6/25/2026 at 4:28:30 PM
Anyone who still needs to run Windows 10 for whatever reason should switch over to Windows 10 IoT Enterprise LTSC 2021 (version 21H2) which will continue to receive security updates up through 2032.https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/release-health/rel...
by vunderba
6/25/2026 at 6:51:36 PM
This is bad advice that is being repeated over and over by the so called tech influencers. You go to an older version that only got security updates so you will lack optimizations and features already in the current stable windows 10. And for the foreseeable future you gain nothing at all. If one day the normal version acctually stops reviving security updates, it almost certainly will be possible to switch the update channel to LTSC and get the LTSC updates that way but for now this is not needed and the switch is unnecessary Also without some trickery, switching to LTSC requires a complete reinstallation, which for most people likely wasting sever hours.by noxer
6/25/2026 at 6:58:55 PM
> so you will lack optimizations and features already in the current stable windows 10Windows gets worse with each update, so this is actually a plus.
by jamesnorden
6/25/2026 at 7:10:16 PM
There are no update, windows 10 is EOL since months and even before that it did not receive any real updates in a long time. The current version is stable and gets only security updates just like LTSC. There is no point to switch, at best its a waste of time and worst you could run into issues with software that expects home/pro and not LTSC.by noxer
6/25/2026 at 10:37:33 PM
> you could run into issues with software that expects home/pro and not LTSC.That's a laughably ignorant statement for how windows app development works. Raymond Chen weeps on reading your comment. Enterprise edition is a strict superset in functionality over Home/Pro, and LTSC just adds longer support.
Enterprise IoT just comes with Windows Store components sitting dormantly, which you can promptly activate with `wsreset -i` and it's then identical with consumer editions (other than TikTok and Candy Crush not being forcibly reinstalled after every "feature update") where you can install apps from the Windows Store as needed or just use winget instead.
Enterprise IoT LTSC is just Enterprise IoT with longer support.
There is literally and strictly no downside with using IoT LTSC, especially with the combination of official Rufus + MAS to install from official ISOs.
Actually, with MAS, you can also just download the IoT LTSC iso to perform an in-place upgrade that keeps all your existing Windows Store apps and program installs etc., just follow https://massgrave.dev/windows10_eol#upgrade-windows-10-home-...
by xeonmc
6/26/2026 at 10:50:19 AM
If you would acctually read the comment(s) then you'd understand that SWITCHING has no upside, all your arguments are irrelevant there is no point in wasting time to switch the OS version especially not if you need a full reinstallation. And whether you like it or not there are bad coded software out in the real world that do not work on LTSC they will just error out saying this is not a supported version of windows. To fix this you have to regedit your LTSC installation to pretend to be a normal installation. A hassle no sane person would recommend for absolutely zero benefit.by noxer
6/26/2026 at 11:08:15 PM
If you would actually read the comment then you'd see the mention of in-place upgrades instead of complete reinstall. There is no drawback of hassle with in-place upgrades as everything on you system is kept as-is, and it takes about the same time as a typical windows cumulative update if not less due to pre-downloading the files.And instead of unbased hypotheticals perhaps you can point to even a single example of normie software that check for editions of windows as a result of bad coding rather than user-hostile intent? To do so you'd need to go out of your way to hack together undocumented corners instead of the path of least resistance of calling GetVersion() as would be characteristic of lazy coding.
by xeonmc
6/25/2026 at 7:36:57 PM
Very untrue for gaming in particular.For example, if you have an OLED or mini-LED monitor, you really don’t want to be on Windows 10 and miss out on HDR.
And sure, you can say “well nobody has an OLED monitor,” but I’d remind everyone that OLED displays have been pretty much standard on every gaming laptop mid-range and higher for a decent amount of time now.
A lot of the focus for Windows 11 development has been gaming performance and feature improvements. Game developers are also less and less likely over time to bother testing with Windows 10.
by Grombobulous
6/25/2026 at 7:53:25 PM
Most people are in fact not gamers. Like.. at all. And even those that are probably don't own an OLED or mini-LED monitor.Most people just want a computer that does the word, the chrome and that's about it.
by hypfer
6/25/2026 at 8:00:00 PM
There are over 900 million PC gamers in the world.PCs have 43% marketshare in the total game console market. Yes, that includes marketshare against the Nintendo Switch.
There’s a bit of a bubble of non-gaming in this forum, but gaming is definitely a top use case for PCs.
Just walk into your local Best Buy in the laptop section and count up how many of the laptops are marketed as gaming systems. That should give you a rough idea of how many systems are purchased with gaming as the primary intent.
