That’s when Windows 10 stops getting security updates. Expect most software vendors to drop support for Windows 10 this year if they haven’t already. That doesn’t necessarily mean things will stop working, but it will not be tested and they won’t spend time fixing Win10-specific problems.
In enterprise, you can get an additional three years of “extended security updates”. That’s your grace period to get everyone in your org upgraded.
While I strongly relate to anyone who hates Windows 11, “continue using Windows 10 forever” was never a viable long-term strategy.
Windows 10 was released in 2015. Ten years of support for an OS is industry-leading, on par with Red Hat or Ubuntu’s enterprise offerings and far ahead of any competing consumer OS. Apple generally only offers three years of security updates. Google provides 3-4 years of security updates. Debian gets 5 years.
There has never been a time in the history of personal computing when using an OS for over 10 years without a major upgrade was realistic. That would be like using Windows 3.1 after XP was released. Windows 10 is dead, and it’s been a long time coming.
Also this is very much not the same world as when XP came out, considering you can accidentally upgrade your os instead of having to watch your father angrily fail to install service pack 3 for four hours.
Fedora seems like a good general-purpose pick to me, because it is modern, it has a large community, and it’s easy enough to install and use. It has similar advantages as Ubuntu — that is, a large community and broad commercial third-party support — without the downsides of having a lot of outdated software and lacking support for new hardware. I think Fedora is less likely to have show-stopping limitations than a lot of other distros, even beginner-friendly ones like Mint.
But that’s just one opinion. There’s nothing wrong with Ubuntu or derivatives. I’ve heard good things about Pop_OS as well, though I’ve never tried it myself.
How are they going to drop updates for something they have to spend zero energy on to stay compatible? Windows 11 is a low effort UI re-hash with some minor kernel iterations. I love and miss the Linux desktop and want it to succeed, but it’s clear there’s a bias here meant to push a narrative.
I’m expecting pretty decent software support for Windows 10 for another three years or so. Sure, there will be things here and there that won’t work, but most things will continue to work and many people who are on Windows 10 can just keep on using it for the next few years should they chose to do that. That’ll more or less match what happened with Windows 7, where it wasn’t until 2023 that I started to see support start to massively drop off. With that said, if Microsoft actually breaks Office on Windows 10 that’ll really change things.
Also, I’d offer up 2001-2014 as a period of time where it was entirely possible to stick with one OS (Windows XP) the entire time.
Windows was doing an Ubuntu-like release cycle on 10 with standard releases every 6 months and LTS releases every 2 years. There was no need for them to release Windows 11 other than branding. They could have simply kept up their scheduled release cadence like every linux distro does.
That’s when Windows 10 stops getting security updates. Expect most software vendors to drop support for Windows 10 this year if they haven’t already. That doesn’t necessarily mean things will stop working, but it will not be tested and they won’t spend time fixing Win10-specific problems.
In enterprise, you can get an additional three years of “extended security updates”. That’s your grace period to get everyone in your org upgraded.
While I strongly relate to anyone who hates Windows 11, “continue using Windows 10 forever” was never a viable long-term strategy.
Windows 10 was released in 2015. Ten years of support for an OS is industry-leading, on par with Red Hat or Ubuntu’s enterprise offerings and far ahead of any competing consumer OS. Apple generally only offers three years of security updates. Google provides 3-4 years of security updates. Debian gets 5 years.
There has never been a time in the history of personal computing when using an OS for over 10 years without a major upgrade was realistic. That would be like using Windows 3.1 after XP was released. Windows 10 is dead, and it’s been a long time coming.
Now go download Fedora.
But not Professional? Just Enterprise?
Also this is very much not the same world as when XP came out, considering you can accidentally upgrade your os instead of having to watch your father angrily fail to install service pack 3 for four hours.
And why Fedora?
I think it’s just for enterprise contracts, yeah.
Fedora seems like a good general-purpose pick to me, because it is modern, it has a large community, and it’s easy enough to install and use. It has similar advantages as Ubuntu — that is, a large community and broad commercial third-party support — without the downsides of having a lot of outdated software and lacking support for new hardware. I think Fedora is less likely to have show-stopping limitations than a lot of other distros, even beginner-friendly ones like Mint.
But that’s just one opinion. There’s nothing wrong with Ubuntu or derivatives. I’ve heard good things about Pop_OS as well, though I’ve never tried it myself.
How are they going to drop updates for something they have to spend zero energy on to stay compatible? Windows 11 is a low effort UI re-hash with some minor kernel iterations. I love and miss the Linux desktop and want it to succeed, but it’s clear there’s a bias here meant to push a narrative.
I’m expecting pretty decent software support for Windows 10 for another three years or so. Sure, there will be things here and there that won’t work, but most things will continue to work and many people who are on Windows 10 can just keep on using it for the next few years should they chose to do that. That’ll more or less match what happened with Windows 7, where it wasn’t until 2023 that I started to see support start to massively drop off. With that said, if Microsoft actually breaks Office on Windows 10 that’ll really change things.
Also, I’d offer up 2001-2014 as a period of time where it was entirely possible to stick with one OS (Windows XP) the entire time.
Windows was doing an Ubuntu-like release cycle on 10 with standard releases every 6 months and LTS releases every 2 years. There was no need for them to release Windows 11 other than branding. They could have simply kept up their scheduled release cadence like every linux distro does.
https://www.theverge.com/2015/5/7/8568473/windows-10-last-version-of-windows
LOL, I forgot about that. Fair point.
So sad for Microsoft that as soon as they decided to copy another one of Apple’s worst ideas, Apple moved up to 11 instead of 10.16.