Ending support for Windows 10 could send 240 million computers to the landfill. Why not install Linux on them?

...What does the writer think support end means? Microsoft bricks the PC as soon as the support period ends?

They're going to just keep using Windows 10, security be damned. Probably a good number of users who weren't keeping their PC up to date even when Microsoft was forcing updates on them.

I still see XP pcs in the wild sometimes
- Lots of hospitals seem to be running XP
- Hell I've spotted some old systems still running a Telex exchange and Windows 3.1
- Yep. Came across a computer recently still running Windows 2000 on it. Fan sounded like a truck with a bad lifter tick 😂
- We have a piece of test equipment that runs windows 2000. It has to be quarantined on its own subnet isolated from the rest of the network.
Looking forward to more, bigger ddos attacks with so many unsecured computers sitting around... :(

A ton of people can barely open a PDF and this sub thinks those people can change to a completely different operating system.

My 80 year old dad has been using a XUbuntu for years and never even noticed. The only reason he knows he’s using Linux at all is because he saw a news story about Windows tracking and asked about it. He was quite happy not to be affected.
Honestly Linux mint can be more user friendly. The problem is that no one else knows how to help people using it
- Theoretically, when it's up and running. How do you intend to get to that state, though? One has to install it first. And I think that alone is a massive filter.
  
  inb4 someone says:
  
  I did it, and I found it extremely straightforward.
  
  I'm sure you did, Mr. "I hate how much Reddit is pandering to the braindead to the point that I joined an experimental social media platform", I'm sure you did. Clearly, you are a qualitative sample of people who use Windows computers.
  
  Sarcasm aside, look at how railroaded and coddling the Windows 10 installer is. I am certain a large plurality of Windows users' initiative would completely evaporate having to navigate that. And now we want to throw a Linux installation at them?
  
  Factor on top how the vast majority of computer users in all forms that computers take simply take for granted that the OS the computer comes with is a part of the computer. Normal people don't upgrade OSes unless the OS itself railroads them into it (which Win10 already does aggressively whenable), or they buy a new PC that happens to come with it pre-installed. The knowledge required to negotiate an OS wipe and reinstall is not something most people possess, and I expect presenting that knowledge to them on a silver platter is something they'd hastily recoil from.
  
  We're in a catch-22 here. Even if all the pieces for the fabled Linux Desktop are arguably here, actually getting it into the hands of those who would benefit from it most remains prohibitive.
  
  This is also ignoring the elephant in the room: A massive swath of these Windows PCs (Maybe even most of them? I have no backing figures, just a hunch.) are not personal computers, but office PCs that belong to a company fleet. There's a reason Windows utterly dominates the office--Windows rules the IT sphere, at least where personal devices given to employees are concerned. Active Directory? Group Policy? Come on, guys. None of the companies who depend on these management tools are pivoting to Linux anytime soon, and you know it. And if their cheap, bulk order desk PCs don't support Windows 11, they are absolutely getting landfilled.
  
  The only effective mitigation I could think of would be to start a charity that takes obselesced office PCs, refurbishes them to Linux, and provides them at low or no cost to those who need a low cost or free PC. It would get Linux into more hands, but it would also strengthen a stigma that Linux is nothing more than the poor man's OS. The Dr Thunder to Window's Mountain Dew.
- It’s still different from what most people are used to. Thee would be a learning curve. And swapping an operating is no easy task for most, either.
Pretty much this. Linux users often forget that, when it comes to specifically operating systems, the vast, vast majority of people are used to what they know, and literally instinctively reject change of any kind.

Most people do not even know what an operating system /is/.

Any one who has ever worked in IT knows this, that the vast, vast majority of computer users are laughably technically incompetent, to the point that they usually get angry when you try to explain basic foundational concepts to them.

Then add on top of that decades of marketing that conditions most of the small minority of people who bother to attempt to learn anything about software and hardware into basically believing slogans, tag lines, and going gaga for tech that has some acronym or cute name, which they understand nothing about beyond the most surface level description.

