hardware requirements aren’t that huge … a cpu that supports 11 and 16GB RAM minimum. CPU has to support SSE4.2, which every 11 compatible cpu has. Honestly, this should be your minimum requirements nowadays. Anythjng that can’t do the job is literally 8+ years old.
i just directed someone to a 12th gen laptop (i5-1235u) with 16gb ram and 512gb nvme at dell for $430 in a ready-to-ship configuration, search their site for nn3520gsbbs to find it.
PC vendors are still selling laptops with 4GB RAM. 16GB should absolutely be the minimum (and should have been since 2020), but it’s very much not true that anything with less than 16GB is over 8 years old.
Anythjng that can’t do the job is literally 8+ years old.
So what? How about Microsoft lets me define what ‘the job’ is and I will decide for myself whether my machine is up to it? In my opinion the job of an operating system is to expose computing resources to whatever the user wants to do and then get the fuck out of the way.
The minimum requirements are there for them to set a lower limit on what they’re willing to support. You do whatever you want, just don’t complain when something doesn’t work, or breaks because you’re bypassing those limits.
People do this all the time and then complain and blame Microsoft for issues when they are using an configuration they were told was unsupported and might have issues.
The minimum requirements are there for them to set a lower limit on what they’re willing to support.
I agree and they’re free to do whatever they want. I get to have an opinion on their actions though.
What I take issue with is they are enforcing minimum specs because they’re choosing to put a bunch of stuff in the operating system that won’t run (well) below those specs. In other words they are choosing the job that the operating system has to do (GenAI in this case) and I think that is up to the user, not the OS vendor.
If the GenAI stuff they want to build in were optional then you could choose to purchase a cheaper computer or upgrade your existing hardware to a current OS. By going this route Microsoft is artificially inflating hardware requirements.
My PC has a i7-4790k overclocked to 4.5 GHz. It runs smoothly since I got it when it came out and it is still not a bottleneck in any of the games I play. But if I wanted to upgrade to Windows 11 I would need to buy a new CPU, new main board and new RAM, and it would not improve my gaming experience at all. It was my last machine running windows which I changed to Linux 2 months ago and I haven’t looked back.
That CPU would probably meet these requirements abd wouldn’t be affected. The normal Windows 11 requirements are a separate thing which are more demanding but can be bypassed. Though Linux is probably better anyway, especially for older machines. Itt’s requirements haven’t really changed in the last 10 years.
I’m only addressing that last line, but really think it through. Should you really expect, or even want, an OS that runs on a 386? It wasn’t that long ago that most Linux distros could. But they all moved away from it because that limited performance on anything more modern.
The newer instruction sets are created for a reason, and that reason is typically higher performance. If the OS (or any code, really) can use them, it will work better. But if you can’t or don’t, the code will be more compatible.
There also isn’t “any” computer; it’s simply not a thing. The question becomes how old (more technically, what minimum specs) do you want to support, and performance you want to be limited by?
While I agree that Microsoft has leaned too heavily into newer hardware as an expectation, there’s definitely a line to be drawn.
I have a computer I use mostly in my office, but someone’s I run games on it, because why not, that has a Xeon x3460. It can run literally every game I’ve thrown at it at 60fps, and it can do literally any workload I need it to do. It’s 15 years old. This isn’t the 80s or 90s where technology is changing so fast that you have to upgrade every year or two to keep up. There’s very little reason to upgrade if you have a working computer.
That CPU came out in 2009. I think things have changed since then. The Intel stagnation issue ended with Ryzen.
Not saying you should throw away your machine, but expecting it to support all features of an OS made 15 years later is unreasonable. They also aren’t saying it won’t work, just that you don’t get all features. It already is way past what Windows 11 was designed to run on (which imo was unreasonable at the time).
