fp.

I like the inclusion of Option C: Stick with Win10 but harden it. A lot of the news gives the impression that your world is over when 14th hits, not recognising that historically legacy software and hardware is a thing. I know some will just continue using Win10 on their hardware that doesn't support Win11 and are okay with it. But, yeah, your guidance of security measures is a good recommendation.

sp0rk•4mo ago

> A lot of the news gives the impression that your world is over when 14th hits, not recognising that historically legacy software and hardware is a thing.

There was a lot of buzz in the cybersecurity world near Window XP's EOL about attackers potentially holding on to exploits until after support ended, so as to avoid having them patched. Sure enough, CVE-2014-1776 was found being actively exploited two weeks after support officially ended.

Using a closed source operating system after it will no longer receive security patches is just plain dangerous. I don't really think people should be advocating for it at all outside of the purposes of historical preservation.

shahedshah•4mo ago

That's fair, but I'm not advocating to use legacy software. But am just highlighting that people and organisations are doing so. Sometimes they have no choice because their business runs on software that requires a specific OS or whatever reason. All we can do is encourage them to take steps to ramp up their security if they refuse to budge.

newscombinatorY•4mo ago

Option C doesn't mention the Windows 11 LTSC version, which allegedly works on machines that don't support the regular W11, and it doesn't have most of the bloat. It is an enterprise version, but it's possible to obtain it legally. However, after using Windows 11 for many months on my new rig and hating every minute of it, I'm seriously considering Option D (switching to Linux) for my older machine.