Summing up, while it is possible to convince a person to switch to a new OS, it is maddeningly difficult at best nearly all the time. People basically demand a perfect product, even though they cannot even come close to beginning to describe what its features would be, and will instinctively assume they know more than actual tech experts all the time.

That being said, if you could run a business of basically buying or acquiring used laptops for cheap, refurbishing them with a stable linux OS, and then reselling them, you might be able to have a successful business, but the problem is that flashing OSs all day long is extremely, mind destroyingly boring and unfulfilling.
We're gonna pick them up secondhand
If you are so bad at using a computer you can't open a PDF, then you won't notice the difference between windows and linux
But a ton of people can open a PDF and will be able to select an USB stick from menu and click next, next, next... It's not completely different, you still use a mouse, a keyboard, you click on things, you get some feedback from it... When a new kind of mobile app arrive, I can see someone using no more than 5 apps in life having problems, but this doesn't mean only them exists, we do not talk about switching everyone here. People change houses, how are they figuring out where is the toilet if doors have different color and are in different positions?

Also a reason why any software like Microsoft Windows or Office should be banned from public education, especially primary schools.
What a dreamer

People aren't going to throw the PCs out. They are going to continue using Windows 10 for years without security updates.

I still saw XP installs a decade after support had ended.

“a decade after support had ended” for Windows XP is not until April next year.
- It depends on the definition of "support ended". Like, there are various forms of extended support that you can pay for for versions of Windows, and some companies do.
  
  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windows_XP#Support_lifecycle
  
  Support for the original release of Windows XP (without a service pack) ended on August 30, 2005.[4] Both Windows XP Service Pack 1 and 1a were retired on October 10, 2006,[4] and both Windows 2000 and Windows XP SP2 reached their end of support on July 13, 2010, about 24 months after the launch of Windows XP Service Pack 3.[4] The company stopped general licensing of Windows XP to OEMs and terminated retail sales of the operating system on June 30, 2008, 17 months after the release of Windows Vista.[114] However, an exception was announced on April 3, 2008, for OEMs producing what it defined as "ultra low-cost personal computers", particularly netbooks, until one year after the availability of Windows 7 on October 22, 2009. Analysts felt that the move was primarily intended to compete against Linux-based netbooks, although Microsoft's Kevin Hutz stated that the decision was due to apparent market demand for low-end computers with Windows.[115]
  
  So for those, we're all definitely a decade past the end of normal support. However, they have their extended support packages that can be purchased, and we aren't a decade past the end of those...but most users probably aren't actually getting those:
  
  On April 14, 2009, Windows XP exited mainstream support and entered the extended support phase; Microsoft continued to provide security updates every month for Windows XP, however, free technical support, warranty claims, and design changes were no longer being offered. Extended support ended on April 8, 2014, over 12 years after the release of Windows XP; normally Microsoft products have a support life cycle of only 10 years.[118] Beyond the final security updates released on April 8, no more security patches or support information are provided for XP free-of-charge; "critical patches" will still be created, and made available only to customers subscribing to a paid "Custom Support" plan.[119] As it is a Windows component, all versions of Internet Explorer for Windows XP also became unsupported.[120]
  
  In January 2014, it was estimated that more than 95% of the 3 million automated teller machines in the world were still running Windows XP (which largely replaced IBM's OS/2 as the predominant operating system on ATMs); ATMs have an average lifecycle of between seven and ten years, but some have had lifecycles as long as 15. Plans were being made by several ATM vendors and their customers to migrate to Windows 7-based systems over the course of 2014, while vendors have also considered the possibility of using Linux-based platforms in the future to give them more flexibility for support lifecycles, and the ATM Industry Association (ATMIA) has since endorsed Windows 10 as a further replacement.[121] However, ATMs typically run the embedded variant of Windows XP, which was supported through January 2016.[122] As of May 2017, around 60% of the 220,000 ATMs in India still run Windows XP.[123]
  
