Windows 10 support is over. Likely switching to a version of Linux

[koraks]

is there any real advantage, from a security point of view to using any Unix derivative vs. continuing to use Windows 10 O/S?

Yes.

 

[loccdor]

Having been on Linux Mint for several weeks now, I made a few more observations:

Using Gimp on Windows 10, it would often hang for several minutes if I tried to rotate an image in 16-bit black and white mode. This wasn't a problem if I switched to color. In general all operations were quite slow in black and white mode. Probably something to do with how it was handling the image in memory. I lived with it for several years. On Linux, all Gimp operations are fast in both B&W and color.

In Windows 10, RawTherapee would crash about 10% of the time when I saved. Again I lived with this for several years. On Linux, I've processed 100 images so far and I've yet to have a crash, so this bug appears to not be present on this OS.

Linux has the TimeShift utility which can back up your system configuration once a day. If you screw something up due to the higher level of control, you can restore to a snapshot. I haven't had to do this yet. No instability, freezes or crashes at all.

I needed to set up port forwarding with my VPN service in order to get peer-to-peer torrent software to work. This is one aspect that was easier to get working under Windows. Though that's apparently because Windows has less secure networking. Took me about an hour to figure out, turns out my VPN actually has a page to guide you through it.

I couldn't figure out how to get my old B&W laser printer working on the WiFi as it was on Windows 10. So I've moved it closer to my computer and plugged it via USB.

 

[Sharktooth]

Thanks for explanation. But if one routinely uses antivirus software from an independent (not relying upon Microsoft for antivirus), is there any real advantage, from a security point of view to using any Unix derivative vs. continuing to use Windows 10 O/S?

Some of the independent antivirus software programs for Windows are actually malware that feeds you ads and captures your data. The ones that aren't malware still tend to bog down the operating system, since they're running all kinds of security checks in the background. It's a no win scenario.

Once Microsoft declared Windows 10 dead, all new software developers switched their path to developing for Windows 11 only. If you want to use the latest versions of primary software, such as Photoshop, Web Browsers, etc, you really should be switching to Windows 11 soon. The only reason not to is if you have old software that you still need to run that isn't being updated for Windows 11.

The biggest security risk for any operating system is through the internet. If your computer isn't connected to the internet, then there is almost no security risk running an old system. Your web browser will the biggest risk, and almost all web browers get frequent security updates. If you're using an outdated operating system (Windows 10), then most web browsers will not be updating their software for Windows 10 shortly. You'll be stuck using an old unsuported operating system, and an old unsupported version of a web browser.

If you really want to run Windows 10, since you need to use old software that's only compatible with Windows 10, then just run that computer on its own with no internet connection. Do anything internet related on a different computer that's using a modern operating system. Many recent Linux flavours, and Windows 11, are modern supported operating sytems, and should be reasonably secure for use on the internet.

The big advantage of Linux is that it can still be used on older hardware, and is inherently more secure than Windows for the reasons others have noted. Linux is also lower cost (usually free), so unless you really have a burning need to run Windows 11, then it's a much better alternative.

 

[Sharktooth]

I couldn't figure out how to get my old B&W laser printer working on the WiFi as it was on Windows 10. So I've moved it closer to my computer and plugged it via USB.

Did you change your router around the same time you switched to Mint? If so, the new router has to be configured to see the WiFi laser printer. To do that, you need to have the printer connected to a computer via USB. I have to do that every time I've changed my router, so I can get my old HP Laserjet 1102 connected through WiFi. I did the connection with a Windows computer, but once it's set up for the router to recognize the wireless printer, it should now be visible on any connected computer with any operating system.

 

[wiltw]

Some of the independent antivirus software programs for Windows are actually malware that feeds you ads and captures your data. The ones that aren't malware still tend to bog down the operating system, since they're running all kinds of security checks in the background. It's a no win scenario.

Once Microsoft declared Windows 10 dead, all new software developers switched their path to developing for Windows 11 only. If you want to use the latest versions of primary software, such as Photoshop, Web Browsers, etc, you really should be switching to Windows 11 soon. The only reason not to is if you have old software that you still need to run that isn't being updated for Windows 11.

