Alternative title: "Follow these 17 convoluted steps to stay in your abusive relationship longer."
I ended up taking my unsupported computer and turned it into an Unraid server. Bought some refurb enterprise drives on eBay to get it set up, and now I have an awesome home media server/NAS.
As of 15 min ago, my dad has decided to install windows 11 on his 12 year old home pc. Oh boy.
Tell him you'll have to do it for him and install Linux mint
I made that comment to my mom this morning. Also I have tried Linux on that machine and its weird. It has a very old digitizer that sort of works. (Sony Vaio AIO). Disabling it is a #1 priority.
He's technically inclined enough to install it himself entirely.
Other issue is the wireless card. It's an old Qualcomm card (not ath9k).
We'll figure it out once windows 11 stops working. Or if the drive dies.
That workaround for your bi-yearly feature update on an unsupported PC is more complicated than installing Linux.
There, I said the bad word.
ITT: People who talk about Linux (as if that was the subject) because they just can't accept that some people actually need or want to use Windows and might find articles like this one useful.
If you need Windows, don’t run it on hardware that doesn’t support Windows 11. If you need it, do it the right way, so you can count on it working.
Now, what do you do with your old hardware? There are plenty of good ideas in the comments here.
Or instead of installing Linux as a workaround and having to learn how to use a new OS and having to troubleshoot a ton of inevitable issues to make it work as well as the setup you're used to just... Use a workaround to skip the hardware requirement! In the end both are a way to work around Microsoft's requirements, one is something you need to deal with once just requiring you to follow a guide and you're done, the other will be an ongoing learning process.
Honestly the only people worried about learning a new OS are people that have not even tried another OS for longer then 15 minuts in the last few years.
The desktop is still a desktop so is the taskbar.
The mouse works like a mouse, browser works like a browser and the majority of apps these days are browser apps.
The single actual difference i can think off is that rather then downloading an exe you use something similar to an appstore if your non technical or the command line if you don’t.
And if you are just a little technical you can acutely download that exe and install/run it just fine. (Wine)
How is having to apply workarounds to keep windows working on old machines any different from troubleshooting the occasional linux issue? It's a rethorical question, the difference is that the workaround on Windows is mandatory while the Linux troubleshoot is nowadays rare and usually related to edge cases.
Some of the workarounds in this article are far more involved and convoluted than what I've ever had to do in 15 years of linux. Some are even dangerous for system stability and security. My very recent install of bazzite in a new laptop has been a perfectly out of the box it just works experience. Not even having to open the terminal. 100% friendly GUI without compromising flexibility, power and customizability. Today, suggesting linux with a solid desktop environment like KDE plasma is just foolproof. The end user will be using exactly the same knowledge and habits of Windows, without the harassment machine that is MS now. The change is not learning a new OS, is just switching a few assumptions on how some advanced things work.
Meanwhile I started on Bazzite, my display signal just stopped whenever there was load on the GPU, two days trying different things to make it work, switched to Mint, GPU works but wifi antenna doesn't, another couple hours to make it work... Windows? Install it and... Well, that's it, it just works.
Let's not pretend there isn't driver hell on Microsoft, sometimes its even worse than Linux.
I think a lot of people have switched to Linux and realized it was just a lot better, myself included. It took me a bit to let the differences soak in, just like when I got my first smart phone but after a bit of using it and trying things out you realize you should have done it a long time ago
It's so annoying to see in literally every thread about windows
*bites the tongue as hard as possible to not say The Thing*
Install Hackintosh MacOS
/s
Go ahead... you can whisper it to me
Find God and switch to templeos. /s
Jk. Everyone knows Hannah Montana Linux is the next big thing.
This is a most excellent place for technology news and articles.
