The article should have added a happy twist at the end:

"Luckily, alternative operating systems are available to breath new life into these devices, such at the Ubuntu OS which come pre-loaded on some Dell computers."

2024 is the year of the Linux desktop?

always has been

Catching headline to say that old technology will recycled downstream. As computers age the find new uses. Linux will still be there for these PCs as well as some will just continue with Windows 10.

This is a weird way to shame Microsoft, who traditionally, has very long support cycles. Plus they gave free upgrades from Windows 8 to Windows 10 and Windows 10 to Windows 11, no subscription required.

Others have commented here on what is the actual shame of this issue, Microsoft or not: forced obsolescence of hardware. Microsoft's history of "free" upgrades you've cited has no bearing on this situation since no new version of Windows will run on the obsolete hardware. It is a dreadful shame.

It’s fascinating that some people see Windows as a retail product who’s customer is the end user.

It’s much more accurately described as a foothold for all the other products. From Office and Sharepoint to the multi-figure licenses on the big business products, it’s all resting on the fact that Windows is used by future employees who then become managers who then become C-levels.

Seeing it through the lens of the product for consumers, free security updates can be MS giving a gift to the original purchasers. But seen through the lens of a foothold the free updates are a marketing expense so that maintainers of legacy systems have just enough reason to backburner investigating non-Windows operating systems as replacements.

Nah, people will keep using Windows 10, like they still use XP and 7 nowadays.

Yes. I'll take my chances with 10, a good firewall, common sense, and regular backups.

Yeah, the article assumes that people even update or want to update their PCs, or even know they can update them...

Windows 11 or 12 is what they'll get when they buy a new one one day.

Article implies that Microsoft failing to support all hardware forever means they are responsible for the full lifecycle of the hardware.

Which isn’t totally wrong; these are devices which would probably never run anything other than some version of Windows. But this article could be written at any time, with any version of Windows, and any $SCARYLARGE number of affected PCs.

These devices were largely sold as "Windows Computers". Soon, they will no longer be "Windows Computers". Instead they will be expensive paperweights. Microsoft is 100% responsible.

> But this article could be written at any time, with any version of Windows

Completely wrong. Previously you always could install the newer Windows. It might be slow, but it'd work. Microsoft has now gone out of their way to specifically forbid installing Windows 11 on old hardware so they can enforce DRM.

The only reason for any of this is because someone managed to convince microsoft that they should only support hardware with a modern TPM which the typical user will not benefit from. Instead it benefits those who wish to push DRM and "trusted computing", which is not the end user.

> Previously you always could install the newer Windows. It might be slow, but it'd work.

Windows has always had published minimum requirements and actual minimim requirements.

A 286 will run Windows 3, but not Windows 95 or NT.

A 486 will run Windows 2000 slowly, but I'm pretty sure you need a Pentium for XP (wikipedia says Pentium 233 Mhz).

There's plenty of examples of increased requirements over time. The TPM requirement may be different in character, as it's simple to bypass and Windows 11 then reportedly runs fine, but it's certainly prescendented that some equipment that ran the old version can't run the new version.

All your examples are from more than two decades ago when computer hardware was actually still evolving, and like you say, those changes actually had some basis in reality other than greed. The TPM debacle is 100% artificial. This is worsened by Microsoft marketing Windows 10 as "the last Windows you'll need" when they released it.

Those examples were just the easiest to lookup and communicate.

Windows 8 and later updates of Windows 7 require SSE2. Windows 8.1 can be ignored. Windows 10 requires SSE2, PAE, and NX for 32-bit or AMD64 with specific support.

Microsoft clearly didn't anticipate Apple switching away from version 10, which necesitates Microsoft switching from version 10 to combat the version number gap. There'a still potential for Microsoft to backpedal on TPM, or deploy something that justifies it. Alternatively, if Windows 10 is the last Windows I'll need, I guess I'll move to FreeBSD.

That happened naturally as early Windows developed alongside rapidly improving hardware. The situation today is due to an arbitrary policy decision by Microsoft. Microsoft could easily create a SKU of Windows 11 that runs as well on ten year old hardware as Windows 10 does.

Seems like the manufacturer who told you this was a forever computer should share some of the blame. I don't recall Microsoft saying that.

I don't recall anyone saying "This computer will stop working in X years". In fact I recall Microsoft saying that Windows 10 would be the last Windows version ever.

And even if they did say the computers would have an artifically limited lifespan: It's bullshit. It works fine. The greedy bigcorps just want more $$$ so they exploit you.

Not that this personally affects me, since I've been running Linux for years.

> Previously you always could install the newer Windows. It might be slow, but it'd work.

Not really. You can't run XP on a 386. It requires the Pentium instruction set.

Minimum requirements really do exist. It's not only about speed.

Same thing with Apple devices although on a smaller scale. Just yesterday I put an SSD in my Dad 2009 iMac and managed to install Ventura because some crazy nice people continue to maintain legacy patcher. And guess what, it works well enough for emails and browsing.

The fact that the most rich and powerful businesses on the planet are not required to do this just makes angry. If we seriously want to do something about the environment sh*t like this windows 11 thing should not be legal period.

It'd be a bit more tolerable if microsoft was forced to recall all the OEM PCs that came with a Windows license. Same goes for any other company that bricks perfectly usable hardware by e.g. "ending support".

I've been putting Pop!_OS on old Apple hardware and I think it's a lovely combination. I think most people could probably use it as a daily driver, but I'm pretty comfortable with Linux, so my perspective might be biased. The only thing I really miss is iMessage.

They said it themselves before. Windows 10: the last Windows version you'll ever want.

The end of Windows 10 could represent an opportunity for low-resource Linux distros, too.

Many of these machines will run full blown Linux distros; no need for the low resource ones.

Indeed. Most computers of the last 10 years are just objectively powerful and certainly powerful enough for most office tasks.

nah. But it will mean 100M even-more-vulnerable consumer PCs and a Big Business providing aftermarket support for 140M business PCs.

Manipulative titles that contain words such as "could" or "experts say" are not worth my time.

It's ridiculous that a machine that is still fast by modern standards isn't supported because they now require something that nobody actually uses.

Ah, but you forget. The rightsholders (will) use the TPM to control what you can run on your machine in your home.

What’s this? Care to share your sources?

Remote attestation. You already can't take a screenshot of Netflix on windows. Remote attestation will allow them to detect workarounds and block you.

It's outrageous that the expensive and user-hostile Windows laptop I bought at the end of 2020 will be e-waste in 2025, while the cheaper and faster and more secure Chromebook I bought in 2022 has guaranteed support until 2032.

Never again, Microsoft.

Install W10 Enterprise IOT LTSC 2021. EOL is 2032.

Visit the "Friendly Windows Thread" on /g.

ctrl-f linux

Nope. >:(

When one of my computers that was perfectly good was unable to be upgraded to windows 11, I found it ran linux mint perfectly well.

Why was this flagged?

Multiple dupes.

I dont see any reason, people always used EoL stuff and did not mind at all. If it works, they won't throw it away.

With regards to businesses, very few use PCs older than 8 years old and if that is the case, they likely dont care about EoL either.

Fine. I’ll just load Linux or a BSD and carry on. Perhaps run Windows in a VM.