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New Processors Are Now Blocked From Receiving Updates On Old Windows (arstechnica.com)
halfEvilTech writes: Last year, Microsoft announced they were planning on blocking OS updates on newer Intel CPU's, namely the 7th Generation Kaby Lake processors. Ars Technica reports: "Now, the answer appears to be 'this month.' Users of new processors running old versions of Windows are reporting that their updates are being blocked. The block means that systems using these processors are no longer receiving security updates." While Windows 7 has already ended mainstream support, the same can't be said for Windows 8.1 which is still on mainstream support until January of next year.
Keep it up...and you'll push more and more people to either keep their current PC's, or switch to alternative processors and computers. MS wants ALL PC's running windows 10...once they figure they can't push any further, they will start their subscription service.
https://tech.slashdot.org/stor...
I see even a month is too long for our memories now.
Background fact: All modern NICs (Network Interface Controller) used on Ethernet interfaces have an EEPROM on them. This is what allows the NIC to be mass produced but still each one can have its own unique MAC address.There is left over space is all NIC EEPROMS that I have seen, and manufacturers have used that space to let the NIC owner control configuration options.
I haven't installed any Windows update since I bought an XP laptop with SP1 and Windows kept wanting to install an "important security update". After a month of using XP and a live Linux CD (Knoppix) with no significant problems, I finally accepted the "security update". Windows still worked as well as Windows can be expected to work, but my live Linux CD could no longer connect to the Internet! I eventually tracked the problem to the EEPROM on my notebook's NIC being changed to an unusable startup configuration. Windows knew to not use the configuration in EEPROM and just configured the NIC itself, Linux didn't know that the EEPROM had been screwed with and kept trying to use the configuration stored in EEPROM. I did fin cumbersome manual ways to work past it eventually, but it is an experience that I don't want to have again.
Being that the only people who have ever done harm like this to my computer is the Microsoft corporation, I no longer accept security updates from the only company that I need the protection from.
I'm an American. I love this country and the freedoms that we used to have.
Microsoft users are just being disruptive and belligerent. Microsoft has the right to kick them off their computers any time they want, and to send in the jack booted thugs if the user will not go quietly.
I'm an American. I love this country and the freedoms that we used to have.
"broken and/or generally sucked" isn't nearly specific enough for me to know what you didn't like and what you might like instead. I also have no indication of your use case. Are you primarily doing network and security testing (consider Kali), gaming, music and multimedia production? What I can do is point out three general concepts or guidelines.
Different distributions have a very different balance between cutting edge new features and reliability. For example, nothing goes into Red Hat / CentOS until it has first been proven reliable on Fedora for a couple of years. Fedora has brand new stuff, which may not be as polished and reliable; CentOS has time-tested stuff that works. Fedora has frequent upgrades and doesn't maintain support for old versions. Red Hat / CentOS isn't meant to be upgraded as often, they support old versions much longer. Figure out what you want on that spectrum. That relates to the next guideline.
You said you use Linux servers "all the time". Probably those servers are using a stable distro such as CentOS. If you are very familiar with one distro because it's on all your servers, consider using the distro you already know on your desktop too. Even if you take a couple hours getting all your specific hardware configured just how you like it, avoiding the learning curve of a new distro may be worth it.
Someone who produces music for a living will probably prefer a very different distro or spin than someone who does network penetration testing. Consider looking at spins or distros designed for your specific use-case. Even if your use case isn't that specific, some distros are designed for newbies coming from Windows, and make easy things easy by presenting limited options. Others are designed for more advanced users who want to tinker and set their multiple mouse wheels to trigger different actions depending on context. Android and Chrome OS vs Debian are extreme examples. ChromeOS is super easy and everything just works, correctly. Of course "everything" is basically "the browser". Debian can run my custom-designed PCI-E card much easier than Chrome OS can. Figure out your use case, then research or ask in an appropriate forum.
The corollary to the above is that any answers to "what's the best Linux distribution" are probably wrong, for your needs. Cent OS meets MY needs quite well, but my needs may be totally different from your needs. I don't give a damn about nifty eye candy like translucent windows and window animations. I turn that shit off anyway for better performance and memory usage. Maybe you are an artsy, visual type of person and you love window animations.
I've been using WSUS Offline Update to build update ISOs and never touching the Windows Update site directly for years now. Just recently a Windows Update (or some other mechanism) made my Windows screen display 'This copy of Windows is not genuine'. Since it happened in the last several months, it's time to reinstall and use the Windows 7 update ISO that I created a few months ago. I'm glad I date and keep the ISO images.
I don't know which recent update from Microsoft tagged my copy of Windows 7 as 'non-genuine' but if I stop doing updates and freeze things at a recent point where they snuck in whatever WGA crap they've done, I am probably okay.
Does anybody know when they crept in the new WGA malware update? It was apparently something in the last three or four months.