SoylentNews is people
SoylentNews
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: 3, Interesting) by tbuskey on Sunday June 08, @06:08PM
It comes down to what are you trying to do?
Internet: *anything* Your phone, chromebook, iPad, Linux, Windows, Macintosh. On the fringe, I have an eBook reader that has a web browser but...
Writing: email, text, word processing. All can be on the internet. Way better than the wordstar/wordperfect got IMO. Also, who prints things?
Calculations: calculators, spreadsheets Also internet and better than what I have.
Consuming: Music, Video, streaming. It's almost all possible with a web browser. Some is app too. I can't stream Comcast on a Linux web browser because they block it, but everything else works. I can't imagine there is anything social media that can't work with a web browser.
For a college student, a phone w/ a keyboard an larger screen could do it all. A chromebook or iPad + keyboard would get you the screen & keyboard.
Lot of household things are on an app & never get a web browser interface. Smart devices, bird feeder cams, trail cams. I think there are even 3D printers that you can use entirely from a phone. Printing & scanning is everywhere, standardized (mostly). If you can't get every device in your house to use it, you bought the wrong one. I have a Brother printer/scanner that works with phones, chromebooks, Linux, Windows.
Once you get into more specialized stuff like CAD, multimedia editing, 3D printing, craft machines (paper cutting, embroidery sewing, etc), you start to want to use a computer. Though I've seen things for Inkscape to do 3D printing & both crafts I've listed.
I have a gamer and a crafter in the house that need Windows because that's where those tools are. I have 1 teleheath provider out of a few that doesn't work on my Linux browser but does on my phone or windows.
I used to use Quicken and had the Quicken credit card when it was the *only* credit card whose info got downloaded (before Linux existed). I'd love something that I could run locally that auto downloaded QIF files from every bank and credit card. Quicken is still around and there are competitors. I think there are web based things you can give your bank logins to download. Linux does have things that can import QIF files. But to get them, it's me with a browser, or I spend time learning how to automate it & maintain that.
I've been 90% Unix workstation and then Linux for myself. It's been much easier since gmail and then other internet office tools came out. My personal laptops are all > 10 years old.