The biggest security risk for any operating system is through the internet. If your computer isn't connected to the internet, then there is almost no security risk running an old system. Your web browser will the biggest risk, and almost all web browers get frequent security updates. If you're using an outdated operating system (Windows 10), then most web browsers will not be updating their software for Windows 10 shortly. You'll be stuck using an old unsuported operating system, and an old unsupported version of a web browser.

If you really want to run Windows 10, since you need to use old software that's only compatible with Windows 10, then just run that computer on its own with no internet connection. Do anything internet related on a different computer that's using a modern operating system. Many recent Linux flavours, and Windows 11, are modern supported operating sytems, and should be reasonably secure for use on the internet.

The big advantage of Linux is that it can still be used on older hardware, and is inherently more secure than Windows for the reasons others have noted. Linux is also lower cost (usually free), so unless you really have a burning need to run Windows 11, then it's a much better alternative.

Thx, I have old Lightroom, since I use a dSLR and have nothing really motivating me to undertake the expense of mirrorless, and no real desire to go to endless subscription pricing .of newer versions of Lightroom And my wife is reliant on a scanner that runs using Windows 8 drivers under Windows 10, and a technology mental block toward newer software for anything. I had not considered keeping the olk machine disconnected from internet, but that could work! In retirement, the prospect of endless payments for newer software is not appealing, especially since the need for so much of it has vanished.

 

[koraks]

old software that's only compatible with Windows 10

I've not personally come across any that fits the bill. If it runs on 10, it is virtually guaranteed to run on 11. There is software that won't run on x64, but that's a different matter.

the new router has to be configured to see the WiFi laser printer

It's more likely the other way around; the printer needs to have its network settings updated to match that of a new router if that uses a different WiFi setup. I generally just keep the network setup the same when switching out components so everything just keeps working.
Btw, I don't think that's the problem he ran into; printing from Linux is just fundamentally different than from Windows. It's likely that he just hasn't found a way to redirect the print data to a network destination. This kind of thing has been bog standard in Windows, Mac etc. for two decades or more and manufacturers widely support it with drivers & utilities, but very few manufacturers bother to make something available that also works on Linux.

 

[koraks]

a scanner that runs using Windows 8 drivers under Windows 10

Which one's that? In all likelihood it'll run on 10 as well. I run a Minolta Scan Dual IV and Epson 4990 on Windows 11 x64 using drivers that predate even Windows 7 by many years. The former works with a small 'hack' that takes 5 minutes to do and is well-documented, the other works out of the box.

 

[loccdor]

It's more likely the other way around; the printer needs to have its network settings updated to match that of a new router if that uses a different WiFi setup. I generally just keep the network setup the same when switching out components so everything just keeps working.
Btw, I don't think that's the problem he ran into; printing from Linux is just fundamentally different than from Windows. It's likely that he just hasn't found a way to redirect the print data to a network destination. This kind of thing has been bog standard in Windows, Mac etc. for two decades or more and manufacturers widely support it with drivers & utilities, but very few manufacturers bother to make something available that also works on Linux.

Yeah, this is a printer from 2010 or so. Same router between OSes. It has a procedure on Windows where you need to first connect it to USB in order to get it to connect via WiFi... no such procedure seems to exist for it on Linux. I messed around for a couple hours and looked into some solutions AI was feeding me, no luck, but not a big deal.

 

[koraks]

Yup, sounds plausible; doesn't help that printer manufacturers have devised all manner of proprietary ways to complicate the process.

 

[Sharktooth]

Yeah, this is a printer from 2010 or so. Same router between OSes. It has a procedure on Windows where you need to first connect it to USB in order to get it to connect via WiFi... no such procedure seems to exist for it on Linux. I messed around for a couple hours and looked into some solutions AI was feeding me, no luck, but not a big deal.

The router to printer connection only needs to be set up once. The printer needs to supply a WiFi password in order to connect to the router, and older printers don't have a way to do this directly unless they're directly connected to a computer which can enter the password for them. Once that's done, the router will always see the printer. If you haven't changed the router (or the router password), then there shouldn't be a problem seeing the printer via WiFi on Mint.

