Microsoft sued over plans to discontinue Windows 10 support

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Microsoft sued over plans to discontinue Windows 10 support

16 August 2025

California based Lawrence Klein is attempting to sue Microsoft over its plan to discontinue support for the Windows 10 operating system (OS) come October.

The action is understandable from the point of view that a device apparently requires specific hardware for Windows 11 — the Windows 10 successor OS — to function. This hardware is not to be found on older devices, rendering them unusable if they can’t run Windows 10.

Klein says that the end of Windows 10 is part of Microsoft’s strategy to force customers to purchase new devices and to “monopolize the generative AI market.” Windows 11 comes with Microsoft’s suite of generative artificial intelligence software, including the chatbot Copilot. To run optimally, Microsoft’s AI needs a piece of hardware called a neural processing unit, which newer tablets, laptops and desktop computers have — and which the older devices do not.

Before I migrated to Linux Mint (LM) last year, I was regularly sent prompts by Microsoft urging me to install Windows 11. Evidently my device, which is three years old now, had the requisite hardware as I was told Windows 11 could operate on it.

While we’re talking of those nagging “upgrade” prompts, they’re one thing I certainly do not miss.

Of course Windows 10 will continue to work without the presently regular support updates, but I’d be reluctant in the extreme to use any Windows OS that was not supported. That would be putting any device at considerable risk.

While the switch to LM was quite the undertaking, and involved a few bumps early on, I’m pleased to be here, something I’ve said before. I’d encourage anyone still on Windows 10 to consider LM. It’s user-friendly, somewhat resembles Windows 10, and comes in several versions, meaning it’s possible to install on relatively old devices.

You’ll also escape the Windows hegemony, and have an OS that’s not half dependent on AI to work.

Linux Operating Systems on five percent of desktops in America

18 July 2025

According to data collected by Statcounter. At face value this suggests one in twenty people in the United States are using a Linus OS on their computer. That’s not a bad number. Of course, Windows OS’s still dominate, but it looks like some people are looking for alternatives.

I migrated my laptops to Linux Mint about a year ago. While it hasn’t been one-hundred percent plain sailing, I’d much rather be where I am than where I used to be.

The infinite workday: more work hours and less employee privacy

19 June 2025

Microsoft is calling it the infinite workday.

Based on telemetry data, gleaned from apps including Microsoft 365, the American tech company has found the workday has been gradually becoming longer, and work-related activities are increasingly seeping into the weekend. This for people supposedly working Monday to Friday, between nine o’clock in the morning, until five o’clock in the afternoon.

According to some of Microsoft’s findings, workers are reading emails as early as six in the morning during the week. The same workers may still be on deck well into the evening, attending online meetings, called to cater for colleagues spread across multiple timezones. In addition, workers are more frequently checking email messages during the weekend.

So much for work-life balance, which I’ve always seen as a theoretical construct. Not for real. Bullshit. My workday looks tame by comparison. But the accumulation of the telemetry data used to compile Microsoft’s report is also concerning. Not only are people working longer hours, they are also being surveilled. Some degree — who knows how much precisely — of information about their use of various Microsoft software, is being gathered.

The case for adopting something like LibreOffice, an open source variation of Microsoft products such as Word and Excel, becomes all the stronger. This won’t rectify the problem of working extended hours and weekends, but at least workers won’t have large tech companies keeping tabs on them.

Linux, LibreOffice, offer an escape from Windows 11 and Microsoft

18 June 2025

KDE, developers of free and open source software, have launched a campaign encouraging Windows 10 (Win10) users to migrate to a Linux Operating System (this article is a good starting point), rather than moving to the Windows 11 (Win11) Operating System (OS).

Win11 stands to render many older, but still perfectly functional computers useless, after Microsoft recently changed the operating specifications for the OS. This means some older devices may no longer have sufficient capacity to operate Win11. The message from Microsoft seems clear: buy a new computer, or go without one all together. That could be a confronting choice for some people.

But as Sayan Sen, writing at Neowin, points out, there is another option, one that is also being backed by The Document Foundation, maker of LibreOffice, a suite of productivity applications similar to Word and Excel:

“You don’t have to follow Microsoft’s upgrade path. There is a better option that puts control back in the hands of users, institutions, and public bodies: Linux and LibreOffice. Together, these two programmes offer a powerful, privacy-friendly and future-proof alternative to the Windows + Microsoft 365 ecosystem.”