  Furthermore, at least 49% of all computers in China still ran XP at the beginning of 2014. These holdouts were influenced by several factors; prices of genuine copies of later versions of Windows in the country are high, while Ni Guangnan of the Chinese Academy of Sciences warned that Windows 8 could allegedly expose users to surveillance by the United States government,[124] and the Chinese government banned the purchase of Windows 8 products for government use in May 2014 in protest of Microsoft's inability to provide "guaranteed" support.[125] The government also had concerns that the impending end of support could affect their anti-piracy initiatives with Microsoft, as users would simply pirate newer versions rather than purchasing them legally. As such, government officials formally requested that Microsoft extend the support period for XP for these reasons. While Microsoft did not comply with their requests, a number of major Chinese software developers, such as Lenovo, Kingsoft and Tencent, will provide free support and resources for Chinese users migrating from XP.[126] Several governments, in particular those of the Netherlands and the United Kingdom, elected to negotiate "Custom Support" plans with Microsoft for their continued, internal use of Windows XP; the British government's deal lasted for a year, and also covered support for Office 2003 (which reached end-of-life the same day) and cost £5.5 million.[127]
  
  For the typical, individual end user, one probably wants to have been off Windows XP by 2008.
- You're ignoring the fact that they ended XP support for months and then brought it back for literal years after so much outcry

The problem is most people don't have the technical ability or interest in switching to Linux. Here is the solution:

We, as Linux users, must be better advocates for the platform to untechnical people.
We should make ourselves available to help people make the transition.

The solution is donate them. Don't send them to a landfill. Give poor students a free laptop with Linux installed, etc. There are probably thousands of uses for an old computer that are better than sending it to a landfill.
Make correct marketing,create tools which will user switch OS with one click,create tech support gor usual people with small prices
- Marketing is monopolized with Google and Facebook. Manufacturers and Microsoft won't make one-click installs happen. Tech support would be chicken and egg problem. Ugh...
Linux doesn't support my DAW or audio interface. I'm not throwing away thousands of pounds of software and equipment to use Linux.

I would happily give it a go if cubase / uad interfaces were supported.
- For me, it's the lack of support for the audio HW. Infuriating.
- Your DAW and audio interface doesn't support Linux.*
  
  Yeah, it's a bummer, but you are in a small portion of effected computer users, still others can benefit from longer support.
Maybe there should be a centralised GitXXX documentation „Windows to Linux” with everything from choosing a distro to troubleshooting and links to appropriate wikis. There are so many guides/blogs, each saying something different
- There have been. Creating another one creates another one. Not that someone shouldn't, but it will always be one among many.
- Windows now has a How to Install Linux tutorial...which seems odd.
I'd also bet that a huge portion of those offices rely on at least some kind of proprietary software that doesn't play nice/officially support Linux. MS Office, for example, or Autodesk's stuff. When I saw what a headache it would be to get these working on Linux, I just shrugged and decided I'd keep my dual boot available for when I inevitably have need.

You're turning up the cost dial for every additional workaround or adjustment you ask of people. Just to save what is fundamentally seen as $50-200 up front cost on a system for a new Windows 11 Pro license.
- The article and post title itself alludes to the fact that windows 11 won't support millions of machines, so a w11 license is useless. And if you meant you can buy a PC that supports w11 and is worth using, for $50, I need to consult with you for the world's best shopping tips
I would use Linux but I heard that it doesn’t work seamlessly with NVIDIA gaming hardware
- Depends honestly but for most people it will work fine if you use something like Pop OS, Nobara, or other distros that set it up for you (or you know how to set it up yourself but that's unlikely to be the case)
It is far too confusing what to use - even as someone who uses Linux on various servers, a media centre, WSL and used to run a Gentoo laptop I still don't know which distro to use, let alone which of KDE/Gnome, X11/Wayland, init/systemd etc.
- just try one in a vm?
  
  also, most of the differences are not that big, any one of them will work fine for most people.
- Use whatever is popular and has a cool logo. Distro is basically a software library, preinstalled programs and default settings. You can transform any distro to behave like the other one.
  
