Windows Users Surprised by Windows 11's Short List of Supported CPUs (theverge.com) 236
Slashdot reader thegarbz writes:
While a lot of focus has been on the TPM requirements for Windows 11, Microsoft has since updated its documentation to provide a complete list of supported processors. At present the list includes only Intel 8th Generation Core processors or newer, and AMD Ryzen Zen+ processors or newer, effectively limiting Windows 11 to PC less than 4-5 years old.
Notably absent from the list is the Intel Core i7-7820HQ, the processor used in Microsoft's current flagship $3500+ Surface Studio 2. This has prompted many threads on Reddit from users angry that their (in some cases very new) Surface PC is failing the Windows 11 upgrade check.
The Verge confirms: Windows 11 will only support 8th Gen and newer Intel Core processors, alongside [Intel's 2016-era] Apollo Lake and newer Pentium and Celeron processors. That immediately rules out millions of existing Windows 10 devices from upgrading to Windows 11... Windows 11 will also only support AMD Ryzen 2000 and newer processors, and 2nd Gen or newer [AMD] EPYC chips. You can find the full list of supported processors on Microsoft's site...
Originally, Microsoft noted that CPU generation requirements are a "soft floor" limit for the Windows 11 installer, which should have allowed some older CPUs to be able to install Windows 11 with a warning, but hours after we published this story, the company updated that page to explicitly require the list of chips above.
Many Windows 10 users have been downloading Microsoft's PC Health App (available here) to see whether Windows 11 works on their systems, only to find it fails the check... This is the first significant shift in Windows hardware requirements since the release of Windows 8 back in 2012, and the CPU changes are understandably catching people by surprise.
Microsoft is also requiring a front-facing camera for all Windows 11 devices except desktop PCs from January 2023 onwards.
"In order to run Windows 11, devices must meet the hardware specifications," explains Microsoft's official compatibility page for Windows 11.
"Devices that do not meet the hardware requirements cannot be upgraded to Windows 11."
Notably absent from the list is the Intel Core i7-7820HQ, the processor used in Microsoft's current flagship $3500+ Surface Studio 2. This has prompted many threads on Reddit from users angry that their (in some cases very new) Surface PC is failing the Windows 11 upgrade check.
The Verge confirms: Windows 11 will only support 8th Gen and newer Intel Core processors, alongside [Intel's 2016-era] Apollo Lake and newer Pentium and Celeron processors. That immediately rules out millions of existing Windows 10 devices from upgrading to Windows 11... Windows 11 will also only support AMD Ryzen 2000 and newer processors, and 2nd Gen or newer [AMD] EPYC chips. You can find the full list of supported processors on Microsoft's site...
Originally, Microsoft noted that CPU generation requirements are a "soft floor" limit for the Windows 11 installer, which should have allowed some older CPUs to be able to install Windows 11 with a warning, but hours after we published this story, the company updated that page to explicitly require the list of chips above.
Many Windows 10 users have been downloading Microsoft's PC Health App (available here) to see whether Windows 11 works on their systems, only to find it fails the check... This is the first significant shift in Windows hardware requirements since the release of Windows 8 back in 2012, and the CPU changes are understandably catching people by surprise.
Microsoft is also requiring a front-facing camera for all Windows 11 devices except desktop PCs from January 2023 onwards.
"In order to run Windows 11, devices must meet the hardware specifications," explains Microsoft's official compatibility page for Windows 11.
"Devices that do not meet the hardware requirements cannot be upgraded to Windows 11."
OEM Kiss and Make Up. (Score:5, Interesting)
Windows 11 is Microsoft's kiss and make up gift basket to manufacturers for Windows 10. They want the Google Chromebook "5 years and dead" Model and were pissed that MS gave Windows 10 away for free to anyone on 7 or 8 and kept the Minimum requirements so low. Everybody upgraded, no one bought new computers and cue the PC recession.
Now that MS basically killed any PC over 4 years old, Either PC sales will skyrocket now or once 2025 hits.
Comment removed (Score:5, Interesting)
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Considering fTPM has been around for a long time I doubt that's going to be a roadblock.
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Re:OEM Kiss and Make Up. (Score:4, Insightful)
I'm not sure if the CPU requirements are going to be hard or not.
