Windows 11

M0RVB

I knew this would happen. I ditched Windows some time ago because none of my kit would run Windows 11. So why, then, do I suddenly have TWO Windows 11 systems??

Ok... the first is because I really needed a laptop for travel. I have an iPad which is my daily travel thing but wanted Windows compatibility plus a keyboard. So I acquired a ThinkBook. it has yet to be out in the wild in anger but has the usual array of software including wsjt-x and it set up for the QMX+.

So why two? I also need actual Excel conpatibility plus I really miss SDR Console. I tried the latter under Wine but never completely successfully. eBay to the rescue and along came a neat HP system with an 8th gen i7 and Windows 11 Pro. MS Office (for Excel) came along via Groupon of all places for GPB 11.

The original Windows 10 PC hosting the TS2000X which later became a Linux box is now the server, replacing the diminutive Lenovo PC. Having this in the shack running 24/7 has the advantage that I can retire some of the various Pi systems plus the Radio4 fanless PC that was hosting the ADSB grabber. That in turn is destined to replace pi-hole and the home automation stuff that is currently running on two Pi systems elsewhere.

A photo of two PCs, on the left an HP and on the right a Dell, sitting on a plywood shelf on the floor.

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Closing Windows...

Background My Windows PC has a 4th generation i7 chip and will not take Windows 11. I am not about to run an unpatched Windows of any version nor am I prepared to upgrade a perfectly usable PC just so I can use W11 so I will need to dump Windows before the end of life date in October 2025. I counted 40 programs that I use, two of which are games so do not really count. Of the 38, only a few were hardcore Windows packages where there was no existing equivalent or anything similar enough. Some of the main ones had paid-for licenses, for example VARA and SatPC32 - somehow those need to work on Linux! I decided I would keep the two PCs even after one no longer ran Windows. It may seem odd to have two identical Linux systems but I find it convenient to have one PC for each of my HF rigs - even though wsjt-x, for example has profiles and can support several rigs that may not be the case with each bit of software that I use, and there may be items specific to each rig. The PCs are almost identical, both…

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