Re: [PLUG] Topic for PLUG North tomorrow -- Goodbye Windows 10

[Walt Mankowski via plug <plug@lists.phillylinux.org>]

On Mon, Oct 13, 2025 at 07:57:42PM -0400, InterLinked via plug wrote:
> On 10/13/2025 12:16 PM, Walt Mankowski via plug wrote:
> > Hi all,
> > 
> > As it happens, PLUG North tomorrow night coincides with the final
> > official day of support for Windows 10. I'm sure many of us have
> > Windows boxes at home doing various things. I keep a cheap old Win10
> > netbook for doing ham radio stuff on.
> > 
> > So let's have this be our informal topic for tomorrow night. Some ideas:
> > 
> > * Who has old win10 boxes that are about to fall out of support?
> > * What are your plans for them?
> 
> I won't be at the meeting, but I'll add my somewhat contrarian perspective
> here:
> 
> I continue to run Windows 7 on most of my machines at home, and plan to do
> so indefinitely. Like many folks, I think it was "peak Windows", and for a
> number of reasons that go beyond the most often-talked about ones like
> privacy, bloat, etc. I don't think Linux is a good/feasible *workstation* OS
> or ever will be, at least for me, and I never held any dislike for Windows
> until 8/8.1/10/11. I don't keep up with the current changes in hardware
> capabilities, but my main PC is 15 years old (the others as old or older)
> and I'll keep using it until it stops working, at which point I have
> identical spares I can swap in.

Peak Windows was Win98 for me!

I have some nostalgia for those old Windows versions (especially 95
and 98) but not the hardware. I recently picked up one of those tiny
Nuc computers and put Ubuntu on it. It cost me about $400, is about
the size of a paperback novel, and blows away all my former PCs in
performance and reliability.

> So, I think these rather artificial milestones where Microsoft declares "end
> of support" are rather arbitrary outside of the enterprise (which is not
> what this thread seems to be about anyways). With Windows 11 being even
> worse than 10, I imagine some folks will stay on 10 if that was the limit of
> their tolerance, just as I'm staying on 7. IMO, it's nobody's business but
> mine what OS I choose to run, including Microsoft's. Just like people are
> free to use Linux if it works for them, I think users should feel free and
> empowered to use whatever software they prefer - it's inextricably linked
> with the principles of user choice and user freedom that are behind things
> like FOSS (even though Windows isn't FOSS, I know). I'm a bit disappointed
> that there aren't more people that don't think Microsoft's timelines should
> dictate their lives - the whole idea that people either have to "upgrade" to
> a supported version of Windows or switch to Linux is a false dichotomy -
> there is a third (and often better) way!
> 
> I'm sure people will point out downsides of this approach, mostly related to
> potential security risks, but that doesn't negate this point.

You're certainly free to use whatever you want on whatever platform
you want. But this Windows 10 thing is *entirely* about security
risks. I for one am not comfortable running a Windows platform that's
not getting security updates anymore.

I use a crappy Windows netbook for some ham radio apps that don't have
good Linux equivalents. It's small and light, the battery lasts all
day, and it cost about $70 at Microsoft a year or two ago. But it's
definitely got its flaws. The keyboard is terrible. The trackpad is
even worse. The screen is tiny and very hard to read in sunlight,
limiting its use outside in parks, which is one of the reasons I
bought it in the first place.

I'm treating this as an excuse to get a slightly better laptop with a
decent keyboard and screen.

> P.S. My views on this apply to most software these days, not just operating
> systems. It seems most large desktop software has been getting worse since
> around 2011/2012 or so - Microsoft Office and Acrobat are easy examples that
> come to mind.

If it were up to me, pretty much all I really need is LaTeX, Libre
Calc, and mutt. But alas the world of biomedical research runs on
Office, and it's my job to be reasonably proficient in using them.

Walt
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