Re: Before Dimdows 10 Goes EOL, I'm Testing Linux To Save My Laptop From The Landfill

On 2025/6/27 14:53:13, WolfFan wrote:
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1. You don’t have to junk Win 10 if you don’t want to. I have XP and 7
machines running, MS bailed on them a long time ago but they still work, I
just have to be careful. As most modern web browsers no longer like XP and it
would be a Very Bad Idea(™) to run IE at this late date, the XP machines
are locked away on a network which has no internet connectivity, and we take
precautions when running them. Why run them at all? because they run $150,000
imagesetters, that’s why. The imagesetters are very picky about their

What's an imagesetter?

drivers (not really drivers, long story, but the imagesetters won’t work
without them) and still work, and management will NOT be replacing them as
long as they work. So the XP machines live. I have a couple spare XP machines
for when one of the units in use croaks, which will happen sooner or later.
The Win 7 machines live on for similar, though less expensive, reasons. Now,
if you want to go adventuring on ye internet, you might have problems, but
you can use Win 10 locally for decades or until the hardware dies, whichever
comes along first.

I used both XP and 7 - including on the 'net - long after both ended
"support"; for a reasonably savvy user, I think the dangers are much
exaggerated. Fair enough, if you have a combination of inexperienced
users, and critical systems/data that aren't backed up often enough.[]

3. the main problems that I’ve found with modern (a.k.a. less than a decade
old) laptops is that a lot of them have Safe Boot in the BIOS/UEFI and
getting around it is a pain, and, worse, a lot of vendors (Lenovo, I’m

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4. the other problems are drivers. Some vendors (Lenovo again, you bastards!)

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5. Some distros work better than others on certain hardware. (Lenovo again!)

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This particular Lenovo ("ideapad"; bought as refurbished, with W10-64
already on it) has a little hole on the left, that when poked gives me
access to the boot menu (trying the various keys - I got the manual -
suggested didn't seem to stop W10 booting). I guess it's like the
"reset" button you used to get on PCs many decades ago, before they
stopped fitting them presumably because people were hitting them
accidentally too often.--
J. P. Gilliver. UMRA: 1960/<1985 MB++G()AL-IS-Ch++(p)Ar@T+H+Sh0!:`)DNAf

Making a plant illegal is like saying God was wrong
BUT
Making a plant illegal was one of the first things God ever did...