this is literally E-waste
Reminds me what Spotify did with the Spotify car thingThose have a decent aftermarket though. Spotify at least issued refunds, so there's that.
Oh
Goodbye Windows, Hello Linux
Just switched to Linux Mint. So worth it
Good luck on your journey! It can be frustrating at times, but please feel free to make posts asking for help if you can't find it online!
Appreciate it! I’ll be sure to do that. Between here and some old Reddit posts, I’ve found a lot of useful stuff on getting started
Trade it in to who? Who's buying PCs that can't be used? I mean there's the retro market, but AFAIK they aren't buying anything after Windows XP.
People who want to boot other things on it than Windows
That's true, but the supply vastly outstrips the demand. They may make great Linux machines, but the majority of 10-15 year old computers have little to no economic value.
People who know that the computers can still be used.
I love how in a world where we banned straws we are somehow OK with Microsoft pushing people to recycle their old but otherwise adequate system for what, to the vast majority of people, are some paper thin security advantages.
Anybody who asks me about Windows 10's EOL date will be introduced to the option of using Linux before i'll help them select a replacement system. Especially if they literally only use a browser there really is no reason to go through hoops or spend money to stick with Windows.
I love how in a world where we banned straws
We didn't. If anything, we are in a world where we banned banning straws, because even this trivial token concession was considered a Violation of Our Fundamental Freedoms. Media personalities screaming and nashing their teeth over straws was a PR stunt by petrochemical companies to backstop any kind of radical anti-plastic reforms.
Anybody who asks me about Windows 10’s EOL date will be introduced to the option of using Linux before i’ll help them select a replacement system.
Cheers to this.
We've lost to climate change already. Can't even get people to wear a mask. Asking them to completely change their polluting lifestyles? Impossible. What we do instead is ban plastic straws to pretend were doing something. Reality doesn't matter, just how people feel.
We very clearly haven't already lost, otherwise the world would have ended. You and I wouldn't be having this discussion, we'd be cobbling together what bits of food we could to survive.
Stop this mindset, it's destructive and foolish - human beings have the capability of overcoming this. If people with this mindset were asked to dive into the cooling tanks at the Chernobyl incident - we, as a species, would actually be fucked.
The ONLY thing I still apparently need Windows for is running OPL Manager and HDL Batch Installer for my Playstation 2 hard drives. Can anyone point me in a direction of Linux alternatives? I managed to get WinHiip running in Wine, but it can't see the PS2 HDD from Wine. Pretty sure I need something that runs native, and for the life of me I cannot find anything. Which is really surprising to me.
Back whe I used OPL, OPL-PC-Tools worked fine. OPL Manager specifically also ran fine under wine for me.
If you find the time you could do some testing under a live media enviroment, I recommend Linux Mint if you haven't tested it already :)
I'll definitely check out OPL-PC-Tools, thanks! HDL Batch Installer just hangs on open, checking for updates. I have been running Mint since November. I can't get OPL manager to launch at all. Regular Wine, Proton, nothing. I've tried brand new prefixes with fresh .NET runtime, it just refuses to start.
Well at least the second hand laptop market will be flooded by the companies deciding to upgrade to newer laptops for Win11, so a small upside.
"Trade it in or recycle it" basically means "your best bet to solve this problem is to pass it on to someone else, who will pass it on to someone else, and so on until it arrives at landfill".
This is incredibly infuriating and I'd honestly consider it ecoterrorism and abusive.
Glad those tariffs hit just in time
Use Linux. And dont listen to zealts who say its not a viable option. Its actually way ahead than Windows or Macos
Its actually way ahead than Windows or Macos
Man you need to qualify the hell out of this. As a Linux users there are definitely things MacOS and Windows can not only do better but sometimes at all. I also think people need to not gloss over the fact that the tech literacy floor is noticeably higher. Just knowing what your machine can run out the box can be a task. Most people really know absolutely nothing about how computers work
Right? People don't think about the years (decades in some cases) that they spent learning Windows in order for them to be as comfortable with it as they are.
For those people, learning Linux should not take very long and once you do you will realize that it is superior in literally every way.
Devils advocate. The m{1,4} chips are nice.
Depends what you do on your computer.
Macs are amazing and unique and, at the same time, extremely infuriating and very expensive.
And dont listen to zealts who say its not a viable option.
It is a viable option, especially for old hardware. I mainly don't use it because I want to install an OS exactly once: When the computer is brand new. This is exactly when some shit is not working properly on Linux. But if you have old hardware, it will run no problems. Just install Ubuntu and Libre Office on it, pray that you get the printer set up, done.
"pray you get the printer set up" is more of a windows thing. For ten years, over three versions of windows, I couldn't get printing to work reliably. Switched to Linux, no problems since
Also, the new hardware thing is not really true anymore. Most things are supported from the get-go, or at least within a few weeks
Im so glad I fully switched to Linux a year ago. Never going back to Windows.
I have to use Windows 11 on my work machine and it reminds me every day why I will never go back.
