It’s almost like the good ol’ days of install fests and the like! ‘End of 10’ is an organization that’s making it easy for Windows 10 users with computers that can’t upgrade to Windows 11, to install Linux instead of sending good hardware to the landfill.
I’m doing my part!
I’ve loaded Mint on my prime system and a laptop, another laptop with Fedora, Manjaro on another main system I test with and EndeavorOS on all my media systems. I’ve also loaded about 8-10 other distros on Proxmox to play/test with.
Where I had doubts on whether I needed anything off of the old MS system, I P2V’ed the OS and spool it up on Proxmox if needed to review any history within the OS/browser.
I still have a couple of W10 VMs lingering and a Windows server. I’ll “upgrade” the workstation VMs to W11 (and shut them down) since I have the license and I can see sometimes having to use Windows for whatever dumb reasons. I’ll leave the Windows server for now to maintain the domain as that allows me to block telemetry with GPOs. I may tire of that at some point though as MS will further wane away on my network.
My summer task is to convert all my 'Arrr software over to Linux versions. Still on W10 there. Wasn’t sure which distro to go to for that…
Re: Arr software, spin up an Ubuntu VM and install Docker. Spin up portainer and then use that to spin up all thr arrs. Ezpz
Windows 10 users encountering this post: this sounds like a lot of work. I’ll just stick to windows 11.
Disabling all the dumb shit and ads on win11 is triple the work of switching to linux and learning to use it.
If you honestly believe that, this is another great example as to why people would stick to Windows 11.
Because they love spending hours and hours on removing bloatware? And hate having a clean, functional os? Yeah that is the last remaining use case of windows beyond proprietary apps.
Well, thanks for confirming you really do believe the memes lol.
idunno how you can have an another opinion after using both.
Because as someone who does use both, disabling Windows settings that arent great takes about 15 minutes.
If it takes you multiple hours, you’re really bad at using computers or something.
KDE Neon here. I really really like it.
endof10.org seems like a good website to direct people to via posters in your local community center or church. Or you can call a repair club in your area to ask if they want to be listed. Those are likely to have some Linux enthousiast members and already have a location.
Been on Linux full time for al about 2 months now… Proton and Bazzite have made the transition soooo much easier as gaming is what was always holding me back.
I switched in January because my PC doesn’t support TPM 2.0 (gen 1 ryzen) after having not tried Linux since like 2011 gaming honestly kind of blew my mind, basically as “plug and play “ as windows.
I’m so happy that I went intel instead of gen1 ryzen that generation.
I still use it for work and would be so pissed if I needed to buy a new computer just to use Windows 11.
I genuinly need windows or mac for my work. I use linux on my personal laptop.
Yeah, don’t get me wrong it’s been mostly good but I made that choice at the time because it was a relief to see Intel finally getting some actual competition but there was some stability issues early on and I got burned on the back end with the TPM support.
That said, I can’t complain too much. 1800x and a 1080Ti still work perfectly fine for most things and the only “problem” is the lack of Windows support from Microsoft that could be worked around (for the time being).
Oh well it made me install Linux for the first time since 2012 and I’ve found I like it more anyway. Silver linings.
I’ve been full time linux since 2017, i think (it was a long time ago)
Honestly, linux gaming with steam/proton has been really good for a LONG time. Like even “AAA” games like RDR2 have been working well whenever i buy them (not on release day, but maybe a year after)
In 2025, there’s really no reason not to go linux unless you play some very specific game that absolutely doesnt work on linux
Part of me still does not think Microsoft is going to go through with it. There are too many Windows 10 PCs that will just become infected.
Part of me thinks the government will intervene as I think it could genuinely be a security issue to have so many unsecured devices in the wild.
But, another part of me has no hope for the future.
Sooo… I guess we will just have to wait and see.
I upgraded my Win 10 laptop to IoT Enterprise LTSC recently which is stupidly easy and grants you support till 2032.
Aside from some weird app incompatibilities it’s been working fine.
I don’t think that many people want to buy Windows Enterprise, which they typically want you to also buy a support contract for.
Unless you pirated it, but I don’t think telling people to “just run this pirate code” is that good of an idea.
Of course it’s up to you whether you want to use something that, according to Microsoft, you’re not supposed to use, but the only “pirate-code” I had to run was to activate it. The upgrade itself was pretty straightforward. You could use it just fine without activating it if you wanted.
IMO it’s a better option buying a new computer to run Windows 11 officially. I’m not including Linux because I specifically wanted to keep Windows on the Laptop to run apps that don’t work on Linux.
I did an upgrade, instead of a clean install, to the same version. I just had to reinstall my graphics driver and everything works as before, I just went through another step to remove some programs and it’s been smooth sailing since.
Massgrave.dev provided what I needed. Was a breeze.
I did an in-place upgrade as well. I was surprised how easy it was; it’s just one Registry key and from there you can just do a normal upgrade.
Way easier than installing Windows 11, which wouldn’t even officially run on my ThinkPad T540p…
Check out PostmarketOS for older machines/phones too. I got it working on an old Microsoft surface RT that would have been e-waste otherwise
I have a 2011 MacBook Pro running MX Linux. It’s no match for my M2 Air, but it’s still surprisingly useful.
Was up the council recycling centre the other day, looking at some of the dumped computers, wondering just how many of them could still be very useful.
Once it goes eol, get it off the network. But lots of other good ideas already in here.
It really needs to be made louder that if you are stuck on 10 that you should not let it have internet access
Unless you switch to IoT LTSC, which will continue to get security updates until 2032. It’s kinda bullshit that they’re still making the security patches and then just refusing to give them to consumer 10 users.
Your average user should not be on that
I guess I sort of agree? It’s a bit tricky to get it set up, for sure. Even just installing windows is probably beyond the average user, and this has a few more quirks and gotchas than normal.
