• redfellow@sopuli.xyz
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    7 days ago

    Fyi you can install it without TPM 2 hardware, if using Rufus to create the installer, you can just tick an option to remove tpm forcing.

    That’s if you want to keep using Windows after 2025 on a 7+ year old hardware.

    Not endorsing it, just saying you can, at no extra cost.

    • reksas@sopuli.xyz
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      7 days ago

      if you want to risk random update potentially bricking your computer or at least your os breaking, not worth it

    • rumba@lemmy.zip
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      7 days ago

      That’ll work until they actually make it do something with the TPM.

      I bet in 3 years they’ll require an AI accelerator.

      • redfellow@sopuli.xyz
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        7 days ago

        As far as I’m aware TPM 2 pretty much does with hardware, what is otherwise software emulated. It’s more efficient and secure when using something like bitlocker etc. Everything should work, just is more suspectible to tampering and malware.

  • zephorah@lemm.ee
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    8 days ago

    This feels like such a fuck you to working class. People can’t afford another layer of these costs right now.

    • Railcar8095@lemm.ee
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      8 days ago

      … This is bait right? You want somebody to tell you there’s a simple and free solution, and then you’re going to say it’s a bad solution?

      FINE! I’ll bite: Pirated copy of Windows Enterprise LTSC. It’s less useful, more resource hungry, privacy invasive and has worse support for older hardware than Linux though.

      • Hadriscus@lemm.ee
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        8 days ago

        Working class people at large don’t know about these alternatives, I’m certain you know that. IT folk and nerds alike do, but anyone outside of these circles don’t necessarily see the choice they have

        • Crozekiel@lemmy.zip
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          8 days ago

          Those people that don’t know options exist are also people that don’t care about or know about support life for something like the OS - they just see it as what the computer comes with. Most of them probably wouldn’t have upgraded from 7 to 10 without it just doing it itself. A lot of them will just keep using 10 well past the end of support.

          Also, I really enjoyed Railcar’s subversion of expectations with all that lead up to what we all assumed was a Linux recommendation to end up being pirated windows. That got a chuckle out of me. I feel like the haters didn’t get the joke.

          • Railcar8095@lemm.ee
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            8 days ago

            I feel like the haters didn’t get the joke.

            Their computer didn’t come with sense of humor pre-installed, and it’s too hard to do it themselves.

        • Railcar8095@lemm.ee
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          Working class people at large don’t know about these alternatives,

          You mean only the elite know about Linux? Preposterous!

          *proceeds to clean monocle

          Jokes aside, it might be a good time to teach and learn. Or pay, or have less security moving forward.

          It was a staple of the “working class” to be resourceful, to know to repair stuff. It’s on Microsoft best interest that you change the computer, that you pay another OEM license, that they can drop support for older hardware… And this will happen again with windows 12.

      • kittenzrulz123
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        8 days ago

        Objectively speaking Linux is not a Windows replacement, its a minix replacement and competes with FreeBSD. Not everyone wants Linux and tbh I wouldnt reccomend Linux to most people.

        • Dragon Rider (drag)@lemmy.nz
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          7 days ago

          Drag would recommend Linux to everyone, except for the very small minority who plan to install a non-Linux OS on their android phones.

        • Railcar8095@lemm.ee
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          8 days ago

          I’m very interested on a longer explanation of this take, considering how many people use Linux as a replacement for windows.

          And if the argument is “not everything that runs on windows works on Linux”, remember that can be said with windows vs Mac, iOS vs android and even windows 10 vs windows 11.

          • Eldritch@lemmy.world
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            8 days ago

            They’re “technically” correct. That’s what Torvalds initially created it as. But what it initially was, and now is are very different things. I’m sure they would call OSX a BSD replacement and not a Windows replacement. Despite many people replacing windows with it. It’s pedantically obtuse.

            Right now the biggest wall from wider consumer adoption of Linux. Is honestly, simply the lack of systems offered to consumers with it. Outside of a few games with kernel level anti cheat. Or highly proprietary specialized softwares. There’s very little that you cannot currently do on Linux that you can do on Windows.

            Your Average user/consumer doesn’t install any operating system. Whether it is Windows Linux or Mac OS. They simply run what the computer came with. And that’s always been windows unless it is an Apple computer. That’s part of what the 1999 antitrust suit would have sought to remedy. Microsoft punished any company that had dared to even offer systems with Linux for a long time. And nothing was ever really done to stop it.