I opened the process manager a week or two ago for the first time in a while, and holy shit how do people live like that??? If it were my personal laptop, I would have had a fucking aneurysm trying to figure out what the fuck all that shit was.
i’ve been on linux on and off since 1998, however I fully switched about 5 years ago and never looked back.
I was curious around 3 months ago, between distro swapping and I installed W11. It lasted 2h until I rage installed linux and took me an entire day to wash the windows taste off. bleah…
Same
Same
Hold on to your butts.
Big influx of Linux-compatible office PCs hitting eBay soon.
That and/or a big influx of vulnerable unpatched Windows machines...
...that's why you turn them into Linux machines.
Any unpatched windows machine can be patched into a Linux machine.
This seems much more likely lol
You can literally buy new thinkpads with ubuntu pre installed for $140 dollars off the price of a windows PC
Oh I misread that and thought you said they thinkpads themselves were $140 lol
That's cool, but a lot of people (myself included) aren't able to justify a brand new laptop. I can absolutely afford a new laptop...I just have no desire to buy one when older ones work just fine and have plenty of life in them.
My current laptop is a T495 that I bought at a flea market two years ago for $100 and it still handles all of my needs completely fine. My kid is using a T470 I bought not too long before that for around the same price, and it does everything he needs too (though it could stand to handle Minecraft JE a bit better...but in fairness he installs nearly every mod he finds and I never really taught him about adjusting settings).
If you aren't doing high-end gaming or video editing, practically any computer can handle like 95% of other daily home computer tasks.
That said, his laptop speakers are blown...so maybe it's time I start looking for an upgrade for me. Kids are good for that type of stuff. Still remember convincing my wife we needed to get him a Switch for Christmas...his first Christmas. I wouldn't buy myself a switch...but for my 5 month old kid? Yeah he needs Breath of the Wild.
Very good point!
They just try to force people to buy another PC and so many "computer ignorant" people will...poor old ladies who click on the ads...
"Genius Bar" was always just a means of getting people back into the Apple Store to sell them another product. This is an iteration on a general theme.
Throw it away.
Gently
In my direction
Why gently?
Cause lobbing 25+lbs of hardware at someone is frowned upon most of the time.
Don't wanna hurt the other person or the computer, duh. After all, a device infested with Windows doesn't really need to be punished for it.
Also make sure to remove all BIOS passwords first
end of support for windows 10
beginning of support for linux mint
Wine will probably run it fine. Try posting to the linc gaming community though
I want to ditch windows so bad, but I can't run any autodesk products on Linux atm.... Revit, Autocad... Sad noises
What I do is dual boot Windows/Linux and have them share big NTFS partitions for bulk data they can both access.
You could try getting autocad running?
https://github.com/cryinkfly/Autodesk-Fusion-360-for-Linux#fusion-360---linux-wine-version
But TBH, neutering Windows down to a "software tool" to the point I could wipe it and not really care, and spending most of my desktop time on Linux, has been wonderful.
Ugh. Sounds like a lot of work. I'll think about it
Install atlas os and dual boot linux as your daily driver. Honestly linux experience is what you think windows experience is and vice versa. Windows is just insanely bad now. I haven't touched my psu power button, done anything close to using reg edit or have a bsod equvilent just from playing a video game since I moved to fedora.
That moment when Microsoft tells people to throw away perfectly good working computers because they're running Windows 10. When Windows 10 was just coming out or had just come out, Microsoft promised that Windows 10 would be the last OS of theirs, and there would only be updates. Also Microsoft is constantly sending messages to people running Windows 10 urging them to update.
I really wish there was something regulatory that could be done about this. There are millions of perfectly good fully working computers that are going to go in the fucking trash because of this. I understand the desire for a TPM on every machine. It makes sense in a way. But the pure environmental impact is just indefensible. All of those computers had a significant environmental footprint to build them and ship them and again to dispose of them plus building and shipping their replacements.
If Microsoft had such a hard-on for TPM, they should have worked with computer manufacturers to make some sort of retrofit system or way of easily determining if a TPM can be added to an existing computerLet's not pretend Microsoft is trying to do anything else but make more money with the TPM requirement.
I remember that "promise" too. And here we are
I just lost out on the sale of two Lenovo P51 thinkpads because the CPU has been literally arbitrarily cut off. 32gb ddr4 2400mhz, quad core xeon, Nvidia GPU w/ 4gb gddr5, 512gb SSD. Because Microsoft decided to leave it off of a spreadsheet. Fuck this company….
I have two Xeon E5-2697A v4's in my system. 32 cores. My machine runs the latest AAA titles like Indiana Jones on maximum settings flawlessly.
Microsoft: "Just throw it away, bro." Bless Lord Gaben for making Proton so good, I can run 95% of my Steam library on Linux, with better performance.
Microsoft: “Can’t run our AI dataminer?”
The OneDrive plug at the end is *chefs kiss*
Is it relevant to the email at all? Nope! But we'll keep them addicted to OneDrive out of fear!
This is the biggest garbage a tech company did to almost 256 million PCs in use and fully working. I installed Linux Mint on all three PCs I own. Free and works far better than I thought.
My parents are now using Zorin os because it feels like Windows, and they don't even know it's not windows. For the vast majority of people who only use a browser it's a no brainer to switch.