Sure, HDR is a niche at this point in time, but technologies like OLED and mini LED are increasingly common. If you buy a gaming laptop in 2026 at most reasonable price points it’s very likely to have an OLED monitor.
Example: Legion 5a Gen 11 AMD, price on Lenovo’s site is $1500, has an OLED monitor. You can buy OLED gaming monitors below $500 nowadays, so a lot of people upgrading have that as their next upgrade path…if not today, then tomorrow.
On that subject, most people just use the copy of Windows that comes with the computer, so the whole debate about Windows 10 is perhaps not worth having in the first place. Microsoft most likely just misjudged the pace of hardware replacement especially in the AI era where computer sales have slowed.
by Grombobulous
6/25/2026 at 11:07:15 PM
What is this 7-paragraph OLED talk about?I can plug an OLED display to a fricking Windows XP system with a Maxwell GPU and it'll work perfectly fine as long as it has a goddamn HDMI port. Has nothing to do with OS support.
by kasabali
6/26/2026 at 1:31:52 AM
I guess you missed the part where they’re talking about HDR?Yes, the monitor will work but if you want to take full advantage of the panels you enable HDR.
by jogu
6/26/2026 at 8:09:18 AM
No I didn't. I intentionally only wrote just OLED because it doesn't have anything to do with HDR not it requires any special support and it doesn't make any fucking sense why they included it along with HDR.by kasabali
6/26/2026 at 3:08:39 PM
Probably because HDR on the vast majority of non-OLED monitors is useless. You really need a monitor with great contrast and a good HDR implementation for it to be of any benefit.by RussianCow
6/25/2026 at 8:02:18 PM
Yes and how many of those people have the cash for cutting edge tech?And how much does that cutting edge tech truly matter for the core game experience. I think the steam hardware survey might have some answers there and can tell us for which level of hardware currently developed games are being optimized for.
And that's just the currently developed ones. Not the massive backlog that existed before OLED or microLED HDR screens.
Tiny group. Tiny.
___
Btw, super lame to try to improve your argument after the fact with edits, but, well. Anyway.
https://store.steampowered.com/hwsurvey/Steam-Hardware-Softw...
by hypfer
6/25/2026 at 8:09:52 PM
Certainly, I agree that most gamers do not have cutting edge tech.The cutting edge tech does improve the core experience. Quite a lot. You do have to have the money for it, though, and like anything else, diminishing returns on investment.
Steam hardware survey shows Windows 11 gained 2% this month over Windows 10. That’s a significant rate of change.
I recognize that you don’t like my use of edits, however, they are part of this platform and I’m not using them to diss anyone or engage in any kind of negative conversation. Just trying to make my point and support it.
by Grombobulous
6/25/2026 at 8:37:49 PM
Calling 1 in 7 people on Earth a gamer is a stretch, unless we're calling preloaded trivial game players, gamers.. and even then I'm not sure.by throwawaytea
6/25/2026 at 8:48:05 PM
https://www.statista.com/statistics/420621/number-of-pc-game...https://www.demandsage.com/most-played-games-right-now/
Some of it is unclear about multi-platform splits and mobile gaming but I don’t think I’m incredibly far off.
Gamers across all platform estimated at over 3 billion: https://explodingtopics.com/blog/number-of-gamers
by Grombobulous
6/25/2026 at 8:53:51 PM
Half the world's population is easily too young or too old or too poor or too rich to be gamers. So that 3 billion stat alone shows me people love just counting any moments spent in a video game at all for who knows what reason on any super bad quality 'game' as gamers.by throwawaytea
6/25/2026 at 9:12:29 PM
Anyone with a smartphone can be a gamer.I think my mom playing Wordle on her smartphone does indeed make her a gamer.
by Grombobulous
6/26/2026 at 1:26:35 AM
Yes and the world has 6 billion researchers too because we Google things.It's a lot more useful though when words have meaning and we take them seriously, otherwise nothing really makes sense.
by throwawaytea
6/26/2026 at 12:45:25 PM
I think you would agree that playing games and being a researcher are very different levels of depth. If you have decent public transit in your area, you'll definitely see at least one person on your commute playing some kind of candy crush-like phone game every single day. Yes, that's a "gamer."Humans by their very nature use games to pass time and stimulate their mind and body, it's one of the most universal things about us.
That game of Wordle my mom plays once per day is probably what keeps her paying a subscription to NYT. That's real money. She'd probably drop the subscription otherwise.
