My computer I use for normal stuff, not the Broadcast one, is a Lenovo Windows 10.
It is 11 capable and the massage at the bottom icon tells me the upgrade is ready.
If you have this don't be brainwashed by what you hear and think you have to do this or get a new computer.
I was in Canada computers today and I asked the tech at the service dept. what would happen if I do and I was told that you are replacing Windows 10 with 11 and you will have to go through the set up. Now you can't get into your computer as the set up will require you to redo the set up now with a Microsoft account and not be able to get into your own computer unless you are online, not the local account you had.
In this case you can watch a video on youtube of the procedure to get around it with the latest edition of 11 or you can bring here and we can do it for you.
Who needs this crap! I was told this is all hype and nothing will happen if you just keep what you have. So it's not supported. So what. Nothing will happen. Just have full AVG or one of the other protections.
My rant is why does everything have to keep changing? Why do I need Windows 11 over 10 or 8 or 7 or XP? Why do I need something new that is totally irrelevant. For what I do it doesn't matter....to get email, be on this forum, watch youtube, go to Amazon, etc, Facebook, it doesn't matter. If I need a new computer and have to get what it comes with and Microsoft tries to force me to get into my computer with them only then I will worry about it and there will be a work around. The more Microsoft tries to close the loopholes the more someone figures out how to bypass it.
By the way my broadcast computer is Windows 11 but it's an off brand, Hbestore is the brand. A small 10.5" laptop that comes with the set up bypassed right out of the box and ready to go just turning it on with my own account. Works 24/7 month after month, 365 without a glitch. Have an extra for back up. Specs are good for it's purpose... Celeron 4020, 8 GBs RAM, 128 GB storage.
As for switching to Linux you can't use any of the automated broadcast programs like Salamandra. Same with Chromebooks. Must be only from Microsoft.
Not sure about Mac. But I think that it's the same there too.
I stand corrected. There are free broadcast automation downloads for Linux!
But why learn a different operating system if I don't have to.
Thanks for the tip. If I ever upgrade to Windows 10 then I'll be sure not to upgrade that to Windows 11. (I don't think I've ever used anything past Windows 8).
There really is no point in upgrading to Windows 11 if you don't need it. Unfortunately, at some point probably one of the apps you're using will no longer run on 10 (such as Zara). Or maybe a mail app (I use Thunderbird) or something like that.
If you are going to stay on 10, you just have to understand the risks.
It's likely that your browser is the only thing that will interact freely with the Internet. You can probably expect Chrome, Firefox, etc. to stop support for 10 at some point. Fortunately, there are alternative browsers that will likely work on 10 for a long long time. There are still some that work on XP! I've used Supermium (an open source fork of Chromium) on Windows 7 and it works great; there are others, but it's probably the most mainstream looking.
Make sure that you're behind a router with its firewall enabled (which should block incoming connections), and use the firewall feature in Windows O/S you're running as well (to block unwanted outgoing connections).
And as Mark says, keep your anti-virus up to date for as long as you can. At some point you may have to move to an open source one that will still support 10 - I used a product called ClamWin for a long time because it supported servers, and there are others, both open source and proprietary.
@artisan-radio I had to switch from Zara to Salamandra for that very reason. There was an update and then Zara didn't work as before and Johny C from New Zealand told me that it hasn't been upgraded for compatibility with 10 and 11 and that's why he switched.
But my point again....why does everything keep changing when there was nothing wrong with it before? This is the exact problem I hate.
If Windows 10 becomes a problem and I must go to 11 or whatever comes after I will have to get around Microsoft trying to force you in the set up to not be able to have a local account. I sure like the idea of the Hbestore computer I have that comes already set up and ready to go out of the box and all I do is go to settings and set up a password and name for the computer. I think they come in different sizes in a 14"-15" also. These are on Amazon. But Amazon Canada doesn't have them for some reason but are available on Amazon.com
I've changed my opinions a bit on Linux since I've installed it and have been running it to support OpenWebSDR+.
If you don't mind a steeper learning curve than Windows (Linux doesn't hide what it's doing as much as Windows does - that can be a good thing or a bad thing, depending on your viewpoint), it can work reasonably well.
I'm using Ubuntu. Ubuntu releases a stable version once every two years, I believe, with security patches when appropriate. I would recommend using the latest stable release, rather than the most up to date version (which can be buggy and have problems).
I installed Ubuntu Server at first. You only get a command line interface, so if you're going to do any work on the Internet, you'll probably also want to install some sort of UI (I just used Ubuntu Desktop). At that point, you won't notice much difference from Windows.
I still primarily use the Terminal (Command Line) interface, as I've used UNIX in the past, and I find it much quicker than using the graphical interface. But then, I'm using Ubuntu for a very specific purpose.
There are some underlying differences between Windows and Linux that you can almost ignore if you're just going to use something like a broadcast automation app. The installation process and the app itself will probably hide most of them.
Best of all, the software is free if you download it. You'll pay a nominal fee for installation disks.
If you have any interest at all in running Linux, I'd recommend you install it on a separate computer at first, play around with it, and see if you can live with it. You can install it on a Windows computer and dual boot, but I don't think it's worth the hassle (and potential problems).
I'll probably install Linux on the next computer I get, and play around with broadcast automation. Who knows, it may end up being superior to staying on Windows 10.
The reason software changes? So the software developers can make money.
Say a software manufacturer sells you a license for Version 1. They're not going to be able to get more money out of you unless they can sell you a Version 2, Version 3, etc. license. To get you to purchase those new licenses, they have to add features, change things, etc. And even more importantly, they eliminate support for the previous versions. Even if the original Version 1 was perfectly functional for your needs.
Some developers now just sell you a yearly subscription license, but it's pretty much the same financial model. You get continuous new versions to entice you to keep on using the product.
Speaking of Linux, here's something interesting I doubled across earlier today
https://www.makeuseof.com/q4os-brings-old-laptop-back-to-life/
Q4OS turned my decade-old laptop into a Windows XP time machine, and it’s brilliant
I had recently revived my decade-old Dell laptop with Damn Small Linux. While it worked, it wasn't as efficient as I had hoped it would be. Since I had already seen Q4OS in action recently, I decided to give my own laptop the same Windows-like makeover. And the results were even better than I expected. ..,.
I wasn't sure about another Linux distro pretending to be Windows. ... Q4OS, on the other hand, caters to anyone transitioning from their old XP-era PC...
Another solid reason to go with Q4OS is that it's more than a hobby project. Q4OS has a decent-sized user base and active development.