My 73 year old dad has been on Linux for.. eight years I believe? He loves it.
I got PopOS a month ago and its freaking awesome. Cant believe how long I used Windows, Linux is amazing. It is extremely overblown by people saying it is hard to use
Yeah, I had this realization a couple of years ago when I switched as well... I felt like "this is what personal computing was always supposed to be like before capitalism had its way."
I believe it is easier to use than windows, it is just old habits, I switch to Linux in 2007 from XP.
Welcome! Switched 2 years ago, never looked back
Mint runs on a 17-year-old Acer Aspire One I have. Slowly, very slowly, but perfectly.
I just installed Mint instead.
Trade it in or recycle it with local organizations
And what are those organizations expected to install on systems that can't support Windows 11, Microsoft? What are they expected to install exactly?
Linux
I upcycle old tech and put Linux Mint on them. The people I've given them to seem pleased as do the charities.
I mean, I'll always take a cheap Linux box...
Yeah, we all know that, but MS being the main force driving this is kinda nuts tho.
A lot of components are scavenged for repairs. You'd be surprised how many POS systems run on XP still.
Holy shit they really just said, "throw it away". Troglodytes!
Weird hill to die on perhaps; but I'll never forgive Microsoft for arbitrarily deciding to not support my Core i7 6700K 4Ghz CPU on Windows 11.
Simply because: I cannot find a single actual technical reason why it wouldn't be compatible (yes, my mobo also has TPM). It's even higher specced than many other 'supported' chips.
MS apparently just decided I hadn't spent enough money lately. Well now I won't - on your products - ever again, while this i7 will continue to run Win 10 for games and Linux for all else.
Gaming is great on Linux nowadays btw. I installed Fedora a few weeks ago and haven't had a single problem with any of my games - I'm getting better framerates, too.
Any good step by step explainers nowadays? Been over a decade sinceI set my last Linux machine up for a friend, and have been thinking about trying one for a Jellyfish server.
Knowing that my gaming PC could get a few extra frames might intrruige me into performing the upgrade there too if the jellyfish machine goes well.
My GPU runs out of memory if I try to play DRG on linux (fedora), Zerotier and XLink Kai run but won't connect or plainly don't work inside the games I've tried with, and the mumble server just won't work (even using the docker) because it seems my motherboard's network isn't compatible or something, so if I want to use Linux I'd have to upgrade my pc anyway.
Gaming on Linux has taken huge steps, but I'd hardly call the current state as great, it's ok and improving, but still requires tinkering and knowledge beyond just turning it on, installing and using... And something might not work because fuck you.
In the same boat with the same CPU. The beast is running Cyberpunk 2077 fairly well at 1440p with a DLSS/ray tracing card but it can't run Windows 11 🙄🙄🙄
assuming you use steam, see which of your favorite games run with proton compatability layer and which absolutely require windows. You may be suprised.
I run everything on steam with proton that I did on my windows PC, nothing was left behind. If you 'add a game' from outside steam, you can run the installer and then change the game location to the executable. Ubuntu or Ubuntu mate are what I install on everything. Recommend.
WINE works surprisingly well too. I've seen people talk about gaming on Linux using Lutris or launching it through Steam as a "Non-Stean game" but I just put my files in my WINE directory and have better success.
I'm in a similar boat. My computer meets all of the other requirements like TPM and whatnot, yet they are arbitrarily deciding that my processor is too old. And for some reason you can walk into your local computer store and buy a laptop with the shittiest processor and other specs possible that somehow runs Windows 11. Just because the processor on the new shitbox was manufactured more recently. Ridiculous.
I have that same issue. My older laptop barely misses the cutoff, even though everything meets the requirements except the cpu. I have a newer laptop with Win11, and the old one runs circles around it. It's faster and has way more RAM, yet somehow won't run 11? I'm going to keep it and just run Linux instead. I'll use the crappy Win11 lappy just for MS office and keeping papers from blowing off my desk.
It boils down the CPU microarchitecture
I figured it was related to the hardware architecture, but I'm curious if this is for security reasons (potential exploits that the OS can't resolve) and/or just a support bandwidth concerns managing 2 OS code bases (on top of the obvious revenue from new licenses).
If the hardware security isn't the issue, then switching to Linux is a good money saving choice for those that are tech savvy.
Sweet, bunch of cheap laptops about to flood the market
This is me. I've always been too lazy to switch (I have some of the worst hardware for it. I'm running my old surface pro into the ground and have hardly any internal storage so hard to dual boot for testing).
But now, well hey, Windows 11 is stupid, windows 10 has been spying since forever.
Linux it is, thanks Microsoft for giving me the push I needed.
You know, later in the year. When I have to.
I'm only human
I'm trying but the girlfriend refuses. She watches YouTube on the TV and does everything else on her phone; literally only uses the laptop to play The Sims 4 (which her 1080ti can handle just fine), yet she's convinced that she will need a brand new gaming machine with a 4090/5090 as soon as Microsoft dumps WIn10. She's afraid that she'll completely break the OS if she switches to Linux. (Which is plausible, though unlikely.
