#but I'm also on Win11 and I know most are on 10. so it probably looks a bit different

[declawedwildcat]

I made a lil possum cursor on a whim last night and figured others might like him too, so why not share! You can download it plus a matching folder replacement icon from the google drive link and add them directly to Windows without needing any third-party apps.

Both were made with the intention of matching artofapencil's raccoon recycling bin, so highly recommend pairing with that

[aeori-o]

The article also talks about how Microsoft will extend support for Win10 until 2028--but only if you pay a fee (which has not yet been specified but they say in the article that for a similar service provided when Win7 was phased out was 25$ a machine per year at first and then "later" $100 per year for that support).

I built my computer. Windows 10 cost me roughly $200 CAD. What also gets me about that waste (beyond just the waste in gold, copper, and lithium that will be sent to landfills which are all recyclable) is that all of those 240,000,000 machines will have Win10 which can be (currently) freely upgraded to Win11. If you're tossing it for a new PC that is 240,000,000 machines worth of Windows keys (which, as a person mentioned above, will mostly be corporations anyway--most people I know who have machines incompatible with Win11 will probably keep going with it until the machine dies, computers are way too expensive to just toss something that's still functional).

That is 240,000,000 licenses of Win11 'guaranteed' to be sold. (In quotations because I have no idea how many of those 240 million are actually corporations that have to replace them or how many are end users that might not bother.) Usually corporations get a discount for buying bulk (how much that discount is, I don't know, it probably depends on the size of the business and how many machines they're purchasing or building) but if it was 240,000,000 end-user machines that would be 48 billion Canadian dollars in windows key fees. I know that the math wouldn't actually work out to 48 billion, but how much less could they be selling keys to computer manufacturers for? Half off? 24 billion. 75% off? 12 billion. 90% off? 4.8 billion.

Maybe I'm wrong, but I have doubts that the cost to develop and update Windows costs 12 billion, or even 4.8 billion. I use machines running Win11 frequently and every single one of them has three CMD boxes open and close in a cascade across the screen every time you try to open any program. It happens quickly and all the machines run fine so it's not a real issue but it feels like Windows as presented by Bethesda: It just feels so unpolished.

Also worth noting is that one of the system requirements a lot of machines lack to upgrade isn't the CPU speed or the RAM or even the storage (though some machines are still sold with less than 500GB of storage which seems criminal to me) it's whether or not your computer has or is capable of having TPM 2.0 which is a security feature "newer" machines have (and most home-built PCs are capable of but need to be turned on) but older (it has to be pretty old for a pre-built) machines may or may not have the capability for it. I'm not saying security isn't important, but it is pretty suspect to have this kind of roadblock for upgrading to Win11. (I only know about it because shortly after building my PC Win11 started harassing me and, to my shock and horror, Microsoft gleefully told me my not-insubstantial PC couldn't run Win11. And then I figured out it was just something I had to go turn on in the BIOS/UEFI so no big deal for me but if your computer is old enough it could be a huge deal if it meets all other specs needed to upgrade).

I talked about the problem of Windows system requirements being too damn high before, and how the windows 10 to 11 jump is especially bad. Like the end of Windows 10 is coming october 2025, and it will be a massive problem. And this article gives us some concrete numbers for how many computers that can't update from win10 to 11.

And it's 240 million. damn. “If these were all folded laptops, stacked one on top of another, they would make a pile 600 km taller than the moon.” the tech analysis company quoted in the article explains.

So many functioning computers that will be wasted. And it's all because people don't wanna switch to a Linux distro with sane system requirements and instead buy a new computer.

Like if you own one of these 240 million windows 10 computers, Just be an environmentally responsible non-wasteful person and switch that computer to Linux instead of just scrapping it because Microsoft says it's not good enough.