Windows Windows costs more (ransom) money

https://www.windowscentral.com/soft...sing-windows-10-beyond-2025-and-its-not-cheap

Stop me if I'm wrong, but this seems like a genuine article with some disparaging news. I am at the end of a heavy week though, so it's possible I'm being suckered in.

 

I've seen the same info from multiple sources.
Guess it's time to switch to 11 before they start charging for that too?

 

Yeah it's either go W11 (or 12 by then) or fork out if you want support.

Or, as will happen on with my NUC, Linux will take over. I've already started getting my OH used to things like Libre office and the link in a gradual adjustment.

 

The other issue which a) probably won't affect many others here on account of them being closer to the cutting edge than me (I'm back at the hilt) and b) might be able to be worked around with the right installation option, is that we're still running Sandy/Z68 systems. I'm not a fan of enforced paid upgrades when things are working as well as they need to, so I'll probably be looking into that TPM workaround.

 

I may have to give in and switch my gaming PC to W11 but I think Mint will go on my backuo pc.

What's put me off so far on my gaming one is that it looks like it will take longer to disable as much of the spy network on 11 that it will to install the damned thing.

 

That's how I began my journey to the penguin side in the mid-2000's:-

• Outlook to Thunderbird
• Photoshop to GIMP (I know!)
• Illustrator to Inkscape
• Office to OpenOffice (as LibreOffice used to be called)

Then, in 2006, I finally jumped to dual-booting Ubuntu, keeping Windows for gaming.
These days, most of the games I play run on Linux via WINE & Proton (even Star Citizen & Starfield!), so that Windows install is getting increasingly dusty.

 

Damn have I been using it so long they changed the name?

I used to use thunderbird a long time ago when you could pull directly from Hotmail accounts. That stopped iirc and I never revisited it.

Still use gimp from time to time.

As for gaming, yeah, I think it's doable but VR gaming looks more of an issue (?) Although from a brief scan that seems to be more controller issues and, when I last played a VR game, that was Elite Dangerous which was joystick anyway.

Seeing as my headset is only a WMR one and MS are ditching that too maybe there's nothing stopping me going full Linux on everything thinking about it.

 

I haven't tried it yet myself, but SteamVR seems to be usable on Linux.

 

Next year, looks like I'll finally be getting my arse in gear and moving to Linux, as I have been threatening to do for some years now...

 

Just move to 11, you can install without TPM.

 

Thinking this is the option for me because I know next to zero about Linux/command lines/sorcery. But if you had a W10 used solely for booting games, would that really be a security risk? Or move it offline and just live without updates and patches?

 

Been a good while since I looked but a quick look around seems pretty positive.

I may just have to install it on a spare nvme and try it on my backup pc. Probably Mint or something.

 

You can? I seem to remember lack of TPM was the issue it gave when I tried to install it on my main pc a while back, haven't checked since.

 

This may help
https://www.tomshardware.com/how-to/bypass-windows-11-tpm-requirement

 

From my Steam Deck experience, it feels like Linux gaming is still slightly more troublesome than Windows. No problem for Steam games, but for games that are not owned on Steam or older less popular games. It's not as straightforward as run the install EXE (eg. I had old CD for Freelancer) and double click on the EXE, sometimes also have to try different Proton version to find a stable version.

It's all do-able, just need some patience, probably good for same group of people as Intel GPU buyers: those who are willing to tinker.

I've updated to W11 and kept up to date, it's the path of least resistance. Most games "just works".

 

Yup, you use a dll hack that stops the check, ok not official but it works looks like there are better methods in the toms guide

 

I'm thinking this will end up being the "Unofficial sandys W11 Upgrade" thread. I'll be hanging out here asking daft questions for certain...

 

They finally went the 'pay toilet' route, just like we figured they would. Good luck getting me to pay for windows after that crap you pulled with 10. I don't even see the stuff you wrote in the bottom right corner anymore. It must have burned a dead spot in my retinas.

That's pretty much half my machines. I even bumped GG back to 7 and ran through the hell of manually upgrading from service pack one to EOL 7. -GG NEVER ran right on 10 after that upgrade hijack. I have one internet-safe daily driver, and a downloader machine that has never seen a password or credit card number.

 

This isn’t new for Microsoft, this is what they did with WinXP. I was working for a bank at the time, and we were one of those customers that paid for the full three years of extended support. That was actually cheaper than the overall cost of the Win7 rollout, although I’ve no idea if it was on a device-by-device basis back then.

I swallowed my pride and put Win11 on my gaming machine. It’s only a matter of time until they start gating features off to Win11, just like they did for Win7 and WinXP.

I can’t go full penguin on my gaming PC, it’s just not ready yet. There are still too many launchers, store fronts, DRM types, etc, that aren’t supported (or need a lot of config & faff to get running), and there’s a risk of being banned from online stuff if it looks like you’re trying to fool anti-cheat systems. Steam gaming is fantastic under Linux, but I do use other platforms besides Steam.

 

It occurs to me that this is why IT are trying to migrate my workplace to Win11/Azure by the end of this year.