Microsoft closes Windows 11 upgrade loophole in latest Insider build Microsoft has finally patched a workaround exploited by users seeking an upgrade path for Windows 11 that dodged the company's hardware requirements. The tweak arrived without fanfare in the Windows Insider build 27686. There were a few neat tweaks in the build, including updates to the Windows Sandbox Client preview and a …
Considering its going to put a lot of kit in landfill it should be made illegal. Yes, we all know those devices can have Linux installed but the average Joe won't know how. Having said that I wonder if a lot of decent kit will end up cheap on ebay, with folks who've no idea thinking they just have to sell it on.
My personal experience is that installing Windows is more of a pain than installing Linux, at least with major distros aimed at desktop use. No faffing about with license keys, or figuring out which of the multiple Windows editions (Home? Student? Pro?) to download, or wondering if you need to first download a "Media Creator" app. Or figuring out how to evade M$'s desperate attempts to get you to sign up for an account.
I'm more pissed off that "Windows 10 will be the last version of Windows" turned out to be false advertising. I paid for the copy on my desktop - it came on a USB drive in a shiny box! - but support has not been as long-lived as I'd like, despite the hardware being more capable than the majority of computers on desks.
Wave hands vertically whilst going Diddleee-didddllee-diddleee as we wind back to the past:
A machine bought with Win10 today may or may not meet the minimum spec for Win11 in however many years time, but it will almost certainly still be able to do the job that it is being bought for today after MS decide to pull support for Win10.
Their upgrades now appear to interfere with GRUB. Will their arrogance/incompetence never end?
I'm amazed at the amount of intellectual effort that goes into stopping things from working that used to work fine. I know its all done in the name of security but I keep getting the feeling that a lot of the security holes are created just so that users can be made to feel insecure and so follow the program.
I also expect the last updates of Windows 10 to completely screw it up. Its not that it won't work, it just won't work at all well. When this happens to this machine it will be converted from dual boot to single boot -- I'll just rebuild the system without Windows.
Indeed. I reconsider Linux every couple of months, but my list of necessary (Windoze) apps unsupported under Linux with no equivalent, with no web/browser interface, and most unsupported under Apple, is around 15. Not until the Linux community reduces the proliferation of distros to some sensible number, turns Linux into a credible everyday product for the man or woman in the street, doesn't require a terminal window and SUDO to fix the tiniest blip, and attracts enough app developers to go through the pain of porting their software to a different ecosystem, bug fixing it, supporting it long term, will I be able to switch. I doubt I'll ever port SWMBO, who doesn't need these non Linux apps, to Linux, due to the support issues once I'm gone. I wish it were otherwise, but these are the reasons Linux doesn't make headway apart from with those able and competent to migrate.
Almost everything on your list has been fixed for many years.
Your necessary applications are genuinely the only blocker - and that list is getting very short.
The majority of people can switch without even noticing, as most of what they do is in the browser, and the rest either has a free replacement or already works just fine under Proton/WINE.
Not everything though. Niche market commercial stuff and the likes of Adobe won't offer Linux versions until their customer base demands it.
"The majority of people can switch without even noticing, as most of what they do is in the browser, and the rest either has a free replacement or already works just fine under Proton/WINE."
Running, and dealing with the compatibility issues of, an emulation layer is not a solution unless it is 101% compatible and invisible to the user. Anything else is a hindrance to the user experience and necessary productivity. Apply gets away with it because their emulations actually, you know, work - the less that 100% compatibility with Proton/WINE just isn't sufficient enough to warrant a user's risk and effort of switching.
And that makes it worse: converting API calls to native Linux, when you don't even know all the (some hidden) API's that Windows has, is a sure-fire way to make your user experience 100% satisfactory...
And API call translation still does not 100% deal with hardware calls.
As I said, Apple gets away with it because they only have to adapt to the changed hardware layer, not only do they know their own API back-to-front they are using those API's untouched (same OS just on different hardware). Apple is very successful in this and is the only reason Apple users go willingly into the (now 4th) hardware change frontier - they know they can continue working with very little productivity hit on their shiny new Fruity hardware.
Reducing your exposure to the windows pathogen seems the correct approach. I have a Linux host with 95% of the apps I use , and a Widows VM for the few apps I can't get.
Continuing to fight to keep windows just opens you up to being data harvested to death (forced MS accounts) and now forced HW upgrades.
