Pulling the plug on expired Operating Systems

Chas4

:knight: Also with updating to a modern OS gets you better security and can have better performance with newer SDKs

TravellinBob

@Catweazle I have a similar problem. My 9 year old Lenovo Thinkpad W530 was bought with W7, and I took the free W10 upgrade shortly before that option became unavailable. I've had no problems at all with either the machine or the OS, it's still doing everything I want it to hassle free.

Along came W11 and I did the health check prior to upgrading, and hey, presto - no can do. There seem to be three or four hardware issues that prevent me from upgrading the OS, and it seems none of them can be fixed. So if I want W11, I have to buy a new laptop - and right now I'm simply not prepared to spend a few grand replacing something that works just fine.

I do understand the logic behind End of Service, but it doesn't make it any less frustrating! Reading this, it looks like I'll be ok for another couple of years, so I guess I'd better start saving!

A10c

windows 7 is legend.....

User5765

F_ck planned obsolescence. I thought Vivaldi was supposed to be pro-consumer?

stardepp

@TravellinBob With these instructions I managed to upgrade my incompatible PC to Windows 11:

https://www.deskmodder.de/wiki/index.php?title=Windows_11_auch_ohne_TPM_und_Secure_Boot_installieren

LonM

@user5765: This isn't really planned obsolescence from vivaldi. I'm sure if Vivaldi could keep updating for older OSes, they would do as best they could. The biggest driving factor in dropping support is largely when the chromium code upstream decides they no longer have the resources to maintain it. As noted in the article, if you use linux then there's no obsolescence limit to how long you can keep using your technology.

Semenov-Sherin

Anyway, that's time to switch to Linux.

Aaron

So I'm reminded of the old question: why can't Vivaldi continue to use Presto, aside from intellectual property restrictions?

In fact, Opera (based on Presto) was the most important factor (the only one, no others) in supporting my successful migration from Windows to Linux in 2006

Catweazle

@Zalex108 , I know that I can cheat this limitation and install W11, if I want, but I don't feel like it, because I don't see the advantage that W11 has over W10, on the contrary, it only has more bloat- and spyware than it already cost me in W10 work to eliminate, also with the risk that some other software is no longer compatible.
Currently I have a W10 which works like a charm, has the same security like W11 may have,with the same updates...no need to change it.

ra-mon

I remember the 1st bug i reported to Vivaldi Team was VB-1700 -Vivaldi.exe crash on XP SP3 (nov2014)
Vivaldi wasn't tested on this unsupported (by Microsoft) system.
They fixed the issue and allow XP to run vivaldi.exe few more months (until Chromium itself end support in April 2016 )

Today, i still run Win7 on my main computer (not sure i'll switch Win10 or Win11, but probably Linux)

Catweazle

@ra-mon , that a software is no longer available for my old OS is logical, the technique advances and the requirements change. This is not only the case with software, but also with hardware and other products. Anyone with a VHS recorder, Walkman, Floppy drive, etc..?
Absurd only if this happens after 2-3 years, forced by a company with the reason of wanting to sell its product at all costs, without offering real advances.
That a PC after 15 years has already reached the end of compatibility is assumable, not even a washing machine usually lasts that long in many cases, but it can be expected that a user cannot buy a new PC every 2 years or invest money in expanding it , to be able to use a simple update of an OS.

ingolftopf

For a start/change to Linux I would recommend 'Q4Os'.
https://q4os.org

Based on 'Debian-Stable', more recent programs (packages) can be installed easily via 'Debian-Backports' and you still have a 'rock-solid' system.

Q4OS can be installed very easily, like a Windows program, without stick, DVD installation, on a Windows computer, beside or completely.
Like the old, no longer maintained 'Wubi' Ubuntu installation.
I am very enthusiastic about this, and have often recommended it with success.
There is also a Jabber/XMPP room for: xmpp:[email protected]?join

TravellinBob

@stardepp Thanks, I'll take a look at it...if it's even half-way technical I know I'll have problems 'cause tech stuff might as well be written in Egyptian hieroglyphics for all it means to me! :-))
But I do appreciate you taking the time to advise.

ingolftopf

@TravellinBob
You will certainly be supported here in the forum.