NYT sells a games-only subscription for $50/year, $80/year per family. I think NYT executives would be happy to consider someone who plays games for 5 minutes per day or even 5 minutes per week a gamer.
by Grombobulous
6/27/2026 at 8:37:39 PM
I gotta be honest, I personally don't think someone playing wordle is a gamer by the common usage of the word.by throwawaytea
6/25/2026 at 8:22:20 PM
Non gamers who need a PC (most people are mobile only now) can probably use Linux at this point.by Ferret7446
6/25/2026 at 8:28:03 PM
I am a gamer who uses Linux! Gaming on Linux is lovely.I actually left Windows to fix driver stability, which worked and did the trick. I couldn’t play Indiana Jones without crashing.
I should have maybe been more clear (grandparent to your comment) that I didn’t mean to be out defending Windows or anything like that. I migrated away from Windows this year.
I just find that the arguments for sticking to Windows 10 are super weak and overstated. Windows 11 is a decent OS and a clear improvement over 10, in my opinion. It’s just that for me, Linux is now better.
by Grombobulous
6/25/2026 at 8:30:40 PM
So you're saying the cutting edge HDR features(?) in windows 11 are not all that important to you personally and thus do not warrant windows 11 usage?Makes sense, yeah. Nice talking to you.
by hypfer
6/25/2026 at 8:52:06 PM
Not sure why you’re being so bitter toward me in particular.I don’t personally own a monitor capable of HDR but if I had one I would prioritize it a little more, and in my case, I migrated to Linux to resolve specific graphics driver problems. Getting my games to work at all was more important than HDR.
I also recognize that laptops are generally more popular than desktops and OLED is far more common in that form factor. So when I talked about what gamers in general should prioritize regarding running windows 10 versus 11, I figure that many of them have laptops that therefore have OLED monitors capable of HDR.
Also, I was only using HDR as a single example of the gaming enhancements that Windows 11 has, we don’t have to dwell on that one in particular. We could talk about support for enhanced polling rate mice, or better windowed fullscreen, or better VRR.
by Grombobulous
6/25/2026 at 8:59:06 PM
I'm just greatly annoyed that a conversation that could've been about understanding and learning was (at least attempted to be) hijacked/derailed by some ego/identity stuff.Letting people get away with that has led to the unpleasant state of the internet we have now and mild correction simply doesn't work.
Hence I've pointed at the exact holes/fault lines. Nothing personal. I wish you a lot of fun gaming on linux.
by hypfer
6/25/2026 at 9:16:30 PM
At the risk of me sounding obtuse, I don’t see where ego or identity came into this conversation. I’m merely pointing out reasons why someone would choose Windows 11 over 10 and that I think the number of people who do that and play games on Windows is significant.It seems like you’ve been mostly focused on proving me wrong and that’s why the conversation didn’t go the way you wanted it to go. I actually even agreed with you about some stuff, like the fact that most gamers don’t have cutting edge hardware.
I suggest that there are ways in which you contributed to the negative aspects of this interaction. Conversations are a two way street!
by Grombobulous
6/26/2026 at 1:10:21 PM
FWIW HDR works fine in Linux. Steam Deck (which runs it) has HDR support, both for its interface and for games. Bit confused by your comment, honestly.by Spoom
6/25/2026 at 8:29:58 PM
>you really don’t want to be on Windows 10 and miss out on HDRMy HDR monitor is connected to my Windows 10 machine and the HDR switch in settings is on and my monitor reports it is getting HDR
What am I supposedly missing?
by mrguyorama
6/25/2026 at 9:22:33 PM
Lemme guess...A shinier notepad with builtin AI.
Ads, more ads.
A BSOD that's got 99% more black.
The "recall" spyware.
Mandatory Microslop account.
I could go on, but I use Linux
by tosti
6/25/2026 at 9:29:47 PM
It has per-app HDR profiles, auto-HDR, content-only HDR (e.g. you want to watch an HDR video but don’t want your desktop to be HDR), and, on a related topic, better handling of VRR and windowed full screen.Not that Windows 10 is wildly deficient in these areas, but it has a lot of improvements with display settings and capabilities in general. In my experience with the Windows 11 display settings, it’s an overall big improvement, and I do kind of miss it now that I’m on Linux (e.g., setting up virtual displays with Apollo streaming so that client game stream devices have their own separate display settings per-device was a breeze thanks to the excellent way Windows handles and configures unique sets of attached displays.)
by Grombobulous
6/25/2026 at 9:39:22 PM
Interesting.Unlike high refresh rates, 1440p resolution, and variable refresh rates that all were so clearly steps above my previous, 60hz basic HD display that I regretted not being an early adopter, HDR has been an immense letdown.
I can't even tell if it's on or not, even while my monitor and GPU assure me it is. As far as I can tell, the most obvious feature was shabbier looking colors, because they are de-saturated for some reason.
