Linux

A ton of people can barely open a PDF and this sub thinks those people can change to a completely different operating system.

The average consumer isn't going to toss out a good computer they bought if it can't run Windows 11. They're certainly not installing Linux. They'll keep using Windows 10 for as long as they can. I've seen way too much of Windows XP still running on people's computers, if it can still browse the web, access emails and look at Facebook they're not spending money on a new one

People aren't going to throw the PCs out. They are going to continue using Windows 10 for years without security updates.

I still saw XP installs a decade after support had ended.

What if, sometime after Win 10 loses support a virus takes advantage of the lack of patches and propagates across all the machines with a simple message "This operating system is no longer supported, please click here to upgrade." The button then runs a script to download and install a user friendly Linux distro. The world is then saved.

Microsoft: Arbitrarily increases the system requirements for Windows 11 even though it runs perfectly fine on older pcs just to get people to buy new computers

Also Microsoft: Why's there so much waste??

We all know that won't happen because most users don't give a shit about things like conserving hardware or the resources that went into making them, and will just use this as an excuse to splurge on the latest shiny device.

Who the fuck throws out their computer when it's still working???

If these were all stacked laptops, stacked on top of each other, they would form a stack 600 km above the Moon.

Ummm... what??

Assuming 3 cm thick laptop x 240 mil = 7,200 km. Moon is on average 380,000 km away. Even 30 cm thick laptops (lol) would only get you to 72,000 km.

Although I’m not surprised, it is interesting that the same big tech companies like Apple and Microsoft taking stances on being “environmentally conscious” while also ignoring forced obsoletion of old hardware. Your average office environment just needs basic email, document/excel editing software and a browser. Now to continue to do these base functions, they have to buy new PCs to do the same exact thing. And it’s not even faster anymore due to the bloat.

If tech wants to preach about the environment, they best start figuring out ways to keep computers out of the landfills.

It will be mostly Enterprise upgrading. The average consumer buys the cheapest laptop they can get. They won't be upgrading. I think nowadays not many average consumers even use computers. They just do everything on a phone.

Windows 11 won’t work on my laptop. Installed Linux a few weeks ago. Works better now than it did with Windows 10.

That picture generated by Dall-E looks like it came straight out of Wall-E.

Good for us. There will be a lot of cheap laptops on the market, which we can use for selfhosting and stuff.

My desktop and laptop are both eligible to upgrade, but I keep declining and will likely switch to linux when win10 support ends.

I'll install linux on my gaming rig when w10 support ends, I hate w11

That's the MS business model in partnership with PC makers. It's a juggernaut. They've operationalized it.

Because the vast majority of people don't have a reason to do it. They've never used Linux before - heck there are people who have never heard of it before.

The other thing is you and I, chances are can find a use for our old machines, have a place to store it, or know how valuable it currently is. Most other people aren't aware of how parts or entire systems depreciates, don't have a use for a second computer, and can't afford the storage space to store a spare PC for a backup. They also don't really have time to do a lot of research on the issue or just plain old don't care.

So what do they do? Well there only remaining option is to throw it away, maybe theyll be a bit wise and take it to an electronics recycler, where you have to trust it won't get thrown away anyway.

Before people throw their PC/laptop away, they either sell it on ebay, tinker with or keep using it. It's not like MS is gonna block your system from booting.

More computers for us poor folk!

One of the 240 million would've possibly been my friend's "old" gaming PC with a Ryzen 9 3900X, that he said could not upgrade to Windows 11. He sold it to me for cheap and I put KDE Neon on it. So far, it's running smoothly except for the challenge of trying to automate mounting a RAID 1 set of drives.

This isn't a new thing. Free Geek has been refurbishing computers and installing Linux on them for over two decades now. It started in 2000 in Portland, Oregon and has since spawned affiliate locations elsewhere, including in Oslo.

I think Microsoft should actually be forced to either extend support or give the user one option to be secured. With the later I mean pay for license or click here to automatically choose a Linux distro that the user will be migrated to. It could be Mint or one of MS own Linux distribution with OneDrive preinstalled and links to Office 365 online word. Even install Android could be one option.

This is better than getting all the devices on the landfill.

Remember that 99% don't know what to do with their computer or are lazy. One easy fix should be available.

1. I am not sure if posting this in a linux community raises the awareness to a relevant degree.

2. I am not sure if i am scared by the fact that there will be potentially 240 million pcs still running windows 10 and are posing as potential bot net.

I’ve had windows 10 tell me I can’t upgrade to windows 11 because my SSD was formatted incorrectly even though it had always ran windows 10 fine. None of this was properly explained to me or how to fix it. By the time I finally got it working I didn’t even want windows 11.

I guess I should hold off on upstaging my systems. There are going to be a lot of deals.