End of 10
endof10.org
Windows 10 ends in 2025. Don’t buy a new PC — revive yours with Linux. It's fast, secure, and help is available to get you started.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ml/post/30792652

Support for Windows 10 ends on October 14, 2025. Microsoft wants you to buy a new computer. But what if you could make your current one fast and secure again?

If you bought your computer after 2010, there’s most likely no reason to throw it out. By just installing an up-to-date Linux operating system you can keep using it for years to come.

Installing an operating system may sound difficult, but you don’t have to do it alone. With any luck, there are people in your area ready to help!

5 Reasons to upgrade your old computer to Linux:

  1. No New Hardware, No Licensing Costs
  2. Enhanced Privacy
  3. Good For The Planet
  4. Community & Professional Support
  5. Better User Control
  • NutWrench@lemmy.mlEnglish
    5·
    1 day ago

    The other nice thing about Linux is that there are several Live versions you can try out on your computer without making any changes to your Windows installation.

    This also lets you see if check and see if Linux fully supports your hardware (just in case you have a weird network or audio card). If the Live version of Linux works, the installed version will, as well.

    Most installers let you set up a dual boot on the same hard drive, too.

    • Wolf@lemmy.today
      1·
      15 hours ago

      Even if your audio or WiFi card doesn’t work automatically in the live environment, that doesn’t necessarily mean that you are out of luck either. My WiFi card manufacturer doesn’t support Linux (Last thing I buy from them), but I was able to find a driver that was built by the community for a very similar product that works flawlessly.

      This may be more complex than some people are willing/able to solve, just wanted to put that out there for people who can so they aren’t discouraged by a bad experience with a live distro.

    • BlameTheAntifa@lemmy.world
      1·
      1 day ago

      I love this. I recently set up a “Linux flight” with various distros on a bunch of thumb drives to test drive the latest. I decided to stay Kubuntu but it made experimenting so quick and easy.

      I have some friends and family that cant upgrade from Windows 10, so I’m going to keep the flight and walk them through trying out some personally selected distros.

      Using Steam, Heroic, and Bottles you can even run Windows software almost perfectly, too. There’s never been a better time for regular folks to make the switch.

      • curious_dolphin@slrpnk.netEnglish
        3·
        6 hours ago

        There are tools for enabling one to save a bunch of ISOs on a single USB thumb drive so that you don’t need a whole fleet of thumb drives. One such tool is called Ventoy, and there’s another one out there, although its name escapes me atm.

  • sunbytes@lemmy.world
    4·
    1 day ago

    Came to Lemmy while my disk manager is processing my new partition.

    If it goes well, I’m switching today.

    So, probably some time early tomorrow morning. Because I’m not great with reading instructions.

    Edit: it’s still processing. It feels like it shouldn’t take this long to partition…

  • NigelFrobisher@aussie.zone
    4·
    1 day ago

    What distro would be good for an old (coming up to ten years) Windows 10 under-TV Steam box with a GTX870? Its job is basically to boot straight into big picture mode with no login screen and be operated by a PS4 controller, but I figure I can’t just keep it on Win10 without security patches.

    • Drunk & Root@sh.itjust.works
      2·
      1 day ago

      if your using to watch tv try kodi or osmc or another media OS i have a ras pi running osmc and i never had a issue and im sure you could get a ps4 controller to work an if its for games i dont know any maybe bazzite

        • Drunk & Root@sh.itjust.works
          2·
          19 hours ago

          bazzite or aniother gaming focused like garuda gaming edition would prob be your best bet garuda gaming is arch linux built for gaming and more user friendly

        • kwedd@feddit.nl
          1·
          1 day ago

          I haven’t used it myself, but I hear Bazzite provides an experience similar to SteamOS. Note that some competitive online games with kernel-level anti-cheat won’t work on Linux. Most other games should run fine, though.

  • bampop@lemmy.world
    69·
    1 day ago

    My PC had been running like shit for a while and I was already weighing up options for replacing it, when I got the popup message from MS about Windows 10 expiring, and how my only option was to dump the PC. So I installed Linux out of pure spite. Runs like a dream now. Thanks Microsoft!

  • PieMePlenty@lemmy.world
    4·
    1 day ago

    How viable are modern nvidia cards (like 4070) on linux today? Mainly for gaming. I’ve heard there are some driver issues that can cause problems, any truth to this claim?

    • Venetas@discuss.tchncs.de
      5·
      1 day ago

      Most problems with newer cards have been fixed with version 550. Gaming related, the only thing that will cause you pain is VR or Kernel Level AC

      • PieMePlenty@lemmy.world
        3·
        1 day ago

        Thanks. So just use official Nvidia drivers and I’m good to go? Thinking of moving to fedora if it maters.

