Anyone who still needs to run Windows 10 for whatever reason should switch over to Windows 10 IoT Enterprise LTSC 2021 (version 21H2) which will continue to receive security updates up through 2032.
Linux is free and less wasteful on resources on the other hand.
vunderba 10 minutes ago [-]
It is, and if you can switch, it’s highly recommended. I have some pretty bespoke old RS-232 Windows software that was an absolute disaster to get working under Debian with Wine a few years back, so I (and others) might still need to keep a copy of Windows around.
ihalip 13 seconds ago [-]
Might want to try again, Wine progressed a lot in the past couple years.
f-az 3 minutes ago [-]
Can’t wait till Fable 6 can just decompile and reimplement old software like that.
LeFantome 1 hours ago [-]
Current trends indicate that regular Windows 10 may as well.
1 hours ago [-]
everyone 1 hours ago [-]
Also MS go to great lengths to make the secret good version of Windows (It honestly is very good, I'd put it up there with Linux Mint) very difficult to buy.
So just torrent it. It's bad enough running Windows let alone giving money to MS.
shevy-java 45 minutes ago [-]
> It honestly is very good, I'd put it up there with Linux Min
I am not necessarily a Microsoft hater per se, but to insinuate
that Linux is on the same level as the Microsoft operating system
is really strange to me. Whenever I, for instance, have to copy
files to windows, I am getting annoyed at how slow it is compared
to Linux. And that's just one issue I have. Another one is how slow
e. g. ruby is on windows, compared to linux. The windows operating
system is simply not good. Linux also has issues, in particular
the main GUIs (both qt and gtk suck).
nly 27 minutes ago [-]
And good god...windows 11 updates still take fucking hours and still require multiple reboots. How this is still so painful after 2 decades is beyond me
osti 51 minutes ago [-]
Does that support modern gaming?
giancarlostoro 12 minutes ago [-]
There used to be a website something like "windowsserver2008gaming.com" or something like that idr the specific domain, that was literally a guide to turn old windows server OS installs into gaming computers. The golden years.
badocr 38 minutes ago [-]
It does support "modern gaming" yes, but like the sibling comment mentions, at least Riot's anti-cheat demands Windows 10 22H2 (the last iteration of Win10) as a minimum. There are a few somewhat convoluted workarounds floating around that people use. Also Adobe CS seems to require Win10 22H2.
vunderba 47 minutes ago [-]
My only caveat is that I’m not sure how it handles multiplayer games that require anti-cheat or DRM-style mechanisms, but it’s been flawless with every title I’ve thrown at it so far (BG3, Shadow of the Tomb Raider, Cyberpunk, Ori, etc)
eska 40 minutes ago [-]
Even Riot’s rootkit “Vanguard” has reduced requirements for Windows 10.
kgwxd 35 minutes ago [-]
"modern gaming" being a euphemism for "more proprietary software that has chained us to even worse proprietary software for decades".
mawadev 1 hours ago [-]
What even is Microsoft's strategy? Windows 11 requiring TPM, Secure Boot and being all react wasn't great. Now we have a hardware shortage and ai in everything. I miss the time when it was "My computer" and not "This PC". I just hope they keep Windows 10 around till 2030 and longer...
senfiaj 49 minutes ago [-]
>> Windows 11 requiring TPM, Secure Boot and being all react wasn't great.
For me a bigger concern is that Windows 11 requires MS account, and making harder and harder to bypass it. This is a disrespect for my freedom and privacy. The hardware is not the biggest issue because it might catch up eventually. https://waspdev.com/articles/2026-03-12/i-ll-probably-never-...
20 minutes ago [-]
lazide 34 minutes ago [-]
Also the constant turning on despite my prior explicitly disabling of spyware (memory ‘live sampling’ to the cloud for ‘virus protection’, one drive ‘auto backup’), and features I’ve explicitly disabled like copilot.
It’s creepy as fuck, and for no real benefit to me that I can tell.
Terr_ 19 minutes ago [-]
Plus their privacy-destroying "telemetry" (and scanning your personal files) keeps becoming a bigger and bigger threat to the people.
Print an anonymous "I am unhappy with the regime" flyer, and MS/Apple already can already help regime thugs to be waiting outside your door.
inquirerGeneral 56 minutes ago [-]
[dead]
nosioptar 25 minutes ago [-]
I assume they're secretly trying to get people over to Mageia.
The people I've switched from windows to Mageia since win11 all love it.
(As great as Mageia is, it does have small repos compared to Debian or fedora.)
firefoxd 53 minutes ago [-]
I was a ubuntu user and work forced me to use a windows machine. Over the years I've accumulated so much software that I have no intention of leaving behind (photoshop cs2). In the past year though, I've been transitioning back to Ubuntu. So many software now offer Linux support, there's even less incentives to stay with Microsoft products. And of course is doing everything in it's power to alienate us.
shevy-java 44 minutes ago [-]
Have you tried wineHQ? It works very well IMO. But I also understand your point of view here; I have a second computer system on my left running Win10.
jbird99 2 hours ago [-]
Especially with hardware prices at the moment, this is a welcome announcement for many companies right now who need a refresh.
jmclnx 1 hours ago [-]
And sad for us. We may have to wait for nice cheap used hardware for use with Linux or *BSD.
