This is a most excellent place for technology news and articles.
If you are living on the coast and the water is rising due to climate change, just sell your house and move.
Sell their houses to who, Ben? Fucking Aquaman?!
October is going to be a great month to get a cheap second hand computer.
Seriously, use Linux. What is the problem?
The problem is there are a billion versions of linux, idk what one to choosex idk if i can play my steam games on linux, everyone who talks about linux seems to be a programmer /coder, and uses jargon that i don't even understand, so idk if I'll even be able to USE linux. And if I ask any questions I feel like it's all gonna end up sounsing like another language to me.
The whole idea of moving to linux is overwhelming.
But I'm starting to hate windows 11. And fuck Apple all together.
everyone who talks about linux seems to be a programmer /coder, and uses jargon that i don't even understand
I've been pointing that out for a while, but unfortunately there is a vocal subset of the community that thinks referring people to just read technical manuals is fine (if you can't, just learn to read it, duh).
Some things are concepts you'll learn easily, don't worry, and for the rest, you'll always find someone willing to break it down if you manage to look past the snobs. If you want, shoot me a DM if you just want to understand a specific term without someone making you feel like an idiot.
The problem is there are a billion versions of linux, idk what one to choose
There are plenty of suggestions here. Ubuntu is what got me started and I still think it's a good start*. Mint is from the same family, "Pop! OS" too (the name sounds silly to me, but it's legit and popular for a reason). Just look at pictures and see what seems prettiest to you, then go with that. The usage won't be too different.
The grandpa of that family is Debian, but I'm not sure it's quite as user-friendly out of the box. I'm mentioning it in case you come across the term.
The other big families are Fedora and Arch. I personally use a Fedora-Child, but to keep things narrow, I recommend the three mentioned above as starters.
* If you come across people hating Ubuntu - including myself - it's usually for ideological reasons rather than usability ones. Don't worry about that for now. Getting into the weeds of things is a skill you don't have yet and that's perfectly fine.
if i can play my steam games on linux
Steam, fortunately, is the one platform that works best with Linux. For their handheld, they decided to flip off MS and made their own Linux, along with a wrapper tool to make all the games run on it anyway.
You may hear the terms "compatibility layer", "Proton" and "wine", which is exactly that: A tool to make Windows stuff run on Linux. Again, don't worry about the specifics, just believe me: I'm playing almost all of my steam games just as I used to.
If there is a specific game you care about, https://www.protondb.com/ has a large store of knowledge. Some things run out of the box, some may require a few extra settings that are usually easy to add, and if there ever is a thing you don't understand, my offer stands.
The whole idea of moving to linux is overwhelming.
It's a scary plunge, a leap of faith, but I assure you: There are people ready to catch you at the bottom. The reception wasn't as warm when I jumped off of Win7, and the snobs are still around, but things have improved a lot over the past few years. Trust me, trust us: You won't be left alone.
Hah. Good luck trying to make me dispose of the computer I built almost a decade ago and that I just upgraded. Neither my laptops nor my phones have outlived this baby.
This is kinda funny, just thinking someone believes you can "trade in" a PC at all. Even more so when they are trying to say those same Windows 10 machines will be so useless you need to trade them in in the first place, making the value of such a trade in what, next to nothing?
Users to microsoft: "You're creating a huge pile of garbage out of perfectly fine devices because of unneeded hardware requirement"
microsoft: "It's ok, just buy a new one"
Rarely have a message gone through so bad.
And I now I use Linux. Will never go back to Windows after this nonsense.
This is the way. Linux gave my computer more freedom and lifespan. Never go back again.
Always wandering why it isn' t possible for Microsoft to maintain their version and update all along. Linux can do it, Android can do it. I' m not sure about Apple. I switched to Linux years ago and I'm still most satisfied about my choice. My current laptop is from 2009 and can still go on for years. That is what you call sustainability
But then the People wouldnt pay for it over and over again?
