homepage Forums SimHQ Community Community Hall MS to end W10 support in Oct. 2025

Well time flies doesn't it, and MS wont miss a beat for more money grab!

Last few day´s I have been giving the switch to Linux a thought. It´s just not about ending support but the fact (If they don´t change their mind) that the perquisites to run W11 have become more strict which means new gear (hardware) If you want to join the MS boat!

Yeah consume more for our beloved ecosystem, planet earth that Is!



Red

The problem for me is gaming. The hard cold fact that is that the great majority of PC games don’t run on Linux.

I guess most of us have that same problem, gaming! But personally, I am starting to get a bit fed up with how Intrusive the soft/hard Industry Is becoming. It´s like even with something like a PC, we have less freedom to do anything, aside from the hardwired control that we are summited to just because we use a PC/Mac. It´s getting worst by the day/year! Add to it all the things you need to keep track of and update. The time you spend just to keep their software running Is well, not even funny! Being a slave of this Is not fun anymore...

Think of It this way, If you run something like Linux and can only run a handful of games on Wine, Imagen how much money some of use will save! I hear X-Plane 12 runs on Linux so with that and maybe a few wargames and I´ll be a free man

I do have like about 80 tabletop wargames so I´ll be fine even If the lights go out!

I absolutely detest windows 10. I had to upgrade a few years ago when my video card burned out. Windows 7 was great for gaming. Up until about 2021 I was still happily running windows 7 and a majority of my games spanning back twenty years still installed and worked just fine. I got into the windows 10 environment and discovered they arbitrarily removed support for older software as well as was greeted with a slew of unwanted bloatware such as xbox live services and disney services and social media notifications that I have not asked for, other "internet of things" type programs as well as what feels like a major forceful, invasive push into my privacy with less control for me and more for them. Windows image viewer is also ridiculously terrible, often being laggy and unresponsive. I'm not extremely tech savvy but I feel I know far less of what windows 10 is actually doing compared to previous windows versions. Technology has become oppressive and its committing a great intrusion and trespass into our lives which is not good. Its leading to something folks need to be aware of and to keep themselves from. I'm on the verge of completely letting go of my gaming hobby not only for the time and money it eats with no chance of recovering either of these things but also because of this ever marching intrusion of technology combined with the irritating mechanisms of forced obsolescence and control.

Stimulating thread gents - also keep in mind that most OSes are still (mostly) fine to use even after official support ends, providing that you can continue to run a fairly modern browser on them, including some minimal (but modern) AV program. In that context, Win10 may still be "workable," oh let's say to about 2030, before you might really want to think of shifting to some other platform/OS. Depends also on the longevity of the hardware you have Win10 installed on. I'm sure that there are Win7 computers still out there running along happily with MSE (Microsoft Security Essentials) and a fairly modern browser (such as the Pale Moon fork of FireFox, etc.).

Other possibilities to consider: VirtualBox so that you can run a Linux distro with a modern browser side-by-side with your "legacy" Win10 install; or, if very adventurous, dual-boot or install on an external (or internal) hard drive a Linux distro to compare/contrast with Win10. I like LinuxMint since it reminds me of good, retro and stable OSes (such as the classic days of Windows and Macs) - and its update manager is not very intrusive (can be tweaked and customized). Both the Ubuntu- and Debian-based variants of Mint are good.

I've also heard good things about vanilla Debian and OpenSUSE, etc. - but as far as I have been able to test in VirtualBox - Mint (and Zorin) are the most user-friendly. No need to install more complicated distros if you believe in the old Apple adage that an OS should just get out of the way so you can do your work/play.

NOTE: the WoFF series and First Eagles 2 (as well as Red Baron II and 3D) run great in WINE (i.e., the Windows compatibility layer that is available for Linux distros as well as Intel-era Macs) - can't comment on other games/sims and how they work on Linux. Your mileage may vary.

Good OS choices to you (and extended longevity to your hardware),

Thanks @Coot, you pretty much nailed what I wanted to say and think. I still have a couple of original XP disc somewhere, and I think that If you Isolate a PC with let´s say XP, or W7 and Install those wonderful older games that to me were (are) much more gamefull, one might get away with a peaceful gaming life. Well you know what I mean...

@VonS, yes Indeed there are other options as you stated that are opensource, and can probably work great and not be so Intrusive. But another point Is that some of us are getting older, and really It get´s tiresome to go through so many hoops and/or remember how this and that were Installed. Yeah will end up playing Tetris on a phone some years from now, but I like to think that theirs still some years before we brain fart every other 20min.

BTW I am glad to know that WoFF works in WINE because I have my eye on It. Thanks!

As a side not and on topic, W11 24H2 requieres TPM 2.0, which Is found on you´re motherboard. If your motherboard Is older then 5 years, most likely It wont have the chip. You also need a CPU that has POPCNT which goes back to AMD K10 architecture 2007, and with Intel, would be Intel core based on Nehalem and Sandy Bridge. Which leaves out all Core 2 Duo and Core 2 Quad, along with any AMD before Phenom first gen. Intel Instructions SSE4.2 and AMD Instructions SSEA4 are also a must. You can check by using CPU-Z.

So, Windows 11 23H2 will receive support up until November 2025, and Windows 10 will receive support up until October of 2025. After that Windows 11 24H2 will be the OS for windows with active updates. W11 24H2 might be called Windows 12, and things can changes up until then, but this Is what Is known for now. BTW, W11 24H2 will have AI built In among other wonderful Intrusions, so basically you will be the co-pilot of you´re PC, but they say It will be great for gaming!



Red