I played with the settings tab shared here[0], but the stupid "Brightness" slider is not obvious at all. Is bright good? Is bright bad? WTF?
That post has some other things to look into though, maybe I need a calibrated color profile? Will that get me colors that actually look better than an SDR display? Who knows.... It doesn't make any sense to me that improved brightness space should somehow result in less saturated colors...
[0] https://www.reddit.com/r/OLED_Gaming/comments/1h30brf/finall...
by mrguyorama
6/25/2026 at 9:51:21 PM
I honest don’t even have HDR myself, I was really just picking out an example I know of for “why windows 11 better.”I’d have upgraded to it just for the screenshot tool to be honest.
by Grombobulous
6/25/2026 at 11:48:52 PM
> You go to an older version that only got security updates so you will lack optimizations and features already in the current stable windows 10.Good.
This is exactly why people recommend it.
by basilikum
6/26/2026 at 10:55:29 AM
Try read maybe? There is no benefit to switch to LTSC because normal windows 10 is EOL there are no updates/no features updates and thus all the benefits LTSC HAD are moot. Its a total waste of time to switch to LTSC. A clean switch needs a full reinstallation.by noxer
6/25/2026 at 7:42:44 PM
I wouldn't suggest an old LTSC version, but in a relatively recent update MS stopped allowing non-LTSC versions to not populate the start menu with ms store ads when your search locally. For me, that was the final straw - I switched to the latest Win11 LTSC after that, and it's a decidedly better user experience without the cruft I didn't need or want.by Marsymars
6/25/2026 at 11:02:39 PM
> You go to an older version that only got security updates so you will lack optimizations and features already in the current stable windows 10.That's some very confident sounding bullshit.
Latest LTSC is 21H2, which exactly the same build as the (non-LTSC) 22H2. The only difference is the feature enablement package. Which means you aren't lacking any optimizations.
I'm not even sure if it's missing any "features", but even if it does, I'm 101% sure it some BS "feature".
by kasabali
6/26/2026 at 11:01:32 AM
So you suggest switch over to LTSC for having the exact same OS because it's better? Make it make sense pls. I'm confident became I have tired it all and LTSC has zero benefit and only possible downsides. All the benefits it once had are irrelevant nowadays because windows 10 is EOL and there are no more annoying updates regardless of which version you use.by noxer
6/26/2026 at 5:32:34 AM
> you will lack optimizations and features already in the current stable windows 10Like improved animations, more wasted space and rounded windows corners ?
by hulitu
6/26/2026 at 11:05:00 AM
No, its 99% binary equal and there are no rounded corners in window 10 anyway.by noxer
6/26/2026 at 5:54:53 AM
> which for most people likely wasting sever hoursYea I don't think you understand who uses windows and for what..
by oreally
6/26/2026 at 11:03:45 AM
I know that no one who uses it likes to reinstall it unless absolutely necessary. Its pointless in this case so what's your argument? That people should waste more time becase they already waste time? Genius /sby noxer
6/25/2026 at 5:42:13 PM
Linux is free and less wasteful on resources on the other hand.by giancarlostoro
6/25/2026 at 5:46:09 PM
It is, and if you can switch, it’s highly recommended. I have some pretty bespoke old RS-232 Windows software that was an absolute disaster to get working under Debian with Wine a few years back, so I (and others) might still need to keep a copy of Windows around.by vunderba
6/25/2026 at 8:16:57 PM
Unironically, I had the most success with old windows programs not when using wine directly but using proton with steam. I personally use umu[1] to use proton without directly needing to run steam. I wrote a small KDE script for .exe files so I can just double click them and they run lol. Or for setups I can right click them and just install them as a setup and it automatically creates a app shortcut I can open.by AyanamiKaine
6/25/2026 at 8:54:32 PM
Got a link to the script?by d3Xt3r
6/25/2026 at 9:46:58 PM
Yes! I do here [1]. But keep in mind I am using NixOS and so it looks a bit weird. You should be able to just copy paste the script part and it should work when you have umu at path.by AyanamiKaine
6/25/2026 at 5:56:05 PM
Might want to try again, Wine progressed a lot in the past couple years.by ihalip
6/25/2026 at 6:44:58 PM
It works well, though its messages could use some TLC: libEGL warning: pci id for fd 31: 10de:1ff0, driver (null)
pci id for fd 33: 10de:1ff0, driver (null)
pci id for fd 34: 10de:1ff0, driver (null)
libEGL warning: egl: failed to create dri2 screen
libEGL warning: pci id for fd 31: 10de:1ff0, driver (null)
pci id for fd 33: 10de:1ff0, driver (null)
pci id for fd 34: 10de:1ff0, driver (null)
libEGL warning: egl: failed to create dri2 screen
libEGL warning: pci id for fd 31: 10de:1ff0, driver (null)
0124:fixme:nls:RtlGetThreadPreferredUILanguages 00000034, 0313F66C, 0313F6DC 0313F674
0124:fixme:nls:get_dummy_preferred_ui_language (0x34 0x1009 0313F66C 0313F6DC 0313F674) returning a dummy value (current locale)
0124:fixme:heap:RtlSetHeapInformation HEAP_INFORMATION_CLASS 1 not implemented!
