End of Support for Windows 10
A coalition of businesses, nonprofits, and elected officials (including Fight To Repair’s parent organization, the Secure Resilient Future Foundation) has formally petitioned Microsoft to extend Windows 10 support, which is currently slated to end on October 14th.
With more than a billion Windows 10 devices operating globally, it is estimated that hundreds of millions fail to meet the minimum hardware requirements needed to upgrade to Windows 11.
Via Scott Larson (via Hacker News):
Microsoft’s design of Windows 11 is a concern because:
- Computer manufacturers, due to pressure from Microsoft, are designing new computers with artificial limitations like TPM and Secure Boot. These unnecessary add-ins push consumers to unnecessary hardware upgrades.
- In the setup of newly purchased consumer-grade computers, there is obfuscation in the installation language. Many of the default choices are aimed at confusing customers into selecting options that share data with vendors:
- The process of setting up OneDrive to act as a backup of data. Without consent, the setup of this configuration moves all customers’ data to the cloud service, re-points all the user folders to a cloud-specific OneDrive folder that’s very difficult to revert.
- The process of selecting a browser is obfuscated by Microsoft’s Edge Browser setup
- The AI tool Co-pilot is installed and enabled without consent. Removal is difficult or nonexistent.
- The history tracking tool “Recall” that is due to be released, sometime in the future, saves snapshots of your user experience into Microsoft’s OneDrive cloud. It looks great on paper, but in reality, this feature, along with others, will be used to move forward a surveillance state.
- Windows 11 prevents the complete uninstall of many of its built-in features. They can be removed from one user account, but they can be reinstalled during an update, or if you upgrade your computer, without your consent.
- Microsoft Edge is forced on users as a replacement by obfuscating choice in various ways.
One of the biggest values of my 2019 Mac Pro has been having a single machine that can run Windows and macOS. With Windows 10 losing support that’s basically the end of Boot Camp. Sort of grumpy Apple never added Windows 11 support.
Intel Macs are on the way out anyway. And I built an Intel Windows box last year. But what an inauspicious end for a killer setup. Can’t even repurpose it as a pure Windows box without hacking the Windows install to bypass the TPM check (which may not work forever.)
Previously:
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If only there were some free desktop OS that could be installed on those machines that didn’t care about making them obsolete.
Snarkiness (towards the Win10-should-be-eternal proponents) aside, it is a shame Linux hasn’t made more desktop inroads. Ubuntu was very easy to install and use the last time I played with it.
I realize there’s a host of barriers to entry and another host I wouldn’t think about being fairly computer savvy, but what would happen if, say, Walmart and Best Buy stopped carrying Windows. What would be the major pain points? Office? “Where’s my Outlook?” What do nontechies need that keeps Windows king?
I can say having seen it up close as a long time Windows admin, those listed complaints are essentially all correct. And what's more galling is that they are using security updates of all things to drive usage of, essentially, Microsoft accounts.
It's times like these it shows that regulators don't know/care what's going on here and how dangerous this is. This is the ultimate growth hacking. They are now literally putting people at risk in order to drive growth.
What's next, they just skip the middleman and start ransomwaring the drives themselves...oh wait Bitlocker enabled by default and the key stored in...a Microsoft account...(seen that happen too.)
Oh and @Ruffin don't get me started on Outlook. Which Outlook? Which one do you have a license for, if any? Web version? App? Which of the seven things called Outlook do you mean exactly? Outlook (New)? Or Outlook (Classic)? Or Outlook that's actually New but labeled Outlook?
At least Microsoft keeps thousands of people employed with busywork managing their mismanagement.
@Ruffin and to answer your last question, they need that one piece of software that was written for Windows and never re-written properly for anything else. It's called the "legacy" version now, but it's actually "the version that still works fine that doesn't cost five figures per year in per user licensing."
Also, Office and the managed desktop that integrates completely into Office. And the compliance checklists. As bad as Microsoft is, nobody else even really tries to do the breadth and depth of what they do.
The direction Windows 11 is moving in, is quite worrisome. Encroaching on user freedom and invasion of privacy (enabling copilot and autorecall, forcing online account creation and forcing the use of onedrive are all quite egregious) is a trend that shows no stopping.
Work-wise i've migrated from Win 11 to Debian on my main workstation. Linux has come a long, long way since I've first installed it back in '98 or so and I hope to be able to maintain the switch. @bart is right - office stands alone and has no real competition, which is my main point of concern.
The Macs are a more complex issue.
