Microsoft, doing it’s part to make the world a better place.
No it won’t.
240 million grandmas, cheapskate businesses, and cash-strapped public schools will continue to use whatever operating system their computers already have, forever, until they break, security implications be damned.
Windows
10XPTook this picture a couple of days ago:
JSYK a lot of embedded devices use XP and 7, and some of those manufacturers pay for extended support. The military also pays for extended support for XP
But yeah, most of those devices are not patched and vulnerable AF.
I always laugh at, after being in the military and a government employee, things being marketed as military grade. So what, it runs on windows server 2003 and hasn’t been in production for 20 years?
This is a huge business opportunity for someone with the know-how. They should offer a consulting service that does the following:
- Catalogs the software your company is using.
- Identifies which ones have native Linux versions, which ones work well under WINE, and which ones will need to be replaced with either a different native application or an online equivalent.
- Installs and configures Linux with a Windows-like UI on your old systems, and gets them set up with the replacement software.
Offer a support contract that severely undercuts anything Microsoft is
gougingselling. Offer basic training, too.Anyone who does that can make bank.
Would also need to get a burner phone number w/ answering machine to take calls from 240 million grandmas, cheapskate businesses and cash-strapped public schools for any & all tech support questions until the end of time, because if there was an issue with system stability in any way whatsoever, or if the router went down or the printer stopped working, they’d assume it was the fault of ‘the guy who changed everything’.
Linux is great & everything, but this sounds like a recipe for utter disaster, not a way to make an easy buck.
I can’t agree with this more. People like to sell Linux as a magic bullet, but it does not and will not everything everyone needs without maintenance and people really like to hand wave or downplay that need.
Sure, you could find a solution for what they’re using now. What happens when they need something else and they’re so tech illiterate that they don’t even know what you did to their machine? They wouldn’t even know how to install new software, and if they did, they wouldn’t know they need to click the Linux version, etc. It’s not always about feasibility and available options, it’s often about the fact that people just won’t fucking know what to do. Even if you assume there are enough options available, they won’t know how to do so.
And every step Microsoft takes to shoot themselves in the foot, and every step Linux takes to make this easier, everyone comes screaming about how much this could change things.
But until Linux has a HUGE market share - like in the 30-70 percent range - developers are not going to take it seriously and alleviate this process. Even with how well MacOS does, this is not even a solved problem entirely there - there are still hang ups and still software that doesn’t get released for mac. Linux would have to pass where Apple is today for this to become remotely accessible to an every day person.
And even THEN there’s the question of different Linux distros.
I lived in this town and there was this"computer and pawn" place. They did this to people’s computers. I constantly had people come into the computer place I worked at very confused. Not knowing why they needed a password to install things, where is Microsoft office, how do I print, etc. Most of these people didn’t have the money to put windows back on, but, those that did, did real quick. All this did was scare people away. If we started replacing Linux on people’s computers it needs to come with a intro tech support plan and a short intro class explaining the basics.
At this point the people that benefit the most easily are those who only need email, Web browsing and or are old. People who work off their machine are going to use Windows and that former demographic usually just use their phones or a tablet now. At least in the US
For us Linux users it’s just a fire sale. Diet cheap PCs incoming.
just use linux instead.
why are people allergic to
windowslinux?Gaming is the primary driver behind my PC choices by a humongous margin. I’m not really concerned about imvasive anti-cheat software, I don’t want to tinker with settings, I want to turn on my computer and play video games. That means I use Windows.
As someone who just installed Linux Mint as a test and uses their machine mostly for gaming:
Linux is perfectly fine for that, too. I had one minor issue that was fixed by plugging a cord into a different plug on my machine and have otherwise had 0 issues getting things to run on the Linux partition of my system.
I actually have seen mostly better performance in the realm of about 10fps better per game than the Win 10 install on the same hardware
Spent less time tinkering with the settings (done via GUI that makes more sense than windoes’ 15 different settings menus) than I never have in any version of Windows, synched my firefox over, boom.