If you want to use 15 year old hardware then use Linux. I do anyway for other reasons, and it keeps my FX-6300 server running fine too.
hardware requirements aren’t that huge … a cpu that supports 11 and 16GB RAM minimum. CPU has to support SSE4.2, which every 11 compatible cpu has. Honestly, this should be your minimum requirements nowadays. Anythjng that can’t do the job is literally 8+ years old.
every laptop that’s on sale right now under $600 has less than 16gb of RAM
it’s not compatible with windows 11, but today apple is still selling $1500 laptops with 8gb of RAM
i just directed someone to a 12th gen laptop (i5-1235u) with 16gb ram and 512gb nvme at dell for $430 in a ready-to-ship configuration, search their site for nn3520gsbbs to find it.
Amazing price but I see $699 when browsing from Italy the USA store (and not available at all in Italian store)
If it was available in my country for that price I’d buy it even if my laptop is still newish
PC vendors are still selling laptops with 4GB RAM. 16GB should absolutely be the minimum (and should have been since 2020), but it’s very much not true that anything with less than 16GB is over 8 years old.
So what? How about Microsoft lets me define what ‘the job’ is and I will decide for myself whether my machine is up to it? In my opinion the job of an operating system is to expose computing resources to whatever the user wants to do and then get the fuck out of the way.
The minimum requirements are there for them to set a lower limit on what they’re willing to support. You do whatever you want, just don’t complain when something doesn’t work, or breaks because you’re bypassing those limits.
People do this all the time and then complain and blame Microsoft for issues when they are using an configuration they were told was unsupported and might have issues.
I agree and they’re free to do whatever they want. I get to have an opinion on their actions though.
What I take issue with is they are enforcing minimum specs because they’re choosing to put a bunch of stuff in the operating system that won’t run (well) below those specs. In other words they are choosing the job that the operating system has to do (GenAI in this case) and I think that is up to the user, not the OS vendor.
If the GenAI stuff they want to build in were optional then you could choose to purchase a cheaper computer or upgrade your existing hardware to a current OS. By going this route Microsoft is artificially inflating hardware requirements.
My PC has a i7-4790k overclocked to 4.5 GHz. It runs smoothly since I got it when it came out and it is still not a bottleneck in any of the games I play. But if I wanted to upgrade to Windows 11 I would need to buy a new CPU, new main board and new RAM, and it would not improve my gaming experience at all. It was my last machine running windows which I changed to Linux 2 months ago and I haven’t looked back.
That CPU would probably meet these requirements abd wouldn’t be affected. The normal Windows 11 requirements are a separate thing which are more demanding but can be bypassed. Though Linux is probably better anyway, especially for older machines. Itt’s requirements haven’t really changed in the last 10 years.
you should be able to ‘rufus’ an installer for that. the instruction in the ‘new’ minimum requirement dates back to 1st gen.
Imagine unironically defending Microsoft making their product shittier
Maybe they should just make the OS work on any computer? Kinda seems like they’re shooting themselves in the foot, yeah?
I’m only addressing that last line, but really think it through. Should you really expect, or even want, an OS that runs on a 386? It wasn’t that long ago that most Linux distros could. But they all moved away from it because that limited performance on anything more modern.
The newer instruction sets are created for a reason, and that reason is typically higher performance. If the OS (or any code, really) can use them, it will work better. But if you can’t or don’t, the code will be more compatible.
There also isn’t “any” computer; it’s simply not a thing. The question becomes how old (more technically, what minimum specs) do you want to support, and performance you want to be limited by?
While I agree that Microsoft has leaned too heavily into newer hardware as an expectation, there’s definitely a line to be drawn.
I have a computer I use mostly in my office, but someone’s I run games on it, because why not, that has a Xeon x3460. It can run literally every game I’ve thrown at it at 60fps, and it can do literally any workload I need it to do. It’s 15 years old. This isn’t the 80s or 90s where technology is changing so fast that you have to upgrade every year or two to keep up. There’s very little reason to upgrade if you have a working computer.
That CPU came out in 2009. I think things have changed since then. The Intel stagnation issue ended with Ryzen.
Not saying you should throw away your machine, but expecting it to support all features of an OS made 15 years later is unreasonable. They also aren’t saying it won’t work, just that you don’t get all features. It already is way past what Windows 11 was designed to run on (which imo was unreasonable at the time).
If you want to use 15 year old hardware then use Linux. I do anyway for other reasons, and it keeps my FX-6300 server running fine too.