        • Railcar8095@lemm.ee
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          7 days ago

          Working class doesn’t have the money to change to machine either.

          So, what’s the advice that you would give you working class? Pay, pirate or learn?

  • dmtalon@infosec.pub
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    8 days ago

    My dad’s bringing his PC to my house when they visit for Christmas so we can setup Linux as a dual boot for him to see if he can switch from Windows 10 to Linux instead of buying a new PC

    • floofloof@lemmy.ca
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      8 days ago

      My dad (in his mid 80s) told me proudly that he had just bought Linux and installed it on his computer. It’s great that he wanted to try Linux but I wonder what malware-riddled scam distro he found, and how I’ll sort it out on my next visit.

      • 3laws@lemmy.world
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        8 days ago

        Can’t be that bad. Some distros accept donations. It just could be that he felt he was making a purchase rather than just a donation.

          • Ænima@lemm.ee
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            7 days ago

            Come back and let us know what you find out, please. If it’s a malicious distro, let us know the site so we can warn others.

      • superkret@feddit.org
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        8 days ago

        Not sure if it was Mint or Ubuntu, but one of them shows a donation box with a default amount when you click download. It’s already downloading when the box shows up, but maybe he misinterpreted that.

      • Something Burger 🍔@jlai.lu
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        8 days ago

        Maybe elementaryOS? There is a Purchase button on the site, with a pay-what-you-want option. If possible to enter 0 though.

        • sugar_in_your_tea@sh.itjust.works
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          They used to, but I don’t think they do anymore. In fact, I think they used to send one to you for free. I got an official Ubuntu install disk for free at college (someone was handing them out), and I’ve been on Linux ever since.

          I do see Ubuntu install USBs on Amazon, but I wouldn’t trust those.

          • Sabata@ani.social
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            8 days ago

            I ordered one years ago, still got it in the display cabinet but I’m sure it’s long rotted at this point.

            • sugar_in_your_tea@sh.itjust.works
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              8 days ago

              Yeah, I wish I still had mine, it was from before I started hating Canonical. What a great piece of history that would’ve been.

              But no, I threw it out like I did so many other things at the time, because having less stuff makes moving a ton easier.

      • doctortofu@reddthat.com
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        7 days ago

        Zorin has a pro tier that costs money but it’s supposed to have the look and feel of classic Windows - maybe it’s that?

      • Eldritch@lemmy.world
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        8 days ago

        You used to be able to buy physical media. And that may be what they’re talking about? Hard to say. For a long time this whole write it to a USB stick and install it was newfangled and not at all common. I 100% have a version of red hat in a box that I bought off a shelf of a local Best Buy back in the 90s. Yes you could have just downloaded and installed it or created your own install media. But having your own CD burners even weren’t that common at the time. I remember 1999 being when I got my first CD burner and how special that was lol. It seems almost quaint by today’s standards. And downloading wasn’t really an option either. 56 kilobits per second if you were lucky would have taken days and days. Now it’s just minutes over most broadband.

      • Sabata@ani.social
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        8 days ago

        I gave my distro dev $20 for the bragging rights. More than I ever paid for Windows.

  • Lippy@fedia.io
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    8 days ago

    That’s fine, I’ve closed the door on supporting Microsoft. They could have just charged for the ‘upgrade’ and that would have been better since it wouldn’t result in the colossal amount of e-waste that this is creating. Even without the forced obsolescence, their products have become hostile, invasive and generally just a PITA to use. Meanwhile Linux distros are knocking it out of the park lately.

    I really don’t know what Microsoft are thinking. They haven’t made particularly good strides towards gaining any kind of goodwill, so once it becomes common knowledge that alternatives not only exist but actually show them up, those lost customers are people that they will never get back. Look how pathetic their marketshare is for Edge for example, even though it’s the default browser on Windows. They still haven’t been able to shake off the bad stigma that Internet Explorer had (and to be fair, they aren’t doing people any favours with Edge either).

  • 800XL@lemmy.world
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    7 days ago

    I bet it’ll still try to install itself on that hardware though and break it.

    • CaptKoala@lemmy.ml
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      7 days ago

      Probably how they’ll force upgrade down the track, upgrade or we brick your shit.