The Document Foundation also suggests Win11 is not quite as cost-free as is believed:

“The move to Windows 11 isn’t just about security updates. It increases dependence on Microsoft through aggressive cloud integration, forcing users to adopt Microsoft accounts and services. It also leads to higher costs due to subscription and licensing models, and reduces control over how your computer works and how your data is managed. Furthermore, new hardware requirements will render millions of perfectly good PCs obsolete.

They leave the best for last:

The end of Windows 10 does not mark the end of choice, but the beginning of a new era. If you are tired of mandatory updates, invasive changes, and being bound by the commercial choices of a single supplier, it is time for a change. Linux and LibreOffice are ready — 2025 is the right year to choose digital freedom!”

Regular readers of disassociated will know I migrated to Linux Mint about a year ago, and have been using Writer and Calc, the LibreOffice versions of Word and Excel, since. I won’t sugarcoat it: the move had its bumps, and I needed to make several tweaks to my laptop before the system stability I’d enjoyed on Win10 returned.

I also needed to start using some new apps, and had to give up on one or two I couldn’t find Linux compatible versions of (despite trying to use various Windows emulators), but was able to figure out workarounds. Today, I barely notice the difference. I open my laptop every morning and get working pretty much as usual.

If you’re having a problem getting started on — as it was in my case — Linux Mint, the Linux Mint Forums were a great help in the migration process. Chances are someone’s already run into whatever problem you’re having, and found a solution, which you can try. Otherwise, you can post a question asking for help.

Do not buy a new computer: Microsoft should make a Windows 11 variant that works on old computers

24 March 2025

I’m no longer (thankfully) in the Windows fold, so I’m not one-hundred percent sure, but it seems like some older computers might not be able to run Microsoft’s (MS) most recent operating system (OS), Windows 11. Accordingly, owners of such devices seem intent to hold onto their existing machines, and stay on Windows 10, at the same time.

After all, do you really need to buy a new computer? If their present device is sufficient, why bother replacing it? That’s not the way MS sees things though. They want everyone to migrate to Win 11, come what may. Your existing computer is not up to running Win 11? No problem, simply buy a new device, and see if you can get a trade-in on the old one.

This is a suggestion MS has emailed to some Win 10 users recently. Evidently MS is unaware of the cost of living pressures some people are facing. And what sort of trade-in deal does MS think anyone will get from a device that cannot run Win 11, anyway? What an absurd notion: buy a new computer so you can upgrade to MS’s new OS.

People can continue using Win 10 on their computers for as long as they want, but will eventually stop receiving security updates. And running Win 10 without crucial updates would not be wise. The only safe way forward is to try another OS, such as Linux, but that’s not an option for everyone.

It’s doable of course, but there is something of a learning curve involved. I think the ball is in MS’s court though. They could do more to help people on older machines migrate to Win 11. One suggestion is to roll out a “light weight” version of Win 11 for those unable to change computers. This light version of Win 11 wouldn’t of course have the same capabilities as the full version, but for some people that might be a small price to pay.

I’m thinking a little of XFCE, the Linux Mint OS variant, designed to run on “low-end” personal computers. It could hardly be an onerous task for a company with the resources MS has at its disposal. Don’t make people buy a computer that suits your OS Microsoft: make an OS that suits the computers people already have.

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The origins of the Linux operating system, by Lars Wirzenius

3 March 2025

A 2023 article about the early days of the Linux operating system, written by Lars Wirzenius, who worked with Linus Torvalds, in the early 1990’s to develop the Linux kernel:

After finishing the game, Linus started learning Intel assembly language. One day he showed me a program that did multitasking. One task or thread would write a stream of the letter “A” on the screen, the other “B”; the context switches were visually obvious when the stream of As became Bs. This was the first version of what would later become known as the Linux kernel.

A kernel is an integral component of an operating system, which has complete control over everything in the system.

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Windows 11 forces data backup to OneDrive, possible workaround

26 June 2024

Maybe it’s time to start a Windows 11 is going just great website, similar to Molly White’s Web3 is Going Just Great. I say this after reading about another instance of heavy-handedness on Microsoft’s part, at Neowin:

Quietly and without any announcement, the company changed Windows 11’s initial setup so that it could turn on the automatic folder backup without asking for it.