I'm hoping she'll change her mind as soon as she realizes just how much more GPUs cost these days, especially mobile ones.
If all she uses the computer for is playing Sims 4, another option is just let her continue to use Windows 10. If she's running it through Steam she's probably got another 3-4 years before that stops working.
Use an immutable distro so even if she breaks it it's easily fixed
Install win 10 LTSC
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windows_10_version_history Windows 10 ltsc 1809 will be supported until late 2029 if you or someone you know is set on continuing to use Windows 10
Is she stupid?
I have Linux on a jumpdrive can I install it on my main drive without it effecting my other drives?
It's called dual-booting, and yes there are so many tutorials availiable. But you have to be a little more careful in that process. I do dualboot but almost never uses windows. I have heard situation where windows updates messing linux installs on same drive. The safest route might be to do what others suggested but it is possibe to install that way. Be careful with partitioning and formatting. You also have to determine the sizes for each partitions yourself too
I think so?
Browsing from a 12 year old laptop running Win7 ... what's the issue?
Even JavaScript can infect you.
Assuming your family does online banking and brokerage you then become a jumping off point for malware.
Microsoft finally embracing the Apple model of upgrading
What a coincidence, the end of my support for windows is also approaching.
jk I scrubbed that shit from my personal devices years ago after graduating.
Isn't Windows 10 suppose to be the last Windows release? We changed our minds.
That was never mentioned in an official Microsoft communication.
"Technically" lol I think one of their corp guys said it, but never endorsed it as a position.
Still on a t430 lmao
My IBM is still going strong.
It's probably a non monitored email but I just replied, "I already switched to Linux because of this"
Yeah I lost it when I saw this too. But, because I waited so long to switch to Linux, it’s to the point where I feel it has so much of what was lacking the last time I used it. Easily over ten years ago. Thank you to everyone who slogged through it to get here.
It took about a year of dual booting for me to finally feel confident using it, but now I'd never go back. It's definitely not an overnight or weekend thing, learning the "Linux way", but it's worth it. It's so much easier than it was even just 5 years ago, let alone 15
It depends on what you use your computer for, really. My partner isn't very tech savvy and doesn't use their computer for anything more than watching youtube and writing emails, so porting them directly to Ubuntu was super easy.
BUY A COMPUTER ALREADY YOU CHEAP F*****!!!
This doesn't fix the e-waste issue. Its not always about the price of a new machine.
I think owl meant to talk in Microsoft’s voice.
Time to encourage people to switch to Linux instead
I can't get the more elaborate functions of my common Logitech mouse to work properly. And Linux systems like to cause my computer to periodically hang for some reason. In Windows, it used to BSOD, and I managed to fix the issue in Windows but it seems impossible for me to fix in Linux because of how vague of an issue it is.
As much as I dislike Windows, it's incredibly uncommon for it to blue screen unless there's some kind of hardware fault. And if it's happening in Linux too, you've got bad/dying hardware.
In Linux, if your system is hanging for a bit then coming back, then it's probably a drying hard drive.
One thing you can check with is Burn In Test on Windows. It will stress all the individual components and tell you what's failing.
If Linux had more support for games I would
I've been gaming on Linux for close to two years now. I believe there have been two games that actually caused some issues in getting them to run. But for the most part Proton does everything out of the box. And especially older games work way better than on Windows. There are no problems with compatibility mode or deprecated WinAPI-Calls. It just works.
The only thing I would advise is to install Steam and all your other launchers via Lutris. That will save you some hassle.
What games don't work?
Most of the time, the issue is the drm on games or anticheat.
Ironically SteamOS is based on Arch Linux lol
Real, Valorant is the only game really keeping me from Linux at this point. Steam with proton has really improved linux gaming
Dude......c'mon now. Check my history. I am NOT a linux defender. I am more along the lines of a linux user mocker. I find the OS to be confusing, but I find the userbase to just be SO.....SO mockable. Just making fun of linux brings them out in droves. And it's so funny to point out how the whole OS is clearly terminal mandated to enjoy the OS. Just say something like that, and you'll twist somebodies knickers.
That being said, of all the things that are legitimately awful about linux, you chose the GAME SUPPORT??? My god. Steam is THE storefront on PC. They have a vested interest in helping linux's development, as long as that development goes towards making games work. The steamdeck is literally their financial incentive to make certain that your claim isn't close to being true.
And sure, you could say you disagree with Steam's practice of LICENSING you a game. Not selling. There is a difference. I get it. That is something that is in itself a problem, but that also doesn't relate to your issue. Because even if you stayed on Windows, you'd still have to buy from Steam. They're just as dominant on Windows, as they are on linux.
So, you COULD buy from GOG. The issue is, they specialize in retro games. So, their library may have massive gigantic gaps in titles. But again, this would also be true on Windows.
So.......yeah, I don't know how you would defend linux game support being lackluster.
Check out distros like Pop!_OS or Nobara. Linux gaming has come a long way recently due to Valve going all in on linux for the Steam Deck. Frankly even just the standard mainline distros aren't terrible for gaming these days tbh.
Just recycle that shit! Here's my...and address where you can recycle it to....