  KDE, Gnome, XFCE...? Which is looking better for you or which one was default. Init system? Which was the default. X11/Wayland? Wayland. Go with X11 only if Wayland is having problems with your graphics card.
Exactly. I tried using Linux and I just don’t understand how to use it, and I consider myself fairly tech savvy. It would bring my productivity to a grinding halt if I had to switch to Linux.
- I'm like this with windows these days tbh
  
  I get to the desktop and I'm like how the fuck do I even use this thing
- Did you install gentoo or something? Zorin or Mint is just install and use it (just like Windows)
- There are many many outdated patterns how to do things in Windows that are cemented in public knowledge. Running random executable installers from the web giving them superuser permissions is I thing the most popular one.
  
  How to share all user settings between system installations? How to change the logo in the desktop bar? How to add a directory to an applications bar? How to change system build-in keyboard shortcut? How to reinstall just the system keeping the programs? How to make a file run on a shortcut? Those are things I use daily, that are impossible or need some hacky programs to work on anything other than Linux, I would die if I had to switch back now.

What if, sometime after Win 10 loses support a virus takes advantage of the lack of patches and propagates across all the machines with a simple message "This operating system is no longer supported, please click here to upgrade." The button then runs a script to download and install a user friendly Linux distro. The world is then saved.

Chaotic good
Make it install temple OS, so that it can save not only the planet but also our souls. Amen. 🙏🙏🙏🙏
My kind of hopes.

Microsoft: Arbitrarily increases the system requirements for Windows 11 even though it runs perfectly fine on older pcs just to get people to buy new computers

Also Microsoft: Why's there so much waste??

I found it absolutely amazing they claim my pretty decent laptop from 2016 can't run Windows 11. Laptops haven't gotten that much better since then. Also, supposing it actually couldn't, it's a fucking operating system. It should be doing everything it can to stay out of the way. What kind of bloated monstrosity is Windows 11 that my laptop can't run it?
- It's the trusted platform module which I know almost nothing about but I'm sure is fucking stupid. My monster of a desktop from 2018 also can't run win11, and the only reason is my cpu is missing the tpm that it requires.
When has MS indicated they care about waste in the least?
- https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/legal/compliance/environmental-compliance#:~:text=Waste commitment,operations%2C products%2C and packaging.

We all know that won't happen because most users don't give a shit about things like conserving hardware or the resources that went into making them, and will just use this as an excuse to splurge on the latest shiny device.

Fuck the users
- Herein lies the rub where the discourse online always fails. It's easy to blame the rich, corporations, politicians, etc. but the end of the day they're simply doing what the masses want. We are the problem.
  
  Now that said, I understand the appeal of blaming a smaller segment of the population because it's easier to shift blame and it's easier to force change that way, but rest assured Apple stops making a new phone every year their brand dies unless everyone stops doing it. They're doing it because we are conditioned to want it.
  
  We are the underlying problem. All of us.
  
  Edit - having my point proven is amazing.
Nah I haven't bought a new machine in years, sticking to the old school bro. But I get it, a lot of people who are gamers or streamers would definitely buy in and I get why too because so long as the internet speeds keep increasing, there will be more streamers for the next big game or influencer chit chat etc

Who the fuck throws out their computer when it's still working???

A lot of businesses. I've stocked an entire network lab out of waste bins from buildings with tech companies in them. Laptops, monitors, network gear, cabling. I once scored a whole box of 100W USB-C chargers.

You could make a living reselling stuff online.
- I'm sorry, 100W USB-C is throwaway stuff now? Wut?
Federal, state and local government , multinational companies and boomers.
- Literally just talked to my mother-in-law who was talking about throwing out her laptop because Windows 10 is losing support and she can't upgrade to Windows 11.
  
  It would probably run linux perfectly.
  
  But I would never put linux on it. I am not doing tech support for my MIL who just admitted to me that she "locked down her machine because she fixed the registry issues windows has and turned on ipv6 on her router" and alluded to changing other settings but she cant understand why her "wifi keeps dropping out" and thinks its because the neighbors installed a ring doorbell.
- State governments usually are required to place all of their computers up for sale through surplus. (Hard drives usually removed and destroyed). I have been through that process at a State College and a University. They aren't just thrown away. I imagine there is a similar process for federal computer.
- All of whom have processes software and employees who are not prepared to swap to Linux
Linux users
- Wat

If these were all stacked laptops, stacked on top of each other, they would form a stack 600 km above the Moon.

