Too late, already on Mint.
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
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
Windows has different design pressures. They have painted themselves into a corner and can no longer afford to manage it. If they make sweeping changes they break the number 1 rule of windows, maintain legacy compatibility wherever possible. If companies have to buy new, it’s a harder sell for Microsoft because there are better, cheaper options out there they can’t compete with. Their own ecosystem is holding them back and they cannot do anything about it.
Windows 11 literally broke legacy compatibility deliberately, it refused to install on older hardware. So probably not rule #1 any more.
It broke legacy hardware compatibility. Sorry I should have been more specific. They need to maintain software compatibility.
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.
Signing in with a Microsoft account is what they really want you to do.
And for the sake of your personal data, it’s the absolute last thing you should ever submit to.
The number of people who have lost their entire digital life thanks to losing access to their Microsoft Account (doubly so now that BitLocker auto-engages, which makes direct extraction from the drive impossible) is just too damn high.
Always, always create a local account on install. That path is still available, even through USB installer builders like RUFUS.
I’m so surprised I’m able to use my 2026 Win 11 laptop with local account.
Are you from EU perhaps?
Yes, but I doubt that’s the reason. After all, I had to unplug the internet modem during initial setup 😆
That can work too but I think I read somewhere that M$ cannot push online account in EU but only in EU. So, don’t know. :)
Too late. I’ve already switched to Linux Mint and am never going back.
Same, almost a year and couldn’t be happier.
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?
I ran mint on an hm110 with an old as balls nvidia and the only bug i had was tracking down the 330 drivers so i could shut the godddamn fan up. (And then had to compile a Kodi build from source yay thanks muppets)
Linux isn’t as transparent as windows when it comes to legacy drivers, it’s always been an issue
Not to sell your experience short, that sucks, but that’s on Nvidia for being the worst company in the world for driver support.
Yup, two prongs on the same fork.
Fedora
And is the laptop quite new I wonder?
X1 yoga 3rd gen, so around 2018ish. The stylus and thunderbolt are broken. And the mouse lags. I already wasted a lot of time troubleshooting it. I’ll try again in a few years, maybe it’ll be fixed.
Well I’ll be. Didn’t know the Yoga line had abnormal hardware for things like trackpads/etc, as Thinkpads in general are considered to be so good for Linux. If you should tinker in the future maybe try something with a much more modern kernel 7+ like CachyOS. Either way nice chatting have a good one.
My Yoga 370 runs great with Fedora KDE
I’ve had this happen on a thinkpad yoga before. Honestly just keep windows on it and run an antivirus because you’ll definitely not be receiving updates for windows defender anytime soon as that is tied to windows update.
You could also be like me though eventually and hack the bios to not be absolute trash and get Linux working on it anyway.
More people are moving to Linux and are never using Windows in future.
Vista 2: Electric Boogaloo
ME 3: The Crappening
LOL!! I like it.
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).
Fedora workstation with KDE.
Took like 10 minutes dude.
I love Linux. I really do. I would say 99.9% of all services I self-host are things I run on Linux. And the other 0.1% I’m actively looking for a way to run on Linux or just don’t run at all. But as a desktop, there are things that I just can do as well or at all on Linux. And most of that are drivers or utilities that just either ignore Linux or half-ass it. Which is not Linux’s fault, but it is what it is.
An example: I have a laser cutter in my shop. I use Lightburn. They essentially have stopped all development on the Linux version years ago. So I have an old Macmini running the Mac version (I despise windows with the passion of 1000 suns). So no Linux there. I haven’t looked for a decent Linux version so something might exist. But what I have works and I have other more fun things to try.
But Linux on the desktop can have advantages. At work, the desktop management shit is really getting annoying and increasingly affects my Mac desktop. I don’t need some central office making choices on my desktop/laptop when I know more than most of them. Not to mention I do weird things with networking for my lab that is so outside of normal, I guarantee they have never even considered. Case in point, they were forcing reboots to upgrade the day of any OS update. Even dot 0 releases. I’m like WTAF. I got them to allow a week which is better I guess. They haven’t figured at how to force that on Linux yet so there is a reason to move to Linux for sure. But this advantage for Linux is basically due to the same thing. Linux is ignored on the desktop.