What a coincidence - I stopped supporting it too!
"Trade it"
TO FUCKING WHOM? The whole point is that you made it useless.
(Unless this is Microsoft providing some free advertising for Linux)
Probably going to be a ton of cheap used computers on the market in the near future for installing Linux on
The prices have already been cratering for anything with 7th gen and older Intel CPUs. Full systems seem to be under $100 now where just a year or two ago they were around $200 or more
Oh good. My PC is actually 11 years old. The hard drive died a few months ago. So I replaced the 3.5inch sata 7200rpm drive with an enclosure that holds 2 2.5inch drives. I'm using solid state for the first time. I was able to clone my Windows 7 drive to a solid state drive. It works even better than the original drive.
But! That enclosure makes it so that I can just turn off the PC, eject the drive, insert a different drive, and now I'm on an entirely different OS. It's my first time using linux.....it still sucks, but it's useable. Last time I tried linux was right before I bought this PC 11 years ago. I tried using linux on a PC that previously was running Windows XP. I couldn't even get it to boot. Now things generally work, but it has BEEN a constant struggle, and a constant learning experience.
Trade it in.
In other words, someone may be willing to pay you for parts, rather than you just getting nothing for it (recycling).
They are not going to recommend you use an alternative OS, and probably not because they're worried about market share, but because they then have some responsibility for every time a person fucks up a Linux install.
In other words, someone may be willing to pay you for parts,
Except for the parts that Windows obsoleted. Not saying that they're valueless, but they certainly tanked the value of otherwise useful parts.
SELL IT TO WHO, BEN? AQUAMAN???
My thoughts exactly. Didn't think anybody would get the reference.
I said from the beginning that the tpm 2.0 requirement was a way to make people buy new pc's. Good news for me who wants a laptop upgrade.
Or get a new laptop and switch to Linux!
That's what I'm doing. Framework for the win
I'm already using linux, but my laptop is an older dell with a 5th? Gen i5 dual core. Still works fine, but i had to jankily push down on the keyboard ribbon cable with a piece of cardboard, still has sata ssd, screen could be nicer, bezels are an inch wide, etc. This an oportunity to get an uograde if companies are going to dump perfectly good hardware.
I'm waiting for decent support for the snapdragon x elite chips. From what i can tell from discourse online it's still a very rough experience with linux.
I don't want to drop £1500 on a laptop i can't really use.
I have a computer in the basement that I pretty much only use for Zwift (an online cycling game). For whatever reason it doesn't have that TPM chip, despite the fact that I bought it in 2021 or so. So it won't upgrade to Win 11.
But...it turns out Zwift runs great under WINE....so now it runs Debian with WINE. (Which probably wasn't my best choice - should have gone with something a little more up to date - but it does work.)
Guess my parents will continue and will use unsupported OS in the future. Maybe i install Linux to my mother, as a beta tester for the family when i go visit them in the summer.
They use it for basic everyday stuff like web browsing? I installed Linux on my mom's aging laptop that she just used to sell stuff on eBay, browse, listen to music, back up photos, etc. Linux glides with ease on the machine when Windows slogged and she was able to understand the OS fine. Users today don't really have to touch the command line at all unless they are doing something advanced. The GUI is just as easy to understand as Windows.
I don't know. They maybe use only their phones now. I'm not sure. I better check before start anything. My father's computer needs AutoCAD and office so probably gonna stay in Windows 10.
I recommend Zorin. My mother didn't notice a difference. I just told her I "upgraded it", and most she said was "oh they changed it again". Did the normal setup of helping her sign into things, but haven't heard a peep since
I mean, what do you expect them to say?
"Time to install Linux, here's how you chose a kernel:"
Why does this exist lol
Instructions unclear, now I'm using the Windows terminal to launch Ubuntu and also have it running in Hyper-V. How does that help me if my windows is out of support? /s
It would be funny if they struck a deal with Canonical to start offering an upgrade to Ubuntu 24.04 using some of the same dark patterns they use with Windows 11
I installed graphyOS on mine
You should have thrown Windows away at the beginning of the century.
Before you recycle your Windows 10 PC (or just switch to Linux and avoid wasting resources), keep in mind while Windows 10 22H2 is ending in 7 months, 21H2 LTSC Enterprise is still good for 1 year 10 months:
https://endoflife.date/windows
To download the 21H2 LTSC, go here:
https://archive.org/details/en-us_windows_10_enterprise_ltsc_2021_x64_202301
Then generate a free license key using the Ohook or KMS38 methods via PowerShell as explained here:
Disclaimer: I haven't tried this myself so there may be some bugs/issues along the way. For my next laptop, I'm thinking about switching to Linux and specifically Ubuntu or Fedora, so this won't really impact me
Ubuntu user here. I get glitches from time to time, and the newest update caused a more than small issue with booting. However, compared to the litany of glitches, bloatware, and user-anti-interface of Windows, I'll sing the praises of Ubuntu all day long. Even the few games I play, like Cyber Punk, run perfectly.
