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!
When management doesn’t want to upgrade from XP because it still works
Linux/BSD blah blah blah
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.
Will installing / using this reset or format the Mac? I mean, as a first time install thing.
Believe so, yes. You have to clean install the OS with a installer made using the tool.
I’ve seen similar options, but haven’t heard of this one. Looks like my 17 yr old comp might be compatible. I wonder how compatible though, since most of my USB ports already don’t work with my supported OS.
Anyway, thanks, I’ll look more into it.
“Trade in” like theres a dealership willing to give you some kind of fair value for your old computer. That said, if you’re willing to be extorted by Microsoft, then you get what you have coming to you.
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
Android doesnt, my S8 can no longer be updated and many apps are beginning to no be supported. I love this phone, all the new ones are way too big.
Lineageos. I’m like 1 android version behind latest on s9.
Also it depends on the chip maker and the phone maker. Fairphone will get the latest for like a decade…
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.
Actually you can get the IoT Enterprise LTSC here and do your windows thing until 2032
I switched to Linux on my laptops years ago. Recently, I retired and started playing video games like Skyrim. I play on a Nintendo Switch. I considered playing Skyrim on a laptop so I could use/build mods. I bought a laptop with Windows 11 and spent forty minutes removing the bloat, ads, spyware, ai nonsense, and other dross, fixing it so it did not ‘update’ to restore everything I deleted, and installing my preferred alternatives (browser, search, email etc). It reminded me why I hate Windows almost as much as Mac OS (which is even more controlling). Microsoft have hundreds of engineers ‘enshitifying’ everything. It is more than a full-time job trying to stop them and block their ‘improvements’. I am retired. I have better things to do.
I did not enjoy playing games with a laptop (hurts my arthritis, I prefer using a console and an easy chair) and resented having to reverse engineer everything I installed to keep it running but without sacrificing my privacy so the laptop now just sits in a drawer. It amazes me that anyone still tolerates Microsoft products, or any of the monopolists stuff. Why is anyone still using google search or chrome browser, why bing or any of it? Why is anyone still seeing adverts? Why is everyone still being fed by algorithms? You must chose this - but why? I always sought out better and if it did not exist, I built it, and if I could not build it, I did without. There is a lot of dumbing-down around technology. Back in C20th, we used to build our own hardware, write our own software. We were skilled hobbyists (later I got an M.Sc. to reinforce my hobby skills with theory and even ran a business for a while as an engineer). Around 2000 +/- five years, the monopolists offered ‘help’ in the form of WYSIWYG editors to write code for us or ‘click buttons to register your account’ platforms to host content for us instead of us running our own websites (blogger, wordpress, facebook, twitter etc). They dumbed us all down, farmed us like animals for data and used clickbait to get ad revenue and undermined our politics, culture, even changed our sense of being human. Now old folk can build resources but younger people can only consume. We have to re-skill and resist the seduction of the easy and free-to-use. There’s no such thing as a free lunch. Never trust a tech bro, whether USA or any nationality.
Personally, I want to ‘jail break’ my Switch and make mods for my console version of Skyrim. I can’t do that now as it is illegal but when they bring out the Switch 2 and the old console is ‘obsolete’ and they stop trying to get money for Skyrim, I reckon we tinkerers will get a chance to re-purpose the old console to play the old games in our own way. I reckon some exciting engineering is happening amongst the recyclers and re-purposers rather than amongst the corporates. I only buy second-hand for ethical reasons and to save money. I always install my own software based on AOSP or use a more ethical distro or alternative to the commercial options. I always debloat or degoogle or remove unwanted stuff. I wish that kind of personalisation were more common. There is a zero sum relationship with tech: either the technology controls you, or you control it. I urge you to control your own tech. Don’t be enslaved by it. I feel I am in a minority in wanting sovereignty over my damn phone. It makes me sad.
Personally, I want to ‘jail break’ my Switch and make mods for my console version of Skyrim.
Why not just get a steam deck?
I tried creating a Steam account and was blocked by the revolving captcha security thing - took days to try to get help from their customer care and by the time they got back to me I had lost interest. I spent the waitjng time researching Valve and I decided they are not an ethical business. Made me sad as I loved the idea of a customised-for-gaming-on-console linux OS and liked the look of the hardware. But Valve is a monopolist and has too much market share and too many users and thus too much power - USA politics today shows how big a risk that is. Valve supports unethical business models like ‘rent game to play’, AI-generated junk games and IP violations so it debases game development and hurts indy developers, live-streaming games which is bad for environment. It promotes ‘easy access/always on gaming’ and is thus profiting from addiction-to-gaming, which ix a MASSIVE problem and few gamers admit it. It’s an American corporation and I distrust American corporate culture. Most of which might be said of other console/platforms so its not just Valve/Steam, I feel wary of but the whole industry. I bought a second-hand Switch so did not help Nintendo/Japanese corporate power directly. I bought a bundle of 2nd-hand games on sd card with minimal download content (except for ‘No Man’s Sky’ which constantly updates). I am trying to be an ethical gamer - limit my time gaming to stop me becoming an addict etc. But I admit I am compromised - I spend too much time gaming, being retired its easy to lose track of time. Honestly, I feel like a vegan who wraps bacon in thick wholemeal sandwiches and pretends they are not really eating pigs since its mainly bread. I am ‘a work in progress’.