Quietly and without any announcement. What a way to treat customers/users. OneDrive is a little like Apple’s iCloud, which stores data (files, photos) according to choices made by the individual. The difference, now, between iCloud and OneDrive, is one is user configurable, the other isn’t.

This is foul. Every time OneDrive tried to open on my old Win 10 install, I promptly closed it down. No doubt Microsoft was watching my every move as it was, but there was no way I’d trust them with copies of my data files.

As a result of this move though, some inadvertent OneDrive users are apparently finding their auto-backed up data exceeds the default five gigabyte OneDrive folder limit. Any excess above five-gigs needs to be paid for. Marvellous.

But there may, possibly, be a workaround.

It involves transferring (cut/copy and paste) all files from the default data folders, e.g. Documents, and moving them to a separate folder on your hard drive. Perhaps call the new folder My Data, and then set up sub-folders inside that for your data, e.g. photos, word documents, etc, etc. This is what I’ve been doing all along, I’ve never kept anything in those default folders. I even set up my own separate downloads folder, and configured all downloads to save there.

Trying this might keep data and files out of OneDrive’s reach. For now, anyway.

Despite using Dropbox for a lot of the files I use daily, I also keep backups of everything on thumb drives (which are stowed securely elsewhere). It was a bit of work to set up, but is quick and easy to use now. Hopefully my data storage system also helps keeps my data and files a little more secure.

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Easy OS, an experimental Linux distro, by Barry Kauler

21 June 2024

I’m in the process of migrating my OS away from Windows. I’ve been running Linux Mint, considered to be a user-friendly, Windows-like distribution of the Linux family of OS’s, on a backup device for almost two weeks now. It’s been a learning curve naturally, but so far, so good.

In the meantime though, the word Linux seems to jump out at me, whenever I’m going through my RSS subscriptions, or other news channels. A distribution (distro), called EasyOS, the creation of software developer Barry Kauler, caught my eye the other day, and might be one to consider, if you’re looking to change your OS, for whatever reason.

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What about anti-virus apps? On going #IndieOS with Linux

14 June 2024

As I wrote a few days ago, I’m in the process of trying out Linux operating systems, specifically Linux Mint. With the release of Windows 11, I think Microsoft has (finally) jumped the shark. Others will probably argue that happened long before Win 11 came along. They’re likely right.

I’ve been doing a lot of reading about Mint, and what apps I might need to run the OS as smoothly as possible. Inevitably, the question of anti-virus (AV) software came up, something I posed to my search engine. I was quite surprised to read that anti-virus software isn’t (necessarily) needed on Linux OS’s.

Needless to say, I did a double take when I saw that. Isn’t going without an AV app foolhardy in this day and age? Well, yes in general, but in regards to Linux, possibly. That’s because there are a few factors at play. For one, devices with Linux OS’s are only present in relatively small numbers. As such, they’re not worth the effort for most writers of malicious code.

Targeting Linux wouldn’t cause enough disruption for them apparently. I’d say there though, disruption to even one person’s computer would be devastation in spades. But let’s hold to the hope that writing Linux viruses is, for the most part, a waste of time.

Then there’s the difficulty of running malicious code, on account of the permissions setting structure of Linux. Someone would almost knowingly need to install a virus file for one to take hold. I’ve only been using Mint a few days so far, but each time I install an app, I’ve needed to enter a password.

That might present a huddle when it comes to executing a virus. Another point is just about every Linux app is only available by way of an app store. And only vetted, safe apps, are included in the store. If apps are sourced solely through Linux stores, supposedly a system will remain safe.

I have no doubt that viruses present far less of a threat to Linux computers, but still feel nervous about being without some sort of AV protection, as useless as some Linux users claim it to be. So I’ll see how I go. But it made me wonder. Is the whole AV industry a by-product of the vulnerabilities in one family of operating systems?

Malicious code presents a problem for all platforms, so that’s unlikely to be the case, even if it might be fun to think as much. On the other hand, it seems to me the family of operating systems in question, is the virus itself, in so much as it now seeks to dominate, and control, its users.

While the jury may be out — in my mind at least — as to the question of AV apps for Linux, I’m sure that taking this step into the realm of what I’m calling #IndieOS, is the right one. And why not?

