As the Windows 10 EOL date is close I was wondering what fellow Linux users thoughts about it are.
Are you helping open minded people making the switch to Linux? If yes, which distro are you using? Are you using resources like endof10.org?
Or are you using the the opportunity to get your hands on some cheap hardware for your homelab? Are you keeping an eye on special websites or just ebay (or your local equivalent)? Are you talking with local companies to get the hardware directly from them?
Or are you just observing and enjoy your peace of mind because you switched already to Linux before?
Whatever it is, we are very interested to hear your stories concering this interesting time.
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Transitioned my moms computer to Windows 11, 11 months go. Pretty easy. Her computer was originally for Windows 7 and is still fully supported. Her computer will always be Windows as I `m not local and other people have to be able to support her too. It is also what she knows. I love Linux but it is not for everyone.
Feel you. If you are tech savvy you can debloat Windows for them and get rid of recall and the online accounts.
That’s become increasingly difficult.
There are Sommer good tools to create stripped ISOs and to adjust running installations.
You can strip ISOs of some bloat but you cannot strip M$ out of it , tho. And there’s always a chance an update adds it back in.
I had outlook appear back on one of my laptops after an update. I had removed it ages ago. Some services do the same.
So, are you going to limit updates too? That’ll make it vulnerable.
My point is, it’s just going to be cat and mouse game with “cleaning or stripping” Windows.
See, I run a stripped Windows for playing games that don’t run under linux. I update it regularly and nothing intrusive was re-added by updates. The other systems I use are linux and macOS, with each OS having its purpose.
In acknowledge that Linux is not intrusive and that you have to have PiHoles and other DNS sinkholes for a basic protection, which is hard for regular people. But in the end you have to look at peoples needs and if somebody insists he needs Windows, and you are knowledgeable in IT stuff, make it as secure and clutter free as possible.
have to have PiHoles and other DNS sinkholes for a basic protection, which is hard for regular people
mullvad’s free dns. free for all, not just their subscribers. encrypted doh or dot only. a basic ad and malware blocking dns sinkhole is a fairly simple configuration away if your os supports it (win11 and android do… those are what i’ve set it up on for others so far).
It’s a once-off operation if you’re willing to go the LTSC route. Microsoft likes to undo all your hard work debloating Windows with the semi-annual major updates on non-LTSC editions.
I use Fedora on my laptop since the day I bought it. It came with Win11 preinstalled.
I switched to Linux about a year ago. I was a windows power user and now I’m a Linux noob, but couldn’t be happier.
I hate to say it, but there’s still reasoning to have Windows. I use a VM with ameliorated windows running for the few things I can’t get away from.
For others, I tell them my story. Most people I talk to won’t or can’t make the switch, which I’m respectful of. To those that would benefit, I recommend at the minimum O&O Shutup but highly recommend ameliorated. This has been more welcomed.
People won’t care until they have a reason to care. I’ll still be around when they do.
but there’s still reasoning to have Windows
For sure. There’s a lot of software that’s built for Windows only. I have some Garmin aviation software that only works on Windows or Mac. It’s pretty shit software, but I have to use it, and since I can do windows in a VM, that’s what I use. Similarly, there’s another bit of software I use all the time that’s only built for iPad. So I have an iPad for that app. There’s not always a choice.
My grandfather asked me about Linux, but unfortunately, he’s still using Photoshop for now.
Get him to check out Krita. It has Photoshop style binds but they’re missing a few things gs you’ll have to set… But depending on what he does with Photoshop and how adaptable he is, it could be a viable solution.
Mostly, he uses Photoshop for printing, though, and I don’t know if Krita has as powerful a printing dialog.
I got my new laptop back in April, had a Windows 11 preinstalled (I wish it wasn’t the case, it would’ve been cheaper but it’s very rare to find OS-less PCs in my country)
Anyway, I prepared a Fedora installation before the laptop got home, booted Windows once to make sure everything (regarding hardware) works, and the rest is history.
There are countries where you can by an OS-less PC?
I’m still using Windows on dual-boot with Arch because of games, that’s the only reason. I’ve Windows 10 LTSC IoT, which is the most debloated version available, plus I ran a debloater script, so the OS is basically raw now, no Microsoft account linked.
