Makes sense to me -- who'd buy a modern PC with less than 16GB of RAM in it. Not sure about "The neural processing unit". Who'd build their own rig or buy a desktop with less than 16GB RAM too and a decently powerful CPU.
What to me is utterly pointless is on W11 insisting on the TPM -- a piece of hardware that's easily over 6 years old (a geological era ago in terms of electronics and technology) and I'd bet 99% of W11 installs don't use it nor does Windows 11 on their systems do anything with it especially on domestic systems.
If an OS requires the use of specific hardware then that hardware should be modern and the OS should use it.
Running a NAS server (at least 8 years old) with 2 physical Xeon processors in it and 64GB RAM I've no problem running several W11 VM's -- in fact I almost rarely run W11 on a physical system --usually only on a work supplied laptop -- but even then my gigs are often remote where I use my own system to connect to their cloud VDI system using any OS at my end.
Some might switch to Linux, some won't - but W11 EOL is still a long way off and I can't see what's wrong with a commercial OS making use of the most modern hardware available and not having to be backward compatable with older hardware.
Don't forget Linux is open source so people can write specific routines for all sorts of hardware whereas Windows is a commercial product and having to ensure that it runs on everything is an expensive business. The insistence of a 64 bit CPU for W11 was far too long delayed -- even W10 should have insisted on it.
For me the best future for Windows would be to have it built into a chip while just having proper api's for hardware to be connected to it.
That way no messing around with updates etc -- would be even better if the OS was read only with drivers etc loadable into RAM at boot as well as 3rd party software. Or 3rd party software could be licensed to Ms (as per Apple) and the CMOS chip containing the OS would be updated by a special Ms program.
Maybe this might upset people who like to tinker and customise systems -- perhaps Ms should also offer a "Developers edition" which would be the traditional OS -- give it away free but with no support other than urgent security fixes -- rather like IBM/Redhat does with RHEL Enterprise server -- you can get it free as an individual but for support "You are on your own".
@AK6DN
Agree on linux -- on my main laptop I run Arch Linux with KDE desktop and W11 as a VM under KVM/QEMU.
Note you CAN run W11 on older systems easily enough.
1) create a VM under KVM/QEMU. Use an external device for the VM's hard disk. GUI available if you install virt-manager. Ensure for TPM packages swtpm and swtpm-tools (or whatever it's called in your distro). This is the IBM TPM emulator and it works for Windows VM's.
2) ensure package for secure boot for VM installed -- usually called something like OVMF - although might be installed automatically when you install KVM/QEMU.
3) in the virtual machine set the TPM to emulated -->hypervisor default -->CRB or TIS 2.0 -- either will do
4) set the cpu to hypervisor default (uncheck the cpu -> use host configuration)
5) boot the vm with the windows iso install -- get one from UUPDUMP for the version you want.
6) boot ->repair system>command prompt
7) diskpart
8) create a small efi partition on the virtual disk and a windows standard ntfs partition.
9) use dism /Apply-Image to install windows.
10) use bcdboot to install the windows boot loader to the main windows partition.
11) after installing the VM boot it up and install some sort of disk cloning software -- macrium free will still work currently.
12) add your actual target disk for your Windows installation - but add as a PHYSICAL hard disk not as a Virtual hard disk
e.g add to the xml file in devices : (change /dev/sdc to what's approp[riate for your machine)
<disk type="block" device="disk">
<driver name="qemu" type="raw"/>
<source dev="/dev/sdc"/>
<target dev="vdb" bus="virtio"/>
</disk>
13) clone to this disk
14) power off and boot the windows disk
15) update drivers -- you'll need video / audio etc etc. Te TPM from the VM is fine as it's designed to run on Windows -
16) enjoy !!!
17) You don't need to - because this won't be a "daily use VM" but to get proper Video / mouse / audio etc you can install the virtio-tools for windows on the VM -- iso available from the fedora site - drivers are signed on latest iso so no probs with Windows install.
19) to update the target W11 after install - if it fails on unsupported hardware simply clone back to the VM, update and clone back again.
For the dism and bcdboot windows commands there's plenty of examples on the Forum.
@Sammy888
KDE desktop on Arch Linux -- just as easy to use as Windows.
Modern Linux distros have GUI's - some of which are almost more Windows than Windows -- KDE is a desktop that most windows users would have absolutely no problems in using. Linux Mint is another "Very Windows like" system too. Just download a live distro and try it out - it boots from a USB drive and won't mess your installed system - it doesn't even keep changes you make to the system while using it - everything is done in RAM and these are all discarded at shutdown.
Cheers
jimbo
