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from the avoiding-planned-obsolescence-and-DRM dept.
The KDE community has an outreach campaign encouraging the use of the Plasma desktop by people with older, but usable, laptops. Vista10 support will come to an end and Vista11 has been designed not to run on many still viable models of computer due to several factors including Digital Restrictions Management (DRM) requirements centered around TPM-2.0. GNU/Linux can not only keep the old system working, it can improve its performance, ease of use, and general security. KDE Plasma can be part of that.
Even if you agree to this tech extortion now, in a few years time, they will do it again as they have done many times in the past.
But things don't have to be this way...
Upgrade the smart way! Keep the machine you've got and switch to Linux and Plasma.
Linux can give new life to your laptop. Combined with KDE's Plasma desktop, you get all the advantages of the safety, stability and hi tech of Linux, with all the features of a beautiful, modern and powerful graphic environment.
Their campaign page covers where and how beginners can get help, what the differences are, the benefits gained, and more.
[Editor's Comment: This is obviously a KDE/Plasma centric promotion - which doesn't mean that it is bad but there are lots of other options too. Which Linux OS and desktop would you recommend for someone wanting to make the move from Windows to Linux? Which are the best for a beginner, and which desktops provide the most intuitive interface for someone who has never sat down in front of a Linux computer before?--JR]
Previously:
(2025) Microsoft is Digging its Own Grave With Windows 11, and It Has to Stop
(2023) The Wintel Duopoly Plans to Send 240 Million PCs to the Landfill
(2023) Two Security Flaws in the TPM 2.0 Specs Put Cryptographic Keys at Risk
(2022) Report Claims Almost Half of Systems are Ineligible for Windows 11 Upgrades
(2021) Windows 11 Will Leave Millions of PCs Behind, and Microsoft is Struggling to Explain Why
(2019) Microsoft's Ongoing Tactics Against Competitors Explained, Based on its Own Documents
(2016) Windows 10 Anniversary Update to Require TPM 2.0 Module
(Score: 5, Informative) by PinkyGigglebrain on Sunday June 08, @07:37AM (2 children)
If your going to jump from Windows to Linux I'd go with the Trinity Desktop Environment [trinitydesktop.org] instead of KDE or Gnome.
When I switched over to TDE from Windows I found the GUI was close enough to the Windows 7 UI that the learning curve seemed to be almost flat.
TDE is a fork of KDE 3.5 and doesn't have all the blingy eyecandy animations that KDE started adding with 4.0. Just a simple clean GUI. I've been using TDE for a little over 10 years and have never thought of even trying the newer versions of KDE, TDE just works too well for me to want to switch.
But in the end all I can really suggest is take a look, give it a test run using a LiveDVD/USB (I found the Exe [exegnulinux.net] distro to be good) and make your own opinion about it.
"Beware those who would deny you Knowledge, For in their hearts they dream themselves your Master."
(Score: 3, Interesting) by bart9h on Sunday June 08, @01:55PM (1 child)
So, Trinity is to KDE what MATE is to Gnome?
(Score: 2, Informative) by skaplon on Monday June 09, @08:17PM
Trinity was born due to the general slowness of KDE 4. But that got nothing to do with the recent 5 or 6 incantations which should be plenty fast on windows 10-era hw. These day very few run Trinity and have even less ppl to work on the old Qt versions