Does anybody know the best way to transfer all my files to Linux? I dabbled in it a bit, but I was a little worried I'd have to reinstall everything, considering I had to make a (relatively small) partition using my unused d drive space
Is there a way to transfer ~2TB worth of steam games, outside of uninstalling then reinstalling them?
Consider this: why do you have 2TB of games installed?
IDK what your gaming habits are, but I find myself bouncing between a few at most, 1 big AAA at most, and found keeping the rest… to be blunt, data hoarding.
I suppose the only exception is modded setups, it even then I always redo them anyway since the base games, modding frameworks and mods get updated over time.
You can redownload what you use, progressively.
I have very bad internet, so I tend to prefer to keep my games installed, rather than wait 24 hours to download a 60gb game again. I still log on to things like MH world or DJMax respect V every now and then for a few rounds, they're fun to go back to
Similarly, like you said, I have a lot of mods installed. To the point where my backup mod folder on my external hdd is about 100GB in size, so I'm a little worried about spending hours tracking down all my mod lists again
I've transferred about 400GB in (legally sourced) roms to my steam deck, so I thought there'd be a way to do this, but oh well
It will be difficult, but technically possible. You’d have to ensure bitlocker is disabled on your windows drive. If you’re not sure what that is, don’t assume that means it’s not enabled. Windows does enable it by default in some cases. It encrypts your drive and you won’t be able to access it.
But in all honesty, I’d recommend just starting from scratch if steam games are what you’re most worried about. First, some of them might not work on Linux. Second, you may encounter strange issues that require redownloading much of your library anyway. Lastly, you’ll want to transfer them to a drive with a Linux file system which will take time. That’s if you even have the drive space to spare. More likely is you’ll be formatting that drive anyway to a Linux filesystem, wiping the contents anyway.
Even with slow internet, redownloading games as needed will be way easier and likely faster.
If you’re unsure what distro to go with, I recommend going with Bazzite. It’s a distro optimized for gaming and is an atomic distro. If you don’t know what that means, don’t worry about it, just know that for most casual users, an atomic distro makes way more sense and is much less likely to break. Additionally, if you have nvidia hardware, the drivers come pre installed so it’ll work right out of the box.
Just copy
C:/Program Files (x86)/Steam/steamapps/common/to/home/yourname/.local/share/Steam/steamapps/common/and Steam will recognize those games are already present when you try to download them.
Ugh. I'm going to have to seriously look at Linux, aren't I?
Absolutely no idea where to start with that, nor whether any of the software I need for work (or indeed anything else) is compatible, not how I'm going to find the time to learn all this.
Bleugh 😔
EDIT - Just want to say thanks to everyone for all the helpful tips and advice below. Will make it my mission this summer to at least understand Linux better and work out if it's for me. Cheers, you lovely people 👍
Linux Mint is one of the most recommended for newbies.
You can use a live CD/USB to try it out without installing.Installed mint on an older computer I had so my oldest daughter could have a pc for school. She has had zero problems using it.
Ubuntu is the typical go-to replacement for Windows as it's arguably more plug-and-play than other distros.
alternativeto.net is a great place to find Linux alternatives to the software you use. Many products already work on Linux without switching, but some areas might be more difficult. For example depending on your needs you might not find a great drop-in replacement for Photoshop.
you might not find a great drop-in replacement for Photoshop.
I'm not a photoshop user, so maybe I'm just being dumb and not getting it, but....isn't that gimp? I remember that one because the program name "gimp" made me laugh first time I heard it. It's like a BDSM thing, and then you're like "Oh, it's photoshop? My mind went a totally different direction..."
Ah, thanks, that looks a useful site.
Sadly, this is my work as well as personal PC, and Photoshop and Premiere are more or less essential for me. I know there's Photopea, which can handle PSD files, so that would probably do to replace PS, but not sure about Prem.
Happy to try something else, but it's finding the time to learn everything again that's my real issue.
Still though, that's a great resource, so thanks 👍
Most distros have official forums, and may have sections specifically for people using Linux for the first time, which can also be great sources of information.
If nowhere else, make a post on NoStupidQuestions and I'm sure there's a few people that will help. I made a reply here suggesting raspberry pi os as a good starting point. No command line skills needed and quite a bit of software is available free from Debian (Linux which raspi os is created from).
The user interface is similar with a start menu etc.
If you've got a spare PC, I'd use it as a guinea pig system first before moving onto the main system.
Thanks, good advice. Will do a bit of research myself first I think.
Sadly no spare PC to try it on at the moment. I do have a laptop running Plex, but don't really want to mess with that right now.
Maybe I can buy a cheap one to have a play around with first.
Cheers, much appreciated 👍
The Linux community here on Lemmy is extremely helpful but as a complete novice I've found ChatGPT to be quite useful tool for this as well. I can ask it how to do something and if I run into trouble I can just take a picture of the terminal window and it'll tell me where the issue is.
People would probably advice not to insert code into terminal, given by an LLM that you don't even understand but the alternative is to put that same blind faith onto a stranger on a messaging board. In my experience the options are either to do that or not use Linux at all - unless you first spend few years learning it all yourself.
Oh ok, cool - although I've actually never used Chat GPT either (I sound like a total luddite here, I know!)
