Been running Windows Server as my desktop dev environment since NT4. Back then it was so the dev environment was the same as the server environment, that’s pretty much fixed now so it’s just to avoid all this horrible store nonsense. Can’t upgrade from 2019 as I don’t have a TPM so no WSL2 or new terminal but happy to accept that trade off. And shout out to win2k server which was awesome!

It's available in volume licensing, with a 5 license as minimal order.

Apparently you can pad the 5 license minimum with cheap licenses, so it's not like you need to fork over $1000+ to get started.

https://community.spiceworks.com/topic/2167558-explicit-inst...

Can also get it free with a Visual Studio subscription, that's where I got mine.

Just checked VS subscription page and didn't find it, maybe it's kinda hidden? I'm chatting with a sales representative regarding this.

The Visual Studio web site is impossible to decode. I think this is the page:

https://visualstudio.microsoft.com/subscriptions/#software-a...

Basically they give you every version of Windows so you can test your code. So 10 LTSC is in there. I run it in my VMs because it uses so little memory and CPU compared to the regular one.

I don't know which flavor of subscription you need to get it. I got my sub free as an MVP.

Snooped around and looks like the only option is to purchase VS Enterprise + Github Enterprise (professional versions don't work). This is definitely going to be pricy. I guess if my company has enterprise license I might be able to take advantage of that...

I just logged in to check mine sub and it does say Visual Studio Enterprise :(

Thanks!

It's also available on certain sites.

Although I haven't figured out how to ...install the latest version, it seems more complex than the one before.

But IIRC you need an active directory domain, so a server license to run this all off of.

>But IIRC you need an active directory domain

No? I installed it in a VM just fine without it. During initial setup there's a "domain join" option, but all that does is create a local account.

The latest LTSC actually doesn't have as much stripped out anymore. Telemetry choices are the same now and also MS accounts are there. I was really disappointed when I tried it.

Hold up. Windows 11 LTSC forces you to use Microsoft accounts, you can't go local at all? Not doubting, just need clarification.

No it doesn't force you, just like regular Win 10 Pro. But it does have the option and also the telemetry choice is now 'basic' or 'everything'.

LTSC is often hailed as the solution for privacy but when I last tried it it was just regular Win10 with a bit less bloatware (and the long term support of course). Didn't seem very different from Win10 on the privacy side at all.

One thing I forgot to check is if you can choose to delay updates to whenever you want. Obviously this is a big miss in Win10 and as LTSC is meant for mission critical systems I assume this is possible.

I don't recall which version it was exactly, but it was the latest I could get about a year ago when I tried. One of our colleagues in industrial automation got me a VM in their lab to try it out.

I think it allows you to disable a lot of crap in gpedit.

Windows 10 LTSE was under $20 on ebay, unsure of the legality of this.

> unsure of the legality of this.

I always have a laugh when I see this logic.

A product costing more than $200 and not available in the consumer market without some hoops to jump? Of course someone would resell it for $20 (including their profit) totally legally.