Windows 7 End of Life – Former Windows users unlikely to migrate to Linux en-masse

Linux Really Shouldn’t Expect an Influx of Windows Users Anytime Soon
Former Windows users unlikely to migrate to Linux en-masse
January 15, 2020
https://news.softpedia.com/news/lin...ux-of-windows-users-anytime-soon-528867.shtml

 

Probably the majority of Windows users I meet ‘don’t care’ about security not because they’re ignorant or irresponsible but because they appreciate there’s very little likely to steal their bank details unless they click on it. Every promise made by antivirus vendors in their promotional material is legally annulled in their EULA or other small print 99% of customers never read or don’t understand. In truth and since XP Windows users have never needed a third party firewall or security software except to protect them from themselves. IMO Windows 7 was an excellent system and still is. Good luck to those who bought it and don’t want to downgrade to Windows 10 spyware. If mouseware packaging was forced to carry a similar warning to cigarettes, a lot less Windows users would end up infected.

 

It doesn't really matter if windows 7 users switch to Linux or not.
Own a Android smartphone? You are running Google modified Linux OS.
Own a router? You are running embedded Linux with most likely busybox providing the internal userland tools + Linux kernel.

So technically, many windows desktop users are already running Linux in one form or another

 

I tried Mint cinnamon today on Live USB. I was surprised it worked on my PC as far as drivers go. I would probably use it to replace Windows if my wife didn't use my PC as well. She would have no clue what to do. She has a work laptop but uses my desktop alot.

I upgraded to Windows 10 Pro right before EOL of 7. I use Windows spy blocking, shutup 10, firewall and hosts to try to thwart telemetry and spying but I'm sure it is in vain.

 

Guess some forget or don't know that telemetry was also in Windows XP and 7

 

I battled it in Windows 7 but it is much more pervasive in 10. I have many posts on this forum about 7's telemetry.

 

I used to care more about security on Windows 7 until Microsoft started adding data collection/telemetry into Windows Updates. They also didn't seem to care about making a spectre/meltdown update for 7 that did not hurt performance.

Can't speak for others but I myself will surely migrate to Linux instead of using a data hog, advertisement infested, backdoored operating system.

 

I have used Linux for years now. Debian Buster - Cinnamon would leave many Windows transplants feeling pretty comfortable. The "clicks" are very similar and I am able to use anything I ever used on Win. I am NOT a gamer but I have heard Linux is making great gains in that department too.

 

Gaming & Office make Linux a non-starter for the vast majority of Win 7 refugees.

 

Shame that at least one more viable alternative to Windows couldn't have landed back in Linux-Microsoft early days in order to make for an alternative against Microsoft's MONOPOLY

 

In a year or two I expect to see many posts saying, "Why didn't I switch to Win10 sooner?"

 

Yesterday I installed Windows 10 on 4 of my computers and on one computer today.
Now I have 6 Windows 10 computers.
I could kick myself for not doing it sooner. It was easy and like you have read I got Windows 10 FREE.

 

Hey Brian - I am wondering what makes you think that way about it?
Thanks

 

Hi chrome_sturmen,

I'm always ready for a beer and a chat.

Win10. Stability, Security, Speed, ease of use. I've always liked the Metro tiles too.

This computer has WinXP, Vista, Win7, Win8, Win10 and six different Linux OS. Guess which one is used 99% of the time?

 

Taking a guess, i'd say windows 10

 

I install Windows and Linux systems for people at both ends of the user spectrum who for various reasons just want a finished system handed to them on a plate. Nothing wrong with that and it keeps me in beer. With any one of several Linux distros, 5 minutes and the thing is done except for whatever desktop customizations the end user might want to make with these mostly being available from a single settings or control panel. For 95% of users whatever additional software they might need is all available from the same place and can be downloaded and installed together. Even some specialist needs are catered for aka Ubuntu Studio etc so again 5 minutes and they’re ready to go. With Windows 10 all you end up with after the same length of time is a basic system that most users then expect a whole host of stuff to be added to and the time this takes is not only long but frustrating trying to avoid all the catch-me installation options for various piles of unwanted crapware and system hijacks. The whole time I’m busy doing this Windows is busy recording it all and sending this data to parts unknown. You can of course spend even more time trying to mute some of these settings or rely on a third party app to do it for you and pray not all of it gets set back to default with the next update. At least shelling out a few bucks for WindowBlinds will make it look pretty so all is not lost.

 

Just set up a user account for her with Chrome readily available on the desktop, if she is like my wife, that's all she needs from my PC anyways 99% of the time.
Or set up a dual boot and show her how to get to windows.

@Brian K Windows 10 makes it too easy to do what you need to do, that's no fun. lol.

 

I don't think telemetry was present in XP. Of course there was some communication to Windows Update service and some related to licensing, but it didn't ping Microsoft servers whenever you used USB cable to connect device such as printer etc. It haven't built-in Windows Store. It didn't nag you to create Microsoft account and synchronize your settings with the Microsoft's cloud.

I didn't tested speed/performance between Windows 8.1 and 10.
Stability - I don't see a difference between 8.1 and 10.

When it comes to GUI for years Windows 10 had massive inconsistency of interface especially switching between old-style Control Panel and new Settings "app". Now it is better, but there are still some options only available by old-style Control Panel. Airplane mode was broken.

 

Hmmm, well, I don't know about the "speed" part. I've been primarily using Linux for several months now, once in a while running Windows 10 for updates and such. From my honest perception, it's like comparing the speed of a grasshopper to a slug, Windows being the latter. The fan ramps up and down and the harddrive chatters away like a cricket on a warm summer evening in Windows. Everything launches faster in Linux and updates are a breeze.

 

^^^^
LoL, I like that analogy

 

An out-of-the-box installation of Windows 10, on decent hardware, starts up and runs with decent speed. But after the user adds a few startup items of his own, and doesn't use task scheduler to start them with a delay, sluggishness is the result.

 

It's more reason than that, although much depends on security software the user installs too. It's all the crap MS does at boot and when the user logs in. Admittedly, things settle down some in Windows several minutes after boot, but there's still considerably more activity going on in Windows than in linux.

 

Windows 10 is fast for me. Two laptops I'm running Windows 10 are nearly 14 years old, with slow processors and it runs very well on both of them. On some old systems it runs slowly, but on many older systems it runs well and is certainly fast enough for there to be no need to replace it with Linux.

When Windows 10 was first released, I upgraded tens of Windows 7 laptops. I think there was only one computer which had performance issues after upgrading, so I rolled back to Windows 7. On all of the others, Windows 10 run as fast as Windows 7, if not faster. It's also important to note, that not once did I have a customer complain about Windows 10 and ask me to reinstall Windows 7. Not even a single time. These are all users who would have no idea of how to rollback to Windows 7 or reinstall it, so if they had issues they would have contacted me. This says a lot about how well Windows 10 works for the majority of people.

As for updates, I have no issues. I typically don't let Windows reboot as soon as it's installed updates and sometimes wait a week or two, until there is a time when I really need to reboot. Once I reboot, the updates finish installing with no issues.

 

I do think most Win7 users would eventually bite the bullet and install Win10. They would deal with any "annoyances" they may encounter later on.

 

What annoyances?