LTSC is supported, yes, but it’s an edge case not intended for desktop (or most server) applications.
If you don’t want to move to 11, install a flavour of Linux. Don’t run LTSC.
I've been using 10 LTSC for a few months now, it works great with the few Windows-only apps I still use. I mainly use it to organize my media library, but it's not had any problems with the few games I've installed with Kernel-level anti-cheat (Destiny 2, Delta Force)
I had to download the Xbox Accessories app to control my Elite controller, but that's really it.
You might likely run into issues with GPU (and other) windows drivers, which might stop supporting old windows 10 versions. At least that happened already with LTSC/LTSB. I expect this to happen especially when ordinary windows 10 EOL is reached.
Is that much of a big deal though? Running old GPU drivers is fine, other than maybe if you like playing the latest AAA games down the road.
I mean eventually it will be an issue, but for a long time I imagine they will work just fine.
Well, it just depends on your use-case. Sometimes new games or applications require newer drivers or directly a newer Windows version. This is something you just have to be aware of.
At least that was a reason I switched LTSC Windows over to Enterprise for some people.
I am curious as to why you think so that it's not intended for desktop applications. I don't really have a say in server applications as I don't use any such software. What I use W10 LTSC is mainly for my engineering softwares which won't work properly with WINE. All normal software that you expect to work in home version also seems to be working minus all the bloat and more control over configuration. I feel like it's the most clean version of windows that one can use now.
What is this disclaimer warning about? I have used LTSC exclusively as a desktop OS since 2019 and everything works. I have not had an instance of something not working that would have otherwise worked on Enterprise or Home, etc. I game in 4k, edit videos, run a jellyfin server, mine monero. I'm confused about what you mean
Only shit thing is a couple online games I like playing are dicks about their anti cheat and not wanting to be Linux compatible.
There it is. Top post is always someone casually telling you to "Just install Linux."
i hate you guys so much. once in their lifetime, theregister writers actually manage to recommend something useful, and you guys start to shit all over the comment section.
for the microsoft forum admins: no, ltsc is fine. you can install a store, but since its running on an early feature version with fresh security updates, xbox gamepass wont like it much. same goes with the cod launcher.
for the neckbeard freedomfighters: linux cannot solve every problem.
ive been using 10 ltsc for 5 year now. still not as great as win7, but nothing ever gonna beat that os. less telemetry, less services, no ms store (but can be installed with 3rd party softwares). runs a ton more smoother on laptops as well. main problem will be getting updates from certain softwares: programs only check for the main build version, and ltsc is going to look like its outdated, your programs might deny your updates (i would say 3 years from now). keep in mind, 11 also has an ltsc version: no bloat in the start menu, no store, less telemetry...but still looks like arse. i would recommend getting an oem key for cheap, or yohoho on the massgrave site, dont support ms with a full price.
A sensible response. Windows has its pros, and Linux has its cons. I personally don't care for Windows anymore, but that's because I grew up with Linux in the home alongside Windows, ultimately chose Linux despite the cons.
Why even bother at this point? Linux has become so good it's actually easier and more familiar to use than the clusterfuck that is windows 11.
Linux user here, I really hate this kind of bullshit. Just stick with the facts there are loads of reasons to use Windows. And for a lot of people I would still recommend Windows.
Another twenty plus years Linux server and devices admin and user that found last year that Linux is finally mature and stable enough to replace my desktop too without having the fiddle with it every once in a random update. It was a decision that I can accept making workarounds for legacy windows software and l can live without other eco system. Yeah, there are plenty of reasons that people are still running Windows and keep doing so.
Don't make being user of an operating system your identity, people. It's just as annoying and unnecessary as those Apple fanboys we all know and dislike.
Exactly. I've been Linux exclusive for something like 15 years, and I'm usually the first to tell people to stick with Windows if there's even one piece of software they say they'll miss. If they really want to use Linux, they'll ignore me. If they would've bailed when something didn't work perfectly, they would likely write it off and never try it again, so it's better to leave that door open IMO.
Exactly. These type of comments only come from an immature POV that how they use Linux is how everyone would use Linux.
