As it buries Windows 10, Microsoft declares 2025 “year of the Windows 11 PC refresh”
The carrot of "new features" and the stick of "no more updates for your old PC."
https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2025/01/as-it-buries-windows-10-microsoft-declares-2025-year-of-the-windows-11-pc-refresh/?utm_brand=arstechnica&utm_social-type=owned&utm_source=mastodon&utm_medium=social
Thanks to the horrific Windows Recall spying on everything you do, it's the year of the Linux desktop for a lot of people
@arstechnica 2025: the year to switch to Linux
@arstechnica I'm so tired of Microsoft suckers always pushing their rhetoric of "windows 11 is better than ...". Everything is better than 11
@arstechnica I admit, on my desktop, I still have a Windows 10 disk alongside my Manjaro disk. (I know, I know. I'm a filthy dualbooter).
I suspect my Windows install is removed some time this summer, well before the EOL deadline. I'm not letting Windows 11 anywhere near that PC...
@stenpett @arstechnica same. I would move my windows 10 to a vm if not for the occasional need to run a game on windows.
@Nekoplanet @stenpett @arstechnica Nearly all of our systems moved over to #LinuxMint over the last two years and it has been mostly smooth.
I run a locked down #Tiny11 VM via QEMU purely for Adobe Creative Cloud and sync apps for Google Drive and Microsoft OneDrive.
The #FOSS alternatives for drive sync aren't quite up to snuff. Sadly #darktable does not sync with #SmugMug like #Lightroom does, which is necessary to manage a library of a quarter million photos for business and clients.
@DanielMReck @stenpett @arstechnica it's a pity that Adobe has not ported creative suite to Linux - and for what is worth, their competitors. I am all for using OSS whenever possible, but I don't mind paying for the tools I use professionally.
@arstechnica just no. My perfectly good machines run fine. I'd have to buy three new gaming computers to get everyone here running Windows 11. That's a couple of grand, easily. That's simply not happening.
Given the amount of w10 installs out there on machines owned by users who don't even update their graphics drivers, if Microsoft go ahead and pull the security plug there will be a massive number of increasingly unprotected computers available for botnets, plundering and ransoming.
@arstechnica It's time for me to transition to linux finally I think. That..or maybe a Mac...maybe...
@ChrisFerguson @arstechnica linux is great, you should try it. People usually say linux mint is beginner friendly
@aldonogueira @arstechnica I've already tried it a bit, and Linux Mint would be my go-to to start at least.
Just sitting down and getting going on my main machine, and figuring out what to do with my older files/programs from Windows that won't easily transfer is my biggest barrier right now.
One program, Sync, doesn't have a Linux client and I realllllly like it/use it a lot.
@ChrisFerguson You can try a Linux distribution first, since it's free. If you can't stand it, then you can pay out the wazoo for a Mac.
@rspfau That's the plan.
@arstechnica I remind you: do you really need to use Windows yet? (Maybe except some unfortunate countries where most online services still depend on Windows.)
@arstechnica
I'm unable to "upgrade" my 2 Win10 machines to 11 because, thankfully, they're incompatible. I'm fine with that but I fear the lack of security updates for Win10 is going to cause problems.
@arstechnica Microsoft will still support Windows 10 for decades to come.
@ProfessorTom source?
“Windows 10 will reach end of support on October 14, 2025”
https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/lifecycle/announcements/windows-10-22h2-end-of-support-update
While https://endoflife.date/windows says 2037 for a certain version of 10.
Nowhere I found “decades”.
@xconde the date will get extended when governments and banks are willing to spend billions of dollars for that support
@arstechnica
>Recall
>Forcing everyone to default to OneDrive
>Not patching the spoofed MS Admin emails in Outlook
>Crowdstrike
>Making it difficult to switch default browsers from Edge to something actually useful
>Bitlocker encryption breached
2025 should be the Year of Linux.
@arstechnica
Time for LTSC?
I just buried #windows 10, on my wife's c2016 laptop, under a big pile of #Linux #LinuxMint
she loves it
@davidbraze @arstechnica
You got my mind picturing a laptop literally covered in mints with with little penguins on them.
Good job though!
@arstechnica I declare 2025 "year of the caring about MS even less - keep your ads and ai"
I have no problem with my last W10 laptop not having security updates, I do nothing with that machine that would require security. And eventually it'll be a linux machine like the rest.
I do have W10 on a virtualbox, if I really need to access something.
At work I may have to suffer W11 at some point, but then I'm getting paid to do that.
@arstechnica I think it's the year of the Linux desktop refresh, actually