        • Venetas@discuss.tchncs.de
          1·
          7 hours ago

          Yup, the official driver is your best option for gaming. No experience with fedora here. I think they use wayland instead of X11 by default, right? I know that wayland had a tough time with Nvidia gpus. No idea if anything has changed in the last two years.

        • mrcleanup@lemmy.world
          2·
          1 day ago

          I started with Bazzite and moved from there to Garuda. Both have an Nvidia version that just takes care of that for you. I’ve never had to worry about drivers.

      • Squizzy@lemmy.world
        3·
        1 day ago

        As someone getting back to pcs and trying linux, it warms my heart because I am scared of VR and shite at online games. This is the place for me.

  • dudesss@lemmy.ca
    41·
    1 day ago

    Linux has gotten incredibly better for gaming. Now Bluetooth controllers connect just as easy as Windows, and Steam has Proton built in so that when you run a Windows only game, Steam will automatically install the appropriate Proton and Wine software – just make sure to turn on compatibility mode in the Steam launcher settings. Every game I ran so far runs fine on Linux.

    It couldn’t be a better time to switch to Linux.

  • NutWrench@lemmy.mlEnglish
    23·
    2 days ago

    You don’t need to buy a new computer. You just need to upgrade your old computer.

    To Linux.

    • DannyMac@lemm.eeEnglish
      11·
      2 days ago

      Which then makes it run like a new computer. So Linux basically gives you a free new computer.

  • ceenote@lemmy.world
    502·
    2 days ago

    If you bought your computer after 2010, there’s most likely no reason to throw it out.

    Frist of all, how dare yo u

  • [email protected]@lemmy.federate.cc
    10·
    2 days ago

    I’ve been dry-running a Linux only world for a few months now, dual booting and running everything on the Linux partition, only using windows when necessary. So far basically all my games run well under proton and the few non-free programs I care about work well enough under wine. I think tomorrow is the day I blow away the windows partition.

    • Bunbury@feddit.nlEnglish
      3·
      2 days ago

      Same here. Games and general office tasks work flawlessly on Linux. I currently only launch into windows for the Adobe suite and some other image editing apps (by Topaz Labs) that I already have licenses for but that won’t run on Linux.

      So far the alternatives I’ve found aren’t nearly as powerful. However I’m determined to uninstall windows by the time my licenses run out 9 or so months from now.

      • [email protected]@lemmy.federate.cc
        1·
        1 day ago

        So far I think I can live without Topaz, Photoshop and some other image stuff long term, but to be honest if that turns out to be wrong, I’m inclined to buy a cheap Mac Mini specifically for photo stuff rather than keep Windows around anymore.

        • Bunbury@feddit.nlEnglish
          1·
          1 day ago

          Hm. That’s worth considering, yeah. But I want to get away from Adobe. I dislike just about every single change they made to any of their programs in the last 5 years… And any change their made to their business model in the last 15 years or so.

    • chunkystyles@sopuli.xyzEnglish
      1·
      2 days ago

      I’ve been on Linux for 10 months or so, but I still have Windows installed on a separate disk. I guess if I needed the space I’d worry about deleting it, but I’m good for now. I have booted into Windows only a handful of times over those 10 months, and the stretches get longer and longer.

  • NotASharkInAManSuit@lemmy.world
    7·
    21 hours ago

    Can I bother anyone in this thread to help with suggestions for a Linux distro that works for a gaming PC that won’t require me to have a computer science degree? I’m not afraid of some troubleshooting here and there, but I’m kind of dumb.

    Edit: I should have known there’d be a shotgun load of different distros, good thing I’ve been gifted with e-“waste” for years, I’ve got some tinkering to do. Hyper-fixation, here I come.

        • chunkystyles@sopuli.xyzEnglish
          5·
          2 days ago

          Bazzite is phenomenal. Just know that it works a little differently than what I’d call “legacy” distros. So when googling things, just know that a lot of instructions for Linux won’t work for you.

          If you run into trouble, hop on the discord and someone will help you.

          • glaber@lemm.ee
            2·
            2 days ago

            Might be helpful to append “fedora” to any searches, as that’s the distro that serves as the base for Bazzite

    • Alaknár@lemm.ee
      5·
      2 days ago

      My journey was: Kubuntu -> Tuxedo OS -> Garuda Linux.

      Kubuntu was painful, lots of issues. Maybe just got unlucky, but cannot recommend it.

      Tuxedo OS was phenomenal until I bought a GPU. Then stuff broke left and right. I wasn’t able to get Steam to launch anymore so I switched.

      Garuda Linux is the one I still use. I had it for 53 days and had no severe issues to date. There’s still a bunch of stuff that needs ironing out, but that’s the case with all Linux distros, it’s never “fire and forget” like Windows, in my experience.