0124:fixme:nls:RtlGetThreadPreferredUILanguages 00000034, 0313F9D4, 0313FA44 0313F9DC
0124:fixme:nls:get_dummy_preferred_ui_language (0x34 0x1009 0313F9D4 0313FA44 0313F9DC) returning a dummy value (current locale)
0124:fixme:shell:InitNetworkAddressControl stub
0124:fixme:richedit:editor_handle_message EM_GETLANGOPTIONS: stub
0124:fixme:richedit:editor_handle_message EM_SETLANGOPTIONS: stub
0124:fixme:ntdll:NtQuerySystemInformation info_class SYSTEM_PERFORMANCE_INFORMATION
0124:fixme:win:RegisterTouchWindow hwnd 000100E0, flags 0 stub!
0124:fixme:msvcrt:__clean_type_info_names_internal (7853A300) stub
0124:fixme:msvcrt:__clean_type_info_names_internal (7B4F6BE4) stub
0124:fixme:msvcrt:__clean_type_info_names_internal (79410E54) stubby thangalin
6/25/2026 at 6:57:02 PM
wine whatever.exe 2>/dev/nullby dokyun
6/25/2026 at 8:15:14 PM
> Might want to try again, Wine progressed a lot in the past couple years.You could even go as far as suggesting SteamOS once they release the OS to more devices. Gaming themed sure but it's a flavor of Arch and you have full control over what gets installed.
by x______________
6/25/2026 at 6:12:45 PM
VMs were not an option?by sharts
6/25/2026 at 5:53:36 PM
Can’t wait till Fable 6 can just decompile and reimplement old software like that.by f-az
6/25/2026 at 6:12:15 PM
Great for the americans. What are the rest of us going to do?by Filligree
6/25/2026 at 6:14:33 PM
Use the distilled chinese models.by lukan
6/25/2026 at 6:39:45 PM
Try Opus 4.8? It's just a language translation task. LLMs should be good at it.by farnsworthfusor
6/25/2026 at 6:37:33 PM
Maybe get your governments and citizens to innovate and create their own instead of relying so heavily on other countries. I thought that's the direction other countries were trying to go.by SirMaster
6/25/2026 at 8:55:56 PM
Good thing that the US frontier labs only download data from the US internet created by US citizens /sby nairboon
6/25/2026 at 7:58:08 PM
At this point, you might want to consider throwing an LLM at it and just letting it reimplement the thing so that it runs on linux.They can actually do that. They may not like it, but they can.
by hypfer
6/25/2026 at 8:56:19 PM
Reverse engineer a binary proprietary database format? I have some doubts.by LtWorf
6/25/2026 at 9:08:58 PM
Why?Certainly not unattended, but no AI should ever be unattended.
But if you closely guide it, support it with tools like Ghidra and force force force force force a process with many sanity checks and quintuple-checks, it's possible.
What previously needed a whole team and months might be one guy, a lot of tokens and 1-3 weeks. Doable, fun, and interesting.
__
Judging by the downvotes, I guess people mistook the initial comment for HN VC fueled AI delusions and I can't blame them for that. That's not what it was tho.
by hypfer
6/26/2026 at 5:23:47 AM
How do you guide it when you have no idea yourself? You mean you must first reverse engineer it manually and then hint it to the solution? Why would you do that at that point?by LtWorf
6/26/2026 at 6:23:25 AM
I feel like you might still be perceiving the AI suggestion as some magic box that just does things. It's not. It's a very fast very eager junior.Why and how do people hand work to juniors?
You have a rough idea where you want to go, you have a rough idea what needs to be done, and then you iterate.
For example, you think "okay, I need some way of validating this" and then you tell it to run the software to generate test data.
While errors may creep in, you should be able to validate that step.
And then you use that test data to validate whatever next steps it should be doing.
It's essentially the same workflow as any mapping out of something new, but with the individual mapping steps being done by a drone. You do still draw the actual map, do logistics and strategize.
It's not easy work, but it's also not difficult work. What it is is laborious, and that's where LLMs help.
