this post was submitted on 22 Dec 2023
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Windows 10 end of life could prompt torrent of e-waste as 240 million devices set for scrapheap::As Windows 10 end of life approaches, analysts are concerned that millions of devices will be scrapped due to incompatibility

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[–] originalucifer@moist.catsweat.com 82 points 2 years ago (1 children)

of course no mention of upcycling these with linux and getting them into needy hands. with alll the solid state hardware now many of these machines are perfectly functional, and will be for some time. its the batteries that likely need a looking at

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[–] AA5B@lemmy.world 58 points 2 years ago (2 children)

Cool, I need some cheap Linux servers to build out my home lab

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[–] tsonfeir@lemm.ee 50 points 2 years ago (1 children)

Positive take: Lots of great Linux laptops on their way to eBay.

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[–] AllNewTypeFace@leminal.space 48 points 2 years ago (2 children)

High-end corporate laptops from 5-10 years ago make excellent cheap and powerful Linux machines today (given a reconditioned battery, assuming you want to run them without mains, and a new SSD several times larger than the hard drive they came with). See all the sticker-festooned Thinkpads you see at conferences that spent the first few years of their lives handling executive email and PowerPoint presentations, now living their best lives.

[–] Odelay42@lemmy.world 5 points 2 years ago (2 children)

I've always wanted to do this.

What's a good source to buy them?

What models do you recommend?

[–] CosmicGiraffe@lemmy.world 9 points 2 years ago (1 children)

I've always got them from eBay.

The T and X series are the high-end ones. Between those it mostly depends on what size of laptop you're looking for. Its worth checking a guide for how you replace the SSD/RAM/battery - some of the newer ones have these soldered in place, which means you're stuck with whatever it originally came with.

Personally, I think the sweet spot is around 4 years old. By that point they're pretty cheap (maybe 10% of the original RRP), and going for older ones doesn't save you much more money. I recently got an X390 and it's doing everything I need from a laptop

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[–] sturmblast@lemmy.world 34 points 2 years ago (1 children)

Windows 10 should not require such a short life time. 11 isnt much different other than the security\TPM chip shit. And 11 is fucking terrible UX

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[–] newcockroach@lemmy.world 29 points 2 years ago

Where can i get this waste .my linux pengiun will love it🤩.but it saddens me that people relay on windows so much.

[–] kittenzrulz123@lemmy.world 28 points 2 years ago

Embrace Linux and open source software

[–] KingThrillgore@lemmy.ml 22 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago) (2 children)

I can't upgrade to W11, I can't afford nor am I ready to upgrade my gaming PC, its likely I'll be moving to Linux or keeping to use W10 w/o support.

Microsoft really did no favors with limiting official W11 support. Its not just TPM.

[–] A_Random_Idiot@lemmy.world 13 points 2 years ago

I migrated to linux when Windows 7 died. So I'm you from years ago, lol.

If you'd like any advice, I would just say check ProtonDB for the games you regularly play (especially if they are MMOs) to make sure they work, cause anything that uses restrictive kernal level anticheats arent going to run.

and if you are looking for a distro, I would personally recommend Nobara. it stays up to date, it has a lot of the gaming stuff built in (Some of which might require compiling from github otherwise), and its been rock solid for me personally. but you should poke around and find whatever tickles your fancy.. and anything you don't get from X, that you can get from Y, can usually be manually installed on Z.

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[–] wabafee@lemmy.world 22 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago) (1 children)

This will be interesting, maybe this will push for huge adoption for linux. This could also mean a lot of old hardware that are still very capable goes to 2nd hand market in turn lowering prices for pc. Or nothing happens and most of the people will be in a compromise OS for years similar to what happen with windows xp debacle. There also another situation where Microsoft does backtrack on its decision and the same status quo would remain for years to come.

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[–] FangedWyvern42@lemmy.world 21 points 2 years ago (1 children)
[–] lolcatnip@reddthat.com 8 points 2 years ago (1 children)

Oh, I didn't know that was an option! I'd forgotten about it since the last time I read the comments on a Lemmy post related to Windows.

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[–] notannpc@lemmy.world 21 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago) (3 children)

How many non-tech people actually know about this? And how many of that small percentage are actually going to toss their computer as a result of it?