At 95% for your Linux coverage that makes you a good Linux fit. Many of us do not have that level of fit, for me beyond DaVinci Resolve and LibreOffice everything else is Windows only, especially the Adobe suite and all the associated audio/video hardware support, plus updaters for a lot of 'convenience' hardware in my life.
Still refuse to put my 13 yo desktop running W10 and ubuntu 24.04 to develop SW for lots of purposes., in the garbage can. It getting harder and harder to save the environment.
I now changed to build headless servers w/o guzzling power gpu cards and remote desktop into them. No need AI.
Why desktops and server software and hardware lack important power saving, like shutting down pci cards., DDR when not in use..has not been invented after centuries of tech, is amazing. Yes disks can, but thats it. No green innovation at tech companies... Money tech, no innovation tech for the benefit of humans and the emvironment.
My desktop PC is running an AMD Ryzen 7 1st gen and apparently is unworthy of W11. This box might be 6yr old but it is 100% capable of everything I need it to do and still 100% functional.
So at some point in teh next 14 months this machine will become my new Linux rig and we'll start to see if I can live away from MS world.
I'm not really looking forward to having to learn and tweak to get Steam etc running on it but I'll do that before I junk perfectly usable hardware.
Plus W11 being an information gathering and advertising tool first and an OS second hardly makes it an appealing prospect.
Frankly, just installing Steam seems enough these days. The only game with a work around in my library is ffxiv where I just installed the custom launcher (the square enix one is shit anyway), imported it into my steam lib, now I can remote play that as well.
Assuming of course you have am AMD card. Nvidia still is intent on making Linux users' lives hard,but that goes for windows as well with their stupid geforce all.
< "Frankly, just installing Steam seems enough these days"
Agreed. Bazzite is very impressive though and is an excellent selection for someone who wants to have the console-like experience of the Steam Deck on a custom gaming rig. A few weeks ago, I test drove Bazzite on an AMD powered mini-pc, and was inspired to do just this. I am only waiting on the processor to complete the build (Ryzen 5600x with 32GB of DDR4 3600Mhz and Radeon RX 6800). The box will live in my living room entertainment center, hooked up to my 55" TV. I eagerly look forward to wasting hundreds (thousands?) of hours of my life.
MicroKrap can go POUND SAND. Who is the "customer here"? They can byte me. The direction MS keeps going is alone.. a single reason to switch to [any other] OS. I prefer *inux. But to each their own. I've used Windows since before there was Windows and one thing that has been clear to me, MicroKrap does not give a Chit about their customers. They make me PUKE (no disrespect). Other than that, Cheers!
The people who have the power here, in regards to leveraging MS, is business; individual users don't have a loud enough voice to be heard through the chatter strong enough for MS to care, but large business users certainly can get MS's ear. It is up to *them* to complain about Win11...or, maybe, simply to skip it altogether (hello, Win8!?) and await the next iteration (my belief, actually).
So don't get your knickers in a knot. IMHO Win11's day will never really come (again, et tu Win8, et tu?) and Win12's release will be awaited strongly.
Once Win10 goes out of support, every Patch Tuesday basically becomes an exercise in publishing "probable Win10 holes".
Big business ain't gonna want to just sit and wait for Win12 and Win12 isn't going to have lesser hardware requirements than Win11. At the end of next year, businesses have a choice between Win11 or switching away from Windows.
(Unless, perhaps, someone knows of a VM host that is able to emulate the Win11 hardware requirements with acceptable performance. You'd still need to pay for a Win11 licence though, assuming businesses want to be legal, which I think is a fair assumption.)
When W10 becomes out of support it immeditely hits a CVSS 10 critical and all your compliance activities get a lot more complex.
Even if the score doesn't matter to you lots of compliance and contractual requirements will stipulate "no unsupported software".
Makes a move inevitable for any windows based organisation.
The design process for Windows 11 seems to have included compiling lists of features users wanted, and features that they didn't. And then mixing up the lists when handing them to the dev team.
I can't see how anyone can get any real work done with that POS.
That's a good question and I don't know the answer. I suspect it's along the lines of "fingers in ears and lalalalala". Or we'll use some sort of MS partner BS to justify it or just point at MS's paperwork which says they're ok when everyone knows they are not.
MS is the only game in town for most so everyone plays the Emperors new clothes game. We know it's not right, you know it's not right, we know you know but still no one says a thing.
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