The Death of Windows 10

[Doodski]

I've got some ancient version of Linux Mint running on my "music server" upstairs. Since that's an IBM Thinkpad R60, I am kind of loath to try to move to a Linux variant that's actually still supported.

If it works well leave it be.

 

[mhardy6647]

It works fine.

 

[Doodski]

It works fine.

Perhaps driver issues will occur with a new installation and then you need to run setup and then run level detect for level matching etc... Could be doing other things rather than babysitting a old pooder that worked fine.

 

[Ron Texas]

Lately I am getting regular prompts to turn on a feature in Edge which allows Microsoft to track your activity in order to "improve" search results. Just another symptom of life in the Information Age. Right now I don't want a Copilot+ PC. There are too many questions about privacy and security and it's too new.

 

[audio_tony]

I managed to bork Ubuntu on my Lenovo X390 Yoga last night...

I wanted enable the fingerprint reader for privilege elevation (it was already enabled for logon). So I Googled and found out I need to enable the fingerprint module using 'pam-auth-update'. So I enabled fingerprint, but accidentally enabled smartcard authentication as well (it was late!). Now I get prompted to plug in a smartcard when logging on or elevating with sudo, etc. I have no smartcard or smartcard reader

The smartcard prompt seems to time out on logon and i'm able to use a fingerprint or password, but I can't sudo or su to undo the changes because I can't past the smartcard prompt at the command line.

I can't see how I can fix this without the ability to elevate (I hadn't set a root password or enabled root logon), so i've wiped the laptop and i'm doing a fresh install of 24.04 - this only takes 10 minutes when booting from an NVMe drive in an external USB-C enclosure with Ventoy installed and the Ubuntu ISO copied to it.

35 years in IT and still learning (by breaking things)

*update* Ubuntu re-installed, fingerprint enabled in PAM and working for sudo -i

You probably could have fixed that by booting system rescue CD (from usb) and chrooting into your existing installation.

No reinstall required.

 

[audio_tony]

To bypass the MS account requirement use a bogus ID [email protected] with 12345 as the password will work. You get an error message and then may proceed. As for the UI being designed for kids, you are going to have to elaborate to convince me.

I just unplug the network (and in the case of WiFi only don't enable WiFi). You are then prompted to create a local account.

 

[Doodski]

Lately I am getting regular prompts to turn on a feature in Edge which allows Microsoft to track your activity in order to "improve" search results. Just another symptom of life in the Information Age. Right now I don't want a Copilot+ PC. There are too many questions about privacy and security and it's too new.

What is a copilot?

 

[Ron Texas]

What is a copilot?

Copilot is Microsoft's trademark for AI assisted computing. It may be accessed by using Bing for a search. So far I'm not too impressed with it. A search for "restaurant with chicken fried steak" in my postal code returned 2 restaurants with this Texas delicacy outside of my postal code and missed two inside the postal code.

 

[Doodski]

Sounds delicious, tasty and good for ya too! My buddy had a MS smart cel tel that he talked with a lot and he preferred it to typing as it gave his instruction, suggestions, search results, pizza delivery etc. ... and ... Seriously what do I need a assistant for? I use Chrome, notepad, windows explorer, Paint and that's it...

 

[Basic Channel]

Hard to see how much Windows can hold on aside from being preinstalled on machines. Debian 12 live boots from USB and supports everything out the box, including HDMI and Focusrite Scarlett 2nd gen which has no linux support. And Debian is supposed to be one of the "hard" distros.

 

[Berwhale]

Having already booted the ubuntu installation medium, would just mounting the root partition with incorrect configuration and fixing the configuration help?

Well I guess if it was a Windows box, I would have booted from a CD, taken ownership of the file system, edited the file and rebooted and then tried to restore the permissions, but it was easier to rebuild the laptop

 

[Berwhale]

You probably could have fixed that by booting system rescue CD (from usb) and chrooting into your existing installation.

No reinstall required.