If you look at that chart for even older OS'es it says that windows 7 doesn't support older processors than the Core 1st gen or Athlon A or FX series processors. I've run windows 7 on first get Athlon 64's and Core 2 duo's Same goes with windows 10 and those older processors but to be fair windows 10 runs extremely slow on them.
The TPM Requirement is definitely hard. And I wouldn't have too much of a problem with it if it did anything useful, especially when it comes to Home users. The only thing TPM does of any value is Bitlocker, and only Pro systems can use it and frankly you're better off with a password protected hardware encrypting hard drive than Bitlocker since the hard drive password blocks booting and most likely the criminal will steal your laptop (or trick you into running something malicious) and take the TPM key with it. Then it's just a matter of time to boot the OS (which you can't do with a encrypting hard drive due to the bios password) and figure out a remote exploit or physical motherboard exploit injection to get in the booted PC. Since 99.999% of data theft is virtual rather than physical, It's literally no better at protecting your data than the Encrypting File System that Windows 2000 had.
As for the other things TPM does, It has a random number generator that's better, but not significantly better than what the CPU could generate. It has encryption acceleration, but you have so many cores available on modern CPU's that it's redundant other than saving a few minutes of battery life. The cryptographic storage is useless if it's accessible by the user without physical account verification (IE a Master password that you have to put in outside of the OS or a fingerprint reader) every time its accessed (since a Virus can easily use your user authority in the background to tell the TPM to dump the decrypted hashes and send to a malicious entity). It can also act as a Virtual Smart card, but again it's dumpable as long as its accessible by your user authority without physical verification and Air gapped solutions (Real Smart Cards, Yubikeys, ETC) are much better since they are only accessible by software when they are plugged in.
There are some other things TPM's do, but again its not necessarily more secure than other options out there and is all but virtually useless for home users.
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Re: OEM Kiss and Make Up. (Score:2)
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I don't know about gamers, but quite a few small companies will keep using Windows 10 or earlier because they will not buy new PCs just to use a newer Windows version.
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So basically they offer a big turd and then when everyone complains they offer a slightly smaller turd and a guarantee that you're going to get the bigger turd just a bit later.
Fuck TPM I don't trust it one inch, it's a really fucking bad idea. If you believe in free speech then you should be 100% against TPM.
Re:OEM Kiss and Make Up. (Score:5, Interesting)
BS, it's complete double speak for not trusted computing - the user isn't trusted.
What's wrong with not having a TPM chip? I'm currently not using TPM and that's the way I like it. I have yet to hear a good explanation for why *I* need TPM rather than why MS want TPM.
Saying it isn't the same as DRM is more bollocks like saying an engine isn't the same as a car, MS are insisting people with win11 have the engine so they can build the car around it.
It's about who owns the device, Microsoft has already shown complete disdain for users with win10 with all of the spying and by taking away control of the OS bit by bit. TPM increases MS control over the PC, taking control away from the end-user.
Making TPM a requirement is as disturbing as insisting the (for now non-desktop) computer has a front facing webcam.
Re:OEM Kiss and Make Up. (Score:4, Informative)
"Rental chain 'caught spying on customers at home"
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/ne... [dailymail.co.uk]
Warning to cover up webcams after hackers caught spying
https://www.bbc.co.uk/newsroun... [bbc.co.uk]
Russian-based website has been streaming live video from thousands of webcams whose owners have no idea their premises are on show to the world
https://www.afr.com/technology... [afr.com]
Caught Napping: Pics in School Spying Case Emerge
https://blogs.findlaw.com/law_... [findlaw.com]
Optic Nerve: millions of Yahoo webcam images intercepted by GCHQ
https://www.theguardian.com/wo... [theguardian.com]
FBI can spy on you through your webcam without triggering the indicator light... and has had the technology for several years
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/ne... [dailymail.co.uk]
https://privacyinnewmedia.word... [wordpress.com]
https://www.dailydot.com/uncli... [dailydot.com]
So, can you see why I might like to have control of my computer and not have a front facing webcam?
More used business class machines for Linux users (Score:5, Insightful)
If you don't want to be coerced into scrapping good hardware, don't run Windows.
When you rent proprietary software you cannot contend you didn't get what you paid for and deserve. Lack of information is no excuse.
Re:OEM Kiss and Make Up. (Score:5, Insightful)
I think Windows 11 is more of a kiss and make up to the users for forcing them to use that god awful metro ui interface introduced in windows 8.