And for a lot of people I would still recommend Windows.
Eh, only if someone needs it.
For instance my 75 year old father is happily using Linux Mint on his laptop. Why? Because all he's doing with it is web surfing, watching youtube, and checking his email. At home that's all most people are doing, especially older people. I set his up so that it backs up his stuff and auto-updates. It just works and if it does get broken I can recover it with minimal effort.
It's the same for me at home. My main PC is Linux Mint where I do almost everything. For the occasions I need Windows I have an Intel NUC attached to my KVM. For work I've got LM installed on my work laptop and when I need Win11 I have a VM setup in QEMU/KVM with it.
Are there people who have workloads, or gameloads, that only run on Windows? Sure there. We all know that.
But there are a lot of people, especially home users, who could easily run Linux and don't.
This... It's not so much that I'd never advocate a windows install, it's that linux should be the first port of call and Windows be the specialist fallback for when Linux doesn't handle the use case well.
How well does Linux run Solidworks?
Oh right, it doesn’t…at all.
Linux is useful for many things but just doesn’t cut it for the majority of people reliant on single deal breaker items.
You're also SOL if you have a couple of decades of music projects in various DAWs (though predominantly Ableton, plus a decent number of Maschine & Reason projects, for me) using all sorts of VSTs from over the years. I keep several versions of some VSTs installed so I can open older projects, and those older versions are never getting patched to fix broken Linux support by the developer, even if a more modern version does get fixed. It's all got to come from wine devs, which frankly probably have more important issues to focus on.
I've tried a few times to get Ableton working with all my plugins and MIDI hardware and it's always been an exercise in madness ultimately resulting in failure and usually a lost weekend. It particularly doesn't like anything with my iLok key involved, last I tried a couple of years ago.
I happily run Linux elsewhere, but my main desktop is going to mainly run Windows for the foreseeable future unless something drastically changes. At least my projects aren't all in Logic!
There's also some software I use for my photography that didn't properly work on Linux when I last tried (e.g. GPU features in PureRAW are the main thing I remember), but I think there're some alternatives there I'd look at if I could get the audio production stuff working perfectly.
I've been trying out several Linux distributions over the past couple of weeks to figure out where to go after Windows 10.
I'm very open to switching. but if I have to be honest, there are still plenty of UX problems in my experience. It's frustrating enough that I keep going back to Windows.
Windows only applications mostly. The ones I use are Fusion 360, Photoshop, Lightroom, and NI Labview. Unfortunately CAD/Graphic design software also often really struggles to run in WINE, especially with updates happening fairly often.
I've thought of a windows VM, but that's just not worth the extra effort of dealing with hardware passthrough to get proper GPU acceleration.
I really like Linux, all my servers and VMs run Debian or Alpine. But it's just a lot of work for desktop use in my experience (yes I know some of you have never had a single thing break), stuff just randomly breaks for no reason, I'll do a system update and just get a black screen from botched GPU drivers, or back when I ran GNOME my extensions would randomly break after an update and never work again, sometimes installing a simple application like steam would nuke my package manager.
As much as people complain about windows and some do have poor experiences, for me it's pretty much set and forget, I installed W11 on my desktop maybe 4 years ago shortly after release and it's just.. there. It works fine, it doesn't break, all my apps, games, and drivers still work after updates.
I see that we've entered the bargaining period.
That's a weird way to spell Linux Mint
Is mint windows-like out of the box? I’ve already forgotten what Linux is like outside of i3/sway
Yeah, cinnamon has a windows-like taskbar, startmenu and icon tray.
People fixate on those things. I don't think those are the key things.
If I had to define what makes something Windows-like I'd point at the software and drivers being self-contained, self-installable executables and the old DOS-style disk handling and directory structure.
I mean, I don't think that's necessarily a great thing, but it's been a long time since Windows took the "press key, type what you want to run, press enter" thing from... I'm gonna say MacOS. That start menu, taskbar and icon tray thing was a differentiator with Windows 95, but probably not since Windows 8.
Linux mint is more windows-like than windows itself. I know that sounds odd but watch some videos if you're curious and you'll see what i mean.