__
To stick with your database format question:
If the software uses that data, it also needs code to parse and interact (with) it.
This code resides within it, and you can forcefully pull it out.
That step of "write me a spec for this data format based on this code. Build a parser in python and build test cases using this DB file" can be done agentically (when sliced into small logical blocks of work orders).
by hypfer
6/26/2026 at 9:14:02 AM
You see how you went from "it's easier to use ai instead of using wine on linux" to "to use ai you must do all this work"Well then using wine was the correct solution to begin with?
> This code resides within it, and you can forcefully pull it out.
What code? If you had the code you could port it.
by LtWorf
6/26/2026 at 11:59:12 AM
The slop engine can drive IDA just fine. Does hitch a bit on obfuscated code, but with some poking it does fine there too.by not_a9
6/25/2026 at 6:18:21 PM
Out of interest, what value do you think that a comment like that has, in a forum such as this? You're not likely to be informing people with information they're not already abundantly aware of.Whereas the person you're responding to is adding value, for me at least. I am in what might be an edge-case position where I need to run software specific to Windows and, much more importantly run hardware that uses drivers which seemingly don't work on Windows 11 (I only learnt recently, whilst planning to finally 'upgrade').
I couldn't even begin to do what I do, ably and competently at least, in a Linux environment.
And I've had at least one laptop for general use running some flavour of Linux for about 16 years now.
by detritus
6/25/2026 at 6:54:05 PM
Maybe not you, but many times I am asked what my setup looks like, because I game on Linux which is not as problematic as it used to be in the 2000s.by giancarlostoro
6/26/2026 at 6:09:29 AM
A lot of these no value, didn't ask, pro-linux comments are probably leftovers from linux software maintainer groups and it's passive aggressive culture. And we all know what kind of a role model that person used to be. They've been in that cesspool for too long to recognize how to interact with people.Condolences on your hardware problem btw. Give the windows 10 iot version a shot - it's a fairly quick install anyway.
by oreally
6/26/2026 at 3:02:30 PM
I'm not from any of the above, just someone who kept trying Linux, and it didn't feel as ready or good as implied by others, but for the last half decade maybe even full decade, the story for Linux gaming and daily use has been superior.by giancarlostoro
6/25/2026 at 6:45:38 PM
[flagged]by semiinfinitely
6/25/2026 at 6:52:21 PM
Indeed, I'm fairly confident that I very specifically stated as much, as the fundamental underpinning of my comment.You might be interested in https://www.reddit.com/ .
by detritus
6/25/2026 at 6:53:53 PM
[flagged]by semiinfinitely
6/25/2026 at 9:01:01 PM
I don't know... laptop-mode and all, my battery runs out pretty quickly.by 1kurac
6/25/2026 at 9:09:27 PM
This. Linux is my primary OS for both work and home, but I have a Mac laptop for travel as the battery life of any Linux laptop I tried is very bad. And this includes a modern System 76, supposedly Linux-friendly with drivers, which drains the battery on fairly light workloads in about 2 hours. My 2c.by ptero
6/25/2026 at 6:12:14 PM
Unless it's some Microsoft version of Linux, of course, in which every keystroke you type performs a docker run ... or whatever.by kazinator
6/25/2026 at 4:45:21 PM
Current trends indicate that regular Windows 10 may as well.by LeFantome
6/25/2026 at 6:20:44 PM
You can continue using normal Windows 10 if you have a Microsoft account attached to it. They give you the option to sign up for free extended updates (until 2027).by ericpp
6/26/2026 at 10:43:08 AM
In theory.I did that for someone (after jumping through QUITE some hoops) and apparently the next days some popup made the person click the upgrade button anyway.
So yeah, probably just dark pattern + non-technical user but still.