People are way less willing to pay for updates than for whole new versions.
Apple and companies using Android are selling hardware, not software like Microsoft.
Updates should be incorparated in the subscription of your software. True that Apple and companies using Android are selling hardware. But Microsoft is also selling hardware. At my work we use Microsoft Surface laptops and my son in law has a X-Box. They even start selling advertisements.
So, uh... You gonna trade me a better machine for my current one, Microsoft?
M$: best I can do is Intel celery, but it's new enough to run windows 11
I'm not using windows, but apple does the same thing. My OS is 9 versions old because they won't let me upgrade without buying a new computer.
Trading in a PC.... in 2025? To who? Where? What time period, even? They must be thinking it's still 1985, and you can trade in your IBM Compatible to your nearest IBM Distributor.
Can MS be sued by EU for this? There was the thing with USB-C, because E-waste, and now the most used Desktop-OS says "just throw your PC away" for a not really needed (and artifically defined) requirement.
I never liked Windows 10, I had way too many issues with it. However, so many companies rely on old versions of Windows and it takes them years to upgrade to the latest version. The machines I use at work still have Windows 10 installed because the software we rely on isn't compatible with Windows 11 yet. This whole "trade in your old PC for a new one" is ridiculous. Thankfully there's many Linux distros that work with older hardware so you don't need Windows!
Oh sure, why not throw a perfectly functional $1,300 into a shredder so we can make Microsoft happy? Oh yeah, I know, because fuck you Microsoft.
Linux users tell Microsoft to just get over it, dump your parasitic software and start over, because how hard can it be?
Actually you can get the IoT Enterprise LTSC here and do your windows thing until 2032
Ah, the old Ben Shapiro logic. If you don't want your house that's at risk of flooding, don't worry, simply sell it! Someone's bound to give you a good price for it!
A testament to the shot development standards at MS. An OS literally should not in a million years be this resource inefficient, especially out of the box.
Alright then MS, (this is hypothetical as I haven't ran Windows as my main OS in years and don't plan on going back) since you want me to trade in my hardware, how 'bout I trade in your OS instead? :p
Trade in to whom, to Linux users?.. Actually a good idea, not sure MS understood which almost logically complete advice they gave.
Hot take from an IT guy: save your important data, make a plain vanilla W11 boot USB (nothing fancy, no Rufus tricks), wipe your hard drive to zeroes, and install W11 like normal. I've reimaged a ton of older PCs and literally never seen it not work. My 10 year old Optiplex, supposedly ineligible for W11, runs W11 just fine.
Microsoft might someday break it, sure. That's not new. Microsoft products were always, in practice, available to us at Microsoft's pleasure. This is the same company that allows massgrave to exist on github because they'd rather we pirate MS Office than allow LibreOffice any oxygen. We'll probably be fine.
Also IT guy. Hot take indeed. I've done this but won't support this. I will almost guarantee some update will break shit at the most inconvenient time humanly possible and the people you've done this for will need your help, all at the same time.
I'm using this opportunity to expand Linux market share.
Most people only use a browser these days. People that ask me about Windows 10 eol get pushed towards Linux. There is really no need to spend money to replace a machine mainly used to browse the web.
Only if they need stuff that won't work on Linux or they really really want Windows to use Chrome or Firefox on for some reason I'll recommend complying with Microsoft's hubris.
But not before suggesting Apple sells pretty and user friendly computers as well. Because I really want this to hurt Windows's market share and by golly I'll do everything in my power to help.
W10 wouldn't get past the pin screen (type pin, then black screen forever, nothing else), so I used a live boot disk of fedora to rescue my files (turns out you can just bypass windows pins and mount the drive), then installed fedora on my old toshiba satellite and never looked back. Few years in I upgraded with linux in mind and now am cruising with a Framework 16. No regrets.
Join us! Cast off your shackles! Microsoft has no power over you beyond what you willingly give them!
