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E-waste or Linux? Charities face tough choices as Windows 10 support ends

⁨280⁩ ⁨likes⁩

Submitted ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago⁩ by ⁨cm0002@lemmy.world⁩ to ⁨technology@lemmy.world⁩

https://www.techspot.com/news/107157-charities-face-tough-choices-security-e-waste-windows.html

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Comments

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  • MuskyMelon@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago

    Go Linux without a doubt. The hardware is still usable.

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    • BrianTheeBiscuiteer@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago

      My 10yo netbook runs the latest Debian Linux. If it was running on its original OS (XP) it would not only crawl but be dangerously vulnerable.

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      • franticdisembowel@lemm.ee ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago

        Wow, pretty unbelievable a netbook was still being sold with XP in 2015 lol. How’d you come about getting that?

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    • singletona@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago

      My desktop is a 2012 lenovo office machine. Fresh SSD, wifi card, and an… OK graphics card have had the thing purring for me since 2018.

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    • Flagstaff@programming.dev ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago

      What if the SSD and everything else are 9 years old?..

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      • catloaf@lemm.ee ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago

        If it’s that valuable, you should have backups anyway.

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      • barsoap@lemm.ee ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago

        With the age of those computers you might even be looking at a HDD. Those should definitely be replaced, SSDs, it depends.

        In any case a new 128G SDD is on the order of 15 bucks, well worth the investment even for an age-old system (unless you have a bit more extra cash because the GB/buck optimum is in the 0.5-2T range).

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  • orclev@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago

    Microsoft’s requirements for Windows 11 include a 1GHz or faster CPU with at least two cores, 4GB of RAM, 64GB of storage,

    All of this is no problem and essentially any computer manufactured in the last couple decades can meet these requirements. They’re effectively irrelevant for this discussion.

    Secure Boot capability, and TPM 2.0 compatibility.

    This is the problem right here. Pretty much every last computer you hear about that isn’t compatible it’s one or both of these, almost always the TPM 2.0 module.

    That of course is if the reason you aren’t “upgrading” is because the hardware isn’t supported. For a great many of us our hardware is supported, we just don’t want all the bullshit anti-features Microsoft has crammed into Windows 11. Windows 10 was already bad enough with it’s constant telemetry spyware, that annoying Cortana garbage shoehorned in anywhere they could manage, the absolute atrocity that they turned the start menu search function into, and the annoying teams and OneDrive integrations that randomly reinstalled and. re-enabled themselves after updates.

    Then MS went and had to cram in even more spyware by way of their horrible copilot garbage. All for what? What are we getting with 11 that’s better than 10? What feature justifies that upgrade? Nothing, that’s the answer. There’s no reason at all that 11 needed to be made.

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    • yoshman@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago

      I will leave this here for anyone who needs to use Windows but wants a little more privacy.

      https://www.oo-software.com/en/shutup10

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      • Manifish_Destiny@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago

        I’ll one up you

        privacy.sexy

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  • Trainguyrom@reddthat.com ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago

    However, Linux still lacks some popular applications, such as Microsoft Office and Slack, though alternatives are available.

    Lol nice bait. Real talk though, just toss shortcuts to word.office.com, excel.office.com and outlook.office.com on the desktop and nobody will be any wiser

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    • Kekzkrieger@feddit.org ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago

      Or use Libre Office which just does the same without costing you money or data.

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  • DigDoug@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago

    If you’re buying a PC that doesn’t have the specs to run Windows 11, you’re probably only using it for web browsing tasks anyway. I’d wager that many of them wouldn’t even notice that they’re using a different OS.

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    • altima_neo@lemmy.zip ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago

      My old PC has the horsepower to run 11. I even forced it on there. I got a tpm module too. But the cpu itself isn’t officially supported, even though it’s a i7 5930K with 6 cores and 12 threads @4 GHz.

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    • Fondots@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago

      My PC isn’t compatible with Windows 11.

      I cobbled it together from spare parts as my wife has upgraded over the years. It was a pretty beefy computer when she first built it, and it’s gotten a couple upgrades along the way, but the CPU and MoBo are probably about 10 years old if not older (it’s an AMD FX-something, I’m unsure of the exact specs, it’s whatever parts were in her bin of cast-offs stuck with a new case and hard drive)

      And I’m happily gaming on it. I may not be maxing out the latest AAA titles in glorious 8k epic quality 120hz HDR VR yadda yadda yadda, but I can still run pretty much any game out there on some acceptable mid-to-high quality settings and decent performance.

