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Microsoft's Windows 11 push backfired, so it's quietly keeping Windows 10 alive for another year
(www.xda-developers.com)
Too late, already on Mint.
this post was submitted on 27 Jul 2026
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My desktop has been running Linux for a while now, but I finally got tired enough with the repeated flops from Microslop™ that I switched my 6 year old Surface I use for surfing from the couch over to Mint.
Not looking back at this point.
If you ever distro hop on that, let me know how a touch centric distros works on it like Ubuntu touch. Was thinking of picking one up for couch browsing. RIP in peace my hackintosh Dell mini 9.
I'll let you know!
FWIW, touch works fine on Mint, and you can scale the UI up a bit to make it a little more touch friendly
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Just spent the weekend moving to Kubuntu. It only took about 5 hours and my computer is snappier than it's ever been. I have been on Windows for 30 years. Microsoft, you should be scared. You can't compete with free competition.
The only way to meaningfully compete with freeware is a feature advantage: if your revenue can sponsor developers to focus on polishing and improving your system beyond the free alternatives, there will be a market of people willing to pay for (immediately*) better products.
It's what keeps Excel a step ahead of Calc: between a rather clunky UX and frankly awful documentation for some features and functions, Libre just doesn't quite have the same maturity. It's good enough for the majority of use cases, okay for some more and I'm really only aware of one feature I miss (Power Query or equivalent) or haven't found. But it's not as polished, and for some, that alone is reason enough to stick with paid products.
Conversely, it's why more people are starting to move off of Windows: between user experience improvements, smoother installation, the spreading realisation that most stuff happens in browsers anyways and Proton making a lot of gaming a lot more accessible, Windows is losing that edge in features. If the list of anti-features and drawbacks grows large enough, the familiarity alone just doesn't hold people any more.
You can compete with free competition, but that requires an eye on the market. And performance-impeding spyware just isn't must-have for everyone.
*as opposed to supporting open source devs to the point where they could focus on their software, hopefully leading to better products some time later, which is less gratifying and less reliable than paying for a project you get right now
Yeah, the real "Year of the Linux Desktop" only occurs when devs actually get input from UX designers and stop designing clunky as fuck UIs.
I strongly feel the only reasons Linux is actually gaining traction right now are
A) proton/wine getting good enough interfaces for regular people to start using them (steam, heroic, hopefully bottles someday gets easier to use)
B) KDE making strides with their desktop envoronment.
C) flatpaks being easy to use and fairly reliable once someone learns to prioritize them
All still have a LOT of work to do with UX, but they are close enough to good that its less of a hurdle for new people to pick them up.
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Win 10 LTSC IoT edition already has security updates until 2032, and if you activate Win 10 with MAS you'll almost certainly be activated with this version automagically.
Signing in with a Microsoft account is what they really want you to do. This is why they never fixed the glaring vulnerability that allows you to hack the password from local accounts. It's also a general symptom of the fact that Microsoft doesn't really care if you pirate their software anymore, they care about you disabling telemetry because they make more money harvesting personal data than they do charging for software - even subscription software like Office365.
Yep, that's why every Microsoft game (even on Steam) now relies on "gaming services" to authentic.
It's not about piracy, Foza gets pirated a lot and always has. If you're pirating it, you can get around it. But if you have a legit copy, Microsoft uses that as an excuse to ID your computer and tie a name to it.
I really think it's gonna be a big thing, they just kind of slipped it in without telling anyone. They're gonna fuck around trying to constantly increase profit margins and lose their monopoly.
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Too late. I've already switched to Linux Mint and am never going back.
Same, almost a year and couldn’t be happier.
After switching to Linux (CachyOS) over a year ago now, I think I've booted my still existing windows installation twice. Both times was at the very start to get some settings from installed software to migrate and to sync some data or something, I barely even remember. That has also been over a year ago.
Ever since I've switched, I stopped noticing I even have an operating system. I just use my PC. Unbothered by popups, updates and bloat are (re)appearing pinned in my start menu (no I didn't want to have candy crush installed). Literally everything just works, and I'm mostly using my PC for gaming.
I regret not switching much sooner.
