Windows 11’s TPM requirements. I recently built a brand new computer for my uncle. He was running a 3rd gen Core i7 machine running Windows 7. I get a call that it won’t boot. I do manage to get it booted, the SMART data shows the hard drive is on its last eyebrows, and anyway he’s running an OS that’s three generations out of date. I’m a big Linux user, I’ve got my aunt running Linux Mint. My uncle is such a dunce at computers I don’t think I can do that, because he lacks the vocabulary to tell me what he wants his computer to do. “I might use it for business.” In his line of work that could mean anything from going to quickbooks.com to needing some piece of Windows-only shitware. So “Get a .exe from somewhere” had to remain intact. For everything he actually does with that computer, that old 3rd gen i7 was fine. Replace the hard disk with a SATA SSD, maybe replace the weird 2-4-2-4 some but not all of it is dual channel 12GB of RAM with two 8 GB sticks of DDR3 and let it roll…except no currently supported version of WIndows runs on this computer. For a large number of people, computers became objectively fast enough in 2015. That’s about when SSDs became standard equipment, fixing any hardware reason for “damn this thing is slow” even out of midrange consumer hardware. Gamers, home labbers and AI startups need more power, the rest of the world doesn’t. And that was a problem for Microsoft.

I actually see the TPM requirement as a good thing bc it will help kill Windows as a gaming platform. Once the AI Bubble bursts, gaming will be cheaper again and with a destroyed economy, many kids will start gaming as it‘s a relatively cheap hobby and their family might nit afford expensive holidays anymore. Mobile PCs like the SteamDeck need to become mainstream as sitting for long periods is extremely unhealthy, especially for children.

I’m hoping the steam frame gets more people into vr. Just standing up to play video games is so much better for you.