This is a most excellent place for technology news and articles.
Why do they care? Don't they want the tiny market share of Windows 11 to go up?
Well if you buy say a new laptop it will come with an OEM license so they make a sale unlike if you use your old windows 7/8/10 license on your unsuported laptop
They don't care about home users buying licenses. That's probably less than 1% of license sales. As long as businesses are buying it they're happy. You can activate Windows with a github script. Microsoft would have fixed that vulnerability if they really cared.
I don’t know much about business but I think that that is what they think that they’re doing….
I am using Linux for work anyway and used Windoof just for gaming. I have heard good things about gaming on Linux recently, so that's a good incentive to make the full switch.
While this article is about upgrading to Win11, not necessarily a clean install, I found the best way to bypass the requirements is to make an autounnatend with Schneegans.de . Make a Win11 installation USB, generate an autounnatend to bypass the requirements, remove bloat, allow offline install (local account instead of Microsoft account), and a couple other little tweaks like dark mode etc. Drop the xml on the root of the flash drive, and boom.
Or... You know... Install Linux.
Rufus can do this too
Making Win 11 even harder to install is a bold move from Microsoft. Most average users are content with using the OS that comes with their PC and upgrading it when necessary. But if the option is to either buy a new PC or fiddle with registry settings in hope that Win 11 will work, I think a lot more people will start looking at Linux instead.
Let's not kid ourselves, most people will not start looking at Linux. They should, but they won't. They'll continue to use the version of Windows their machine came with, becoming a botnet petri dish in the process, forever, until it breaks or becomes unusable. If Microsoft actually forces their machine to become unbootable they'll rush off to the mall and replace it with a Mac.
And in the meantime they'll click off any nags and warnings Microsoft sends them without reading them.
Just like happened with XP.
Just like what happened with Vista.
Just like what happened with 7.
Etc.
Most users are clueless, barely understand how to use their computers except by rote, and therefore are extremely afraid of change. Microsoft could offer a free puppy with your updrade to Win11 and I think about 75% of users would still refuse to take it.
Most users won't. Users that are happy to fiddle with registry settings might be a little more likely to though
Nope. Brother in law is upgrading all the family PCs (a total of 3) so he can carry on with 11. Only nerds like everyone here and myself will switch to Linux because we know upgrading your PC just to support the OS is ridiculous.
I'd bet most non-nerdy people would rather not upgrade their PCs at all. Upgrading is financially hard, while using an EOL OS in their eyes, especially if it is better than the new version, isn't bad. Maybe even good, because no sudden, annoying, unskippable updates would come anymore.
Well, I guarantee you that the whole world that don’t have strong currencies (like the dollar or euro) will find workarounds to avoid buying new computers.
Two sides of the same coin though. For every ten people not switching even if there is one, it's good just for the push alone
Should they really though?
Been daily driving Linux for 15+ years now.
I recently got a computer that officially supports Linux (framework 13). Running Fedora, an officially supported distro.
Had to literally compile C code just to change my touchpad scroll speed.
I love Linux and it's improved a LOT over the years but there are still things that IMO make it not quite ready for average consumers.
Nah, just us tech heads that are willing to put in the effort (and I'm not, Linux on the desktop has a long way to go, and I use Linux for all sorts of services).
99% of users can't be bothered to understand the concept of a web browser, and that there are different ones. Switch them to any Linux distro and they'd freeze like deer in headlights.
Source: decades of providing support.
And yes, dumb move my MS, not sure what they're trying to do here.
Linux on the desktop has a long way to go
What do you perceive is missing? I've been using Linux exclusively since 2006 (while supporting Windows users at work), there's never been a time when I felt like I was missing a particular Windows feature. Mostly I just find Windows' lack of user-friendliness to be extremely maddening.
To be fair, if you've been using Linux exclusively for nearly 30 years then yeah, you wouldn't be missing any Windows features because you don't daily it. That's a no-brainer.
I'm a daily Windows user but I do sometimes dabble in Linux both out of curiosity and also for challenge reasons. I used to use it for my school laptop(s) and at one point I had a 2nd desktop rig running it. I can gladly say it has come a long way and improved in many ways since the early days, but it still has a ways to go. Unfortunately one of the biggest obstacles is the Linux community itself which is both resistant to change and exceptionally hostile to new users.
About two years ago I was troubleshooting an audio driver that refused to work and I was asking in several Linux communities for assistance. The responses ranged from standoffish to indifferent to several people outright saying "If you can't even figure this out then maybe you shouldn't use Linux lmao". And I agree. Maybe I shouldn't. Because I was tired of spending so much time screwing around in a terminal while talking to people that think I am trash for struggling to use the operating system they claim is so good.
Linux can be an extremely polished, smooth, and effective experience but that experience is like the frozen surface of a lake. Once something goes wrong and you break through the surface - you are screwed unless you are highly experienced already. That has been my experience, at least.
exceptionally hostile to new users
~~What kind of hostility have you seen?~~ EDIT: You wrote all that lol, my bad
Just install them a browser and pin it to task bar on mint. Maybe add all important websites to favourites, and boom 99% of use cases of common people: Check ✅
It’s like they forgot that their monopoly is ensured by their lenience towards piracy and industry leading backwards compatibility. Being consumer hostile this way is unusual from Microsoft but I guess they hope to make it up by making Windows subscription based in the longer term.
I was really considering getting a new laptop and now I want it to be a Debian laptop. :^
I wish Debian's installer didn't suck. I want to be able to use btrfs without manually partitioning. I know how to manually partition in Calamarus or whatever it's called but Debian's installer confused the shit out of me. Void Linux also had a more straightforward installer. Aside from that, Debian is great.
How do you choose a Linux OS?
Personal preference really but Debian is pretty much just Ubuntu without the bloat. You can also try a lot of them on a live disk without installing (Mint is a good option too).
The update claims that Windows Defender now identifies the app as potential malware. Flyby11 is a popular third-party tool that allows people to dodge the TPM 2.0 requirement and install Windows 11 on any machine, so Defender suddenly taking a dislike for the app does raise a few eyebrows.
Well, it was only a matter of time until MS abuses their malware scanner for software they don't like.
I guess it's a good thing I am switching to Linux.
Don't say, do.
Mint. There you forgot to finish your sentence.
I'm installing Mint! I also had an eye on EndeavourOS, but I'm thinking I can first switch to mint and once I have some time in it switch to the more involved EndeavourOS tweaking process.
The thing that most grabs me about mint is the polish and refinement, its a no frills shit just works vibe. For instance install bazzite or most other distros even silverblue etc. The program names are wacky and navigation isn't intuituve as much. Not to say those are bad but mint seems easily labelled. Thought out and navigatable. Having almost everything you need pre installed with next to zero bullshit.
Cinnamon seems the best. I just booted up XFCE yesterday. Good but not cinnamon good. Games worked on my all AMD system out of the box. No tweaks needed for 98 percent of games. It's been so smooth that half my family has joined. Due to Windows upgrade bullshit nobody has looked back. Windows gets used maybe once in 6 months to go play multiplayer games. Even then I could easily ditch it. Never going back.
And here I am with windows 11 compatible hardware refusing that upgrade. I'm primarily in Linux on my desktop these days, but it dual boots into windows 10.
How is this cracking down? The article says the documentation for the registry edits have been removed and an automated approach of removing restrictions is now a false positive for windows defender.
I'm assuming the registry edits still work (article doesn't say) in which case where am I meant to point my outrage?
Now if they block windows 11 from running and the registry entries do nothing, that would be a worthy news article.
