Lippy

To add to this, below are the group policy and registry locations to change this setting to do the same as the comment above in order to allow for automation. Of course with the disclaimer that you should only use these if you know what you are doing.

Group policy

Computer Configuration -> Administrative Templates -> System -> Device Installation -> Prevent automatic download of applications associated with device metadata. Set the policy to enabled.

Registry (also works on Home edition)

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\Device Metadata. Create a REG_DWORD within called PreventDeviceMetadataFromNetwork and set the value to 1.

I tend to stagger my platform and GPU upgrades. It tends to be about 3-4 years between something being upgraded. So I’d technically call the platform upgrade a new build, even though it inherits some older components.

My last build was used for 10 years, and the one before that 4 years. I was planning to have my previous build last for about 5-6 years, but those were the days when Intel stagnated with 14nm++++ and AMD wasn’t really showing up, so I ended up prolonging its life a bit more. My current build should last me well into the 2030s since it’s an AM5 platform. So this is the timeline:

2008: New build. 2012: New build, plus old hard drives inherited as data drives. 2015: GPU, PSU and SSD upgrade. 2018: GPU, CPU and heatsink upgrade, retired old data drives from previous build and replaced with new ones. 2022: Platform upgrade (motherboard, CPU, RAM), case upgrade and new SSD to use as the main drive. 2025: GPU and PSU upgrade. 2028: Most likely going to be another CPU and SSD upgrade (provided that prices come back down to sane levels), and retirement of older drives.

That was my situation too initially. I first tried while using my Steam Deck and it kept running into errors during checkout. So I yeeted myself to my main desktop where it went through without a hitch.

Mobile always seems less stable than desktop when making purchases.

I ran my old 3770K machine for 10 years and it got the job done. I’ll run my current PC well into the 2030s if I have to. Just gotta hope that nothing dies on it because at this rate it’s gonna be worth more than a car shortly…

If things still aren’t affordable after that, I guess I’m going back to pen and paper again…

Ah yes, the Atari Jaguar approach.

All of this is no problem and essentially any computer manufactured in the last couple decades can meet these requirements. They’re effectively irrelevant for this discussion.

Not quite. Windows 11 requires an Intel 8th gen or AMD Zen+ CPU or newer, with some odd exceptions. I’ve dealt with some machines that only fail on the CPU check and can confirm that Windows 11 will refuse to install without bypassing those arbitrary ‘requirements’.

I do agree with the rest of your post though.

It wasn’t the same experience over here. All MSRP cards sold out instantly on all stores. Whatever was actually in stock were all at least £100 over MSRP, and they quickly sold out too.

The entire GPU market has gone to shit.

It’s unacceptable that there’s new cards for sale (if you can even find one) that cost more than I paid for my 1080 Ti 8 years ago and have essentially the same amount of VRAM (12 GB vs 11 GB).

I thought that maybe the 9070 XT would be at least a reasonable option if I could get it for MSRP. Of course that launch ended up being another farce.

At this point it looks like I’m going to be riding my 1080 Ti until the bitter end. Sure, newer cards will wipe the floor with it, but I can’t justify the current prices.

Yep, you can delete your Windows partition once you no longer need it or any data within it. Then once you update your bootloader (usually GRUB, some distros do this automatically when updating the system), Windows will disappear from the boot options.

Then you can either create a new partition in its place to store data on, or extend an existing partition to fill the empty space.

I’d recommend also backing your data as a precaution in case something goes awry.

If you have a spare drive on your PC I’d recommend trialling Linux on that. With that setup, you will have it dual booted with your existing Windows installation. It should help with the transition since you can just boot into Windows if you still need it for anything. That will give you time to get accustomed to Linux while still having that Windows safety net for a while.

Also if you later find that Linux isn’t for you then it’s easy to undo that, since all you will need to do is boot into your Windows drive instead.

I went with that strategy when I made the jump 4 years ago, and later dropped Windows entirely when I built my new PC a few months later since I realised I didn’t need it at all.

Nova Lake was always planned to be a late 2026 release according to a leaked Dell roadmap.

We were supposed to get Arrow Lake Refresh for desktops later this year but this was cancelled. So while the headline is technically correct, it’s not because Nova Lake is delayed.

That’s fine, I’ve closed the door on supporting Microsoft. They could have just charged for the ‘upgrade’ and that would have been better since it wouldn’t result in the colossal amount of e-waste that this is creating. Even without the forced obsolescence, their products have become hostile, invasive and generally just a PITA to use. Meanwhile Linux distros are knocking it out of the park lately.

I really don’t know what Microsoft are thinking. They haven’t made particularly good strides towards gaining any kind of goodwill, so once it becomes common knowledge that alternatives not only exist but actually show them up, those lost customers are people that they will never get back. Look how pathetic their marketshare is for Edge for example, even though it’s the default browser on Windows. They still haven’t been able to shake off the bad stigma that Internet Explorer had (and to be fair, they aren’t doing people any favours with Edge either).

That kinda did the trick for me since my old PC was starting to struggle with some tasks, so I went and built a new PC recently.

Joke’s on Microsoft though, I installed Arch Linux on it instead. It’s so much less work to maintain compared to Windows these days.

A relative of mine had also got fed up with the Windows BS and was interested in what I was running, so I got her machine dual booted with Debian now to try it out. She hasn’t looked back either, so that to me proves that Linux is ready for non-techies.