E.g., in IoT LTSC 11 (which is what I’m actually currently using), when you connect a controller, it’ll bring up an error message about not having a handler for ms-gamebar, and fixing that calls for regedit. (One it’s fixed, though, it stays fixed.) It also got itself into a bit of a weird state during the initial installation where it wanted me to log in with a kind of account I don’t have, and while I was able to bypass that, I don’t think I did it in quite the right way, and it broke something in the install and I had to do an in-place repair install to fix it before it would install certain updates successfully. It was also failing to download the in-place repair install, so I had to look up how to do it manually using the install DVD I’d burned previously. But that fixed it, and it’s been fine since.
So, yeah, it’s got pitfalls and quirks and glitches. That’s also been my experience with other Windows installs, though, so it didn’t seem all that different in general.
But once you get those initial hurdles sorted out, it’s really just like normal Windows. Better, even, since it doesn’t have all the cruft built into it, like Cortana, Teams, OneDrive, start menu ads, nag screens about upgrading to 11, the Microsoft Store, etc. (Though you can add most of those if you really want them.) My aging parents aren’t willing to upgrade to 11 because they’re afraid too many things will have changed, and I’m thinking I’ll probably switch them to 10 IoT LTSC instead. I’ll just have to be careful to make sure everything they want to do works before I leave them to it. It still gets monthly security updates and everything.
They are selling them. Look into ESU (Extended Security Updates).
$30 a year.
quick question - what the hell do you do with a modern computer without internet access anyways?
Local services only
And even if you don’t want to… Find someone who does! Donate that laptop to someone. Find a LUG or Mutual Aid group or a friendly local anarchist :)
Wait so someone might wasnt the top of the line Macbook Pro from 12 years ago that someone gave me?
A pretty large amount of people don’t own a PC at all, though I’m finding it surprisingly hard to get a good number on it. Just anecdotally, most people I know who aren’t IT professionals have either no PC or 1 old laptop, often from college or on loan from work. Most folks use their phones for everything. People I know with kids have school issued Chromebooks, which barely counts.
As to exact numbers, I’m curious what others can find. I turned up between 74% and 94% of adults in the US owned a PC, which seems insanely high to me. But on the same page claiming that 89% of all households have a PC, I also saw
In the United States, the number of households with computers is projected to surge from 4.7 million to 120.45 million between 2024 and 2029, indicating a substantial increase in computer ownership.
Which… That’s bonkers. They expect the number of PCs (in homes) to go up by a factor of 30 in just 5 years, presumably that guess was before tariffs as well. I’m wondering if these household and per capita numbers somehow include corporate spending because businesses and schools do purchase literal tons of computers.
4.7 million sounds like a typo honestly. 47 million would make more sense considering that many people need their own PC to do freelance work.
I’m doubting that many people will suddenly see the benefits of PCs over phones and tablets in order for these numbers to blow up, but I could be wrong. It seems that mobile devices fill that need for most people and it’s been that way for a while. Given the tariffs though, it may be a comparatively better time to get a PC for gaming than an Xbox or PS and that could bring the numbers up.
Unironically yes. There’s someone out there who is on the other side of the digital divide that would absolutely want any kind of access to what you currently take for granted.
I got it from someone when they were done with it. It’s old enough that itunes, safari/chrome/Opera/Firefox wouldn’t work with the current os.
Im not taking it for granted Im not tech savvy. It’s really weird for you to suggest this is the case when you have never met me.
Yes please. 2013 MacBook Pro? I use a 2013 MacBook Air every day. I am sure your MacBook Pro is much better.
Whatever will I do without my deshittified emotional support laptop :'(
Quick question. I have a studio pc running win 10, with dozens of audio and video projects. It’s basically impossible to transfer to Linux, macOs or even win 11 since it involves a ton of audio plugins, etc. and my projects would become unsable.
What does end of supports involve for me? I actually disable updates and a while back since it was sometimes screwing things up. My most recent projects are done either on my M1 mac (work thing) or my most recent.Linux station on Nobara. Should I be worried about anything? Should I disconnect my old studio pc from the internet to avoid it being fucked by microsoft?
Get the w10 enterprise edition that gets patched for 4 more years.
Once updates end in October, Windows 10 won’t be secure and probably shouldn’t be allowed to connect to the internet. It will still continue to function though. You can buy a year of extended support for Windows 10 for $30, but it’s unclear whether there will be support after that.
Probably best to start switching to something else, or plan to run that PC offline.
That seems silly to be running offline. There are some businesses that still run windows 98. So why would windows 10 suddenly be way off worse ?
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It shouldn’t get fucked by MS they’ll just stop adding things to it to prevent outsiders from fucking it up. You’ll be alright for now, but keep an eye out for any potential vulnerabilities that get found after end of support. Then that’s when you can start thinking of disconnecting it from the internet. That is if you can’t risk yourself being patient 0. Then in that case you should disconnect as soon as end of life comes around.
Windows 10 end of life is just nature’s way of setting you free.
Hopefully many more Windows refugees would embrace the Kingdom of Torvalds.
Among lot of distro, Linux mint has to be the closest to windows and more refined
Can’t you just install bit defender? It’s just that one chip on the board that was added about 10 yrs ago to prevent hackers using that desktop tunnel on the elderly. So dumb that they had to promote large scale computer waste over a piece of hardware smaller than a thumb drive.
Never felt so much more in control than when ditching Windows and installing first Linux Mint and later Kubuntu. Gonna try Arch in the future to feel like a god and completely in control over what happens on my machine.
that trajectory leads to Antix to give you full control over every decision and then from there to debian or devuan because all that decision making is exhausting, can’t the machine just work and only update when there’s security patches?