  • FinishingDutch@lemmy.world
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    7 days ago

    Non negotiable sounds fine with me. Because we don’t negotiate with terrorists.

    I’d like to give a heartfelt thank you to Microsoft management though, for furthering the cause of Linux adoption. We couldn’t have done it without you. 🙏

  • Treczoks@lemmy.world
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    8 days ago

    They don’t need the hardware to run an OS. They need the hardware to run their AI shit for reasons nobody ever needs - except Microsoft.

    So maybe it is not Microsoft closing the door for older hardware, but older hardware closing the door for Windows 11?

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    8 days ago

    The used market is going to bomb if older machines can’t be setup with newer windows version.

    • adarza@lemmy.ca
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      ‘incompatible’ hardware will be dirt cheap, and 8th gen or newer will sell for more than it would have otherwise–especially if tariffs jack prices up on new hardware.

      i have a couple dozen older systems here. most were given to me before win11’s requirements were known. fixing and flipping them for a few bucks was a small but relatively steady income stream, but not anymore. hardly anyone wants them.

      the couple that are new enough to be blessed by microsoft will be kept, and i’ll hang on to the better ones of the rest (like skylake, kaby lake) to put linux on. everything else will end up at ewaste recyclers even though there’s absolutely nothing wrong with any of them other than the fact that a profit and ‘shareholder value’ driven megacorp says they can’t be used anymore.

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        8 days ago

        Maybe the tariffs will serve to cull a bit of the consumist impulse the US suffers of.

        Regarding if a machine is desirable or not: I’m still seeing Windows XP machines being sold today for over 100€. No monitor, no peripherals, no nothing: just the machine. And people needing a machine to type a report, do a spreadsheet, do basic office work, with no other option, pay for it.

        i run my machines until they stop working, period.

      • Unruffled [he/him]@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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        8 days ago

        It’s fairly trivial to bypass Microsoft’s hardware requirements for windows 11 afaik. Just install via Rufus and click the relevant options. I agree with you that MS should have made these optional recommendations though, we shouldn’t have to use third party tools.

        • superkret@feddit.org
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          You can do that, but then the major updates MS pushes out twice a year won’t install via Windows Update anymore.

        • adarza@lemmy.ca
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          8 days ago

          microsoft keeps tightening the screws; there’s no guarantee a loophole to do that will remain–but rather the opposite: they will disappear.

    • Railcar8095@lemm.ee
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      8 days ago

      Love Linux and steam deck, but AS IS, steam os is a horrible choice for a desktop general use computer.

      It’s immutable without layering, so there are things that you can’t install/keep after an update. Case and point, printers. You can’t print, period. Valve knows, they don’t need a gaming device to print so they don’t care.

      Hopefully they will do something about this, but I don’t hold my breath for 2025

      • kittenzrulz123
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        They wont do anything about it because SteamOS is not and will never be a general purpose desktop OS. Its a gaming distro designed to do one thing and one thing well, game. It can do other things but its not meant to, kinda like a reverse MacOS.

        • Railcar8095@lemm.ee
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          Currently, you’re right. But it’s a bad move, I think, moving forward for valve.

          They have already confirmed they want steamOS to be a distro everybody can install on any computer. Being more limited than most distros is going to make it a hard choice to pick. On the deck, it’s fine tuned to that hardware. What is going to offer that Bazzite won’t replicate a few months afterwards, while offering a better general OS experience?

          I think that just having layers and a recovery partition that can restore the system while preserving steam games (even if removing all configs) would increase the appeal a lot.

      • OnfireNFS@lemmy.world
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        8 days ago

        You might like Bazzite. Its like a general purpose version of SteamOS with layering and printers

        • Railcar8095@lemm.ee
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          My desktop is Bazzite and my htpc is Aurora (the non gaming version of Bazzite), so I have to agree with you haha

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    I know everyone here foams over Linux, and for good reason… but please remember the average user is a techno-fobe who struggles to find the start menu. Linux just isn’t an option for a lot of people. Windows has been around so long and feels familiar. Until there is a major demographic shift and ECE training on general computer use an basic troubleshooting… the majority of the population will stick with whatever arrives when they turn it on because “It’s what they know”.

    If Linux is to take over it must come PRE-installed, Must be fully compatible (read: plug-n-play); even with the weird printer your aunt found in a garage sale, at-least feel familiar to the majority of users… and for corpos… run MS office (read: excel) natively.

