ClassicConnect

[LyraNovaHeart]

Hey there! Windows 10... feels like it came out yesterday didn't it? Well, I hate to break it to ya, it's been 10 YEARS! Yes, Windows 10 has hit the big ol' 10 years, and every 10 years, that means Microsoft cuts off support for it, creating an EOL. EOL stands for End Of Life, and this means that you won't get any updates or support for said software, at least officially.

Now, don't worry, your computer isn't gonna blow up, but it also isn't landfill like Microsoft wants you to believe. Most computers made around 2012 can actually be fine if you just give them more memory and a SSD. The idea that a computer is obsolete because a company says so is utter bullshit, and I don't think millions of perfectly working computers should be thrown out because "It won't work with Windows 11".

Your options here are a bit different than usual, but don't worry, I'll explain each one.


Option 1: Continue using Windows 10 as it is.

Okay, so you CAN do this, nothing is stopping you, and most software still runs on Windows 10, though this depends on your comfort level with not receiving security updates, and it does present a challenge of it being potentially vulnerable. This is a little different if you're on the Long Term Support Channel (LTSC), if you have the 21H2 update, you get extended updates up to 01/12/2027 for Enterprise, and up to 01/13/2032 for IoT Enterprise, that's a whole 2-7 more years of security updates just for using the LTSC channel. Regular Windows 10, or those on the General Availability Channel (GAC) are subject to the same EOL of 10/14/2025. If you have LTSC, don't worry, you're gucci for now. If you have normal Windows 10, be cautious.

Option 2: Upgrade to Windows 11.

Now, this comes controversial to some, and for good reason, Windows 11 while it is newer brings significant changes that many don't agree with, like AI such as Copilot, increased collection of personal data, forced Microsoft Accounts, , 24H2 mandating Bitlocker (more like Bitchlocker) and lots of anti consumer changes. Windows 11 also requires that you have a CPU made within Intel 8th Gen (Coffee Lake) or AMD Ryzen 2000 (Desktop Only)/Ryzen 3000 processors, aka Zen 2 CPUs. There ARE bypasses you can use, but these mean you will not get updates from Microsoft either.

Option 3: Try Linux!

Oooh Linux it's scary ooo, Not really actually. Linux is a learning curve yes, but it can be a viable alternative given it's free and often has longer support depending on the distro, not to mention extensive support for hardware many would consider "obsolete". Now, I'm not going to tell you to go out and choose something like Arch or Nix OS, please don't torture yourself with such, especially if you're very new to Linux. I'll leave a few recommended distributions I know are easy to use, as Linux itself is a great way to keep older hardware alive.

Recommended Distributions

- Debian GNU/Linux (Current Release: 12 "Bookworm", 13 Trixie expected in the summer
- Fedora Linux (Current Release: 42)
- Linux Mint (Current Release: 22.1)


Note: Vanilla OS has been removed from the recommended list as it is not able to be installed offline and needs a substantial amount of data to download (5GB+), and seems to sit for hours just downloading all of it.


Whatever you do choose, make the one that you know you won't regret, and I hope everyone stays safe out there on the internet!.
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I'm one day closer to being who I wanna be~

[xproot]

According to StatCounter's Windows version market share stats, 4 months before their End of Life:

• Windows XP held 21.53% of the market share versus Windows Vista, 7, 8, and 8.1's combined 78.14%
  
• Windows 8 held 3.72% of the market share versus Windows Vista, 7, 8.1, and 10's combined 85.31%
  
• Windows Vista held 1.2% versus Windows 7, 8.1, and 10's combined 95.67%
  
• Windows 7 held 29.39% versus Windows 8.1, and 10's combined 65.87%
  
• Windows 8.1 held 2.68% versus Windows 10 and 11's combined 85.49%
  

It has been nearly 4 years since Windows 11 came out. Yet it only holds up 43.22% of the Windows market share versus Windows 10's 53.19%. If this doesn't speak about Windows 11's unpopularity, it speaks about Microsoft rushing Windows 10's death.