You have to do the essentials on Linux. You have to fight for it. The more people turn on Linux and bitch about stuff not working, the more likely companies/people will start building drivers for it. It’s a fight, no shame if it doesn’t work, just use other operating system to get it working but spit on it while doing it
You’re not wrong. And we have several people in my group especially since most of us are geeks and technical, that are running Linux as a desktop.
Linux can be made to do those things too. That’s a management issue. Head office is dumb and doesn’t know what they are doing and they make that your problem.
As for the CNC, aren’t those all some variation of GRBL anyway? I feel like there’s a major disruption opportunity for retrofitting a more standard control system onto existing CNC machines. Something supported by Linux/bsd/temple/whatever. The CNC machines are technological anchors for any shop and honestly they don’t need to be. They aren’t as complex as people think.
GRBL
Depending on the controller board yes. Lightburn is more than control though, it’s also design/preparation/GRBL gcode generation for the job.
I know. Just don’t tell central IT. Plus the few number of Linux desktops is also reasonable n to not bother. And anybody running Linux as a desktop has way more of a clue than some admin running windows 11.
It’s not the GRBL that’s the issue. It’s the turning things into GRBL that’s the issue. Like I said they probably exist. It’s just a matter of being lazy and not fixing something that already works. If it was windows only, I’d be more inclined.
I still run a small constellation of programs (some obscure) that are required for my workflows that have neither a Linux version that is perfectly file-compatible, nor can be run reliably under WINE.
Plus, I also provide tech support for others, so being able to “mirror” actions on my own iron as I’m helping them is a massive plus. Differences between installs has helped me catch config issues on many occasions.
So unfortunately, running Windows is still a must-do for the foreseeable future. Now granted, I also have a good half-dozen workstations, which also run MacOS, OpenBSD, OpenSUSE, and various other virtualized fun shit (HaikuOS, etc.).
Keep a windows VM available with Boxes.
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.
Build your USB installer using RUFUS.
The SELECT drop-down (the down arrow itself, not the entire button) even downloads a generic multi-version of the latest Win11.
It’s at the last step before creating the installer when RUFUS gives you a bunch of settings that you can leverage, one of which is a Microsoft Account bypass so you can create a local account.
More than XP 🤣 I think Linux is better for everyone
I need a browser extension that removes “quietly” from headlines.
Why
Well, if there are headlines about it, it isn’t actually all that quiet.
But it was quiet before that. It just means there wasn’t any sort of announcement. Which is important context, don’t you think?
The “quietly” is aimed at Microslop. They didn’t grandly announce it on every platform like they do with everything else.
It is perfectly fitting in this context.
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.
To be fair, windows 8 was great at what it was designed to do: make a touch friendly UI for doing actual work, which iPad couldn’t really do at the time. Apple has since copied the best ideas Microsoft demoed back then in win 8. But Microsoft mismanaged the project and shoehorned that UI into everything and ruined it.
Microsoft can do amazing things, even now. They just cant manage themselves out of a paper bag. When they try something new, they generally come up with some impressive shit. But then it gets handed off to the shareholders goons to mismanage and weaponize. So the metro UI went from a problem solver to a punishment.
I don’t remember writting this comment…it sounds like me, but…Hey! That’s not my account!!!
Wow. I have a mental doppleganger! Neat!
Hehe :)
Xp failed to much imo, 7 was better
I suppose Windows 7 did have a bit more overall stability, but at the same time, it was also when the spyware and other dubious features really started creeping in, so was it worth it?
Plus, I never ran into a boot problem that startup repair could actually fix. I still don’t know what the point of that tool is. Every time I had to do things manually anyway.
Jumped ship to Fedora three years ago.
I been testing it out for about a month and it is a nice OS, and been enjoying the HDR support. Did wonder why videos didn’t play initially though when I didn’t have trouble on Linux Mint and Ubuntu until I found out I had to install RPM fusion. But, after that smooth sailing so far.
Ha! Suck it, every computer tech that told me I had to move to 11.
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!