If #IndieWeb represents a move away from an internet under the control of large corporate entities, to one where individuals have more sway, then migrating to Linux is adopting an OS that likewise gives individuals similar control. #IndieOS? Yep, that’ll do me.

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Hello Linux, farewell to toxic Windows operating systems

11 June 2024

I’ve read a stack of articles recently about Windows 11 (11), the successor operating system (OS) to Windows 10 (10), and am not liking a single thing I’ve seen. Microsoft (MS) will soon begin forcing users to install Windows 11, whether they like it or not.

If that’s not toxic behaviour on Microsoft’s part, what is?

10 has been with us since 2015, and MS will end support for it in October 2025. In the ordinary course of events, long time Windows users have generally migrated to the newest OS, when one becomes available. And usually because the new version is seen as an improvement on the old.

But not always. Windows ME, released in September 2000, as a successor to Windows 98, was a notable exception. And so far, 11 is being received in a similar fashion. An OS featuring adverts? An OS coercing users to adopt certain apps, for instance the Edge browser, instead of one of their choice? These are among reasons I’m steering clear of 11.

To make matter worse, users will need to create a MS account when installing 11. This means providing MS with an email address. To date, I’ve been using a “local account”. In short, that entails choosing a username and a password. Nice and simple, end of story. It might seem like a “so-what” matter, but users should be able to make the choice.

If someone wants to set up a MS account fine, but no one should be forced to. And yes, I’m aware there are advantages to having a MS account, but to my mind that’s beside the point. Apart from 10, an old Hotmail account, and Word and Excel, I use few other MS products. I’m not keen on being “encouraged” to sign up for anything else, which I’m sure would be the case, if I had a MS account. As for storing my data and files on the likes of OneDrive: no thanks.

Another bugbear (and doesn’t MS just love to annoy its user base?) is forced restarts after OS updates. Regular updates are necessary to main the integrity of any OS, but generally there is some flexibility as to when users can elect to reboot/restart their devices, so the updates can take effect.

I do this when I’ve finished working, at a time that suits me. But in typical fashion, what suits users doesn’t suit MS. Some 11 users, who run processes on their devices that take weeks to complete, have complained there is no way to delay a system restart after OS updates have been installed. The result is lost work, when auto-restart commences.

Previously, it was possible to delay these auto update restarts, but not anymore. No doubt MS will defend this behaviour by claiming “most people” don’t run processes lasting weeks. It makes you wonder what MS thinks of its users. Do they think everyone is exactly the same? There’s no think different at MS?

But enough complaining. This coming from a one-time Windows fan*. Maybe it’s me that’s changed. I’ve simply outgrown Windows operating systems. And why would I continue using Windows instead of something like Linux? Am I not, after all, #IndieWeb/#SmallWeb? How could wanting to use an OS like Windows even be in my DNA? It’s high time I became #IndieOS.

A few days ago, I installed Linux Mint on my backup laptop. When I buy a new device, I keep the previous machine as a spare. It’s not too old, I bought it about four years ago, but that it handled a new OS installation, and is (so far) running smoothly, is a good start. Linux Mint is one of many Linux OS’s, or distributions, on offer, but is considered to be user-friendly from a newbies point of view, and somewhat mimics the Windows OS experience.

I had been considering making the switch for some time, but the main stumbling block has been finding suitable replacements for some of applications I’ve been using for decades on Windows. Chief among them is Photoshop. While there are Linux-friendly alternatives for most the apps I use on Windows, the Photoshop-like options aren’t quite the same. At the moment I’m looking at installing sort of virtual environment app on the Linux setup to run Abode products.

But it’s been well worth making the move. Linux Mint is not a carbon-copy of Windows 10, but it is relatively similar. If you’re likewise a long time Windows user, I’d suggest installing Linux on an older, spare device first, if that’s possible. That way you can go through the preparation and installation process as a test run, while getting used to a new OS.

The installation process was mostly straightforward, but it’s a rainy afternoon sort of undertaking. It can take time, so best to block off at least a half a day initially. Having a holiday, three-day weekend, open to me, was a definite advantage. There are ample help resources available, with the answers to most questions you might have, only a search engine query away.

If you are making the move from Windows to Linux, all the best. It’s not overly difficult or complicated, just new and different.

*Granted, that was long time ago. I was still using, lol, dial-up networking when I wrote that post.

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