If you look at it, Windows 11 is basically Windows 7 revisited:
- "frosted glass" appearance on windows, taskbar
- rounded corners everywhere instead of the sharp corners that defined 8 and 10
- no more stupid live tiles
- reintroduction of widgets
- cortana, aka "clippy 2.0, now with a voice" is finally gone
- no more fisher-price colors
- no more flat UI, as in return to depth (via shadows, overlapping objects, etc) and return to skeuomorph (albeit not rasterized skeuomorph that Apple is infamous for)
You'll probably see windows 11 getting better user acceptance than windows 8 or 10 did, IMO.
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How disappointing. I was pretty happy with flat design.
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a flat UI necessitates the fisher-price look, otherwise you can't really distinguish between objects. Microsoft had already begun moving away from flat UI in windows 10, just with windows 11 they've gone all the way. Google did the same with material design all the way back in Android 5. If you want flat, I think Apple still does that, I don't know for sure though as I haven't had an apple device in over two years.
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That sounds great in terms of UI, but what about other factors? How much telemetry is there in Windows 11? Does your installation have to be tied to a Microsoft account? Is it fast or slow compared to previous versions? (As mentioned in this post) what is the hardware compatibility?
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Holy cow, spot on. I ran the check and my CPU isn't Windows 11 compatible. I click on the "Learn more" button after my hardware check and I see prominent text/links for "SHOP NEW PCs" and "Shop for a Windows 11 compatible PC at these retailers" (for Amazon, BestBuy, Walmart, and Microsoft Store.)
Even better, the the FAQ section has the following questions: "When can I buy a PC that comes with Windows 11 pre-installed?", "How much does a PC with Windows 11 cost?", "Where can I buy a PC with Windows 11?",
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Seems like a reasonably interesting borderline insightful FP. Even a good basis for a discussion.
So why is your response some mysterious mumble about the username of the FP author? But I guess that explains why I've never noticed your username before.
But for a country that mumbles a lot about freedom, I sure feel a lack thereof. And I still think "real choice" is a key part of "real freedom", and on that basis, Microsoft should be cut into several competing companies. Each of them would start with a copy of
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Also also, if you own a PC that's around 5 years old and you're surprised at having obsolescence issues, you're a moron. That's how the computer industry has worked for decades.
That's the way it used to work, Heck, in the 90's, even a 2-year-old computer would start to become unbearably slow.
But in the past 10-15 years, something changed. The rate of "hardware getting faster" far outpaced "software getting slower", then hardware performance gains kinda leveled off.
Nearly all my machines at this point have CPUs that are >5 years old, and none of them have performance problems that are sufficient to motivate me to upgrade (and yes, I can easily afford it). Of course I also never
No shit. (Score:2)
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An operating system first and foremost should not depend upon the speed of the CPU or the amount of RAM. If it does then it points to a major flaw in the OS. So it's good evidence that either they're sick of supporting old stuff (costs too much to pay devs) or they want new features like spyware enabling.
Re: No shit. (Score:3)
A mass market consumer OS very much needs to consider these things. They're selling to the average user who will be calling tech support when their system slows to a crawl due to unreasonable demands on terrible hardware. They need to guarantee a certain experience. Games have minimum and recommended specs. An mainstream operating system seems little different.
good job microsoft (Score:2)
even Apple's Big Sur runs on 7 year old computers. Now you won't hvae to put up with those pesky middle and lower class losers, get on the first class bullet train or fuck off, amiright?
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runs fine on my wife's old iMac. get more RAM, lack has been been the problem with NeXT back in the day and now Apple for years.
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"also requiring a front-facing camera" (Score:5, Insightful)
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If you put tape over it will you get a stern warning before they brick your system?
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Put tape over it? I say open the display shell assembly and cut the camera wires from orbit, it's the only way to be sure.
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That's like... sigh.. I'm too depressed by the Orwellian present to keep writing.
So no desktops? Unless sold with webcam + screen?
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Re: "also requiring a front-facing camera" (Score:3)
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Re: "also requiring a front-facing camera" (Score:5, Insightful)
My guess is it's for Windows Hello, Microsoft's secure passwordless biometric login. It exists as an option on Windows 10 for those with computers that fulfill all the security requirements, meaning mostly business machines with TPM connected to a secure video pathway, and is disabled otherwise. It seems with Windows 11 Microsoft wants it available, and probably enabled by default, on all portable devices, not only on business-class machines. Desktops, on the other hand, are less likely to be stolen and find themselves in the hands of someone physically trying to login on them over and over and over, so having Windows Hello as a requirement on them doesn't seem to be a priority for now.