Thanks for the tip though, will keep it in mind 👍
Is your hardware not W11 compatible or you just don't want to upgrade? Because you can just install the pro version (ISO on Microsoft's website) and choose English UK during installation and that will solve most issues... I'm sure you're able to figure out how to get it activated ;)
It's compatible, but I don't want to go to W11. Plus, I've been thinking for a while that I should check out Linux, but just never have the time.
Windows 11 is the most secure Windows ever built
They've been saying that about every single one since that notoriously insecure one. ME, I think?
Also, I'm pretty sure that Tiny11 or the like is more secure if you consider data privacy important, since a lot of the privacy issues of Windows 11 are coming from the unnecessary parts of Windows itself..
most secure windows.jpg
I mean, Tiny11 both is and isn't Windows, depending on whether you count "Windows 11 with everything but the bare essentials optional" as "Windows" 🤷
I mean, one would hope that whenever there is a new version it's more secure than the last one. Not that it's true, but that's how it should be, so nothing weird about the claim.
that's how it should be, so nothing weird about the claim.
As long as you consider every claim Microsoft makes to be either a lie or inherently unprovable until the opposite is proven, that is. Which you should tbh.
I took the last message I got from them as an invitation to ditch Windows for Linux. Now I wish I did that earlier!
“But don’t learn about Windows 10 LTSC IoT!”
if i remember correctly, some ltsc versions will get updated until 2029
"Windows 10 IoT Enterprise LTSC 2021" should be getting 10 years of updates, so until 2031.
IoT Enterprise LTSC 2021 - until 2032 - https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/lifecycle/products/windows-10-iot-enterprise-ltsc-2021
For people who still need Windows:
I have a 10-year-old Surface Pro 4 and I was able to freely upgrade to Windows 11 and it works fine. It wasn't technically supported but I enabled preview builds or something like that (I think I had to enable the Insider program) and it showed up as a Windows Update. I don't know if this is applicable to all PCs that don't support Win 11, but surely it's applicable to some of them that Windows says don't support Win 11.
Yes, it's known that it is possible to do that, but Windows 11 has TPU 2.0 requirements for a reason. As they say, it's for security. In my opinion, if you have to jump through so many hoops and loops to use a damn OS, just to use it as a home desktop or to use old tech, just move to Linux. You have Linux Mint, Ubuntu, Fedora KDE, Steam OS (not yet fully out), and many more. For a beginner who came from Windoes, I recommend Linux Mint. If you already have a Steam deck, for example, I recommend Bazzite (it's non-imutable) or Fedora KDE Plasma.
Edit: Sorry if I came out harsh, I didn't mean to sound like that, I just feel frustrated at how shit Windoes has turned in too
Ah, no worries. I'm just sharing for folks who might need Windows for one reason or another. It's a one time thing to upgrade either way, not a hassle at all. They might own weird niche unrepairable devices like my SP4 which may not handle Linux well or who knows. For clean installs there's that nifty place with serial keys and builds whose name I forget right now.
As for Linux, I'm kinda torn. I had my time tinkering with config files in the early 2000s in the days of Fedora Core 3 and KDE 3.x before all this Plasma stuff. The whole "year of the Linux desktop" that never came left me disillusioned, although I did enjoy the Compiz/Beryl days. It's probably better now but I'm too comfortable nowadays. We'll see if things get dire enough that I need to jump ship again, I hope not.
i run nobara (a fedora spinoff) for a few months now, and it's a great experience, i learn a lot about how the os works and it's all visible! i feel like i modded my pc into a transparent machine - i can read up about simply every part of the os. i freakin love it :-D and all this while i can use it as before.
my last experience with linux was debian jessie - i was not so happy with that, and after i landed in dependency hell for the first time, i switched back. nowadays, with flatpaks and appimages, all those issues i was having in normal operation are gone.
Zorin os!
Windows 11 is the most secure Windows ever built, with comprehensive end-to-end security
Does "end-to-end security" actually mean anything in this context, or is it just intended to evoke "end-to-end encryption"?
That entire sentence is unintelligible marketing drivel.
"How is Windows 11 more secure?"
"It just is! Promise!"
By "end-to-end" they refer to how deep they fuck you in terms of security.
It says 'comprehensive' can't get more clear than that, right? Right?
They're not even ashamed of intentionally creating e-waste for people that don't know that Linux exists
Theyre not ashamed of anything
Anything but the penguin😂
What about the pengwings
They act like the computer's just going to stop working or something... People are going to use win 10 out of support for years.
E: specifically note, please, that i said "act". I'm aware they state it will keep working in the little FAQ.
People in these comments act like the computer will just stop working.
There are lots of IT/SysAdmin on Lemmy so their work will have to switch. I think their concern/sentiment gives others the impression that personal PC owners will also have to switch.
Ltsc iot win10 is supported for years to come 🏴☠️
1809 ltsc gang rise up?
recycle it
Haha, like in the landfill or the incinerator?
No no no
You dump it in some third world country, out of sight out of mind
Infuriating for sure. People can’t afford groceries or rent and Microsoft chooses to ride in with a, by the way, your computer needs to go, just buy a new one, k?
