Microsoft still can't convince folks to upgrade to Windows 11

People have been resistant to AI in their OS, Microsoft: Let's put in more AI... I wonder why people are not switching.

MS has offered no compelling reason to upgrade. There is no amazing benefit to upgrading.

They are only threatening to not provide security patches. That is basically forcing people to upgrade.

People don't like to be forced.

Exactly, people I know using Windows only do so because of gaming or because switching to something else (Linux, Macs) costs more and/or isn’t what they’re used to.
The alternatives are much better today, and I hope competitors capitalize on it. I also think Microsoft going all in on AI was a huge mistake.
- steam and the proton compatibility layer are going to kill windows gaming, so all that will be left are enterprise customers..... which is still tons of money, but its the end of mindshare in the young gamers.
  When MS pulled out of mobile phones, they gave up their future, they just haven't realized it yet.

I would rather move to Linux and accept that there are some games I can’t play anymore.

Spoiler: this is what I did.

feel the same. if it don't run on linux then it does not exist to me.
I did this as well (a while back), and have yet to run into any games I can't play. Proton is a beast
I'm just running both. I won't upgrade 10, I just won't use it for anything at all other than the games I can't play on Linux. Hopefully that buys enough time for those games to become playable.

My specs are too low for 11. How do I transition to somewhere else that gets security updates whilst still keeping my data?

Thanks to those who replied. I'm sorry but I was surprised that people were being genuinely helpful instead of being snarky.
This is very much the response you'd get on here, but changing to Linux is genuinely your best bet.
Make a copy of your files somewhere. External hard drive is best, but I guess you could sign up for a free trial of Dropbox or something just to backup the data and then end your subscription once your files are safe on the new machine. If you want to keep your data safe you should probably have backups anyway though. :)
You'll need a USB dongle to put Linux on. Linux Mint is popular among people coming from Windows, and they have a nice guide to creating a bootable USB. It's really very easy - you install a program on your computer (Etcher), open a file in it while your USB is connected, and press a button.
You'll need to tell your computer to boot from the USB rather than from the hard drive. WikiHow has a detailed description of this. In the best case it's very easy, but computer manufacturers and Windows have made it harder in recent years so that people will buy new computers every time they get slow or updates run out. It's still not hard, it just requires finding the right settings.
Once you've booted from the USB, Linux is up and running, but you have not installed it yet. If you don't like it and want to go back to Windows, you can just shut off the computer, remove the USB, and restart it back to Windows as if nothing has happened. If you like Linux and want to install it, the option to do so will be clearly visible. If you want to keep the installation of Windows alongside Linux this needs to be prepared from Windows in advance - feel free to ask if that's relevant. :)
It sounds like an intimidating process, but it's really pretty easy. :)
- If that was intimidating to read,
  Copy your files somewhere
  Put Linux on a USB
  Boot from USB (press f12 or delete or spam your keyboard and pray)
  Overwrite your windows with Linux
  I would recommend shrinking your drive and making soom room for linux to dual boot if the initial switch seems scary, so yoj can switch between windows and linux.
  Over all, it's not hard. You just need to watch a couple of vids and ask for help if you need it.
Might be able to use Windows backup to make a copy of your user profile to an external drive, then obtain a copy of Windows 10 IoT Enterprise LTSC 2021, use massgrave to activate it and then restore your backup. You'll probably need to reinstall your programs manually though.
edit or just put the relevant registry keys (scroll down to the Windows Update section) in to bypass the Windows 11 checks and it should upgrade just fine.

I may be an outlier, but they convinced me! The improvements to HDR alone made it worth the upgrade. No other desktop OS does HDR as good as Win11. Seriously, it's so fucking good. I feel like I'm really getting my money's worth out of my display. Can't say the same when I was dual-booting Win10 and Garuda. (Linux didn't even support HDR at the time and barely supports it now.)

All the complaints I hear about Win 11 are solved with two apps (and by building the ISO in Rufus). I don't have any ads in my OS. Windows never tries to save to OneDrive (it's not even installed). Recall doesn't exist. I can move my taskbar wherever I want and fully customize it how I see fit. I can make the Start Menu look and behave like any Start menu from past Windows OSes. I don't need a Microsoft account or even a password.

StartAllBack and O&O Shut Up 10 fix everything Microsoft broke.

Kudos to you for fixing it, but also people are totally correct to criticize the default experience. It shouldn’t take “obscure” software to make it usable.
- Fair, but I see using "obscure" software as no different than installing different modules in Linux to customize it how you see fit. Just like how nobody's forcing you to use a more "traditional" distro like Fedora or Debian, nobody's forcing you to put up with a default Windows setup, either.

Literally nobody asked for all that bloatware. And I don't mean 11 specific. I mean going back as far as 8.

They refused to listen to anyone. For a fuckin decade.

There's one machine in the house that still runs windows 10. I fire it up about once a month. I couldn't believe the amount of garbage it clutters every glance with. Every little update adds some new garbage. WTF do I want any part of that? And... 11 is an order of magnitude worse.
Do I really need a menu full of pop culture shit that I have no interest in?

Well, a lot of people literally cannot even upgrade. Most likely lack the technical skills to install it on computers that don't meet the requirements, and a lot won't (or can't even afford to) buy a new machine to replace their perfectly working ones just so they could switch operating systems to a shittier one

What’s a Microsoft?

It's an SSD killing, data stealing to feed AI, evil corporation.

Microsoft can kick rocks. Between their bs hardware requirements and the growing number of games requiring kernel level anti cheat and secure boot I've switched to Linux and I'm fine missing out on games that require me to install spyware.

The kernal level anti heat doesnt even seem to work 90% of the time.
- Exactly. It would almost be worth it if it actually worked and didn't introduce added risk to the whole system.