Because for the average computer user, they will never wonder why there are no more updates. And as long as their computer still browses the internet they don’t care even if you notify them.

Microsoft tried for years to get people off of fucking internet explorer and barely succeeded.

[–] pete_the_cat@lemmy.world 6 points 2 years ago (1 children)

Do you really think that Microsoft is going to let these people exist in ignorant bliss?

[–] notannpc@lemmy.world 6 points 2 years ago (1 children)

You underestimate people’s ability to dismiss pop ups and notifications without retaining any of the information in them.

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[–] eluvatar@programming.dev 6 points 2 years ago

Yeah, no one actually cares. Just look at phones, people don't actually stop using them when they aren't supported and don't care as long as it keeps working.

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[–] trackcharlie@lemmynsfw.com 20 points 2 years ago (2 children)

I tried win11 for about 2 hours and installed linux on the third hour and haven't used a windows machine in over a year. Windows costs an obscene price AND they have so much tracking and spyware that it actively impacts gaming performance.

Complete trash OS. I won't be going back and I now actively avoid any game that doesn't function on linux.

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[–] Blackmist@feddit.uk 20 points 2 years ago (3 children)

Incompatibility with what? Things are only just starting to be incompatible with Windows 7. I've still got customers running variants of Windows XP.

And Windows 11 doesn't really contain much that won't work on 10.

I reckon the TPM and secure boot requirements will eventually be dropped. They're the Kinect of Windows 11.

[–] Maggoty@lemmy.world 6 points 2 years ago (2 children)

I'm still not even sure why they decided to require TPM anyways. But yeah my computer is among the many that can't upgrade until that's gone. I guess it's either that or I learn a lot more about Linux...

[–] jdaxe 9 points 2 years ago (1 children)

At least if you switch to Linux there's no shortage of people on the fediverse willing to answer questions.

[–] abbotsbury@lemmy.world 6 points 2 years ago (1 children)

There should be a "Linux hotline" community where people can post whatever is stopping them from switching and get solutions

[–] DarthBueller@lemmy.world 9 points 2 years ago (5 children)

Elsewhere, Linux support areas seem more likely than not to have a large contingent of “WHY ARE YOU ASKING A DUMB QUESTION, you horror of a human being? Why didn’t you Search the site for words you don’t know using our broken search engine, instead of infecting us with your congenital idiocy?” folks.

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[–] nossaquesapao@lemmy.eco.br 5 points 2 years ago

Going the linux way can be troublesome at first, but you will be free from ms bullshit in the long run and will have your hardware lasting much longer. Unless you need something specific to windows for work, I recommend trying linux.

[–] hamid@lemmy.world 6 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago) (1 children)

You're probably not correct about TPM and secure boot being dropped. Microsoft's entire enterprise line of security products including Intune and Defender for Endpoint are integrated to it and Microsoft Azure AD/Entra ID uses it for their certificate based enrollment and authentication. This is their primary profit drivers, not consumers.

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[–] reddig33@lemmy.world 18 points 2 years ago (1 children)

Google should be pushing ChromeOS towards people and businesses with this kind of hardware. It’s a perfect way to capture market share from Microsoft.

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[–] laverabe@lemmy.world 17 points 2 years ago (1 children)

Great time to buy a cheap used PC for linux

[–] cyberpunk007@lemmy.world 8 points 2 years ago (1 children)

Why cheap, why separate? Just use your current one and slap in another disk. I've been doing it for decades. Many games run surprisingly well in Linux, sometimes even better than windows

[–] CalicoJack@lemmy.dbzer0.com 13 points 2 years ago (1 children)

These Win10 EoLs are going to flood eBay at dirt cheap prices, and they make great server/project boxes. They're going to be new toys for the hobbyist crowd, not primary machines.

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[–] 01189998819991197253 17 points 2 years ago (4 children)

I just helped a friend who is still on Windows 7. I showed him my Linux boxes. Even offered him one for free. "but I can't live without this minesweeper". Seriously. I showed him minesweeper on one of the Linux boxes. "it's not the same one, I have a high score". Thankfully, this isn't a laptop, because he would not be permitted to connect to my wifi. Those that scrap their old devices for Win11 will either be businesses/corporations that have no other choice or slightly more advanced users that understand the benefits of active support. The general populace will likely keep their Win10 (or 7) computers until they have to upgrade the hardware, and they'll likely be super happy that they don't have to deal with the "annoying windows update that restarts [their] computer". To be fair, forced reboots is an annoying feature.