I come from a part of the world where the majority of computers I see are nowhere near supporting Windows 11's minimum requirements, either because they don't have any money for a new computer or simply because it has served them well all these years, Microsoft mentions their goals are to empower users and advance sustainability, yet have failed these users with no obvious upgrade path other than a costly purchase.

As for me, even though the only reason my computer does not support Windows 11 is the CPU being too old (although it runs better than the average supported Windows 11 CPU (why do we have so many terrible low-end CPUs?)) I will not be bypassing the Windows 11 requirements, my Windows 10 drive will stay on Enterprise LTSC IoT, and I main Linux anyway.
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Bush hid the facts.

[Bryn]

Just four months to go, and Windows 10 remains on top... and little wonder, what with people deliberately snubbing Win11 because of too much of this AI garbage Microsoft is forcing down everyone's throats.

It'll be very interesting of what happens when Win10 is four months out of support, even four years...

[VCSMaster]

I gotta admit, I've never been fond of Windows 10 myself. I was still on 8.1 for my main computer until May of this year. I still don't like it very much.

Wanna know what finally drove me away from 8.1? nVidia just stopped signing their drivers! I encountered a bug in the video driver, and the update that corrected it was unsigned. There's a workaround to install unsigned drivers in 8.x pretty easily, not sure about 10 yet, but it does make it more difficult than it needs to be, and several pieces of software with copy protection will no longer run.

When I moved into my new house, I wound up setting up my "new" Windows 10 machine, which I had built last year and never used, instead of the 8.1 machine. I regret this decision almost daily.



I would have stayed on XP forever if I could have, 64-bit be damned. I hope ReactOS reaches a useful state soon, there's nothing I'd rather do less than downgrade to 11 or pluck every strand of hair from my body via Linux use.

[noone]

From normal users, the biggest complaint I've heard with modern Windows is the taskbar/start menu being worse if not as bad as Windows 8. That's not even including the MS account requirement, which usually gets lots of profanity even from people who aren't that tech savvy.

I get the impression all software projects (commercial and open source) are at their worst at the moment in time, ignoring the wishes and complaints of users. I don't see this changing any time soon unless they start massively losing money from lack of sales of newer stuff. There's no communication between the end user and the developer (or project managers in the case of MS) it seems and you're seeing a "we know best" mentality going on.
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[VCSMaster]

We're nearly 4 years into Windows 11 and only a few months out of Windows 10's EOL, and Windows 10 still holds 53% of the Windows Market, with 11 barely over 40%. The changeover is slow and painful for most. I'm sure most of that 40% is enterprise installs where most users were not given any choice whatsoever. I know where I work it was not an option.

Windows 11 is also really, really slow by comparison. Exact same hardware, nothing has changed, but I feel like I'm running Windows 3.x on a 286. I can watch icons draw in real time. A shame because this Getac laptop is only about 2 years old.

No, Microsoft could not care less what their users think. Half of this is UX desperately trying to justify their existence, and the other half is "vibe coding" in very high level languages.

Oh, and the account requirement is just obvious data mining. I don't have a Microsoft account, I don't want a Microsoft account. I would go back to writing paper tickets before I made one.

UPS is the same way. To change details about your packages they now flat out require an account. Rather than suffer through this process to give them free data to sell, I call and pester their workers to do it for me. I would rather spend 3 hours barking at the phone than 10 seconds giving them my information. At least I can be sure that by calling.

I wish there was such a thing as anti-advertisements. I want to deliberately take money from companies, and I don't mean I want the money for myself, I just want to cost them every penny possible. I've thought about renting time on a server somewhere to hammer YouTube with mass downloads to ensure they lose every penny they've ever made off me, but I'm still unclear on the legality of that. If I could bankrupt every company to ever advertise to me, I would.

[Sashi]