Moving away from Windows - It begins

The straw that broke the camel's back. I am the camel. This is a lovely rant slash important article announcing and explaining my rationale for moving away from Windows as the operating system of choice, covering current and future problems and restrictions in the system stack - new online account requirement during Windows Pro setup and possible future desktop-as-a-service model, my usage model and needs, software support in Linux with specific focus on gaming and office suite, potential risks related to TPM and security chips, strategic migration plan until 2025 and beyond, and more. Oh, enjoy.

https://www.dedoimedo.com/computers/windows-moving-away.html


Cheers,
Mrk

 

Good plan. I would do it too if I didn't do this for a living.

 

Same here man. Wish I could.

 

You want a replacement for KompoZer?
Take a look at Bluefish.

 

I tried all of the modern wysiwyg editors, kompozer remains the best.
Mrk

 

My laptops won't run Win 11, which is fine with me. After a couple of bad experiences with Win 10, I'm staying with Windows 8.1 Pro. At my age, I'll play the odds. I figure by the time this laptop dies, after which I'd have little choice but to move to Win 11, I'll be drooling and wetting the bed in a nursing home somewhere anyway.

 

anyone is free to use an OS which meets his requirements. i can use this windows 10 until 2028 and thats more than fair
i used win81 for my programming machine until i changed now both machines which are on win10. both - and also win81 - are close to win7. win81 is ok until 2023, round about one year of support. but you should think now about a replacement, not in 2023 close to the end.
as long i considered linux as a replacement i struggled and missed its installation. its no replacement for my needs, and my games (i dont own a gaming console).
the lies about tpm and more for win11, guess how oem vendors are installing their win11?
tpm and security - its possible to spy on tpm<>cpu data thats why "pluton" is coming. linux need to accomplish that task otherwise it will fail ofc.
for sure my next device will be an android device, or with chrome os. for the basic needs here, not the special things i currently do with windows.

curiosity: people complain about system requirements and forced services (actually MS plans to make an account mandatory) but their are tied to google or other services with their devices. your choice.

 

Nice article, thanks, Mrk.
I recognize the sentiment, from when Microsoft started pushing Windows 10 to Windows 7 users, in 2015 [1], [2].
I promised myself to migrate to Linux before or when Windows 7 would be EOL in 2020 [3] and I kept that promise [4].
I think I will enjoy your Moving away from Windows series.

 

Wow, I feel like it's obscurely the end of an era. But it seems more than usual are talking about making the transition to Linux exclusively. I don't recall this mass unrest when Windows 10 first came out; then again, there weren't these ridiculous security requirements and the add'l MS acct. requirement for Pro users. A slap in the face for its paying customers.

 

Fascinating article. I'm staying with Win7 until pigs fly & cars run on Vicks Vaporub. I just installed 7 on a brand new Lenovo Laptop. However, all my business friends & their ITs have moved to Win11 & profess to love it. Go figure.

 

I've been using Linux MX-21 primarily for several months on my dual-boot laptop with Windows 11. It handles all my basic and simple needs seamlessly. The only concern I had and now alleviated was I need Zoom for an online meeting this week and another in March, which I found available in the Repos and have it installed

 

I just bought a LOW cost Chromebook to fool around on. I figure Google already knows everything about me so wth.

 

I waved goodbye to Windows in the rear view mirror years ago. I've never regretted it. I just had a custom laptop built running Ubuntu.

 

I've read that M$ is already working on Windows 12. It will still support Win32 apps but with some form of virtualization. Seems like they want to completely redesign Windows, perhaps UWP apps will become the standard. I wonder if this will bring you back to Windows, I guess not.

 

win12 is fake at this moment.

 

One day Windows will be a DE on Linux.

 

I am practically 100% Slackware64-current Linux. Been that way for years. The practically is I have Windows 10 Home installed in a VirtualBox virtual machine. I use it for doing my taxes. I prefer a downloaded program vice on-line for that.

 

They aren’t

 

Exactly. It was all a joke.

 

I don't think it's fake news, but I doubt it will be a true improvement. I'm actually a bit disappointed with Win 10 and 11. Win 8.1 was more lean and mean, but on the other hand, Win 10 isn't a step back either. Win 11 seems to be quite underwhelming and slightly annoying, I'm not looking forward to it.

https://www.ghacks.net/2022/02/21/t...-of-windows-12-may-already-be-in-development/

 

I'm sure it's in the very early stages of development but it is not a coming soon situation as the articles being posted had implied. Along with the "it requires 2 TPM chips" thing.

 

I read on the ghacks site in early March it'll start development? Maybe that'll change again. But right now it doesn't seem "fake news" in the exact sense.

The two TPM chips thing--pls! How could anyone not get that as a joke? I barely can tolerate just one stuck to my motherboard. And to think these were getting scalped on Newegg.

Edit: right! Rasheed already posted one of the ones I read.

 

TPM ever has its relation to security. sure you can work without using UEFI. and as i explained before, are newer intel and amd coming with "pluton"

 

If you like Linux but need MS Office, you can run the latter in a Windows virtual machine. In such a scenario it is not as important to have an updated or even supported version of Windows and Office. You will just use it for writing and editing your own office documents and assumedly you won't try to imbed malicious macros in your own Word doc.

 

Windows 10 did it for me. I'm several years deep into the Linux move. I still use Windows but it doesn't go beyond Windows 7. I moved office 2010 into a Virtualbox Windows 7 machine and it works for the most part, but, surprise surprise, this Windows 7 VM is the problem child in my current setup. It blue screens a lot and every time I upgrade Virtualbox, I get problems with the display driver. On the Linux side, I'm migrating most of my Mint installations to Debian. I use Debian Cinnamon for continuity and I actually like the Debian version of Cinnamon better than Mint's.

Kompozer works fine in Wine for me except I haven't been able to make a desktop icon that launches it. I'm using quite a few Windows apps in Wine.

I'm also feeling as disgusted with Google these days as with Microsoft. The sudden ending of the free legacy G-Suite accounts is another straw that broke the camel's back. I have two of them I've used since Google Apps started and it's created an enormous hassle for me. I'm switching to the email that comes with my web hosting and I've decided to ditch web mail on a browser and use Thunderbird for email. It does take some getting used to but there are privacy benefits to it.