But I wonder if components would have been stripped out due to AI. I heard even older RAM and SDD/HDD are getting expensive.
tjoff 1 hours ago [-]
Needs to be logged in, so not exactly user friendly. But made me happy, I was afraid I might have to do updates again now I can continue life not being bothered by windows update.
toast0 18 minutes ago [-]
I think you can log in to activate without changing to a microsoft account for desktop login (or at least you can switch back, I have some machines on microsoft account and some not)
this will probably go on for a long time, which is great because I won't install win11
freediddy 14 minutes ago [-]
Why does Windows 11 still have "Control Panel" and "Settings", both of which are similar but entirely different?
I hate Microsoft, I was very happy with Windows 10 but Windows 11 is different for no reason except to be different.
techteach00 53 minutes ago [-]
Windows 10 for me until new games won't run on it
kgwxd 30 minutes ago [-]
And then?
pooploop64 14 minutes ago [-]
Old games only
techteach00 13 minutes ago [-]
Steam box probably
b3ing 30 minutes ago [-]
I wonder if it’s because hardware costs are going up
greenavocado 1 hours ago [-]
You can get a completely minimalist Windows 11 by grabbing an ISO from Microsoft then reprocessing the ISO by feeding it into this utility: https://github.com/christitustech/winutil (Win11 Creator Tab) to get a NEW ISO which you then install. The end result is an extremely clean and stable Windows 11 installation.
The resulting image can remove telemetry, bypass hardware requirement checks, and enable local account setup out of the box.
I use uup dump myself, which downloads the components directly from MS and builds the ISO locally
EvanAnderson 7 minutes ago [-]
Do be aware that an autounattend.xml can cause Windows setup to execute arbitrary code. Their provenance matters too. It's relatively easy to encode scripts (or even binaries) into the XML to run during or after Windows setup. You can eyeball them, for sure, but I bet most people don't.
layer8 57 minutes ago [-]
The tool linked by the parent doesn't download ISOs from non-official sources.
greenavocado 13 minutes ago [-]
Did you even read what I wrote?
dietr1ch 1 hours ago [-]
Even cleaner when you don't install Windows at all :P
Why would people put themselves through the painful process of keeping themselves safe from their own computer?
StableAlkyne 18 minutes ago [-]
Not everyone has the luxury of moving off of Windows. Solidworks, for example, has no Linux or Mac port.
Though I do agree, if your workflow is supported by any non-NT based OS, that's probably a better option
wildzzz 6 minutes ago [-]
Anything I need windows for is work related and runs on my locked down (and actually very cleanly stripped down) windows 11 laptop. Its amazing how much Microsoft hates the consumer but bends over backwards for volume license purchasers.
eviks 1 hours ago [-]
That won't help you get to the minimum of Win10, though
greenavocado 13 minutes ago [-]
Yes it will, please re-read carefully. winutil removes hardware checks.
computer23 54 minutes ago [-]
They could actually help with the RAM and SSD shortage by extending support for Windows 10.
shevy-java 47 minutes ago [-]
I have Win10 on a computer on my left side as "backup" system.
I decided I won't change to Win11, so Win10 will be last
Windows version to use. It's no issue in that I am using
Linux since late ~2004 anyway, but I am also unwilling to
cater to Microsoft anylonger. I think it is time that governments
no longer force people to use Windows in general. For similar
reasons I reject the upcoming mandatory age sniffing that
lobbyists are pushing for (together with their attempt to
kill off VPNs).
animanoir 1 hours ago [-]
[dead]
Rendered at 17:56:17 GMT+0000 (Coordinated Universal Time) with Vercel.
https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/release-health/rel...
I am not necessarily a Microsoft hater per se, but to insinuate that Linux is on the same level as the Microsoft operating system is really strange to me. Whenever I, for instance, have to copy files to windows, I am getting annoyed at how slow it is compared to Linux. And that's just one issue I have. Another one is how slow e. g. ruby is on windows, compared to linux. The windows operating system is simply not good. Linux also has issues, in particular the main GUIs (both qt and gtk suck).
For me a bigger concern is that Windows 11 requires MS account, and making harder and harder to bypass it. This is a disrespect for my freedom and privacy. The hardware is not the biggest issue because it might catch up eventually. https://waspdev.com/articles/2026-03-12/i-ll-probably-never-...
It’s creepy as fuck, and for no real benefit to me that I can tell.
Print an anonymous "I am unhappy with the regime" flyer, and MS/Apple already can already help regime thugs to be waiting outside your door.
The people I've switched from windows to Mageia since win11 all love it.
(As great as Mageia is, it does have small repos compared to Debian or fedora.)
But I wonder if components would have been stripped out due to AI. I heard even older RAM and SDD/HDD are getting expensive.
I hate Microsoft, I was very happy with Windows 10 but Windows 11 is different for no reason except to be different.
https://winutil.christitus.com/
https://winutil.christitus.com/userguide/win11creator/
Use an autounattend.xml, the mass graves, and a WinGet JSON to customise an online image.
[1]: https://schneegans.de/windows/unattend-generator/
[2]: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-gb/windows/package-manager/wi...
Why would people put themselves through the painful process of keeping themselves safe from their own computer?
Though I do agree, if your workflow is supported by any non-NT based OS, that's probably a better option
I decided I won't change to Win11, so Win10 will be last Windows version to use. It's no issue in that I am using Linux since late ~2004 anyway, but I am also unwilling to cater to Microsoft anylonger. I think it is time that governments no longer force people to use Windows in general. For similar reasons I reject the upcoming mandatory age sniffing that lobbyists are pushing for (together with their attempt to kill off VPNs).