Valve isn’t like most USA corporations, they’re private and generally a lot better.
As an indie developer, Valve has helped me a lot. I have my game on Switch, Xbox One, Epic, and Steam, and Steam is by far the most revenue, and was the first platform that accepted my game. They make it so easy for indie devs to ship games - yeah the downside is they get a lot of low effort submissions, but the user rating system takes care of that (mostly). And they’re adding more warnings for gamers about what games have AI generated content/art.
blocked by the revolving captcha security thing
I’ve seen this happen for people behind VPNs or using public access points (coffee shops, schools, etc). Valve has to do this to prevent spammers, and the sad part is a lot of real users get hit too. But before they did there was a lot more spam user accounts in the steam forums and messaging users, usually scams. If you still want to create an account and can’t get past the captcha send me a private message and I can help you out with it.
I don’t love Valve, as they’re just a company at the end of the day, but they have done a lot of positive things for Linux gaming and the indie developer scene. Especially for linux graphics drivers.
The form factor of switch/steam deck is expanding, valve doesn’t by any means have a stranglehold over it, they are by far the biggest player but the benefits to linux gaming are shared across the board which opens up the entire industry not closes it down?
Not saying I trust Valve or think they are somehow a company but good but yeah out of the current options I will happily give Valve my money.
But I admit I am compromised - I spend too much time gaming, being retired its easy to lose track of time. Honestly, I feel like a vegan who wraps bacon in thick wholemeal sandwiches and pretends they are not really eating pigs since its mainly bread.
Fuck that noise, play video games, they expand and stimulate your mind and you don’t hurt anyone or waste any significant amount of resources playing them!
You make fair comment. I don’t disagree with 99% of what you say. However, I stand by my words about addiction. I agree gaming is potentially a very benign thing and I get a lot of pleasure from gaming but I still want to red flag some aspects of it where addiction does seem to be a factor. Being addicted to gaming has led to health problems for players e.g. repetitive strain injuries or tendonitis - it has adversely affected my health, made my arthritis worse, caused tendonitis so I have had to cut back etc. In extreme cases, addicted gamers have murdered their own babies or been violent to partners because they were distracted by them while playing, lost their temper, and lashed out. And getting players addicted is obviously potentially profitable but making profit from addiction is evil. I say ‘responsible gaming’ needs to be the uncompromising rule just like with anything else that can be addictive or mood-altering or get under our skins the way a well-made game can.
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!
Can’t game 100% on Linux not all games work well enough and driver issues.
If not we wouldn’t be on Windows.
I decided not to trade freedom for microtransactions years before I even switched to linux, personally. If a game can’t run without literal spyware, I probably haven’t played it.
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.
The addage to people who ask if I buy PCs is: You want to get rid of it. How am I going to convince someone to not only take it, but pay money for it?
Maybe to the “third world” ( i dont like this name ) countries which still use linux because of high financial costs of windows… I can’t wait react os 1.0
Linux users tell Microsoft to just get over it, dump your parasitic software and start over, because how hard can it be?
As someone who did exactly this a year and a half or so ago: so much easier than you think.
As hard as plugging in a USB with OS and follow instructions.
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.
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.
I made the jump recently, too, after having to use W11 for my studies… Figured that the one multiplayer game I play that actually needs Windows to work (and that’s purely because the dev’s won’t enable anticheat on Linux) is not too much of a sacrifice when the alternative would be giving out the possibility to tune the OS to my liking.
Bye bye Windows, you were “great” during XP and W7 times!
Well, if I’m honest I tried to install Win11 before Linux but it was such a pain in the arse I gave up. The installer couldn’t pick up the SSD so I had to download drivers onto USB and install them half way through the wizard. THEN, it wouldn’t pick up the WiFi card so I bypassed that to get the installer to finish, and to top it off, even after I’d installed all the drivers, it still didn’t pick it up, not in the device manager, nowhere, as if it didn’t exist. So I gave up. Linux installed first time and although it’s not quite perfect yet it’s functional enough for me to actually use the flipping thing! Haha
I’ve installed every Windows since 95 on various machines and never had so much trouble. Win11 is complete crap. And Microsoft are a bunch of dickheads for forcing it when there was literally nothing wrong with Win10.
I also had problems installing Win10 years ago, the problem was I had more than one drive plugged in… Took me half a day to figure that out.
The only problem with installing Linux (pop_OS this time) was I didn’t flash my USB stick properly, so user error. Also, could be my old Kingston Datatraveler isn’t well suited for the job
Don’t even want to think how badly installing Win11 now would break my system…
If you are living on the coast and the water is rising due to climate change, just sell your house and move.
At least with OS you have a choice.
Someone has to say it: I bought a MacBook!
So you went from a 10 year upgrade cycle to a 7 year upgrade cycle?
A MacBook is on the upgrade treadmill even faster than windows lol
I’ve never had a pc get to 10 years old before upgrading. I fully expect my MacBook to meet my needs (which don’t include rending animations or editing video) for the rest of my life (I’m 65) OR at least 10 years.
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.
