Janette in finance is going to murder whoever tries to give her a FOSS alternative to Excel or forces her to fuck with a VM or web Excel.

We remember the last IT admin that tried to do a platform swap on her. RIP Patrick.

That's not what this post is about.

I understand, and agree, with the sentiment that more people should switch to Linux, but please don't pretend the answer to every topic regarding Microsoft or Windows is "just switch to Linux". It is for some, but it derails and invalidates a necessary conversation about shitty behaviour by Microsoft.

I have a machine running linux at home, I'm not afraid of a package manager, but Linux is not the answer to everything. Not yet at lesst.

I can't refuse to use windows at work, and much as i would sometimes like to, I can't just go and quit over what OS our computers run. That would end poorly for my livelihood and family.

The purpose of this article is to highlight unfair behaviour by Microsoft, especially towards businesses, which is a topic that needs more attention. Microsoft is in every level of infrastructure in almost every big corporation, and no matter how attractive linux is, that doesn't make the dangers of centralised IT belonging to one company any less relevant.

We should all do more to lobby for more companies and corporations switching to Linux, but replying with "just switch to Linux smh" is not pushing that agenda.

This is the final windows update.

That's most likely going to take a long while though. Win 7 ended mainstream support in 2015 and extended in 2020, the last chrome version to run on it is 109 which was released in 2023.

What office do you use?

I guess your options are:

• Do hacky workarounds to install Win11. If you make an install disc with Rufus there's a checkbox to do this automatically. There's no guarantee MS won't bork your install at some point due to this, but so far it's worked well for people.

• Install Linux.

• Stay on Win10 and lose software support from MS and your installed programs. This is risky, and the longer you do it the more risky it'll get.

• Send your PC to the landfill and buy a new one.

And yet, whenever I see it, w11 feels like beta software to me. There's apparently stuff being added and removed all the time. Broken updates every now and again...

I haven't used Windows much for ages even though I tried to follow a little what was going on on that front, but it never felt that way with the previous versions.

Linux Mint is also an option 😉

I understood it to mean: updating to 11 will have a cost, which comes as no surprise, but this time NOT updating also has a significant cost*. Meaning it's not a clear cut decision for the beancounters, like the endless delays some firms had moving off XP and 7.

*Assuming you still give a shit about being secure.

No, home and pro EOL are the same date as enterprise. Enterprise editions are allowed the extra time because Microsoft already knows an insane amount of businesses will not be fully moved off 10 by that date and instead of making themselves look bad, they setup this program to tell everyone hey where here for you and also ready to make an insane amount of bonus money.

Idk if the article also mentions, but every year after the first, the price increases for each additional year. The did this with Windows 7 as well, I know all about it because I work for a company that had to do it for 2 years. Once the time comes you replace the systems license with a new key that continues to allow updates to work.

as far i know, this isn't intented for normal users but more for companys. normal users are supposed to upgrade. you can basically pay microsoft for a bit more time so you can change your workflow to be able to switch to win11.