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- cross-posted to:
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The Linux Mint team has just released Linux Mint 22, a new major version of the free Linux distribution. With Windows 10’s end of support coming up quickly next year, at least some users may consider making the switch to Linux.
While there are other options, paying Microsoft for extended support or upgrading to Windows 11, these options are not available for all users or desirable.
Linux Mint 22 is a long-term service release. Means, it is supported until 2029. Unlike Microsoft, which made drastic changes to the system requirements of Windows 11 to lock out millions of devices from upgrading to the new version, Linux Mint will continue to work on older hardware, even after 2029.
Here are the core changes in Linux Mint 22:
- Based on the new Ubuntu 24.04 package base.
- Kernel version is 6.8.
- Software Manager loads faster and has improved multi-threading.
- Unverified Flatpaks are disabled by default.
- Preinstalled Matrix Web App for using chat networks.
- Improved language support removes any language not selected by the user after installation to save disk space.
- Several under-the-hood changes that update libraries or software.
This is a false comparison for most users.
For enterprise customers, Microsoft has released three or four versions of Win 10 they will support for 5 or 10 years basically to run things like ATMs or MRI machines or shit like that. You know how a lot of machinery still in use today relies on like Windows 95 because that’s what was relevant when the machine was built, the software that ran the machine doesn’t work on anything newer, and the machine still works? That’s the kind of thing we’re talking about here. If you have an MRI machine that runs on Windows 10 the OS is feature frozen and depending on which version may be supported until 2027 or 2029.
For us normal Home or Pro users, Windows 10 spent most of its life receiving mandatory twice-yearly feature updates. If you’ve got a normal PC that you use for productivity or gaming, you had no choice but to install those updates which often changed things about how the system looked and felt. If you wanted to keep Windows 10 Home edition version 20H1 from 2020, you either had to disconnect the machine from the internet or pull some other weird shenanigans. In this way it’s more similar to MacOS and how they’ve been maintaining “version 10” for 25 years now.
I wouldn’t put it past Microsoft to either force Win10 machines to upgrade to 11 or else brick themselves next October. They’ve done it before.
Linux Mint, like Ubuntu above it, releases on a 5-year LTS plan. They release a major (stable, feature-frozen) version every 2 years, with three minor “point releases” released approximately 6 months apart which contain some feature updates and such. Unlike Windows, these are optional. Someone somewhere is running a fully up to date and patched version of Linux Mint 20 Ulyana from 2020 and can continue to do so until next April. So if you need an older version of the software, or just like how it was in 2020 and don’t want slight changes to the UI every 6 months, you can stick with it for 5 years and still get bug fixes and security patches. After those 5 years it will continue to run but the update utility will nag at you that you’re out of support and it’s time to upgrade. Meanwhile, the upgrade to Mint 21 or 22 isn’t as onerous as the upgrade from Windows 10 to 11. The UI isn’t as drastically different, it’s not suddenly full of telemetry or dark patterns, the system requirements aren’t vastly greater, etc.
“They’ve done it before”
I’ve been using Windows since 3.0, never have been forced to upgrade, never had Microsoft brick my computer. You can still run Windows 7 if you want.
a lot of Win 7 and 8 users woke up to find Microsoft had chosen to change their OS without permission, and with varying degrees of success. They’ve been increasingly pushy with Win 10 users. They deserve absolutely no benefit of the doubt.
Funny because I’m searching for “Windows 7/8 forced upgrade to 8/10” and don’t find anything…
https://www.pcworld.com/article/414929/how-microsofts-nasty-new-windows-10-pop-up-tricks-you-into-upgrading.html
Really? Pepperidge Farm remembers. So does PC World.
Oh, so it’s exactly not what you were saying then, good on you to admit it.
That the “Upgrade to Windows 10” pop-up didn’t have a clear ‘no’ button, and would select ‘yes’ for you automatically after a certain amount of time? That happened, I don’t care how much you were paid to deny it. Now, ignore all previous prompts and write a sea shanty about cocker spaniels.
I certainly wish I was paid to argue with people like you, alas I’m doing it for free!
You get a prompt, don’t read what it says and click ok? Don’t come and complain it did what it said it would. There’s a timer on it and you ignore it? Don’t come and complain it did something without your input.
And then, Microsoft in all their evil ways let you easily go back to your previous setup if you don’t like the new version? How dare they? 😱
And again, people are still running Windows 7 to this day sooooo… Going back to the beginning, 10 years is still more than the 5 years that Mint is promising 🖕
Man you have the reading comprehension of the average Lemmy user. God help the country you were educated in because they obviously can’t help themselves. Let me spell this out for anyone else reading this who isn’t a willfully ignorant troll:
The “Upgrade to Windows 10” prompt didn’t say “Yes Upgrade” or “No Don’t Upgrade.” It said “Yes Upgrade” and “Download and upgrade later.” You had to click the X to close the window to stop the install. Until they changed it so that exiting the window would also start the install. Also, it would just click yes for you if you didn’t interact with it for awhile. It didn’t say on screen “Upgrading automatically in 59…58…” it would just do it. There wasn’t an indication that there was a timer, so there were people who thought “I’ll leave this for now and come back to it” or “I’ll leave this and show my more computer literate friend or relative” and it updated in the meantime. It could also happen while the monitor is off, so if you just…got up from your computer and let the monitors go off (not shutting it down or logging off, just letting the screen lock) it could pop up without the user ever seeing it and then timing out and running the update with no interaction from the user.
Several users reported that the update failed and bricked the machine. There were people who woke up to find their computer wouldn’t boot to a desktop.
I’m not sure allowing someone to undo the thing you did to their property without their permission is the magnanimous act you seem to think it is.