by wink
6/25/2026 at 7:11:12 PM
Eh, I’m just going to keep using Windows 10 without the account. I’m sure as an ethical company Microsoft will at least distribute patches for any security issues that were present on the day I bought the OS, especially because they are still developing the patches.by bee_rider
6/25/2026 at 6:24:36 PM
...which is exactly what the featured article is about. But 2032 > 2027, so I have to assume the person you replied to already knew that and was providing additional advice.by jacobgkau
6/25/2026 at 6:25:41 PM
But they might keep extending it...by SirMaster
6/25/2026 at 6:31:42 PM
They have to update the IOT version anyway, so might as well get some money off of regular users anyway by "extending" it.by antisthenes
6/25/2026 at 6:37:03 PM
except they are extending it now for freeby nok22kon
6/25/2026 at 7:25:15 PM
My guess would be because too many users held out with Win10, are not really a potential income stream, and MS would rather keep them MS customers than Linux or Mac (their next machine might be a Neo rather than Win11 these days).The cost to Microsoft is essentially zero if they ate already committed to these security updates (and they are, at least for the LTSC branch and some government contracts)
by beagle3
6/25/2026 at 9:26:48 PM
They could actually profit from hoovering up your data. Hence the microslop account requirement.by tosti
6/25/2026 at 6:28:28 PM
Well, not just anyone can buy a license for it. You need some sort of enterprise volume license agreement, as far as I can tell.by ptx
6/25/2026 at 6:50:37 PM
Within EU, you could buy licenses from one of the legal license resell markets. For everyone outside of reach of the law, there‘s massgravel.by thunfischbrot
6/25/2026 at 6:47:44 PM
If you're considering switching to Win 10 IoT you're probably not in the "people who pay for Windows" category.by causality0
6/25/2026 at 6:56:47 PM
We had a PC that came properly-licensed with that edition of Windows (with the matching sticker and everything), and it didn't work out as a desktop machine for the intended user. It's been a year or two and some details are lost, but IIRC there were issues with some Intuit program or other.It was probably something that could have been worked around, but workarounds tend to pile up and become difficult to track. I avoided the problem by putting a more-pedestrian version of Windows 10 on it instead.
by ssl-3
6/25/2026 at 7:17:36 PM
Some "bad" coded programs have hard-coded version check and check for the OS name instead of build number, if they forgot LTSC (and server and education) the software will refuse to run on these version. Some reg edits can fix this but its a pointless hassle, there is no need to use LTSC today there are no more annoying updates and unwanted features being added. I have a windows 10 pro machine here running since 3 month 24/7.by noxer
6/25/2026 at 4:52:10 PM
Also MS go to great lengths to make the secret good version of Windows (It honestly is very good, I'd put it up there with Linux Mint) very difficult to buy. So just torrent it. It's bad enough running Windows let alone giving money to MS.by everyone
6/25/2026 at 10:30:16 PM
You can just use the official iso with Rufus and MAS, no need to torrent sketchy backdoored versions.by xeonmc
6/25/2026 at 5:11:12 PM
> It honestly is very good, I'd put it up there with Linux MinI am not necessarily a Microsoft hater per se, but to insinuate that Linux is on the same level as the Microsoft operating system is really strange to me. Whenever I, for instance, have to copy files to windows, I am getting annoyed at how slow it is compared to Linux. And that's just one issue I have. Another one is how slow e. g. ruby is on windows, compared to linux. The windows operating system is simply not good. Linux also has issues, in particular the main GUIs (both qt and gtk suck).
by shevy-java
6/25/2026 at 5:29:21 PM
And good god...windows 11 updates still take fucking hours and still require multiple reboots. How this is still so painful after 2 decades is beyond meby nly
6/26/2026 at 12:38:07 AM
And even worse when the full-disk encryption requires you to unlock the computer after every reboot. It's just enough that the entire installation needs to be attended, and prevents you from doing anything else in the meantime.Meanwhile, on Linux, my emacs session has a longer uptime than Windows.
by MereInterest
6/25/2026 at 7:58:08 PM
The update system is such a mess that I now dread booting into Windows. I have been in multiple situations where an update has required a reboot - but my boot manager defaults to Linux - so whatever update process was supposed to happen on reboot doesn't happen, which means that the next time I boot into Windows I am either A) waiting for an update to complete (which is so fucking slow) AND/OR B)The update runs and fails because I have taken too long between booting into Windows and for whatever reason it has to roll back and then RUN THE UPDATE AGAIN. I understand the fundamental need to reboot because some updates effect the kernel in such a way that the entire thing has to be reloaded. But it seems like Windows is rebooting for MOST if not EVERY update. If you are patching kernel level bugs with this frequency this far into the lifecycle of the product you have some very serious issues or more likely I am guessing that they are indiscriminately pushing "features" that nobody asked for and then they are just forcing user reboots because their bloated apps/slop are now using so much RAM and are so inefficient that the only way to "fix" the inevitable performance loss is to reboot (I am only being half snarky here).by destinator
6/25/2026 at 11:48:39 PM
About $300, and a lot of total install time for this non-upgrade path version.by QuantumGood
6/25/2026 at 5:04:52 PM
Does that support modern gaming?by osti
6/25/2026 at 5:18:08 PM
It does support "modern gaming" yes, but like the sibling comment mentions, at least Riot's anti-cheat demands Windows 10 22H2 (the last iteration of Win10) as a minimum. There are a few somewhat convoluted workarounds floating around that people use. Also Adobe CS seems to require Win10 22H2.by badocr
6/25/2026 at 5:43:56 PM
There used to be a website something like "windowsserver2008gaming.com" or something like that idr the specific domain, that was literally a guide to turn old windows server OS installs into gaming computers. The golden years.by giancarlostoro
6/25/2026 at 5:09:40 PM
My only caveat is that I’m not sure how it handles multiplayer games that require anti-cheat or DRM-style mechanisms, but it’s been flawless with every title I’ve thrown at it so far (BG3, Shadow of the Tomb Raider, Cyberpunk, Ori, etc)by vunderba
6/25/2026 at 10:18:54 PM
No, it's for IoT. Don't install an IoT Operating System if you are planning to do normal Operating System things.by avree
6/26/2026 at 6:00:04 AM
Wrong. I've been gaming on it with no problems.by oreally
6/26/2026 at 12:30:39 AM
Whilst true, the IoT naming is a bit misleading. It's not just designed for IoT devices/purposes. It can run pretty well as a normal operating system, not much is different. (Think Payment Systems, Library Computers, etc).I think Microsoft just wanted to be in on the "Internet of Things" hype train. The Windows IoT Core is the cut back version of Windows designed explicitly for headless, IoT stuff.