Honestly I'm getting a bit tired of discussions about Windows getting hijacked by people almost aggressively pushing Linux as the go-to alternative. I'm sure Linux is good, but it often feels less like helpful advice and more like proselytizing. I think most users aren’t looking for a whole paradigm shift, they want improvements within the environment they already know, not a completely different system with its own learning curve and compromises.
I'm been using Linux full time since 2004, and while I think it is good to let people know it is there, I don't recommend it to people I'm not willing to personally support. But, I also let them know I just can't help with Windows problems either, and they should address their complaints to their OS vendor.
I file Debian bugs if I have a problem with my OS, and have received fixes that way. This is better support that I ever received from MS during my first 2 decades of using MS OSes.
You're not going to get "improvements" in Windows, that should be clear by now. Crystal clear, I would think.
Linux IS good, and today, the "paradigm shift" is more like a gentle learning curve with people holding your hand every step.
I'm an old geezer who made the jump a year ago, it really isn't hard. Literally, the only thing I miss is the big preview window in the file manager. Big previews for all of the major formats is a big plus for Windows, but not one that kept me on their side.
Jokes on them! I got rid of windows last week and now have Linux Mint on my PC! It's great! All my games run and I've set up my own screenshot shortcut in a way that I want. Installing software through terminal commands is also a lot of fun.
Switch to Linux
I would but my DJ gear is over a decade old and none of it is compatible with Linux. It won't even run on a modern CPU without crashing Serato, so I use an old laptop with a 4th gen i5 running LTSC to power my turntables and mixer; it all runs smooth as butter on period-correct hardware.
Eventually I will get new gear and try to get it working in Linux, but I don't have thousands to drop right now on updated hardware, so I make do with what I have.
My company has decided to dedicate me and another coworker to go computer-2-computer and check if they have TPM 2.0 support.
I’m doing my best to push a Linux switch in our workplace!
It's not just tpm 2.0 support, but simply Intel 8th gen or higher or Ryzen
Intel 6th gen CPUs could totally support tpm 2.0 but they decided to cut them off because $$$
There is no real technical reason, management wanted the line to go up so they had meetings and meetings with the engineering teams in order to find a somewhat reasonable excuse to send to the landfill millions and millions of perfectly usable computers
https://massgrave.dev/ works just fine with ltsc as well and https://www.pcrf.net/ can always use more money
I recently switched to PopOS! And it's been great. Not being pressured into Microsoft applications and using your Microsoft account is great
Install Linux and be done with the Microsoft bullshit. No windows, no copilot, no shit teams, no outlook, nothing of the nonsense, just software that actually works
People keep treating Win10 EoL as if the software is going to catch on fire. Every time they phase out a Windows version people just happily keep it installed indefinitely until they just naturally buy a new PC, at least.
I predict the big replacement for supported Windows 10 will be unsupported Windows 10. I expect that's a pretty safe bet.
I predict the big replacement for supported Windows 10 will be unsupported Windows 10. I expect that's a pretty safe bet
Famous last words before getting a keylogger that leads to all your bank accounts being drained due to lack of security patches.
Also, this is pretty much not possible (if not illegal) for business operations since those generally require having a secure OS to work on.
I only "upgraded" to Windows 10 (from 7) last year due to software I needed for work. Windows 10 is bad enough, I'm definitely not "upgrading" to 11 until I have to.
In my experience, 10 runs much slower than 7 with so many updates that just kill performance as they're running. And I've had pop-up adverts recently and programs that open on startup despite being disabled
I switched to Mint last year. Had a few hiccups, but I have everything working just how I want it now.
Windows problem solved.
ltsc iot is on my gaming pc that I spin up once biweekly. Got the os from massgrave and most of the games from fitgirl.
If it’s a competition of getting work done, Linux is clearly superior. Windows has always just gotten in my way when I’m trying to do something with the OS.
There’s no denying though that you gotta use the right tool for the job. I ain’t forkin my time over to get Linux to work with triple-A pirated games and all that VM and wine shit. I’m just going to install ltsc and forget about it. Just as how I’m not wasting my time on Windows to install software packages, libraries, or whatever the fuck Subsystem is.
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