That’s my experience, especially on the larger builders. I just checked Dell and HP and neither offered a customization option to ship without an OS or anything but Win10 Home/Pro. Other builders, especially more gaming-oriented ones, might allow it but then the answer is as easy as clicking the checkbox. So I guess it’ll really depend on who/where you’re buying from. The best deals on prebuilts tend to be on retail systems – the stuff you buy complete from wherever – versus ones you design online. Because they eventually get enough prebuilt stock that stuff goes on sale or needs to be cleared out, a problem you don’t have as often when you’re custom building to order. In which case you might be better off just eating the cost of the OS and still come out ahead.
I’ve built computers and I’ve messed with Linux. The former is a lot easier, just build your own and then you have no need to worry about any OS.
I assumed they meant they’d update to Windows 10 only after Windows 11 came out. It makes sense: once the new OS comes out, Microsoft tends to start leaving the old OS alone. That way you know exactly what you’re getting and can mitigate anything you don’t like.
Based on what Microsoft revealed, Windows 11 does not seem to improve any of the things people don’t like about Windows 10. They focused very heavily on touch-related things.
The positive talk I see about the OS is the fact you’ll be able to run Android apps. Microsoft is allowing the Amazon App Store. Mostly, though, it’s all about people hating the new restrictions and the UI nonsense.
They don’t seem to be offering anything you can’t already do on Windows 10, albeit sometimes with third party stuff.
And I hate the new Start Menu and forcing the taskbar to be on the bottom.
At Dell, the Precision 3650 tower comes default with Windows Pro. Switching to Ubuntu saves $76.96.
I wonder if it’ll crash everything you’re working on to install itself… maybe with a recording that yells: “Would you like to WIN WITH WINDOWS? Sure you would!”
And buttons that say:
[Turn it up TO ELEVEN!]
and
[Sure, I’m not working on anything important for the next 24 hours!]
and
[Don’t want 11, please cancel upgrade and wipe all my drives]
ETA: Sorry, still bitter about those lovely days of the 10 inauguration… I watched a lot of friends lose a lot of time and work. OK, I’m sure 11 will be better, but it’s fun to complain!
Download ‘Open Shell’. It will return you to the Windows 7 Start Menu.
There’s also any number of Windows Tweakers available for free download. Some more useful than others. Some you may just find 1 tweak out of many that’s useful but makes it worthwhile (it’s free!). I spent several days getting Windows 10 to look & behave like Windows 7. I have no use for touch related or social related. I hope to live out my life without ever experiencing a Zoom or Facetime.
This gives me hope.
I doubt it. ‘Intrusive’ seems to be the order of the day. It seems the major tech companies are in a fight to the death to see which can take over people’s entire lives by dictating how they can use computers.
The general population has a choice. They can either take control of how their computing operates, or let the computer, aka the tech companies (in this case Microsoft), dictate to them how the computer is going to work, which software they will use etc, etc.
Sadly the general population is losing this battle.
Many don’t have the tech savvy to deal with it, some are just lazy, others don’t seem to care that their lives are being taken over.
It takes a lot of effort to regain control of your computing these days. Microsoft is making damn sure of that. Just look at all the apps installed with the operating system urging people to log in to the Windows Store or Microsoft Store (whatever it’s called). The crappy apps installed to open your photos & videos. Oh, and by the way, since we have you opening photos with this piece of shit app, how would you like to store all your family treasures on our servers?
Facebook took control of a generation. Smart phones & social media track your every move. Not only do they track you, they send you a constant barrage of advertisements telling you what and how to buy things. The earth has become a pit of greed. But what the most frightening thing of all is, a lot of people are OK with this.
PS/ For you Mac Heads. Don’t be smug. You lost the battle the second you walked out of the store with a Mac under your arm.
Do an upgrade with a non Apple/Mac part you say? heh,heh,heh.
I own a lot of Apple stuff, but yeah, I hate that they seal up all of their computers now. You can’t even do a simple RAM upgrade yourself anymore. I get how that’s easier for some people, I guess, but I insist on opening up my machines and messing with the guts, so I’ll likely never buy another Apple computer ever again.
Now that Apple has gone to the M1 silicon, the RAM is literally packaged together with the processor. They are on different silicon dies, but placed together into a single “system in a package”. I don’t know this for certain, but I’d bet that the package doesn’t even bring the memory address/data/control lines out to external pins.
I’ve had four Mac Minis in my life, three of which have had their RAM upgraded somewhere along the way. I’m holding off on buying an M1-based Apple, but I don’t think their policy is going to change just because of folks like us.
Microsoft has made their fortune by keeping stupid users stupid. Haven’t cared for Windows since XP, unfortunately company usage dictates using Windows. But blast if I like the software telling me what I can and cannot get into.
Then I presume you use Linux (or FreeBSD), because what you said is even more true of macOS (and iOS). Microsoft gives a hell of a lot more choice by default, and there is usually a workaround for everything else. Apple just decides the way things should be, and you’re stuck with it 99% of the time.
Personally I find Windows to be a decent balance between having something that just works and being able to tweak things to my liking. I never have to worry there won’t be a Windows version of something.
That said, I do continue to recommend WinAero Tweaker and just the WinAero site in general. There’s no reason to be forced to stick with Microsoft’s defaults.
I don’t, though have played with Ubuntu. Don’t do enough on the home computer to justify the switch, at work have to toe the line because no one else would be open to learning Linux. But I started in the days where you bought a Z80 chip to replace your 8086 (or was it 8088? Memory fades after that long), and you had to use g=c800:5 to low level format your new hard drive, too. So it upsets me when software tells me where I can and can’t go.