobara, Mint & Xubuntu on every PC in my house.

So done with Windows.

The only thing holding me back from Linux (Nobara) is that my AxeFX's USB drivers don't seem to work. Losing the UI and USB recording capability is a huge deterrent.

Controversial Take:

Windows 11 is actually decent

It’s 10 with some extra BS. It runs. But I wouldn’t call it decent. Definitely a controversial take ;)
Take my upvote not because I agree, but because you are brave! ;)
The major problems isn't Windows 11 usability, although those issues due exist. UI and workflow issues can typically get addressed, or mitigated, by 3rd party tools.
The real concerns are the exponential increases in spyware, such as the AI recovery tool that records all user interactions, or the native advertising inside of the system itself e.g. Start Menu ads.
If native AI data collection and advertising is baked into all nooks and crannies of the system, the ability of users to mitigate those threats becomes extraordinarily difficult, if not impossible to completely resolve.
- You can turn off Recall with a simple toggle in the settings.
  There's no need to switch operating systems, just turn it off.
give us 3 reasons why
- Stable
  Lots of features
  Very widespread support

I've heard you can pay to continue updates on Win10 for three years I believe it was.

Yeah but who is going to do that outside business customers with strict requirements? Raise your hand if you ever even paid for a Windows license in the first place (other than one that came with the PC).

Looking forward to the sudden, definitely inexplicable, price increase of specific hardware at about the nine month mark.

I don't really know what I'll do. I currently have to dual boot windows 10 for work since I do unreal game dev. I guess push for managers to allow me to setup a Linux dev env? But Linux binaries for third party plugins arent always there. That's where I got stuck last time I tried.

Any guide on how to buy used laptops?

Step 1. Go onto Craigslist or similar
Step 2. Search for used laptops
Step 3. Pay for laptop
Step 4. Profit
Buy what businesses buy in bulk (e.g. thinkpad x1)

I'm worried about my Steam library. Steam ended support for Windows 7 not long ago. How long will they Support Windows 10?

Only 3% of Windows users are on Windows 7. Compared to 70% on Windows 10. When that number drops significantly, that’s around the time I’d expect Steam to drop. They’ll go where their customers go.
You should be worried about being on any Windows computer connected to the Internet that Microsoft is no longer patching period...

Assuming I still have my current job at that time, this is really going to suck for me. I have an old virtual PC runnning Windows 10 that I use once in a while to maintain some shitty old software. It was a giant PITA setting it up. I regularly back it up because of that.

Hopefully I can just continue using it, but I'll need to disconnect it from the internet somehow. Will still need some limited LAN access. I guess it will require some strict firewall rules. I know just enough about networking to muddle through...maybe.

Put it on its own vlan behind a firewall and permit only what is required.

Windows 10 LTSC 2021 ends support in 2027 (although it doesn't matter quite as much). And it's likely that the Win 11 LTSC later this year will necessarily be free from much of 11's bullshit. Linux is still the right call, but for those of us who need to run a Windows machine for whatever reason, there are alternatives, so, you know... yarr.

Will they start supporting old CPUs? I couldn't install Windows 11 on my pre-gen-8 intel laptops, so I had to go with 10.

I have an ancient PC with a nice video card, and it plays games from about five years ago quite well I haven’t felt a need to upgrade. Unfortunately, I play a couple games with kernel level anti-cheat stuff and I don’t think they will work with linux.

They will not but that is not a linux' fault, developer/owner/publisher made that choice.
- What's wild is that one of the people who write anti-cheat software was saying they needed to get their shit working on Linux like yesterday.
  So I mean, it crazy that Windows is literally having some folks scramble on how to get their shit working on Steam/Linux.

I am using windows on my desktop mainly for gaming and with proton even that wouldn't be necessary but there are times when you need to execute a windows binary and it would take less time to just use windows. So after october 2025 I will try to use KVM with PCI passthrough. I imagine another advantage will be to not have windows accessing my hardware and be able to snapshot the drives plus running all the windows traffic about my vpn without relying on software inside windows.

We recommend moving to linux eheh (͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)

Micro$quash makes 80 BEELYUN dollars a year in pure unadulterated profit, but it can’t keep security updates coming.

Well. I mean, they can, hahaha . . .ahh but they’re not going to.

Lucky I already upgraded OS to not include any Micro$hit.

I wonder if it would make sense to sell 4090 and buy cheaper amd card before Linux switch. Problem is I from time to time play VR and also do blender sometimes so probably can’t. Does nv optix work in Linux ver of blender?

Try Bazzite and see if that works for you. They are focused on gaming and hardware support.
I don't know how good it is, but for Turing and later GPUs there's a new official open source driver being developed. You'd likely have to use a more bleeding edge distro to get that.
VR works depending on your headset. Index is fine, Oculus doesn't work.
You could make a usb stick of your desired distro and test everything without permanent changes before commiting.
Yep optix works on Linux. Blender is also generally faster in Linux btw.