Yes, I would do a similar thing to a Windows system in a similar state, but there's only so many hours I can spending tinkering. In my day job, I spent the last week fighting Oracle Linux (on an Oracle Exadata Cloud@Customer appliance) and Solaris on an Oracle ZFS appliance. I haven't touched Solaris since I supported SPARC 10, 20, etc. systems on a trading floor 20 years ago.

 

[Hifihedgehog]

When Windows 10 came out it was billed as the final version of windows. Upgrades from Windows 7 were free. Windows 11 was released with free upgrades from Windows 10, but there was a complication. The computer was required to have TPM 2.0. Microsoft has announced it will stop updating Windows 10 in October of 2025. What happens to all the computers without TPM 2.0 then? Seventh generation Intel Core processors were the last ones to lack TPM 2.0. While 6 years old most of those are still fast enough to be useful.

Short answer. Get Windows 10 IoT Enterprise LTSC 2021. End of life is January 13th, 2032.

Windows 10 IoT Enterprise LTSC 2021 - Microsoft Lifecycle

Windows 10 IoT Enterprise LTSC 2021 follows the Fixed Lifecycle Policy.

learn.microsoft.com

 

[Blumlein 88]

What is a copilot?

It has been an AI search, now they are offering Windows PCs with a more than 40 teraflop processor to do much AI processing on the machine. Actually might be a good thing, but will MS leave it alone or try to monetize everything you do with it?

Introducing Copilot+ PCs - The Official Microsoft Blog

An on-demand recording of our May 20 event is available. Today, at a special event on our new Microsoft campus, we introduced the world to a new category of Windows PCs designed for AI, Copilot+ PCs. Copilot+ PCs are the fastest, most intelligent Windows PCs ever built. With powerful new...

blogs.microsoft.com

I've tried the new AI features of Copilot+ PCs and I'm (mostly) impressed - here's why

I have seen the future of AI in Windows 11, and it's only available on Copilot+ PCs (for now?)

www.tomsguide.com

 

[pseudoid]

*If only WindowsOS was as beautiful... the pain/futility may become more tolerable.

 

[Brian Hall]

It is "The Slow Death of Windows". Microsoft is messing up and it is going to hurt them. Who is the idiot making these bad decisions?

 

[restorer-john]

Who is the idiot making these bad decisions?

Judging by many of the boneheaded decisions they've made in the last few years, it's probably AI.

 

[pseudoid]

Judging by many of the boneheaded decisions they've made in the last few years, it's probably AI.

Not so fast! The dust has not settle just yet:

Microsoft Cloud strength fuels third quarter results
April 25, 2024 | Microsoft Source
REDMOND, Wash. — April 25, 2024 — Microsoft Corp. today announced the following results for the quarter ended March 31, 2024, as compared to the corresponding period of last fiscal year:
Revenue was $61.9 billion and increased 17%
Operating income was $27.6 billion and increased 23%
Net income was $21.9 billion and increased 20%
Diluted earnings per share was $2.94 and increased 20%
“Microsoft Copilot and Copilot stack are orchestrating a new era of AI transformation, driving better business outcomes across every role and industry,” said Satya Nadella, chairman and chief executive officer of Microsoft.
“This quarter Microsoft Cloud revenue was $35.1 billion, up 23% year-over-year, driven by strong execution by our sales teams and partners,” said Amy Hood, executive vice president and chief financial officer of Microsoft.
From <https://news.microsoft.com/2024/04/25/microsoft-cloud-strength-fuels-third-quarter-results-3/>

By "Cloud Revenue" they certainly must mean Azure' wedding to SamAltman's OpenAI. No, not the "open" part but namely ChatGPT-4, ChatGPT-4o, and DALL-E 3.
That wedding was a good move (imo).

 

[mhardy6647]

View attachment 376646
*If only WindowsOS was as beautiful... the pain/futility may become more tolerable.

Or, as the Dyslexic Borg put it.

Your a$$ will be laminated

 

[Pictus]

For those using Windows, I recommend some tweaks that can improve DPC latency and USB.
Very good for gaming and audio stuff, check https://www.kvraudio.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=8820694#p8820694