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My guess is it's for Windows Hello, Microsoft's secure passwordless biometric login. It exists as an option on Windows 10 for those with computers that fulfill all the security requirements, meaning mostly business machines with TPM connected to a secure video pathway, and is disabled otherwise. It seems with Windows 11 Microsoft wants it available, and probably enabled by default, on all portable devices, not only on business-class machines. Desktops, on the other hand, are less likely to be stolen and find themselves in the hands of someone physically trying to login on them over and over and over, so having Windows Hello as a requirement on them doesn't seem to be a priority for now.
To me that MS logic makes no sense. Requiring a camera does not help secure a device that much given this kind of protection is being fooled easily currently. Apple's Face ID system at least uses 3D imaging which is harder to fool but still can be fooled. While average laptops and devices are more portable than average desktops, more and more desktops are getting smaller. Small form factor PCs are used by many business and consumers where the user does not need a great deal of computing power. It seems a p
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Windows Hello requires specifically-designed IR cameras to work. I presume they work similarly to the iPhone's camera - projecting IR dots and then interpreting those as a 3D surface.
Re: "also requiring a front-facing camera" (Score:5, Insightful)
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Great News (Score:5, Interesting)
This presumably means my "Windows machine" won't try and spontaneously update itself the way things happened with Windows 10. It fails on two major criteria - not UEFI-capable and the processor. Let's hear it for machines built in 2010.
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I love Linux Mint and would be hard-pressed to switch.
With that said, serious question- what are some of the features in PopOS that persuaded you to choose it over Mint?
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I love Linux Mint and would be hard-pressed to switch.
I installed that for a (non-tech) friend, but went with Ubuntu MATE for myself.
Similar interface but one less step removed from Debian.
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I'm having difficulty believing that, do you only have 2 steam games or are they all made by the same developer?
Will it literally run cyberpunk 2077 or Quake-RTX or tens of thousands of other steam games without having to tweak things?
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I'm having difficulty believing that, do you only have 2 steam games or are they all made by the same developer?
I don't know about the OP but I have three Steam games right now that I'm using Steams Proton to run on Linux. Everything else is native.
One (6?) of those games is Microsoft's very own "Halo; Master Chief Collection", which is Halo 1, 2, 3, 4, Reach, and ODST. So far I've played 1, 2, 3, and ODST, and have had zero issues running them on Linux.
The Second is "Valheim" which uses the Unity game engine, and it is actually seems to be running faster on my Linux system than my Windows 7 box. Only problem I'v
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So it's going to be a royal pain in the ass and many games won't work then. Just to put things in perspective I've reviewed 189 games on steam, I have 3500+ steam games. I like short games and indie games and more original content. The thing I like about windows 7 is that 99% of games just work without issue for me. I don't want to have to mess around with obscure configurations to get games to work. I totally appreciate the work being done to get games to work on Linux and this is one thing I like about V
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I have no idea what your talking about with the "obscure configurations" comment.
Only "obscure configurations" I've needed to do in Steam to use Proton was select "Proton Experimental" from a pull down menu. Even the custom version I use for FF XIV took more time to down load than to install. I just unpacked it's zip in the specified director and restarted Steam so it would detect it.
From your comment I have to wonder if you've even tried using Proton.
But it doesn't mater either way really. You can choos
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Hehe, my main desktop is still a Linux machine with an i7-4770 and a continuously upgraded Fedora install.
I keep saying that when I finally upgrade, I should be tempted by the System76 offerings. I just keep getting annoyed by their complete lack of front ports, which I kinda like having.
But if I do that sort of change, I'm still not sure whether to try Pop!_OS, go with Ubuntu, or stick with Fedora.
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Still rocking a Xeon X5650 hex core here. No reason for me to upgrade.
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Same thing here I just upgraded my old Intel i7 920 4 core running at 3.6 GHz to a 6-core Intel Xeon x5690 now running at 4.2 GHz. This machine also has 24 GB of RAM and triple channel setup that was upgraded a few years back from 12 GB of RAM. This computer is now 12 years old and it is still running strong.
I was able to upgrade from Windows 7 to Windows 10 after disabling a bios feature for virtualization. And the machine has been running stable the whole time.