Not gonna say Linux is perfect for everything but it does seem a lot of people think it’s harder/worse than it is by a mile
That doesn’t compute here. Like I have literally 0 problems with Windows. That’s certainly not been my experience with Linux. Oh bought a new drawing tablet, nah that won’t work. Oh need to update for firmware on a device, yeah better have windows. Oh you bought a recent printer, better not use Linux.
It will be like that as long as people are so used to bad products. Linux will have similar but better support if it has more users. It already improved a lot. This myth of printers/tablets not working got quite old now
Fucking nailed it, and peripheral manufacturers have almost zero interest in providing their own linux tools and drivers because of how tiny the marketshare is.
I already spend most of my waking days fixing work related computing bullshit, I don’t want to have to spend 3 hours of my free time trying to get my fuckdamn video capture card to work when it’s all seamless in Windows.
I mean I have a lot of problems with windows, forced updates, telemetry, the uselessness of modern error messages, but if I just want to chill and relax with some media or games, Windows is clearly the simpler solution.
A million percent this. Linux is great for servers at work but I don’t want to spend my free time doing what I do every day at work. I just want things to be hassle free. But also at the same time, fuck Win11. My 8 year old PC still runs the latest games with a nvme and a better gf card, why do I need to toss it out.
Again, Install Linux, get rid of Microsoft shit.
Yeah, because Linux runs everything!
Except… No, it doesn’t. I love Linux for specific uses, but let’s be real: it’s not a valid replacement for windows yet. Not for ALL types of users.
When it is, then I’ll be out on every street corner with you with a sign. But until then, can we not gaslight all of Lemmy?
No.
Linux runs just-about-everything. Indeed, that does not cover 100% of windows users, but it damn well includes 95% of windows users who use windows for email and word processing and gaming, all of which runs perfectly fine or better on Linux.
Once those are on Linux, I’ll shut up indeed but until then, here I am. I’m sick and tired of people happily giving money to a scam company who got where they are by lying and cheating, and then these same people asking me to help them out with their windows shit.
What are you missing on Linux?
Edit: Kinda weird to downvote for asking an honest question, but sure, knock yourselves out.
The two most important things missing from Linux are mass familiarity and certain important professional software suites. It isn’t that Linux doesn’t have software nearly-equivalent to things like the Adobe suite, MS Office, and AutoCAD. It is that it doesn’t have those EXACT applications. Like it or not, in a professional setting, you usually have to use the big proprietary applications because that’s what everyone else uses. Using standard software reduces compatibility and training headaches, and eases recruitment. Most technically-oriented professionals wouldn’t even take a job that disallowed them from accessing and maintaining their competence with the standard software of their profession.
Yup, any finance/accounting staff will not be on Linux
I’m not defending Microsoft here but, the problem in this case isn’t Microsoft, there’s no reason a person can’t educate themselves enough to move away from Windows. If you have access to a PC, you more than likely have access to the internet and there’s no shortage of information online.
Yes what Microsoft is doing is negligent. But the consumer can’t be completely blameless.
"I’m not defending rapists but there’s no reason women can’t educate themselves on how to make it so they’re less likely to be raped.
Yes what rapists are doing is bad. But the person being raped can’t be completely blameless."
So does anyone have a good strategy for transferring non giant things? Like I have a ton of unorganized pictures, documents, videos dating back to my 2009 1TB HDD that still works.
I think I want to run Debian mostly because I don’t know any other build well. Well RHEL, but I want to keep it similar to the Steam Deck as I can
If you want to play games, then Debian isn’t that good of a choice because of the outdated packages. I’d suggest getting a new SSD though. Your HDD is already pretty old and slow and could potentially fail soon, so you might as well get some fresh storage. Makes it easy to test distros too until you found something satisfactory, at which point you can transfer over your old data and eventually format your old HDD into some sort of backup drive I guess.