I switched whenever it was that I woke up and Copilot was installed on my computer without my consent. 2 years ago? More? Idk. I bought new drives because I didn't want to dual boot, but also wanted to keep Windows "just in case." Well, I haven't booted from those drives once in that time. I did plug them in to get some files off them a few months ago, but they are back to collecting dust again. I think it's about time to finally wipe them and put them back to work.
I actually got rid of windows instance entirely, I just realized one day that I hadn't booted it up in 6 months, thanks Linux.
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I literally called this when they announced that they would only do it for a year. Of course it was going to fucking backfire.
We're in an economic crisis, the AI shit is pumping tech prices through the roof (literally Microsoft is responsible), and they want people to get new computers? Fuck off, dipshits
I already switched my devices to Kubuntu.
They gatekeep windows 11 from older devices, what did they think would happen? I tried Linux on my thinkpad yoga, and the drivers are so shit i had to switch back to windows on it, and no, I'm not throwing away a perfectly good laptop!
Out of curiosity, what Linux did you try on it? Relatively new and you tried Mint maybe?
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Maybe if they had done that to begin with I wouldn't have nuked the SSD and dropped Linux on it?
After the 3rd or so warning about EoL and not being "allowed" to install windows 11, I went back to Debian. I'm not going through the trouble of switching again any time soon.
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More people are moving to Linux and are never using Windows in future.
Windows 11 can be wrangled into something decent, but it requires an immense amount of wrangling on initial install to do so.
As an example, XP needed 8-12hrs worth of work before I was happy with the way I had it configured. Win11 needs about 32-48hrs of work and testing. Some bits - like violently bludgeoning File Explorer back into a halfway XP-like folder tree - takes deep, repeated dives into the registry to properly and permanently eviscerate things like the Library and Home (quick access).
Is there a way to not require a Microsoft account? That's why I haven't upgraded.
Yes,
- disconnect internet on install
- install and get to the initial setup screen (out of box experience screen where you setup keyboard, etc)
- press shift+f10 to get console
- run "OOBE/BYPASSNRO"
It will reboot and bring you back to that same initial setup but when you get to the account page you will have an option for "I don't have internet" which then will allow you to create a local account.
They were going to remove this but haven't yet, at least the last time I setup a VM for some windows only software about a month ago.
Edit: This was a fresh install, not a 10->11 upgrade. I haven't tried that way so I can't confirm if it works on a keep everything upgrade.
RUFUS is a lot simpler.
And upgrades keep all settings, including local accounts. They always have.
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Yeah, sorry Microslop, you lost me years ago with Windows 8 and the absolute shit-show that was a tablet/touch GUI shoved onto the desktop for no good reason. XP was where Windows peaked. Windows 7 was the last one I actually used. Windows 10 and 11 are literally malware.
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Jokes on them, if you have a shitty enough computer that's doesn't meet the minimum requirements, you get to stay on Windows 10 forever!
Ha! Suck it, every computer tech that told me I had to move to 11.
I'm just sitting here patiently waiting for the end of the world staring at these corporations, Microsoft and Meta especially, just make company ending mistake after company ending mistake, for over a decade now. I really don't believe companies able to absorb that kind of incompetence should exist.
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Bring back windows 2000.. Being forced to upgrade to XP just to get wifi integration was saddening, and the point where I jumped ship.
This is the thing that bugged me about newer windows. I grew up with windows starting from 3.1 and each version had some fundamental improvement (removing ram limitations, WiFi integration, plug and play support, and just a bunch of shit) that would make you want to "upgrade" and even stinkers like ME still did somethings well. Now? Fuck me if I found anything better after 7 with the windows experience. I still boot up 7 in my living room for my media PC, and its to this day still better then 10 and certainty 11. In fact its the last windows device I even have now.
Like really, what is the rational in going to a new windows product in the last 10ish years? Broken features? Forced bullshit? Co pilot? Having the search be replaced by a Bing/co pilot eldritch horror? Its not security, windows has not been secure for a long while.
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And their CEO is probably going to just get handed an extra 10 or 20 million in pay for sucking this bad, probably.
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If hardware were cheap it might have gone a little better. Like I would love to build a new beast gaming rig (dual boot Linux and W11) but component prices are stupid and my W10 rig is perfectly fine.
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