      I chose Garuda because it’s advertised as “the Linux for gamers”. It’s packed with extra goodies that make life easier - you can pick and choose popular apps to be installed right away (things like Lutris, Steam, Heroic Launcher, Proton, Vivaldi browser), and you get an application that helps with maintenance.

      The only major issue I had was due to my ignorance (but I kind of blame it on the OS because it was supposed to be “noob friendly” and this bit was very much not so) - just after installation and updates you’ll get the system maintenance app ask you to “merge pacdiff files”. This shows up a comparison window of two files, and if you’ve never used Linux you have no clue what’s going on. When you get that, just don’t overwrite the one on the right with the one on the left - you’ll break the entirety of your package manager. :D

      Other than that: I’m having a great time. The OS looks pretty, games run great. 9/10

    • agnomeunknown@lemmy.mlEnglish
      51·
      2 days ago

      I installed mint on a new laptop recently and it was completely painless. To be fair I’ve used Linux before but it’s been over a decade and I didn’t have any major hiccups. I installed steam and was playing games within 15 minutes of finishing the install. The UI is very familiar and comfortable for windows users and the entire ux seems to be designed around not making you use the terminal unless you have to. I highly recommend trying it out.

    • evanciao@lemmy.world
      3·
      2 days ago

      I’d say anything mainstream and not esoteric should do the trick. I’m talking Ubuntu, PopOS and so on.

      • Chais@sh.itjust.works
        2·
        1 day ago

        My partner is currently running PopOS. They somehow managed to combine the chronically outdated Ubuntu packages with a rather counterintuitive UI.
        Updates frequently fail, commonly used packages like gamescope aren’t available, overall wouldn’t recommend.

        • evanciao@lemmy.world
          1·
          1 day ago

          oh… never actually tried it myself. welp too bad, it seemed like a fair distro to check out. nvm…

          • Wolf@lemmy.today
            1·
            9 hours ago

            I’m on PopOS and my experience is the exact opposite. I love the UI- it’s the main thing I like about it actually. Never had an update fail.

            I don’t use gamescope, just run everything from Steam or Heroic and never had an issue gaming.

            YMMV

            • Chais@sh.itjust.works
              2·
              12 hours ago

              Yes, most times gamescope isn’t required. Thing is, sometimes it is and not having the option is an inconvenience in the best case and makes games unplayable in the worst case.

              • Wolf@lemmy.today
                1·
                8 hours ago

                I just looked it up and people are saying you can install the Ubuntu PPA with no issues.

                It may not be (probably isn’t) the latest release, but that option exists at least. I’m glad I never had to use it. What games have you had to use it for? Do you have an AMD GPU or Nvidia?

                I just wanted people to know that not everyone thinks Pop-os is shit. Part of the issues you experienced may have been due to the fact that they are currently hard at work writing their own DE (Cosmic) using Rust and they are waiting on that to be finished before upgrading to the newest LTS release of Ubuntu. We are currently still on 22.04.

                If you want all of your software packages to be on the bleeding edge, I wouldn’t recommend PopOs. But I definitely would recommend it for someone who just wants a solid distro and doesn’t ‘have a computer science degree’.

                YMMV, but from my personal experience using it for almost a year now it’s been rock solid.

                Edit: I just realized that my post said “Don’t use gamescope” when what I meant to say was “I don’t use Gamescope.” I wasn’t intending on advising people not to use it. My bad.

                Edit2: I also forgot that I stopped using “Pop!_Shop” for updates and software search. That was getting really slow. I would advise your partner install the “COSMIC Store” instead, it’s way better :)

    • Zerush@lemmy.ml
      13·
      1 day ago

      Maybe Q4OS, but if you a Gamer, which want to play the most recent games (logically in a Gaming PC), Linux sadly isn’t the best option, the most modern games are Windows only, the advantages of Linux are others. In this case the best option is to use Linux in dual boot with Windows. I hope that it change in the future.

  • techpir8@lemmy.ml
    17·
    2 days ago

    Hmm Windows 10 LTSC and IOT will still be supported until 2027.

    Debian Trixie, now is the time to shine, release soon please.

    • turtle [he/him]@lemm.eeEnglish
      32·
      2 days ago

      Not that I’m against doing this, but just so people are aware, running LTSC or IoT is essentially a violation of EULA unless your license of Windows is Enterprise or Education. Home and Pro aren’t valid for this. Yes, there are activation scripts available online, but personally, if Microsoft doesn’t want me to run Windows, it’s their loss, not mine.

  • wuphysics87@lemmy.ml
    11·
    2 days ago

    What does it mean in practice for windows 10 to reach end of life? There are no more security updates? My vm will stop working? They are preventing you from using your computer?