Or also at our "Digital Consultation Hour", questions about IT & PC, in our 'Literature Café 7' on 'Jabbe/XMPP' with about 'Jitsi Meet', a good, open source video conference.:
xmpp:[email protected]?join

Eggcorn

From the blog post:

Once that happens, the question becomes even more pointed: Support old, obsolete OS versions, or the newer versions? The correct answer is, of course, to support the newer versions, and retire the older ones.

There's a third option: Continue to give security and stability updates for obsolete OS versions. I doubt Vivaldi has the resources to do that, but maybe Firefox or Opera could.

Zalex108

We'll need to ask OperaAC coders to Fix that on Chromium for Vivaldi

nedhamson

And if you cannot afford to update because your computer is too old... you now have a fancy doorstop instead of a computer. You can still use the computer but will not be able to use the internet. You'd think a forward thinking organization would find a way to support those with less income or people in less developed parts of the world, if for no other reason than to create loyalty for when they have more resources. I am reminded that hundreds of thousands of IBM mechanical typewriters continued to be sold and used in South America years after the IBM Selectric became the common mode in the developed Northern world. Maybe there are not enough people in authority who even remember the typewriter world and how it repeats itself in the digital world...

DrakoDrakkonis

First Story: A couple of years ago I got at a garage sale an old Dell Optiplex 746 desktop in, frankly, more than optimal condition, and which works with x32~x64 systems. I paid anything for it, something like 35 euros . The only flaw it has is that it consumes twice as many watts as a computer with similar characteristics nowadays. But, I don't have it for daily use. My intention was to install Windows XP Professional SP 3 on it and thus relocate two dozen useful programs that I value highly and use from time to time and that Windows 10 cannot possibly accept, as I had already noticed with Windows 7. As the behaviour of all this software is well known to me, I didn't need to install any antivirus. It is more than obvious that I do not connect the old Optiplex to the Internet . It would be useless suicide, of course.

Second Story: For almost eleven years I have had a laptop that was designed to run Windows 7. In truth, it did so quite well and stably. But, when Microsoft offered me Windows 10 at no cost, just like millions of users around the planet I ended up accepting the "gift". Yes, the old laptop worked fine as always, but overheating beyond permissible processor and all the rest. Anyway, the only solution was to buy a cooling unit. Windows 10, no doubt about it, is a very resource-hungry operating system. And from the news I have, Windows 11 follows this pattern .

Third Story: My desktop computer, the one I use regularly, is less than three years old and when I bought it it was already prepared for Windows 10. I bought it new, it is good to add this point, and I can attest that it has worked quite well and is very fast in its operations. However, when Microsoft started offering Windows 11 a distressing warning appeared in the update panel : My computer is not ready to receive its new, miraculous operating system. However, with a link MS promised to analyse the problem and show me any possible solution for the case. "How...? - I asked myself in amazement - Microsoft is already starting to feel pity - after so many years - for the users of its products?" I confess that I was about to shed a tear of gratitude as I pointed my mouse at the link. Fifteen torturous seconds passed and what do you think was the solution I was given from Redmond: The glorious page of new computers that Microsoft offers to its users, the cheapest of which cost something like five times what I had paid for my most recent one!

Epilogue: I know from experience about 30 GNU/Linux distros. As in everything, there are good, mediocre, bad and excellent ones. It's a matter of trying them out and getting to know them one by one.

Think about the following as I have done: Is it necessary to have a last generation computer to access the web? Is it compulsory to do it with an operating system that only supports last generation computers? In both cases the answer will be a resounding NO . Here is the advantage of GNU/Linux: Almost all distros can be installed on computers built in the last twenty years, and almost all of them have the most up-to-date software to access the web as efficiently as with other operating systems. And for GNU/Linux there are many programs that work wonders in the field of visual and sound creation and recreation, and in the areas of engineering, teaching, administration and communication, to name a few.

Are we going to miss what we used to do in Windows with some applications that will no longer be supported from version 11 onwards? I give the solution above in the First Story.

Regards.

Catweazle

@nedhamson , even in an old computer you can run a new Linux and use the internet. The only condicion is that the PC support 64 bit, but the most after 2005 do this, despite having a 32 bit OS in this years.

Eggcorn

@Catweazle That depends on how old the computer is. Ten-years-old? Shouldn't be a problem. 30-years-old? Unless you feel like replacing both the motherboard and the hard disk, forget it!