Ummm... what??

Assuming 3 cm thick laptop x 240 mil = 7,200 km. Moon is on average 380,000 km away. Even 30 cm thick laptops (lol) would only get you to 72,000 km.

They're stacking on the longest dimension after opening up the laptop.
- XD that would still only get you half way to the moon!
Yeah, well, a piece of paper folded in half 50 times would reach two thirds of the way to the Sun, so take that!!

Although I’m not surprised, it is interesting that the same big tech companies like Apple and Microsoft taking stances on being “environmentally conscious” while also ignoring forced obsoletion of old hardware. Your average office environment just needs basic email, document/excel editing software and a browser. Now to continue to do these base functions, they have to buy new PCs to do the same exact thing. And it’s not even faster anymore due to the bloat.

If tech wants to preach about the environment, they best start figuring out ways to keep computers out of the landfills.

Or make repurposing a thing.
Although I’m not surprised, it is interesting that the same big tech companies like Apple and Microsoft taking stances on being “environmentally conscious” while also ignoring forced obsoletion of old hardware.

That's purely greenwashing marketing hype, with Apple being the worst offender. Now Microsoft seems to be following in their footsteps, although they're still better in this regard than Apple.
But buying new things is good for the economy!
(/s in case it's needed)
Was it EVER faster though? My experience with Windows has always been that they release new versions based on upcoming hardware specs and unless you spend top-dollar on the very latest hardware for their next release, you are going to see things moving slower on the new desktop. That's one of things I've enjoyed about linux, you can pretty much always upgrade the OS on an older machine without concern of taking a hit on the performance, and sometimes you even get a boost.

It will be mostly Enterprise upgrading. The average consumer buys the cheapest laptop they can get. They won't be upgrading. I think nowadays not many average consumers even use computers. They just do everything on a phone.

Most enterprise is going to continue to pay for extended windows 10 support especially for things like embedded control systems running windows 10 ltsc/iot.
- It's 50/50. The last Enterprise I worked at they would NEVER agree to pay that. They'd rather get new machines

Windows 11 won’t work on my laptop. Installed Linux a few weeks ago. Works better now than it did with Windows 10.

That picture generated by Dall-E looks like it came straight out of Wall-E.

My desktop and laptop are both eligible to upgrade, but I keep declining and will likely switch to linux when win10 support ends.

Why wait? It's a process, so I would start asap
- I've thought about it, but right now everything works exactly the way I need it and the only complaint I have is the occasional pop-ups from MS trying to get me to upgrade to win11 or switch my browser. My main uses for my devices are games and I just started back to school, so MS Office is nice to have. So, it's hard to justify putting in the effort to change things now, especially when I know how to use MS products very well, particularly modding games.

I'll install linux on my gaming rig when w10 support ends, I hate w11

Why not try it now?
- I did, discord was a mess (the systray icon not working and couldn't stream audio), no parsec host support and other little things.
  
  Yes, there are alternatives/workarounds but it's too much of a hustle to play some games if the alternative is w10, I already know how to optimize it/solve common issues and for this specific case "it just works"

That's the MS business model in partnership with PC makers. It's a juggernaut. They've operationalized it.

TIL that MS can be either mean MicroSoft or MassiveShit and that they would still mean the same shit
- Did you learn that just today???
WinTel 2.0 🤢

I have a 12 year old CAD workstation that won't run Windows 11, but will run Mint just fine.

Because the vast majority of people don't have a reason to do it. They've never used Linux before - heck there are people who have never heard of it before.

The other thing is you and I, chances are can find a use for our old machines, have a place to store it, or know how valuable it currently is. Most other people aren't aware of how parts or entire systems depreciates, don't have a use for a second computer, and can't afford the storage space to store a spare PC for a backup. They also don't really have time to do a lot of research on the issue or just plain old don't care.

So what do they do? Well there only remaining option is to throw it away, maybe theyll be a bit wise and take it to an electronics recycler, where you have to trust it won't get thrown away anyway.