I didn't have any problem connecting my old HP 1102 laser printer through WiFi on Mint. Unless the printer is a real oddball, I'd be surprised that even the generic printer drivers in Linux wouldn't work. The USB connection is fine, but it's puzzling why that would be necessary.

I hadn't considered actually connecting directly to the printer via WiFi, without using the router. If that's how you did it on Windows 10, then it may not be easy to directly connect via Mint. If that's the case, then you might try connecting the printer to the router, which would be the more common method. By connecting the wireless printer to the wireless router, then every computer in the network can connect to the wireless printer through the router. The downside is that you'll probably still need a Windows machine to make the initial setup to link the printer to the router.

 

[loccdor]

I don't know - the printer was not visible on the WiFi network when I set up Mint. After some troubleshooting with setting up CUPS, I'd get its network IP to pop up briefly only to quickly go away again. I may have been able to get it to print a test page over WiFi but not an actual document, can't remember. This printer has been starting to fail for the last few years as far as print quality goes, even after replacement of toner, cleaning, etc. and is pretty outdated so I think I'll just end up getting a new, affordable model. I only need it for documents.

I hadn't considered actually connecting directly to the printer via WiFi, without using the router.

I used the router. Went through a couple different routers with it over the years on Windows, had to do the setup steps with it each time.

 

[wiltw]

Which one's that? In all likelihood it'll run on 10 as well. I run a Minolta Scan Dual IV and Epson 4990 on Windows 11 x64 using drivers that predate even Windows 7 by many years. The former works with a small 'hack' that takes 5 minutes to do and is well-documented, the other works out of the box.

Canon 8800F flatbed scanner runs on Win 10 using Win 8 drivers, for using the orginal Canon-provided app NP Navigator (what my wife is dependent upon using...I also have Vuescan)
I also wonder about migrating my Lightroom 6.1 (for my Canon 7DII dSLR) to Win 11, if it would work. Intuit has already warned that TurboTax for 2025 is not supported under Win10, so handwriting is on the wall for the need to switch over to Win11, which necessitates finally upgrading hardware to a newer PC with newer processor. But I need legacy software and hardware support (both to circumvent subscription payments and for my wife), which makes continued use of Win10 on at least one remaining PC.

 

[koraks]

@wiltw I'd take one machine, install Win11 and then see if you can get everything to work what you need. If it doesn't pan out, go back to the old situation. Costs you maybe a day of your time and you know for sure.

 

[wiltw]

@wiltw I'd take one machine, install Win11 and then see if you can get everything to work what you need. If it doesn't pan out, go back to the old situation. Costs you maybe a day of your time and you know for sure.

Yes, that is the inevitable way to do it...I was hoping another forum participant had relevant experience with Lightroom 6.1 running successfully on Win11!
or that someone had experience with Canon 8800F on a Win11 machine...I recall the amount of grief I had to undergo getting it operational on Win10, so I was hoping to know in advance if it were possible, rather than a lot of trials to ultimately reveal incompatibility.

 

[Sirius Glass]

I switched Windows 10 to Windows 11 a few months after Windows 11 came available. I have not had any problems with the upgrades. I have experience with Linux OS and found them useful. The choice of operation systems is personal.

 

[Alan Edward Klein]

Canon 8800F flatbed scanner runs on Win 10 using Win 8 drivers, for using the orginal Canon-provided app NP Navigator (what my wife is dependent upon using...I also have Vuescan)
I also wonder about migrating my Lightroom 6.1 (for my Canon 7DII dSLR) to Win 11, if it would work. Intuit has already warned that TurboTax for 2025 is not supported under Win10, so handwriting is on the wall for the need to switch over to Win11, which necessitates finally upgrading hardware to a newer PC with newer processor. But I need legacy software and hardware support (both to circumvent subscription payments and for my wife), which makes continued use of Win10 on at least one remaining PC.

I'm using my old purchased Lightroom 6.14 on Windows 11. If I recall right ,I loaded in the Dell that came with WIn 10 and then it automatically was fine when I updated to Win 11. I had trouble however originally when installing in WIn 10 with the new Dell and that required a call to Adobe techs to get the correct 6.1 version.
Correction: The Dell I purchased in 2022 came with Windows 11. I loaded up LR 6.1 I believe with the assistance of Adobe techs to get the correct downloaded version. In any case, I'm running LR 6.14 presently without issues in Win 11.