Meh, I just saw this banner on my Win 10 desktop, which is not compatible with Win 11, I'll just put Linux on it.
Yeah once windows 10 is done I'm moving to Linux. Use mint on the laptop but I'll install it on my main PC unless valve launches steam os
I recommend you to use a regular Linux distro for your PC, SteamOS is always going to focus on handheld devices which may not provide de best possible experience for desktop. Bazzite seems to be the hot Linux gaming distro at the moment, it's based on Fedora (my personal favorite, also a good option for gaming IMO). Maybe, give this one a try ?
I might have to give it a shot. I only use my computer for gaming so since I'm familiar with the steam deck I figured holo OS or steam OS or whatever it's called would be nice. I'll wait to see some reviews before I do it
I want steamOS too, but Ive been dual booting bazzite for a couple of weeks and I love it.
Its steam OS isn't good or isn't fully cooked I might grab bazzite and check it out
Time to Linux it up!
For those who is not quite ready for Linux and don't want to be left behind, you have options.
Do a search for Tiny11. It's super lightweight and you can set what you want to share with MSFT.
Old machines can run as well.
This is just replacing one unsupported OS with another?
unsupported by microsoft
I would highly avoid getting Windows from anywhere but Microsoft. That's just asking for trouble.
Instead install Windows 11 Pro and then go though and remove the unnecessary apps. Then use group policy to tweak the system in a way you are happy with. You can do everything from disabling Bing search in start to preventing full screen popups from Edge.
Some of us have older processors that is more powerful than some current gen processors yet Microsoft decided that it's too old and won't let you install it.
Tiny11 is a community driven OS. I have been using it for years and has never given me any problems. If your computer is not able to legitimately upgrade to Win11, you can either spend money to buy a newer computer or install Tiny11.
Recycling it is actually a very good suggestion
Or reusing, perfectly functional hardware doesn't need to be gotten rid of
There are charities around me that take old laptops, put chromeOS on them and give to low income folks.
Give it to me and it won't take a single joule of energy to recycle plus it's still useful
Haven't had mine online for 4 years now and it still chugs along
Try Linux on it, specifically have a crack at raspberry pi os first. https://www.raspberrypi.com/software/ . See the section for Raspberry pi desktop for PC and mac .
Ah, got a little bit worried there, no linux propaganda in a whole bunch of replies!
Mint is so cool BTW, it's like XP/Seven, it just works.
I'm getting annoyed with windows.. I have a small laptop I like to use for streaming, and the stupid updates keep on maxing out the drive space.. It is 32gb, and i can't get it to download the updates on an external drive. I wish they'd have an option to turn off automatic updates, and just let me do a single click and download the updates manually to an external drive so i can have a usable goddamn computer.
Microsoft claimed that Windows is compatible with 32gb drives but that's not actually true. Those will get automatically filled by winsxs updates within a few hours. It's impossibile to use one of those windows mini PC with a 32gb emmc unless you exclusively use it offline for typing with a word processor.
All those $100 32gb emmc "computers" available on Amazon are just "direct to landfill" ewaste
I have the exact same problem. I've maxed out my hardrive and every week or so it complains that there's no storage space and I'm like, I HAVEN'T DOWNLOADED OR INSTALLED ANYTHING IN MONTHS, YOU ARE RESPONSIBLE FOR THIS YOU SHITTY OS! So I delete some stuff so it will continue to operate, maybe free up 1 or 2gb, and then a few weeks later it's full again.
There also isn't space to install Windows 11 😑 I only use it for DJing and I'm not sure you can run Rekordbox on Linux but I need to find out.
something something windows ltsc versions
The only thing turning. To waste is the motherboard right? It sucks, but throw out a whole computer because of a motherboard is a wacky move.
The only thing turning to waste is the OS. You can still use anything else fine.
Well if you have to throw out the motherboard, there’s a high chance you have to replace the cpu too.
The problem is more the CPU than the motherboard. But upgrading the CPU might also mean upgrading the motherboard and maybe RAM.
Might also be ram compatibility problems
That’s assuming the user knows that and didn’t just buy a prebuilt tower from Costco, and that it isn’t a laptop or something where changing the motherboard is much harder if not impossible.
Yeah true. Also finding a new motherboard that still works with your outdated ram type would be annoying research to have to do.
I for one will be looking forward to getting mid-spec PCs dirt cheap.
Or you can just keep using with with windows 11.
Most don't support windows 10 without a tpm
You can bypass it
That's insane
i like how you made up a quote from the post.
They aren't wrongDon't blame them for Microsoft cutting supportWhoops my bad
This is from Microsoft
Oh I somehow missed that
I upgraded to Windows 11 it's not that bad.
I was forced to downgrade my computer from 10 to 11 and it's absolutely garbage. It's a literal downgrade in almost every way.
One of my win11 machines can't even open the file explorer. It worked right up until I got an 'update', and I've been unable to open it since. Got to access all my files through the command line now, which, I mean, I can do, but it's still a PITA.
Honestly it is better than Windows 10. When it first launched it was bad but now that it has been a few years it is much better.