They will be in the ditches alongside rural roads with the tires, couches, and washing machines.

Nature at work. In 1000 years the government will pay child slaves to mine them for the new microchip implants. Smoggy fields of children burning plastics off metal to feed the dreams of the rich and elite.

The same as it ever was, the same as it always will be.

...I don't know why I wasted my time making this useless post. 😑
Exactly. Used mine to learn Linux and proxmox. I'm also someone's who would be here.

More computers for us poor folk!

Same here

Why not give the poor some of our old and used computers?
Cheaper laptops and old computers for everyone could start with switching to Linux

This isn't a new thing. Free Geek has been refurbishing computers and installing Linux on them for over two decades now. It started in 2000 in Portland, Oregon and has since spawned affiliate locations elsewhere, including in Oslo.

There's one in Minneapolis too!
- Yup! A friend took me by there a few months ago when I was visiting him.

One of the 240 million would've possibly been my friend's "old" gaming PC with a Ryzen 9 3900X, that he said could not upgrade to Windows 11. He sold it to me for cheap and I put KDE Neon on it. So far, it's running smoothly except for the challenge of trying to automate mounting a RAID 1 set of drives.

I use "gnome-disk-utility" for mounting disks.

Heck if I can get a computer to mount a drive on login.. but "disks" let's me do that easily.

Granted that might be different for your setup. So ymmv

I think Microsoft should actually be forced to either extend support or give the user one option to be secured. With the later I mean pay for license or click here to automatically choose a Linux distro that the user will be migrated to. It could be Mint or one of MS own Linux distribution with OneDrive preinstalled and links to Office 365 online word. Even install Android could be one option.

This is better than getting all the devices on the landfill.

Remember that 99% don't know what to do with their computer or are lazy. One easy fix should be available.

This is why we need functioning representative government. Something this big needs regulation.

No entity can own a percentage of the global fucking economy and be less accountable than a member of the UN.
- Yes, many other products as well. Not sure why there are no regulations regarding e waste.
MS own Linux distribution

The thought of this makes me feel a lot of emotions at once. I don't think any are good... If MS made a version of Linux, I can't even fathom how insanely badly they would fuck it up, nor can I imagine it ever happening. I cannot think of an analogy to illustrate this properly really. But yeah, hell freezing over seems like a starting point for describing the likelihood of it.

I have fantasized that MS will come to terms with how shit their core OS is and eventually make something Linux like, based on a lot of free stuff. But that feels 20 years off, and like an absolute fantasy still.
- nor can I imagine it ever happening.
  
  Chief, MS has multiple internal only Linux distros and publically they have CBL-Mariner and I think another that I forgot. They are mostly used with Azure. They really aren't that much more different to what I know to any other (common) distro out there
- I don't think they would do Linux. Better if they did a stripped down version of their OS that can run like Chrome OS. Secured with a web browser. Little maintenance as so much has been removed.
- I think with the current staff in the ranks at Microsoft and leadership opening the ecosystem for end user devices, they could build something sound. (Don't sleep on the amount of our world infrastructure running on their OS's. They are trusted for reliability.) A decade ago I had to reprimand by team for showing up to a mtg in Redmond with a stack of MacBooks and iPads. Now staff have iPhones.
  
  The problem is the business looks for a buck in all the wrong parts of their massively horizontal set of goods. So their Linux will be bloated with cross selling adware.
I'm guessing it'd be cheaper for MS to just keep providing security updates for Win10 than to create a whole Linux distro...
- It probably is. But MS choose how they want to keep the control of the users. But just leaving them like this is just bad. I feel EU should force them to give a solution since the computer came with Windows so it is their responsibility.
  
  One alternative is to give them Chrome OS, or they might prefer building their of version of it.
  
  Today I see a computer as end of life when it is to slow to view webpages. Often like when it is to little RAM available or the CPU is really too slow. Then I think Microsoft could stop caring about it.

Capitalism must feed. And, if we don't give them huge electronics landfills to search for scrap, what are our children and grandchildren going to do for work?