      I’m probably going to have to either upgrade the MoBo and processor come October, or make the jump to Linux (which I’m not exactly opposed to, but I do like not having to fuck with wine and proton to run my games)

      It’s a perfectly serviceable board, still doing just fine by me, and there’s no reason it can’t give someone at least a few more good years of use, even as a gaming computer if you’re not a graphics snob.

      But if I decide to upgrade, unless I find someone who wants to run Linux on it, or understands the risk of running win10 with no security updates, it’s probably going to become e waste.

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      • magic_smoke@lemmy.blahaj.zone ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago

        Steam does most of the fucking around for you these days.

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      • slumberlust@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago

        There are extended security options for win10. Might be worth it to consider kicking the can a bit farther down the road. 0patch.com

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  • JiveTurkey@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago

    So much for windows 10 being the last version.

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    • reseller_pledge609@lemmy.dbzer0.com ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago

      This was apparently never an official statement. It was someone in an interview that misspoke.

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      • orclev@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago

        In other words it was the sales department doing what they always do, pulling complete bullshit out of their ass and then expecting the engineering team to deliver it.

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      • ozymandias117@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago

        Where did Microsoft put an official announcement saying the statement from an official Microsoft employee, Jerry Nixon, at an official Microsoft conference, Ignite, was incorrect?

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  • melpomenesclevage@lemmy.dbzer0.com ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago

    how is this a hard choice? windows will keep ratcheting to shit. it will not improve. the question is: linux now, or tons of expense and trouble, and linux later?

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  • Cyber@feddit.uk ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago

    IMHO each new version of Windows looks & feels different to the last anyway, so most (general users) wouldn’t know the difference - they just need a web browser an email client and an office suite.

    That 1 Windows-only program they use is probably not compatible with the next version of Windows too

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    • shortrounddev@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago

      That 1 Windows-only program they use is probably not compatible with the next version of Windows too

      No it probably is, Microsoft puts a ton of effort into backwards compatibility

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      • Amir@lemmy.ml ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago

        Yeah a lot of problems with Windows can actually be explained by some kind of backwards compatibility lol

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  • singletona@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago

    Pick a newbie friendly version. I’m going to suggest linux mint, but there may be better options.

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    • Trainguyrom@reddthat.com ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago

      That’s literally what the representative from the charity said they did in the linked article

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    • JustARegularNerd@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago

      I’ve been planning on selling a couple older laptops (Latitude E6420 and ThinkPad X240) and this is a fantastic idea. The former laptop doesn’t even have Windows 10 drivers (that I know of)

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      • ChogChog@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago

        The ThinkPads are great. I have an X220 that I have running Mint that I use in my garage. Its use cases are music streaming, displaying PDF Service Manuals/Technical Diagrams, and web queries for random questions/video instructions. I’m working on trying to see if I can get Wine to let me run some diagnostic software on it too.

        It can certainly do more than that as I used it through school a number of years ago for note taking and small programming projects. But it’s retired to being the tank that it is and it’s amazing for that.

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  • SnotFlickerman@lemmy.blahaj.zone ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago

    Sounds like an easy choice to me.

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  • stefenauris@pawb.social ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago

    I think it should be viewed as a trade-off. If you want cheaper refurbished PCs you’ll have to tolerate adjusting to Linux. If you want to deal with Microsoft you’ll have to pay for it: Licensing and new hardware and all.

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    • randon31415@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago

      So, the question becomes: does a particular charity have a shortage of tech people working for them or a shortage of money? Which would be easier to get?

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  • Lost_My_Mind@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago

    Or…3rd option. Revert back to Windows XP.

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    • regrub@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago

      Only feasible if on an air-gapped network with no access to the internet

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      • Lost_My_Mind@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago

        No no, that’s the point. To infect as many computers as absolutely possible, all clogging down every network, and eventually microsoft will have to address the issues.

        What do you care? I assume you’re on linux and wouldn’t be affected either way.

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      • n2burns@lemmy.ca ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago

        And with hardware supported by XP.

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    • ingy@lemm.ee ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago

      xp.quenq.com

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    • daggermoon@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago

      Why not CentOS?

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  • tfowinder@lemmy.ml ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago

    Is secure boot a requirement? Or optional?

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    • fuckwit_mcbumcrumble@lemmy.dbzer0.com ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago

      Secure boot has been a requirement for like 10+ years now. I think windows 8 was when they required it on all new computers. You could turn it off if you really wanted and I think it would still work, but why would you? Linux has played well with it for almost as long.

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  • pewgar_seemsimandroid@lemmy.blahaj.zone ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago

    mint, ubuntu, kde neon mabye… many more

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