> Will professional hardware sellers still be allowed to sell valid W10 licenses with computers or not?
Anyone selling hardware with Win10 after the EOL date, heck anyone selling hardware with Windows 10 now, is hardly professional, at least if they don't warn their customers of the security implications they may have if they don't pay MS for extended support⁰.
Once past EOL, unless you pay for the extended support¹, a Win10 device is a potential security problem for the user and the wider Internet.
UNprofessional hardware sellers can and will keep selling devices with Windows 10 to unsuspecting end users who do not know what the issue could be with that, of course.
> Because in the "refurb" space, there are a whole lot of computers that cannot run W11 due to graphic card requirements.
The only good-ish option for that is Linux of some variety. I say “good-ish” as an average assessment, for some it'll be great, for others it'll be a learning curve at best or significant incompatibility² at worst.
My laptop came with Win11, the old laptop³ that could upgrade to 11 will get Linux instead. My home desktop will also go the Linux way⁴.
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[0] which someone buying an old refurb PC may not be able/willing to afford, and even if they can it'll only last one year
[1] $30 for one year, per device, after that year you are out of luck as they are currently only planning to offer it for that long
[2] with other devices they own, or because they need specific software that can't be beaten into running on Linux without expertise they don't have, etc.
[3] the one with the slightly dodgy screen that I take for personal travelling as it matters a lot less if it gets lost or further broken
[4] I've just been too busy recently to faf, which is why that hasn't already been done, if it gets too close to Win10 EOL before I've cared enough to bother I'll buy an inexpensive dock and use the laptop connected to the nice big screens instead
Anyone selling hardware with Win10 after the EOL date, heck anyone selling hardware with Windows 10 now, is hardly professional, at least if they don't warn their customers of the security implications they may have if they don't pay MS for extended support⁰.
Once past EOL, unless you pay for the extended support¹, a Win10 device is a potential security problem for the user and the wider Internet.
UNprofessional hardware sellers can and will keep selling devices with Windows 10 to unsuspecting end users who do not know what the issue could be with that, of course.
> Because in the "refurb" space, there are a whole lot of computers that cannot run W11 due to graphic card requirements.
The only good-ish option for that is Linux of some variety. I say “good-ish” as an average assessment, for some it'll be great, for others it'll be a learning curve at best or significant incompatibility² at worst.
My laptop came with Win11, the old laptop³ that could upgrade to 11 will get Linux instead. My home desktop will also go the Linux way⁴.
--------
[0] which someone buying an old refurb PC may not be able/willing to afford, and even if they can it'll only last one year
[1] $30 for one year, per device, after that year you are out of luck as they are currently only planning to offer it for that long
[2] with other devices they own, or because they need specific software that can't be beaten into running on Linux without expertise they don't have, etc.
[3] the one with the slightly dodgy screen that I take for personal travelling as it matters a lot less if it gets lost or further broken
[4] I've just been too busy recently to faf, which is why that hasn't already been done, if it gets too close to Win10 EOL before I've cared enough to bother I'll buy an inexpensive dock and use the laptop connected to the nice big screens instead