Unfortunately Windows still gets more performance, at least on my experience, I’ve a Laptop 16GB RAM, Hybrid GPU (GeForce 1650 4VRAM + AMD).
I’m still not prepared to give up from this little extra performance just to switch to Linux, it really makes a difference, and I pass the whole day dealing with Linux so at the end of the day I just want to boot into something that just works without major tweaks.
I know it’s not Linux fault, but most games are made to run better on Windows. If and when W10 become unusable, I’ll switch to 100% Linux without any doubt, it’s my last Windows.
This might push me over the edge to trying home linux. I use RHEL at work all the time. I just want to still be able to use Steam and Runescape.
Believe it not, Steam even works on RHEL if you use Flatpak.
But you are probably going to want to go for something a bit more current. Fedora or Bazzite may work for you as they use the same core layout and userland as RHEL. Fedora is the test bed for the ideas that go into CentOS that becomes RHEL.
I had already dabbled in Linux on and off years back. I already wanted to switch, but I’m a moron at computer stuff, so Linux was always a bit out of reach. Too much to learn and memorize for the basic things I needed it for.
But Win 10 annoyed the piss out of me. Like, to the point of breaking my laptop in a fit of explosive anger. I’m not usually a “throw-the-controller” kind of guy. But that shit got to me.
So around the time Win 11 was first announced, I decided to give Linux yet another shot. And lo and behold, I found Mint. Everything was setup and streamlined exactly for a moron like myself. It was literally easier and more straight forward than Windows.
And with a little bit of reading and copy/pasting commands smarter people than myself have written around the internet, pretty much any problem I’ve encountered have been solved within a few minutes.
So I recommend Mint to anyone looking for alternatives to Win 11.
It has been good to me.
And a big Thank You to all the glorious nerds that take the time to not on only make this, but also take the time to help us hapless dummies fix the small problems we encounter in the process of switching.
I’ve just installed Mint as well. I am, perhaps, slightly more nerdy, but I’m also short on time to tinker with things, so it’s really nice to have a super simple setup process, with stuff like Spotify and discord just a click away. Now I just need to settle on a solution for graphic design/illustration software.
Installed bazzite on my son’s gaming laptop, it works perfectly well and he really likes the ricing.
The bazaar on bazzite is really convenient for the non-power user
Good for him!
I’ve finally swapped over my main personal (gaming) PC 6+ months ago. Should’ve probably done that a lot sooner, but lazy. I knew I wouldn’t upgrade my Win 10 to 11, and didn’t wanna wait until the last minute, but have fallback options and time to distro hop if needed.
I’m not new to Linux at all, as most servers I’m running (personally or in my job) are Linux based. Debian, usually, cause servers. But I haven’t used a Linux desktop in well over 20 years.
My choice fell on CachyOS, as I wanted something pre-configured for performance/gaming/wine, but kinda dislike fedora (rules out Bazzite, Nobara, and actual fedora). Also in the running was PikaOS, but I tried CachyOS first and stuck with it. I had no experience with Arch, but what a brilliant base that turns out to be for me. Love the rolling up-to-date-ness and AUR accessibility. I’m used to having to contort myself to get a more current version of software, possibly compiling from source and screwing with dependencies, but everything is literally just there and up to date. Critically, all games basically just worked. Everything just worked. EXcept all mail programs suck to an unexpected degree, but that is literally my only complaint.
I do use the EoL of win 10 as an opportunity to get people to move over or at least try it out. Depending on their use case, I usually still recommend Mint for non-technical people, mostly because searching for help from a Windows convertee likely finds appropriate solutions. The more technical ones get personalized recommendations, depending on context. For example I do have a colleague who spends half his day complaining about anything Microsoft, but still uses Windows at home, but that is mostly because of a single piece of software (and so far I haven’t been able to get that to run, but haven’t tried very hard yet either).
I am a chicken, I could not make the switch for the home desktop and work computer, so I just downgraded to Windows 11. There are some financial apps that needs switching, damn.
Maybe I could convince people to let me use Linux at work…
It is just a computer. Don’t let us nerds intimidate you. Use what you are comfortable with.
That said, you could dual boot or even just boot of a USB stick into a live Linux session. That will let you play with it and decide if it is as scary as you feared.
Linux Mint can be written to USB and booted into a live Linux session I believe.