I don't see a reason to upgrade to Windows 1
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Checks list... (Score:4, Funny)
6510 not on there.. I'll stick to GEOS.
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I'm suspicious of the list. My FX processor running Windows 7 isn't listed but has been running for several years with no problem.
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sudo dmidecode --type 4 shows mine as being AMD Phenom II X4 910e
and there is nothing remotely like that in the Windows 7 list or the "current Windows 10" list. It's dual boot but the Windows partition started off with Windows 7 and then I downgraded to Windows 10 when 7 went out of support. It is not exactly a muscle machine but it does the job whenever I have some task which has to run under Windows, that's less than once a month so most of the time it is up it is updating.
webcam lol (Score:2)
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My guess is that Win11 will authenticate users via facial recognition. Because fingerprint scanners weren't ridiculous enough.
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What kind of requirement is that?
My guess is that Win11 will authenticate users via facial recognition. Because fingerprint scanners weren't ridiculous enough.
Microsoft is also including Teams with Windows 11, so I'm guessing the camera requirement is to help foster that -- and any other apps that MS wants to push that most people probably don't need/want.
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My guess would be that it is going to utilise Cortana and run like a helpline.
If you want to open Microsoft Office say "one"
If you want to run Microsoft Edge say "two"
I'm sorry, I did not understand your response. If you cannot tell me what you want I will terminate this session
Re:webcam lol (Score:5, Informative)
If you actually read the document, these requirements are for new computers to bear the 'designed for microsoft 11' designation, they are not the minumum requirements to run windows 11.
The camera is so that if you buy a computer 'designed to run windows 11' that stuff like windows hello and teams video chat will all be functional.
No more Windows VMs? (Score:2)
This is really going to screw people who run Windows in a VM on a Mac or Linux host using something like VirtualBox or VMWare.
The TPM requirement is also going to kill off dual-booting, as to the best of my knowledge Windows doesn't like it when "the other OS" rewrites the boot record.
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Not really hypervisor TPMs [wikipedia.org] are a thing.
Don't be silly. (Score:2)
That is unlikely because software doesn't require Windows 11 and by the time it does then you will have upgraded your box. I would also point out that UEFI is what does the booting so boot records are no longer used.
Honestly, it all seems like more reasons to stop using Windows completely.
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Though honestly who actually dual boots anymore? Just pick a daily driver OS and use a VM to run the other. I honestly don't have the patience to deal with bootloaders, boot menus, etc, let alone the fact that I have to close all of my running applications just to go to the other OS. Way better to just have both running at once. Plus virtualization is so good that you basically get native performance without having to sacrifice anything; even GPUs are virtualized quite well.
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There's one reason to have a bootable USB stick somewhere inside, and that's as an emergency OS where some hardware goes south.
They will backtrack (Score:4, Insightful)
like they always do. They have no interest in having to maintain both Windows 10 and 11. It's in their interest that as much people as possible upgrade.
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They may for 11, but this is the list that OEMs need to implement if they want to be ready for 12 (or whatever it's going to be called). 11 is a training camp, like Vista was the training camp for 7, and like 8 was the training camp for 10. If you've skipped Vista and 8, skip 11 too.
Re:They will backtrack (Score:5, Informative)
They don't need to backtrack.
If you actually read the document, these requirements are for new computers to bear the 'designed for microsoft windows 11' designation; pretty much says exactly that on the 3rd page of the pdf after the table of contents.
The camera requirement in particular should have been a dead giveaway to anyone with some critical thinking skills.
These do NOT appear to be the minumum requirements to run windows 11. Those still appear to be quite nominal, and that's not surprising.
Windows 11 is really not much more than the next semi-annual windows 10 update, except they're calling it windows 11 instead of windows 10 21H2 or whatever, and throwing some new desktop glitter on it.
Everyone here is just spreading and reacting to bullshit FUD... as usual.
Smooth move, Microsoft (Score:2)
I can't see Win11 becoming a new corporate standard by limiting the CPUs that can running it.
I can recall an Oracle upgrade -- if memory serves it was an ``upgrade or lose support'' move -- that mandated that we upgrade the processor boards in the clusters that we were running their RDBMS on. Boy... was that ever popular with management.
Peeping Satya needs his jollies! (Score:2)
GOOD and this is why: (Score:3, Informative)
People should not want to run evil operating systems and everything that can drive them away from Windows is a good thing. (Legacy installs can be run in VMs disconnected from the internet).