 

[Bushcat]

I'm a bit late to this particular Win 10 fest, but because MS is no longer automagically supplying Windows 10 security updates to anyone other that the vast number of people who have signed up for the one-year extension, there are third parties still keeping Windows 10 (and other versions) protected against security threats. 0Patch, for example, has free and paid services, including Windows 11, 10, 7, Server 2012 and others.

 

[beemermark]

It sounds like Window's 7 support is ending. It's the end of the world, what am I going to do. I've tried Linux and no complaints but it's a lot of needy work.

 

[wiltw]

I'm using my old purchased Lightroom 6.14 on Windows 11. If I recall right ,I loaded in the Dell that came with WIn 10 and then it automatically was fine when I updated to Win 11. I had trouble however originally when installing in WIn 10 with the new Dell and that required a call to Adobe techs to get the correct 6.1 version.
Correction: The Dell I purchased in 2022 came with Windows 11. I loaded up LR 6.1 I believe with the assistance of Adobe techs to get the correct downloaded version. In any case, I'm running LR 6.14 presently without issues in Win 11.

Thanks for letting my know it does run, and the fact that some assistance from Adobe was needed to download the right version. Gives me an indication of necessary prep I might need to do (assuimg Adobe still can provide that version).

 

[koraks]

assuimg Adobe still can provide that version

First hit when searching: https://community.adobe.com/t5/ligh...ownloading-adobe-ligthroom-6-14/td-p/14380101
Leads to: https://web.archive.org/web/2022071...-classic/help/lightroom-6-end-of-support.html
Good luck!
As to the scanner, are you running windows 10 x64 or 32 bit?

 

[wiltw]

First hit when searching: https://community.adobe.com/t5/ligh...ownloading-adobe-ligthroom-6-14/td-p/14380101
Leads to: https://web.archive.org/web/2022071...-classic/help/lightroom-6-end-of-support.html
Good luck!
As to the scanner, are you running windows 10 x64 or 32 bit?

Thanks for those links.
I am running 64-bit Win10

 

[koraks]

Right, in that case, the odds that your Canon scanner will work under win 11 as well are about 99%, if not more. This is because drivers that technically work in Win10x64 will also work in Win11x64.

 

[Alan Edward Klein]

Thanks for letting my know it does run, and the fact that some assistance from Adobe was needed to download the right version. Gives me an indication of necessary prep I might need to do (assuimg Adobe still can provide that version).

The problem I had was that I purchased an earlier version, Lightroom 5.0, I believe, to be used on an earlier desktop. That 5.0 was on my Adobe account as a purchase but not the updated 6.1 When I went to download the LR program for the new Dell computer, I couldn;t find the latest version on the Adobe site, only the earlier 5.0 that was listed in my purchases. So Adobe tech helped me find the 6.1 version on their site to download and install.

 

[Alan Edward Klein]

First hit when searching: https://community.adobe.com/t5/ligh...ownloading-adobe-ligthroom-6-14/td-p/14380101
Leads to: https://web.archive.org/web/2022071...-classic/help/lightroom-6-end-of-support.html
Good luck!
As to the scanner, are you running windows 10 x64 or 32 bit?

The web page says you cannot download after 2023. I'd call Adobe directly for help.

 

[wiltw]

The problem I had was that I purchased an earlier version, Lightroom 5.0, I believe, to be used on an earlier desktop. That 5.0 was on my Adobe account as a purchase but not the updated 6.1 When I went to download the LR program for the new Dell computer, I couldn;t find the latest version on the Adobe site, only the earlier 5.0 that was listed in my purchases. So Adobe tech helped me find the 6.1 version on their site to download and install.

Ahh...apparent good news for me then, as I have long been using LR 6.1 in conjunction with my Canon 7DII, so I had upgraded from LR5.0 quite a while ago.! And I keep install programs for upgrade downloads on an external USB drive, so it is very easily ported to a new computer.