HACKER Q&A
📣 Silhouette

What are you doing about Windows 7?


So, RIP Windows 7: 22 July 2009 - 14 January 2020. Or not?

It seems that larger businesses with enterprise-level IT management have mostly been migrating to Windows 10. So have some smaller businesses and home users, perhaps tempted by the offer of a free upgrade, wanting some new functionality that 10 offers, or simply concerned about security and future-proofing if they stay with an old OS that is no longer supported.

It also seems that many other smaller businesses and personal users have not moved to Windows 10. With the usual caveats about accuracy, various sites attempting to track OS market share still have Windows 7 on roughly 1/4 of all desktops with no obvious sign of accelerated migration by December 2019, which translates to hundreds of millions of active users. Possible reasons for this have been much-discussed for as long as Windows 10 has been around, and many of them haven't really changed and remain a concern or even a deal-breaker for some users.

So, what have past or present Windows 7 users among the HN community been doing? Have you willingly (or begrudgingly) upgraded to 10? Have you switched to another platform? Are you planning to stay with 7 for now despite the lack of further support?


  👤 Nextgrid Accepted Answer ✓
I recommended macOS to my non-tech friends and some made the switch. For the rest, when they only need a browser I've installed Elementary OS on their machine.

My tech friends were already running either macOS or Linux for the most part so I don't have to worry about them. Personally I switched to macOS since Windows 10 was first announced.


👤 ntw1103
I was using Windows 7 for my personal laptop, but switched to Ubuntu a year and a half ago. I have been pretty happy with Ubuntu as a replacement. There was some configuration required, but after that it has been smooth. The only downside I've come across is gaming support. While I've been able to get most games working without much issue, There are a couple of titles that are very unstable, even using Steam's proton. I'm not really a huge gamer, so this isn't a big issue for me. The real test will be switching my mom over. I've already switched her over to using Kdenlive for video editing, and she likes it.

👤 forgetfulusr
What does lack of further support mean to a user? Will browsers start breaking? Games stop working? I haven't DLed/installed updates on my Win7 for years now, will this be the same?

👤 a3n
> What are you doing about Windows 7?

Same thing I've been doing for the last ten years or so, using Linux.