Sell it cheap, we appreciate.

People are still running Win7 without pause. Don't kid yourself!

„No update? So no more forced restart? Neat“
- No more forced junk and changes I have to undo? My computer can stay the exact way I like it for a long period of time without Microsoft fucking it up? Sounds like a dream.
This is a meme about enterprise equipment lifecycles.

Huge corporate entities with machine inventory counts in the hundreds of thousands aren’t going to give a shit about trying to upcycle old hardware - they just want it to not be their problem anymore.
- I predict there will be a few companies that pop up to refurbish the hardware and sell it as a thin client solution. Places like call centers live on refurb equipment and are moving to a vdi infrastructure.
My dad's friend was still running a 486 until last year. It did his spreadsheet.
- On Lotus 1-2-3?
- generally computers won't stop doing things they were already capable of doing. tons of machines and businesses may rely on older hardware and software to complete specific tasks.
  
  but yeah, a 486 is pretty past its prime, and the task could have been accomplished on something far more modern.
Windows 7 is the only good version since XP, not even joking.
- I agree with you bit 10 was still usable. When 11 hit and I saw the future, I abandoned dual boot.
I know a few orgs that still use XP.

Hospitals, for example. Banks and the IRS still emulate IBM mainframes running COBOL.
- But those aren't affected usually. For them it's about stability because their certification processes are a lot of work and they won't risk any interruptions unless absolutely necessary. So they actually pay a lot of money for support beyond the normal EOL.
Not much since Steam dropped support >.<
Yeah Win7 is still good in comparison to win 11

Steam discontinued Win 7 and they told everyone linux would be next, but then why? Linux is up to date

edit: they* i mean Windows 7 users with it, sorry for the confusion!
- Win7 might have been a good OS, but it no longer is unless it never touches the internet.
- I'm sure some releases have become unsupported. The nature of Linux distros makes it a bit harder to define exactly which ones, even harder is you consider flatpak and snaps.
  
  I would be surprised if any of the big ones released at the time Windows 7 was released is not supported. If course there's no gatekeeping on the upgrades that I'm aware of (in general at least)

Okay, but it's still bad for the environment if nobody picks them up

Thats assuming that people are actually going to throw their computers in the trash when the OS reaches end of life.

Most people running these old machines probably won't know or care.
- They'll definitely know. Microsoft's last update for Windows 10 will make sure to add as many notices, popups and scary alerts as possible.
  
  And as a result plenty will care, particularly those who aren't tech savvy. If you've got relatives for whom you are their go-to IT person, be prepared.

I foresee rise in selfhosted sector because of cheap hardware

Actually happen. An i5 with 4 cores + 8 GB Ram and a 256 GB SSD for something like 100 bucks. Years before we paid this for a raspberry.
- If its a laptop, then it has a built-in UPS as well. Plus extra peripherals are not needed either!

Homelab go brrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr

Now imagine if PC was invented after "post-PC"/iPhone era and you will need a different OS build for every model and there were "promises" of Windows updates for each machine after which it cannot be longer updated. Also basically computers would have locked bootloaders or void warianty when a system is touched.

I wonder how many phones could be saved from the landfill for the last 10 years if there were supported by Linux.

You can get ARM builds of Linux. I have never tried them so can't speak to how well they work on a phone.
- Just running Linux is one thing, but making it working with anything outside the CPU like the motherboard onboard chips and other components is a different task.
  
  Check out a table of what works on one of the Linux distro targetting phones: https://wiki.postmarketos.org/wiki/Devices
  
  There is no phone with fully working hardware and most barely booting and showing console.

"send to landfill".

No. Just because it can't run newer Windows versions doesn't automatically mean it gets catapulted to the landfill

When I was a residential garbage collector, I saved close to a dozen computers from the landfill that just needed a quick cleaning. A lot of people will get rid of their year old Alienware once it fills with cat hair.
Doesn't mean it won't either - most people won't realise the computer is still usable, either by workarounds or installing a different OS - they'll either trash the PC, recycle or sell it. Or keep using it not caring that its complaining constantly that it's out of support. (And when they do, it's "how can I get rid of this annoying error" not "how can I update this?" - they probably didn't even read the error - and god forbid you manage to do the update, they won't like it if you do)

Hell most people don't even know Linux even exists, and a lot of them couldn't even tell me what their operating system name is.

I've had relatives that try to ask what's going on and say "I have 11" without elaborating that it's windows 11. I remember years ago my aunt said I have version 97. Referring to, at the time the totally unrelated fact that she had Office 97 installed on her winXP machine. Took me ages to work out what she actually meant.
80% will.

I love me some cheap hardware to put Linux on it. It is a good feeling, plus less ewaste.

Exactly. Just bought a Dell with an i5 9500 for €200. That'll be my new home server. I just hope more people get wise to how cheaply you can run a setup with a little bit of getting informed.
Windows 11 doing this is more ewaste not less. It's more ewaste even if 100% of the existing stock gets reused because some (many?) of those computers will get replaced with new ones.

Windows hits end of life in 2025 you say? Welp.

Well everyone is still going to be using Windows 10

Lol ok.

This is getting to Y2K hype levels, and in a similar fashion, will not do anything.

I get Linux people like to fanboy/shit over Windows but surely you're tech literate enough to realize this is making a mountain from a molehill.

Y2K was a big deal, but it was well funded and successfully dealt with. Wikipedia:

The total cost of the work done in preparation for Y2K likely surpassed US$300 billion...

*those

When/if this happens, if I got the money, I hope I find someone selling their old desktop to upgrade to 11 so I can get a cheap computer to use as a personal testing grounds server that I don't mind nuking if I accidentally mess up something.

At least in the enterprise sector, you’re absolutely right. My company’s already got a massive list of all of the PCs that need to be discarded due to Win10 EOL. It freakin sucks because they’re very powerful PCs, but the damn lack of a TPM2.0 chip means they are basically garbage for our uses. And they don’t let employees take anything home :/ what a waste of

Can i have them?
You should ask them again. Most companies just fear the ways the storage drive could be restored. Maybe they gave them away without the storage.

A couple of years ago we gave old core2duo out for free. I prepared them with dd'ing only /dev/zero over the storage. Should be enough, but replacing would be better.
- lol, I wish. Luckily I have plenty of computing power at home already! But unfortunately we’re definitely not allowed to take anything - have asked a number of times :/ has nothing to do with storage and everything to do with capital BS
Maybe they could make an exception to the take home thing in this instant.

I would expect them to keep hard drives, but what’s the point of trashing those computers?

Maybe you can convince them to sell them, but maybe your company is too big to care about that stuff.
- You hit the nail on the head with that last sentence - too big to give a f**k. Gotta love the big corpos.

Still rocking my Amiga 500 and Performa 450. Post your old junk:

Yaaassss

What's the best non win 11 pc we can go for?

Do you have access to businesses upgrading computers or shutting down that division? They tend to have some interesting stuff for playing with on Linux.
- Hmm not directly, but I might have some friends who do. Could be a very interesting one
Windows 10
- That’s a waste because it will be EOL in a year
  
  Unless you plan on upgrading it to Linux or W11/12

Good post

The k8s cluster must grow.

Intense coughing

Here is an alternative Piped link(s):

Intense coughing

Piped is a privacy-respecting open-source alternative frontend to YouTube.

I'm open-source; check me out at GitHub.

me and the boys gaming with new to us 7700k's in 2026

All I see is more Linux Servers and PCs to try Arch and Gentoo on over my Fedora desktop that I use because I need a good balance of stability and up to date software

Won't using an activation-script to get an enterprise licence be able to delay that?

A fine addition for future scalping lmao