Moved family mostly to Zorin. I stay with Tumbleweed.
Keeping Windows on dual boot for some edge cases. For the app or two that doesn’t run with Linux I keep Windows in a virtual machine (which sadly I need once or twice a day).
95% of my daily business runs on Linux.
Now I wish my phone would do that too.
Wth do you need once or twice a day, unless it’s for a niche hobby or work?
Work. Sadly Linux cannot run most Windows Store apps.
And there’s some niche software that runs, but crashes too much for my liking. So unfortunately in these cases: Windows.
I hosted an endof10.org event at my local public library. Advertised like crazy, posting flyers around town, posting online, etc. I had over 30 USB installers ready to go with Debian 13. I was worried that I was advertising too much and wouldn’t have room for everyone.
Only 2 people showed up, and neither were prepared to go through with an install. In a town with well over 70k people and a major university, I expected more.
Now I’m thinking an event like this would only be viable in a major metropolitan area.
In my circle of friends and family, I only knew of one person who was faced with the Windows 10 dilemma, and he chose to purchase new hardware (granted he’s nearly 80 years old).
Yeah nobody in real life really cares about this. Anyone techie enough has already replaced their system and runs Win11, or has already switched to Linux themselves.
Anyone not techie enough doesn’t care and will continue using Win10 (or just follow the Windows nagging and buy a new PC from Best Buy).
Yeah…and I think there’s also a chunk of the non-techie population who are getting by with just their phones now.
Unfortunately the average person doesn’t care about this stuff. Good on you for putting on the time and effort though.
Why Debian? Why not Mint?
Debian is a stable operating system and as user friendly as mint once you get past the installation.
Mint also uses a Ubuntu base but Debian has better quality of packages and is less likely to break.
LMDE is also a good option in this case
Yeah Debian is stable, but it also doesn’t come with an easy to use app store or pre-installed codecs for multimedia.
The installation process isn’t exactly user friendly either. And if you plan to use BTRFS with Timeshift for easy snapshot creation, you have to do some pretty technical stuff.
And finally, there’s stable and stable. Linux Mint being Ubuntu based is already VERY stable, but you still get fairly recent packages. With Debian you have to wait much longer for the latest software.
Wdym not user friendly? I use Debian everyday and the stuff you were talking about dates back to the bullseye days.
Trixie is a lot more user friendly and even includes the calamares installer now which is a GUI installer that’s similar to mint’s one
It also comes with gnome software and you can enable flatpaks with 2 commands. I don’t see how that’s not user friendly in any way.
Of course nonfree software is a different case but you can always use snap or flatpak for it
I installed it recently in a VM to check the latest release and the instalation process is not as user friendly as Mint.
For everything else though I guess you’re right. But Mint has more quality of life stuff.
Just use the live installer, it includes the calamares installer which is as simple as installation in mint.
No offense, but this question is what is holding many people back that would otherwise be on the fence or ready to go.
If there were just Mac / Windows / Linux, it would be an easy sell.
But we have Mac / Windows / two million Linux flavors.
It does not matter which one you pick, it is bound to cause questions or issues. And once you’ve chosen a Linux flavor, someone asks you why you chose that desktop and not foobar9000 instead which everyone knows runs much better on your Linux flavor anyway.
I honestly think that Linux’ biggest enemy is Linux. Sure, choice is good, but this is too much. Way too much.
Linux is my only real love, but as much as I love it I am not ready for Arch. Therefore my estrogen after a month long trial sits on my shelf. Currently on Mint and confused as fuck. Any idea where I can get SERMs?
I’ve been dual booting since 2000 starting with Mandrake. Then Ubuntu and stuck with it or Xubuntu or Kununtu ever since.
I had been using win 10 a lot more when I eventually installed it. It was a great OS in my opinion. Until it wasn’t because Microshits decided to make it bad. I was getting angry with that and learned last year that it would reach EOL this October. So I booted in Linux and started experiencing with Steam and Proton and Bottles and I was blown away by how easy it had become and how well the games played. So last December I wiped the disk, installed Kubuntu 24.04 and it’s been a great experience ever since. Honestly it’s insane how easy it has become. To think I had to recompile my kernel to have all the features of my hardware back in the early 2000s. LoL!
I tried to convince my GF to move to Linux but she can’t due to her job. It’s complicated.