I welcome every additional annoyance MSFT inflicts on users. The only reason to run Windows is for a limited range of desktop software. It's vulnerable trash for every other purpose.
Choosing Windows was always everything FOSS advocates warned us about. It is volunteering for abuse and I find it hilarious the Windows has enthusiasts and defenders.
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I wish I had mod points. couchslug hit the nail DIRECTLY on the head.. I keep wondering just how long the computing public is going to tolerate all the broken updates, and otherwise just BAD behavior by Microsoft/Windows. I spent a 20 year career as as sysadmin/windows "janitor", from the days of DOS/Win311/Novell to the middle of the XP to W7 migration. The only Windows I touch anymore is a W7 VM with no network connection that runs a couple of programs that don't play nice with Wine.
As long as I can bypass TPM, I'm cool. (Score:2)
I don't even want to use any of the TPM-related features, and because I build my own PCs using OEM parts I don't want to bother buying those overpriced modules. Eventually, sure - they'll be more standard - but I don't really want TPM anyway.
I mean, drive encryption is just a bad idea in terms of using resources for what I care about, and I don't particularly want to limit my choices of using other OSs whenever I want.
So long as I can bypass that requirement, I might try Windows 11.
I know the preview versi
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TPM doesn't seem like a feature for the user anyway - it's more for admins (and MS itself) to lock down a PC for direct physical access.
That just may explain why open-source has incorporated it [phoronix.com]. Those tricky communist are trying to take over the world. /s
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I have never encrypted a hard drive, despite so many FOSS systems making it extra easy and even the default in recent years.
Although I keep good backups, I always want to be able to boot from a flash drive and salvage files off my hard drive.
Call me paranoid, but I've been recovering data from damaged discs since MS-DOS 2.11.
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If the CPU is performing decryption it has less resources available to do other things. The only windows machine i have here is a desktop used solely for playing games, so it's unlikely to be stolen, if it is stolen i don't care about the data, and i care more about the performance of the games it's running. In this context encryption is entirely unnecessary, even if it had dedicated hardware which didn't require any intervention from the processor.
Good luck with that (Score:2)
I see they're trying to set the requirements for the one after 11. Gotta keep the pattern going, right? One tolerable, one turd, repeat.
Classic case of burying the lede (Score:2)
While it's ridiculous that Win11 arbitrarily won't run on my i7-4700K, I can't pretend to be too bugged about it, considering I'm still on 7 (my idea of a safe, sane desktop environment does not involve having to disable a bunch of ridiculous active desktop spam every update - if I wanted to know what the current local temperature was, I'd ask, and no I wouldn't fucking ask Cortana).
Microsoft is also requiring a front-facing camera for all Windows 11 devices except desktop PCs from January 2023 onwards.
This, right here, is the true headline. Why the fuck does Microsoft need me to have a front-facing camera, or a camera at all,
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It makes sure your device will work with stuff like Teams. Also OEMs want an excuse to upcharge you for the equipment.
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They could also require an iLok dongle to make sure my computer's compatible with Pro Tools. How about requiring a light gun to make sure my computer works with Duck Hunt and Time Crisis?
I mean, yeah, I get that this is basically a kickback to OEMs who've been faithfully pushing Windows over Linux all these years, but the excuses are so hilariously paper-thin shitty that they deserve to be attacked on their own merits / lack-thereof.
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Depends on what hardware OEMs have sitting around in the warehouse. If they had millions of light guns then you'd better believe that they'd find a way to force customers to buy them.
Boycott Windows 11 (Score:2)
Windows 11 is already shaping up to be worse than Vista and Me combined. Vista could run on a Pentium III from 1999 if you fed it enough memory. In fact W
FANTASTIC! (Score:2)
This means they won't be pulling the same "Do you want to upgrade? Yes/Yes later/No, just kidding, yes." bullshit they did with Windows 10.
Well duh ... (Score:2, Insightful)
By limiting the supported CPUs to new models only, Microsoft is excluding more current/existing systems that would take advantage of the free upgrade path. This way more people will have to buy new(er) systems, probably pre-loaded with Windows 11 and pay the "Microsoft Tax".