I am not sure if posting this in a linux community raises the awareness to a relevant degree.
I am not sure if i am scared by the fact that there will be potentially 240 million pcs still running windows 10 and are posing as potential bot net.

I’ve had windows 10 tell me I can’t upgrade to windows 11 because my SSD was formatted incorrectly even though it had always ran windows 10 fine. None of this was properly explained to me or how to fix it. By the time I finally got it working I didn’t even want windows 11.

I guess I should hold off on upstaging my systems. There are going to be a lot of deals.

That's what I'm gonna do with my Windows 10 gaming machine. It's been working just fine since I bought it in 2016.

give endeavouros a try. ive been using it for games on my amd system and it runs like a dream
- I'm Intel/Nvidia. I'll give it a try anyway. See what fits my hardware best.
Or just circumvent the "requiments" that are so required that a few registry hacks disable them, allowing you upgrade to win11 via windows update.

Or if you want a fresh install, use rufus to create the install usb stick, and select the option to disable the tpm requirement.
- I don't have the windows key anymore. To do that I'll have to reinstall the system instead of upgrading it.
If the computer was purchased in 2016 the license key is likely tied to the motherboard from the factory, so unless you swap the board, the original key may pull on its own.
Would be cool if Microsoft launched a new fangled cloud operating system, they've already got Bing AI, Onedrive, GitHub on the side and other infrastructure in place already.

Offering a Microsoft centered cloud computing operating system would allow them to dump or discard their other investments like GitHub, while holding both the money and infrastructure to competing against their old pals working with Linux and other GNU stuff.

The ultimate betrayal I tell ya hahaha 🤣

Nah just jokes, I would suck at writing or doing white collar crime but I would sure hype it up in an action novel alright
- BingOS was it's name-o.

Many companies still use Windows XP, so...

Connected to the internet?
- I hope, mostly no. It is needed to operate various old equipment.

My laptop is a cast off from a member of my staff who said it was too slow - a (dmidecode) - Product Name: HP 255 G6 Notebook PC. It now runs Arch (actually).

It previously slogged along with Win 10, Outlook n O365 n that. Now it does Libre Office, Evolution and much more. I use KDE, which isn't known for a light touch on the resources. I also do light CAD and other stuff.

My office desktop is even older - it was a customer cast off, due to be skipped around six years ago. I did slap a SSD into it and I think I upped the RAM to 8GB. Its a (ssh, dmidecode): Product Name: Lenovo H330 and the BIOS is dated from 2012! I run two 23" screens off it and again, it runs Arch (actually) and KDE for pretty stuff. I run containers on it - at the moment a test Vikunja instance. I have apache, nginx and caddy fronting various experiments backed up with postgres and mariadb.

Both devices are "domain joined" and I auth to Exchange via Kerberos, via Samba winbind. File access (drive letters for the Windows mindset) is currently via autofs. I have a project on at a member of staff's request to switch from Windows to Linux. I'm going to take my time and get it right. My current thinking is the Fedora KDE spin and this: Closed In Directory

I understand lots of the words in this post, but there are many that tell me I wouldn't get Linux up and running on any of my laptops or PC.
- If you have an old laptop or PC why not give it a go? You could start here: https://www.linuxmint.com/ Another option is to install something like Virtual Box on your existing machine and try out running it as a virtual machine or two. 2 CPUs, 4GB of RAM and 20GB of virty disc will work for any Linux distro as a VM to start off with. There's also VMware Workstation - there's a free version. Do discover the joy of snapshots/checkpoints which allow you to roll back failed changes!
  
  25 years ago the options were rather more limited. I started off dual booting Windows and Linux but I don't really recommend that these days, unless you want to run a gaming rig with both. Few people can afford two lots of top end hardware! I left Windows behind completely around 2004 or 5.

Windows 7 or Linux would be fine, Windows 10 is hardly that bad

Windows 7 is even older and already out of support for almost 4 years now. Why would you downgrade?

Only Linux makes sense in this case.
Windows 7 is even older and already out of support for almost 4 years now. Why would you downgrade?

Only Linux makes sense in this case.

