Steam Support :: Windows 7 and Windows 8 Support
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  • spirinolas@lemmy.world
    36·
    11 months ago

    I do tech support in a school that still has Windows 7 on all PC’s. These are old relics from 2008 and just this week I was informed we’ll have to manage with them for a few more years. There’s no way I can upgrade those things to Windows 10 not to mention we don’t have the licenses. They can barely run 7. I’m thinking of throwing a user friendly Linux distro in those things. The principal liked the idea but I’m not sure the users will like it. But Windows 7 is becoming a liability.

    • NateEnglish
      19·
      11 months ago

      Everything I did on the school pcs would’ve been just as easy and likely easier to do with Linux. Our 7 PCs were slow as hell and that was when those PCs were new.

      ChromeOS flex could also be a way to go for education. You can manage them through Google admin if you have Google workspace for the district.

        • NateEnglish
          5·
          11 months ago

          I believe so, I’m not an IT admin but I believe that’s all my school just had for their enterprise enrollments. Would give you more restrictive control over the students than you would on linux

        • chicken@lemmy.dbzer0.com
          4·
          11 months ago

          I feel like ChromeOS in schools is a big part of the current problem with students reaching college in a tech-illiterate state

          • ferret@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
            4·
            11 months ago

            I agree. School admins don’t care. They want the most control over the hardware issued to students and google’s stack is admittedly much better than what you can do on windows and mac.

    • testeronious@lemmy.worldOP
      12·
      11 months ago

      I don’t know much about linux, but maybe try those debian stable distros (mint, ubuntu, or debian itself).

      When we use linux for basic things like browsing the web, opening pdf files, editting a picture (on gimp) and so on, I don’t see much of a difference on the experience.

      By the way, I once installed linux on a old laptop with 2GB ram, the performance got so much better, I was even able to play simple 2D games (kingdom rush) at 60 fps, this wasn’t possible on the old windows 7 it had installed.

    • Muffi
      3·
      11 months ago

      I got a bunch of old Thinkpads for my classroom at the school i work at and installed Ubuntu on all of them. They run smooth like brand new laptops, and I have been surprised to see my students having an easier time using Ubuntu than Windows 11.

    • Kalistia@sh.itjust.works
      2·
      11 months ago

      I would go for Zorin! It’s based on ubuntu and quite close to the windows experience so easy for beginners!

    • BlanK0@lemmy.ml
      1·
      11 months ago

      Just put linux mint and its basically the same experiente imo. Also much safer, since now to download stuff they are going to have to rely on the graphic app store application which is much safer then downloading on the internet.