this post was submitted on 05 Dec 2023
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Are there any 10-year-old Linux distributions that are still getting free support?
Literally most of them. All the big ones like Debian, Ubuntu, Fedora, OpenSUSE, Arch, etc. are 10+ years old and still get updates pretty much daily.
Debian had its 30th birthday back in September, actually.
It's not really comparable to the way Windows versioning works. Releases of distros like Debian are closer to Service Packs on Windows: they're just a bunch of updates bundled together.
Alternatively, you can use Debian Sid or Arch, for example, and get all the changes as they're being made. That way, you get a lot of smaller updates a lot more often.
Whatever you want to call it, version or service pack, the point is that you're going to need to be using a relatively recent one to get that free support.
You do, in fact, need to accept support to benefit from it. Those releases are the support. Support = updates!
Sometimes people or companies retire their distros (e.g. Mandriva), or just do stupid decisions that piss of their users (CentOS) and force the users to switch to a different distro. This, however, is extremely rare. Microsoft do that on a schedule.
So update to Windows 11, then. This is how Microsoft has always operated, they're doing this on their usual schedule.
You can use Debian Sid, for example. That way, instead of waiting for a bunch of updates to install them as one big upgrade, you, basically, always have the last version. You don't get those big upgrades at all, this way.
That's not possible with Windows. Even if you were to install every update that comes out, you wouldn't end up with a system that's somewhere between Windows 10 and Windows 11. You're forced into a major upgrade.
And that's the way Windows' patches and updates have always worked. This isn't some amazing new twist that Microsoft has thrown at us. If I'd bought Windows 10 ten years ago, I would have bought it with the full knowledge that at some point it'll no longer be updatable without it turning into Windows 11.
If this is a fundamental obstacle to you then you should never have bought Windows in the first place. It's like buying a gasoline-powered car and then exclaiming "this is bullshit!" When it comes time to fill the tank.
I've, in fact, never purchased Windows willingly.
The only few times I (technically) did were with laptops and small form factor computers which were only available with it pre-installed.
This, honestly, should not be legal.
The guy I was originally responding to was talking about this being a reason to "switch" from Windows to Linux, suggesting that he had chosen Windows in the first place. That's the position I'm addressing, so I'm not sure why you're jumping in on this when it's not relevant to you. I've been trying to explain why this is the normal Windows experience and you were never interested in the normal Windows experience in the first place.
Well, to elaborate: I never purchashed Windows willingly. I mostly pirated it.
XP was the only Windows that was worth its money. Back then there was nothing better.
Seven was, too, best for its time, but it was still meh, compared to XP.
If it was possible, I would've never stopped using it.
If Windows was more like Linux, XP would've been still supported, even if by different people (like Mandriva is living on as OpenMandriva, or Gnome 2 as MATE).
But, no, we can't have nice things. Microsoft have to force their "upgrades".
Also: Almost everyone younger than 20-25 has grown up with Window 10. There's a ton people to whom the fact that Miscosoft kill off operating systems and force new, objectively worse ones is news.
There are free major upgrades though.
Upgrading from Windows 10 to 11 is also free.
Actually, yes.
Debian has been supported since the early 90s, but admittedly that’s the only one I could name off the top of my head.
Yeah, but there is almost never a need for keeping an older version of linux, unlike for Windows 10 since win11 has ridiculous system requirements
Debian releases are more similar to Service Packs on Windows.
Windows releases are entirely different products.
There are changes to the defaults, sometimes, but they're just that: changes to the defaults. If you're upgrading your existing install, they won't affect you.
For example: Debian switched to Gnome as its default DE a couple years ago. It used to be XFCE. However, if you already had a system with XFCE, if wouldn't go and replace it for you.
On Windows side, meanwhile, when Microsoft decide to change up the DE, you get the changes, whether you like it or not. Remember Windows 8? It's not like those who upgraded from Windows 7 got to keep their Aero theme and Start Menu.
I suppose it's true for very old or more exotic hardware.
Since last year we can't even run Linux on i486 CPUs, and it's not even some relatively exotic architecture!