[–] zogreface@lemmy.world 17 points 2 years ago (1 children)

WINE will run minesweeper. He can even bring over his highscores file.

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[–] dual_sport_dork@lemmy.world 10 points 2 years ago (2 children)

Given how long it took the general populace to let go of Windows XP, I predict a pretty similar turn of events (or rather lack thereof) with Win10. By and large everyone's grandma and parents and auntie will just keep on using their same old computer as it is, possibly eventually turning into a petri dish for every exploit and piece of malware in the known universe in the process.

The majority of casual home users will throw away their computer and buy a new one only if it stops working or possibly if some new piece of software or more likely some future web site won't work with it. Otherwise, to most non-nerd users it's just an appliance.

Office and corporate deployments are another thing, but OS end-of-life situations are not new to any of those guys.

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[–] Treczoks@lemmy.world 17 points 2 years ago (5 children)

OK, half of them were trash, anyway. But the other half can still be a good Linux box. Wipe them, install Linux, and give it to schools so children can learn that there is something better than Windows.

[–] scops@reddthat.com 9 points 2 years ago (5 children)

Half? Bet that number is higher. Linux can run on a potato if you find the right distro.

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[–] megane_kun@lemmy.dbzer0.com 16 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago) (6 children)

I've kept a Windows 10 install on a separate SSD for the programs that stubbornly refuse to run on Linux (games, in my case). However, I won't be upgrading that to Windows 11. I'll just reclaim that SSD for other purposes and use Linux exclusively.

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[–] LemmyIsFantastic@lemmy.world 14 points 2 years ago (6 children)

It's 8 years old. FFS install Linux and have a little server or some shit if you really can't be bothered to upgrade.

[–] cyberpunk007@lemmy.world 27 points 2 years ago (9 children)

Ok so if you built a computer in like 2019 or 2020 it's only 4-5 years old. This was before windows 11 came out. 4-5 years is not that old for a computer, especially if you built a good one.

[–] Corgana@startrek.website 8 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago) (2 children)

This is what happened to me, a really high end PC built in 2018 and I couldn't even upgrade because of the TPM stuff! Decided to try out Zorin and have been pleasantly surprised.

[–] KingThrillgore@lemmy.ml 8 points 2 years ago

9 times out of 10 you can turn TPM on on these machines, and even then, i'm told "Can't upgrade to Windows 11."

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[–] 13617@lemmy.world 9 points 2 years ago

Year of the Linux deskt- haha just kidding. People are going to just go out and buy new stuff. All part of the system, even if it's capitalist hell.

[–] Blueneonz@reddthat.com 8 points 2 years ago (1 children)

Honestly can't see people dumping their pcs due to 'incompatibility.' Windows 10 support ends officially in 2025 but it doesn't make it unusable for as long as the computer and programs are working as they should. My parents have a laptop from around 2018 that came with windows 10 and its not windows 11 compatible. They are going to use that thing until it can run no more. It's essentially a more functional iPad.

Most people who are replacing computers for windows 11 are either college students, people who work on large projects or people who are gaming from a very old set up. As long as everything works with an internet browser and can install proprietary software then most likely they will keep it until the equipment gets too old.

Actually, that's a real problem. The issue isn't that features stop working or some slowdown, it's millions of devices going without security updates and getting swooped into gargantuan bot networks.

[–] Thcdenton@lemmy.world 8 points 2 years ago (2 children)

Im still on a t430 🤷‍♀️

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[–] wrott@lemmy.ml 8 points 2 years ago (1 children)

I don't know how to install Windows 11 and I'm totally ok with it. I've been on linux for about 10 years.

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[–] Tangent5280@lemmy.world 7 points 2 years ago (3 children)

I will just go take all 240 million of them out of the garbage.

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[–] Ilovethebomb@lemm.ee 5 points 2 years ago (2 children)

10 has only been superseded quite recently, 2025 seems like a very short deadline.

My computer more than meets the minimum spec for 11, and it's a free upgrade, so I'm not too worried, but it's still a surprise.

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