    • kshade@lemmy.world
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      8 days ago

      even with the weird printer your aunt found in a garage sale

      Windows isn’t supporting that anymore either.

      at-least feel familiar to the majority of users

      Start menu is at the bottom left of the task bar, you can start Chrome from there.

    • TK420@lemmy.world
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      7 days ago

      Weird printer on windows 11, that’s not a thing. A weird printer in your CUPS server in Linux, totally a thing

      • bitwolf@sh.itjust.works
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        7 days ago

        I have never connected a printer to my network or via USB, clicked the add printer button, and was able to print on my first try.

        Then I tried to add a printer on Fedora Linux.

        Cant say never anymore.

          • UnpledgedCatnapTipper
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            7 days ago

            To Brother’s credit, this is also true for their windows drivers. As an IT admin, anytime I need a new printer they’re my preferred brand.

    • aesthelete@lemmy.world
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      If Linux is to take over it must come PRE-installed, Must be fully compatible (read: plug-n-play); even with the weird printer your aunt found in a garage sale, at-least feel familiar to the majority of users… and for corpos… run MS office (read: excel) natively.

      Or we could just not care if it “takes over”?

      Even if Linux was and did all of those things – and many of them are already crossed off of the list – it may not “take over” and despite some corporate spend from some of the backing corporations, it’s not really a profit driven ecosystem. Linux doesn’t have to take over and do exactly what Microsoft does, Linux is just fine as is.

    • bitwolf@sh.itjust.works
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      7 days ago

      The more of us that buy computers with it preinstalled the more it signals that there is interest.

      Popular brands offer it. I’m not saying you have to go buy, but you can also let people know it’s an option.

      I bought an XPS Developer edition and when asked I explained that when Linux had support from the manufacturer it can be as reliable as their Macs, often even more reliable.

    • itsJoelle@lemmy.world
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      8 days ago

      I’d argue it will be Android/iOS/ChromeOS over Windows, for better or for worse. This fucks over companies and governments than it does the average user, in aggregate.

      I spend a few months here and there just using my iPad for everything I can (I got through my college degree with one a long time ago and it’s nostalgic for me), and it’s crazy to me how feature complete it is for most work flows. Exactly programming is an issue, for me, but I can create an STL to printing it all on device! Much less office and what not.

  • GreenKnight23@lemmy.world
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    8 days ago

    Yay!

    blessing in disguise. at least you can build a system so poorly that 10 won’t be forcefully upgraded on you.

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    Why have we stopped talking about how the $15 TPU TPM can make upgrading older systems possible? Does that not work anymore?

    • 2pt_perversion@lemmy.world
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      8 days ago

      I think they also prevent most CPU released before 2017ish from installing as well so computers just missing the proper TPM are few and far between anyway. You can still get around all the requirements pretty easily though.

      • sugar_in_your_tea@sh.itjust.works
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        My Ryzen 1700 system was prevented from upgrading and it met the TPM requirement, it just wasn’t whitelisted. That CPU was released in 2017, and that whole gen was pretty popular (1600 sold like hotcakes). I think anything newer should work though.

        That said, my primary OS is Linux anyway, so it doesn’t matter, this is just an install on my other disk in case I need something Windows-specific (haven’t needed it in years).

        • VindictiveJudge@lemmy.world
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          I think anything newer should work though.

          I’ve got a Ryzen 3700X and my computer told me it couldn’t do the upgrade, either.

          • sugar_in_your_tea@sh.itjust.works
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            8 days ago

            Dang. Is your board in the 300-series? Maybe it’s that?

            I haven’t checked, but I think my 5600 is compatible. Maybe I’ll check sometime, but I’m not looking forward to the mountain of patches I’ll need just by booting into it again.

          • 1Fuji2Taka3Nasubi@lemmy.zip
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            7 days ago

            Your CPU is supported. It’s probably just a matter of enabling the fTPM (firmware TPM) option in your motherboard’s BIOS settings, which would satisfy Windows 11’s TPM “requirement”.

  • Hadriscus@lemm.ee
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    8 days ago

    I installed Linux Mint on my wife’s ageing Thinkpad (2016, new battery is en route but everything else works fine). Windows would struggle to even start its own file explorer (lol), so I said no more of that bullshit.

    She is happy with it, apart from ProNote not working (she uses the web client instead).