I'm about to abandon/relegate my old Windows 10 PC to a backup, and replacing it with a raspberry pi 5 running Mint. I'm trying to run quieter with less power consumption.

win10 is still supported for 3 more years - if you pay for it.

So what do people think of TPM, supposedly why they're doing this?

I'm suspicious, thankfully we have a larger ecosystem of Linux hardware these days so we're not totally dependent on windows PCs

So you pretend that what was running on windows to run in Linux?. Dafuq people are naive af. We are talking mostly enterprise machines, most corporations didnt migrate to windows 11. So its not just installing steam lol

A lot of the corporate software these days run on cloud or provide viable Linux support. We're hoping that at least this can be covered.
The post title is editorialized. The actual article had nothing to do with Linux.
No, those computers can go to underprivileged communities so ppl can have access to word processor, programming, web dev, etc. They would be running Linux and be secure and functional.
- Again, naive. People in underprivileged communities would struggle to even turn a computer on properly. Using Linux? Nice ideal, but not gonna happen.

IMO ppl should be using W10 IoT LTSC. That's the only right way to use W10.

Also, no Linux as Linux still can't run SM Office. /s

important tldr summary: "Many Windows 10 computers do not meet the Windows 11 system requirements"

i pretty much dont give a fuck what companies do.
except its hella destructive/wastefull to the environment.. and also will probably drive up the price of computers for everyone.

They should face huge fines for this kind of waste. $25M USD for each computer arbitrarily obsolete.

Because the hardware is being made obsolete for a reason. They are inefficient compared to modern hardware, consume way too much power and there are cheaper and more powerful options available.

A modern ARM-based computer like the Raspberry Pi 5 can outperform most computers and laptops running Windows 10 and have a smaller environmental footprint.

The problem is that the obsolete hardware is not cost effective to decommission and recycle. They have not been designed for an environmentally conscious world.

240 million laptops stacked on top of each other is not going anywhere close to the moon, this is a masterclass in hyperbole.

How many laptops before the bottom-most laptop fails from the pressure?
- If the bottom laptop is a Dell Latitude I think they don’t recommend stacking them at all, but with HP Elitebooks I think we got away with stacks about 15-20 high before we had the risk of getting damaged screens. Probably 10x that before structural failure, but they’d more than likely compress down instead of one side before the other.
- ...as if the point ever neared actually doing it..?
If you assume they're all 13" wide laptops and stacked them on their side to get maximum height per unit, you'd still fall 305,752 km short of the average lunar distance. You normally only see this level of hyperbole in the estimated street value cops give for drugs they seize, pretty impressive.
- I get the reason for hyperbole, I just hate when it’s so clickbaity. I wish they would just be more honest with us. If you assume they’re all small form factor Dell Optiplex 3070 desktops, you could make a cube of computers as tall as the Burj Khalifa.
- And even if the 240 million laptops were all 24" ultra wide behemoths, that's still only ~146,304 km; not even half the average distance to the moon.
  
  I wouldn't even call the article hyperbole, but if we take the author in good faith, then they're just terrible at math.
It could never reach the moon, the tower would fall over much sooner.
- Dang... Was hoping to kill two birds with one stone and solve that space elevator thing too...
  
  /s

I feel like most of these computers are underpowered and worthless to most people outside of a web browsing machine. Which is fine I guess if you don't have a computer at all. But when some of us are rocking six or seven computers in our house, do we need anymore?

There are lots of people who could use them. Schools, libraries, poor people.

Why not install Linux on them?

Because 1) it wont cut it and 2) when Windows 10 EOLs (and trust me MS will extend the current date) those machines will be trash either way.

It won’t cut…what
- Probably meant that Linux wouldn't be appropriate for whoever's needs. That can be true for some cases, not really for casual browsing use cases when pretty much 99% of all the major players in the browsing industry maintain a Linux port.
For 240 million devices I think there would be some Linux can "cut it". And second, no? My computer is 13+ years old and I am using it with basically no lagging, developing a couple of apps. Truth is all medium-tier computers made today and in recent years have reached the point where for normal use (that is daily tasks like communication, content consumption and calculations) only limiting factor for daily driver is software optimization.