Honestly, and especially if the more stringent HW requirements hold, Windows 10 will probably be my last and I'll make the permanent switch to Linux. I already have several systems and several of them run Linux and I only have a few a
Win 11: Total Meh (Score:2)
I looked at the advertised Win 11 new and improved feature list and took in a few videos on it
To be honest, I saw a couple of new things that I might appreciate or use (if I ran Windows). The rest of it seemed like needless tweaking and fiddling around to me.
A bunch more 'keep the user engaged' stuff was added(ugh) and some settings were removed, like the ability to have a taskbar on the side or top. Why remove that? Was it costing them money to keep that feature?
All in all, mostly harmless but not somethi
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The new start menu includes a lot more space for 'cloud' suggestions. Space for more sponsored news stories, I suspect.
Supported != Required (at least not always) (Score:2)
Look at the list of supported processors for Windows 10 20H2 and 21H1. Officially that requires 5th gen core processors but I'm running it on half a dozen boxes that are 3rd and 4th gen without any problems.
meh (Score:2)
It's becoming harder and harder with each version to claw back some sense of ownership over my own PC. I spent a lot of time disabling a lot of 'call home to mama' stuff on Win10 short of blocking microsoft's servers at the router level (I don't push my fanatical beliefs on the rest of my family's computers, it's not worth the trouble) and I now have a reasonably updated, beautifully stable Win10 installation with no adware or excess junk on it and I control when or if updates happen.
Microsoft is strugglin
It's mostly the TPM (Score:2)
What's in it for me? (Score:2)
I haven't had a compelling reason to upgrade since leaving Windows XP. Why would I want to upgrade my Windows 10 machine to Windows 11? When my PC dies, I'll buy a new machine and it will come pre-installed with Windows 11.
Devices that do not meet ... cannot be upgraded (Score:3)
Even if your machine is ready... (Score:2)
Here's my experience.
I ran the readiness check... Failed.
To the BIOS! I then discovered my BIOS won't recognize when a keyboard is plugging in, I've tried everything, different ports, different keyboards.... well fine, I can use the mouse. Using the mouse, I have to disable some CSM settings, save, reboot, go into Secure Boot settings, reset factory default keys, in order or enable the secure boot
Don't care! (Score:2, Informative)
"Nine Minutes To Read" (Score:2)
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Today I learned my PC is eight years old (Score:2)
Thanks to Microsoft's "PC Health Check," today I learned my PC is eight years old and cannot run Windows 11 because it doesn't support secure boot.
I'll have you know my BIOS most certainly supports secure boot.
WTF, Microsoft? You are cutting off your nose to spite your face, stupid.
Re: (Score:2)
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Yup, no other reasons. [lwn.net]
Re:A TPM is nice to have... (Score:5, Insightful)
From TFL:
So why would a Linux user care about all of this? Some of the things that can be done with the TPM include:
Key protection. A user can store GPG keys (or others) in the TPM and not have to worry about those keys being extracted and disclosed by a compromised application.
Don't give a fuck, don't use GPG keys.
System integrity checking. The measurement capabilities can be used to ensure that the binaries on the system have not been tampered with; it is a sort of Tripwire with hardware support.
Don't give a fuck, if someone's tampered with the binaries on my system it's already too late, horses are out, don't give a fuck about the barn door.
In the corporate environment, the remote attestation features provided by IMA can be used to keep compromised systems from affecting the company network. Simply require systems to provide their "measurement" before giving them access to the network, and any system which has, say, been infected with malware at a conference will be detected and locked out.
Read the first four words, stopped giving a fuck at that point. This is like installing swipe cards in people's homes. Might make sense for enterprise, but how does it benefit me?
Similarly, a conference attendee using an "email garden" terminal to access a mail server could, in the future, require that terminal to verify itself to the server before any sort of access is allowed.
Read the first four words, stopped giving a fuck at that point. Seriously though, "email garden terminal"? What the fuck? Is this 1990? Is it some parallel universe where nobody has smartphones or even PDAs? Jesus Christ, the list of reasons a Nintendo would make me a better student I wrote for my parents when I was 8 was less far-fetched and idiotic than this bullshit.
Attestation could be used in electronic voting machines to verify that they are running the proper (hopefully open source) software.
Ah, yes, gotta maintain the integrity of all those elections I'm conducting from my home PC.
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Same here, my old gaming PC has an Intel i5-4460 and it's not listed but yet freakin' pieces of garbage like Atom and Celeron CPU are on that list? WTF Microsoft?
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That's okay, you don't need words anymore you can just make faces at your webcam!