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Comment on The end of Windows 10 is approaching, so it's time to consider Linux and LibreOffice

I don’t understand how can critical buisness machines which work perfectly fine be switched to windows 11?

We have a machine at work which is beefy and works as a server and backups for many many years on windows 10. Why the hell should I upgrade my buisness critical system ?? Why would I take my risk breaking stuff. I am sure there are millions of critical systems running gon windows 10 which should not be distribed at any means, what would Microsoft do about them.

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Engywuck@lemm.ee ⁨9⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
I don’t know what kind of software that particular machine runs, but for server and backup Linux appears to be the go to tool. I’m not saying that you have to migrate everything to Linux. I just say that for servers and the like the transition is probably easier than for desktop.

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Passerby6497@lemmy.world ⁨9⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

We have a machine at work which is beefy and works as a server and backups for many many years on windows 10. Why the hell should I upgrade my buisness critical system ??

Because you should be using a server grade os instead of janking things together with desktop OS installs that just make everything so much harder (and aren’t supported for as long).

Sorry, I have to clean up installs like this at least once a year when we take on clients from internal IT that just made things work instead of making something that works right, so I’ve got opinions.

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kittenzrulz123@lemmy.blahaj.zone ⁨9⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
For that use Windows 10 IOT LTSC

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grue@lemmy.world ⁨9⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
The obvious conclusion is that Windows 10 is not fit for purpose in your business environment and the person in charge of IT procurement dun goofed picking it in the first place.

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stealth_cookies@lemmy.ca ⁨9⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
If you are running business critical applications on Windows 10 that is a problem. Windows 10 is only meant for end user machines. Other services should be running on OS’s that are meant for the application such as Windows Server or server versions of Linux distros running LTS kernels.

Not to mention, near every piece of software I’ve been involved with at work has required specific versions of Windows Server and whatever database it uses, if you want to upgrade the software you use, then upgrading the OS is part of the task.

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Hawke@lemmy.world ⁨9⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
Because either way you’re taking a risk.

Security flaws and aging hardware are two obvious problems.

I’d very much question why you’d use windows 10 over something better supported— maybe not Linux but at least Windows Server OS.

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Libra@lemmy.ml ⁨9⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
The problem is that Microsoft is ending Win10 support so you won’t be able to get updates and such (especially security updates) for the OS anymore which will ultimately lead to things breaking or being vulnerable anyway. Microsoft wants you to change OS, you should change OS, but you don’t have to change to Win11.

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funkajunk@lemmy.world ⁨9⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
Their answer would probably be to run Windows Server 2022, which is supported until 2031.

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dual_sport_dork@lemmy.world ⁨9⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
What Microsoft probably expects you to do is get your management to buy new computers that support Windows 11 and/or whatever the hell their current server OS is, and in the process give them and their hardware vendor partners a lot of money.

What you can do instead is switch to Windows 10 IoT Enterprise LTSC which is what I did at my workplace recently. It’s supported until 2032 with security updates. Not feature updates, but I suspect that business users probably don’t care about those much. In fact, most people would probably treat that as a benefit. It also comes with basically no bloatware (except goddamned Edge), which is surprising. No Copilot, no Cortana, no Recall. None of that shit.

We have a fleet of machines that “can’t” be upgraded to Win11 because of hardware shortcomings, at least without overriding the requirements with Rufus or similar. Unfortunately we also rely on a small but important spread of proprietary Windows-only applications which have no open source or Linux replacements, and at least two of them absolutely will not run in Wine. Believe me, I tried.

The only wrinkle with this is that you cannot upgrade or license swap in place. You have to do a full reinstall, which for us is not a problem because we have a modest number of computers and I have physical access to all of them. None are bricked up behind a wall or anything.

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Eheran@lemmy.world ⁨9⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
Why should the financial sector ever switch away from their amazing COBOL code base? Why should anyone switch away from VGA, works just fine? No need for USB, PS2 etc. work just fine.

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jordanlund@lemmy.world ⁨9⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
Your business critical system will no longer be supported with security updates which will leave it vulnerable to attack.

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- Passerby6497@lemmy.world ⁨9⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
  Hahahahahaha, I still periodically see win2k/2k3 on the network at some clients, with SMBv1 enabled across the domain to make the CISO’s eye twitch
  
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  - aeternum@lemmy.blahaj.zone ⁨9⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
    back in 2017, the company I worked at had a win 2K server. Crazy shit. It was for a critical system (ran the phone system)
    
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    Passerby6497@lemmy.world ⁨9⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
    Fucking phone systems! That’s what these are, and we have to snap them any time they’re rebooted because sometimes they just shut the bed randomly, but the client doesn’t want to buy a new system…
    
    But, it’s their wallet and they’re willing to pay the “fuck you pay me” legacy surcharge.
    
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- dual_sport_dork@lemmy.world ⁨9⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
  You would be amazed and the industrial world. There are tons of large and incredibly expensive special purposes machines that are operated by super antiquated PC architecture computers running geriatric operating systems, sometimes still even DOS or Windows 3.x.
  
  Think industrial CNC mills and lathes, presses, pick-and-place machines, specialty lab testing equipment, electron microscopes, etc.
  
  Process control, i.e. production line automation, is usually driven by dedicated PLCs. But the user interfaces connected to them are almost invariantly some old ruggedized panel mounted PC running Windows. An absurd number of them in my experience are still on 2000 or XP. NT4 is pretty easy to find, too.
  
  Granted often these are not networked, and in cases where they are they’re not connected to the internet, or may even talk to other workstations via RS-485 serial (!) or some other gimcrack method that is unlikely to be a vector for modern malware.
  
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  - nickhammes@lemmy.world ⁨9⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
    Critically, the people who build these machines don’t typically update drivers to port them to a new OS. You buy a piece of heavy equipment, investing tens, or maybe even a hundred thousand dollars, and there’s an OS it works on, maybe two if you’re lucky. The equipment hopefully works for at least 20 years, and basically no OS is going to maintain that kind of compatibility for that long. Linux might get the closest, but I’ll bet you’re compiling/patching your own kernels before 20 years is up.
    
    This kind of dynamic is unavoidable when equipment vendors sell equipment which has a long usable life (which is good), and don’t invest in software support (which is them being cheap, to an extent), and OSes change enough that these time horizons likely involve compatibility-breaking releases.
    
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  - jordanlund@lemmy.world ⁨9⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
    As long as they aren’t networked, there’s no problem there!
    
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