Nearly a billion PCs are still running Windows 10, and half are too old to upgrade

[trparky]

Apple Silicon is great, and the base model price/performance is surprisingly solid. But Apple also locks things down harder than Microsoft ever could, soldered storage and ram, their own repair rules, zero hardware freedom, and an ecosystem where you must play by Apple’s rules. That’s a different kind of “control,” just one people tolerate because the polish is good. I can't deny that.

I don't want to sound like a conspiracy nutjob here but (unfortunately) I think this is where the PC industry is going or rather being forced to by those who want to extract as much profit as they can. They saw the profits that Apple makes and they're jealous.

Why sell RAM and NAND to individuals when you can sell it to businesses where you're guaranteed money? It makes sense when you take a look at how things are going in the industry.

 

[GrayDragon]

There is no such thing as "too old to upgrade".
*Any* computer capable of running Windows 10 can be upgraded to Windows 11, or have Win11 installed clean.

This statement isn't true even for the computers it applies to. The are a lot of computers that can absolutely run Windows 11 were it not for the TPM 2 requirement, and then there are machines that can barely run Windows 10 and are absolutely not fit for purpose under Windows 11 right now. Sure, there's more of the former than the latter and they might have had a viable upgrade path in months gone by, but we have to realistic about how many computers Windows 11 can actually run on currently. The OS is not getting lighter or less demanding, as time goes on.

I wonder if they couldn't have just implemented a consumer version that used something other than their fancy security hardware to keep computer safe enough for home use. They might have suggested cable and satellite security systems use something like a filter to keep customers safe. Or they could have made people use secured routers, if such can be tested by the OS during installation.