by HDBaseT
6/25/2026 at 7:21:32 PM
Most DRM-laden software requires 22H2 minimum. So no Xbox game pass at least.by tencentshill
6/25/2026 at 5:15:54 PM
Even Riot’s rootkit “Vanguard” has reduced requirements for Windows 10.by eska
6/25/2026 at 6:51:34 PM
If you mean “modern” as in technologies like HDR, no.by Grombobulous
6/25/2026 at 5:21:13 PM
"modern gaming" being a euphemism for "more proprietary software that has chained us to even worse proprietary software for decades".by kgwxd
6/25/2026 at 6:13:25 PM
It's actually a question relating to what some people want to do with their computer. Most people don't run an OS because of some moral objection to other OS's but because it lets them do what they want with their device.by mhurron
6/25/2026 at 6:53:00 PM
I don’t feel particularly chained to proprietary software just by playing games. I play all of them on Linux using open source software.Yes, the games themselves are proprietary, but that’s because they’re primarily art pieces, and proprietary licenses makes some logical sense in that case.
by Grombobulous
6/25/2026 at 9:42:47 PM
Terrible, almost consultant-level advice - particularly on a thread about how the actual Windows 10 release is getting extended support until 2027. The IoT release is missing a ton of installed things, such as Microsoft Store Login (needed for Microsoft apps). If you want security updates, stay on your existing OS instead of using one designed for a totally different purpose, and Microsoft will continue to push out the date...by avree
6/25/2026 at 9:59:34 PM
Not the Microsoft Store! It doesn't come bundled with Candy Crush or Cortana either. Oh the humanity!by vunderba
6/25/2026 at 10:12:16 PM
Xbox/Microsoft Store Auth is used for a ton of logins, not just games. Similarly, you can be dismissive of Edge (another thing not included), but the Microsoft Webview Framework is Edge-based (https://developer.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-edge/webview...) and will break a variety of useful applications if it's not available.Be derisive as you want, but your advice is awful. The IoT enterprise release is for IoT use cases. The types of things people do on consumer OSes are not fully supported.
by avree
6/25/2026 at 10:28:23 PM
WebView2 installs its own copy of Edge, as far as I can tell. Multiple copies even.by ptx
6/25/2026 at 11:23:08 PM
Using Windows Server 2025 (it has an evaluation version), I encountered a few problems (Xbox Controller needing to dig out de Windows 7-era drivers, Meta Quest audio not working, using pnputil to import missing drivers from a normal Win11 install) but otherwise it's been quite smooth sailing.Not having Store login sounds bad, but it also means the system cannot trick you into linking your account to a Microsoft account, which is a plus (though accidental login is reversible IIRC). (I am not sure if Minecraft, which is the only game I know to require such login, actually worked or not).
Using not-for-purpose OS for gaming does lead to some hiccups, but to me those hiccups are preferable to the constant fight against your OS trying to shove things down your throat or disregarding your choices (of not wanting copilot, of wanting a local account, of not wanting ad-like stuff in the OS).
(Fedora would be easier to setup at that point, but anticheats...)
I also tried the IoT LTSC evaluation which generally worked better (basically, it has all the drivers the Server version is missing, plus QoL features like Win+V are enabled by default) but buying legitimate keys was not possible as a regular consumer.
by Krssst
6/25/2026 at 10:38:20 PM
You can install MS store (not sure about the login though) on ltsc with one command: wsreset -iby Itoldmyselfso