Linux Mint is a pretty solid option for a desktop OS. And it feels quite a bit like Debian.
I feel like MS could avoid everyone’s gripes by simply not charging for their security update program. 7 to 13+ years is going to more than cover when most people would’ve upgraded anyway.
That’s not how software works. Maintaining an OS until the end of time is a real problem.
Should they be maintaining the beloved windows xp still?
Agreed. I’m just looking at the machines that were purchased at the launch of Win 11, but might not have had the proper hardware to transition off 10. I would assume that computers on a that cusp will mostly support 11, but if the extended updates were free, it would ensure those machines would have had 7 years of security updates - which seems like a reasonable lifespan for a computer these days.
Making those updates free would also mean computers that were 13+ years old were also getting security updates, so maybe my recommendation is overkill.
At some point you just need to move on and stop taking customer service calls from people with old hardware.
Agreed. I’m just looking at the machines that were purchased at the launch of Win 11, but might not have had the proper hardware to transition off 10.
Windows 11 launched in 2021. The bare minimum hardware (8th gen intel) is from 2017. If you were buying 5+ year old hardware in 2021 then that’s on you.
Don’t forget the TPM module! Which has also been pretty damn ubiquitous on mobos for a long ass time.
This is all just clickbait and easy upvotes on lemmy with the big pro-linux movement.
TPM is built into the CPU of all 8th gen and ryzen 2000 series CPUs. The module is only needed for older systems.
The module is only needed for older systems.
Not needed at all. If you’re installing it on an older system, you’re already bypassing the requirements so why bother with a TPM?
Or folks will just continue to use 10.
Some still cling on their old XP laptops.
Medical and banks on older stuff yet. Dunno about space shuttle.
The shuttle probably runs on actual mechanical switches
You kid, I know. But the shuttle software was one of the most stringently tested systems, at least as one of my sEng courses would have me believe.
Amazing that the device you are reading this on is way more powerful that the ones that first put men on the moon.
Early electronics are fascinating. The amount of power we were getting out of devices back in the day is crazy. Like this comment probably takes up more memory than Adventure on the Atari 2600.
I wonder what we could pull off now if people tried to squeeze every ounce of power out of modern day equipment?
Agreed. I used to follow a mod group and the optimizations they used to pull off on 8086 is ridiculous. Nowadays an embedded browser app takes up 5gb on my phone. Wtf.
We still do optimize software today, it’s just that there’s a cap to how much computing you can really need for stuff like flying through space.
The most impressive optimized software things we do now tends towards the more abstract, or banal in modern views.
Calculating the most efficient route to launch a spacecraft to slingshot off a bunch of different planets takes more computation than actually flying or controlling the spacecraft.
We can also model every particle involved in a nuclear detonation to optimize blast yields, which is how we optimize lethality while reducing the number of warheads.
Video games are also typically pretty optimized at their core, it just tends to be overshadowed by being “boring” uses.
like the US military. most of their mission critical stuff has been running for 20 years that way.
if only there were an operating system that could update without shutting down.
Don’t tempt the government. Please.
Remind me again about how awful it is that Bitcoin uses so much energy? Is it because one form of waste makes shit tons of money for shareholders and the other makes money for regular people?
Mining hasn’t been profitable for any “regular” person for like a decade
97% of wallets being in profit isn’t profitable? Man, you should tell these people! What if they never find out!!
Lol after this comment Bitcoin surpassed Silver to become the 8th most valuable asset by market cap on the planet. More than Coca Cola and Pepsi combined. Even 10 million million down votes can’t change the truth
It’s not profit until it’s converted to FIAT, which causes the value of BTC to drop. Crypto can’t generate money, it can only move it around. Someone always loses.
Isn’t that true of money in general?
Yes, because normal people always throw PCs away when they stop getting security updates.
it’s not even that retarded an argument! If you don’t think about it, it could appear to make perfect sense instead of being bullshitese for a problem that isn’t real but taps into moral outrage about how wasteful every day is under capitalism.
