Windows 10's demise nears, but Linux is forever

The Register ^ | 28 January 2025 | Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols

[ShadowAce]

Come October 14, 2025, Windows 10 support dies. Despite that, more users than ever are using Windows 10 rather than moving to Windows 11.

I can't say that I blame them. Windows 11 sucks almost as much as Vista – remember that stinker? In addition, Windows 11 is less of a desktop operating system than it is a remote Microsoft client equipped with AI-powered Recall, telemetry, and data collection. You may see these as features. I see them as spyware. All this and more is why I use Linux for my primary desktop.

True, I've been using Linux as my desktop for decades now. Before that, I ran Unix as a desktop. When I started, my choice of desktops was not between GNOME or KDE; it was between Csh and the Bourne shell. Bash, today's most popular shell, hadn't even been created yet. In those days, to get work done, you really did need to know how to make simple shell programs. That was a long, long time ago.

Today, anyone smart enough to use Windows, a very low bar indeed, can use desktop Linux.

Take, for example, my own favorite Linux desktop: Linux Mint. I've gotten people in their 70s who wouldn't know a shell command from Excel up and running on Mint without any trouble.

That's because Mint, with its default Cinnamon interface, looks a lot like Windows 7's Aero frontend. It's been years since 7 was retired, but there are a lot of users who still love its look and feel. Heck, there's even a program, StartAllBack, which enables you to reset Windows 11's interface to one that closely resembles Windows 7's desktop.

In addition, these days, it's simple to install Linux applications. You don't need to know package managers such as APT, DNF, or Pacman. No, on Mint, you just find the Install Software icon by searching the menu and then look for the program you want. If you can install programs on your smartphone, you have all the skills you need to install programs on Linux.

Can't live without your Microsoft Office programs? You don't need to leave them behind on Linux. Maybe you should, but that's another column. Instead, all you need to do – read closely now – is 1) Open a web browser on your Linux system; 2) Go to https://www.office.com; 3) Sign in with your Microsoft account; and 4) Start running the web versions of Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and other Office apps. That's it. That's all.

Boy, is Linux hard or what?

If you prefer, there are many great free – not one penny – open source programs. Instead of Office, you can try LibreOffice. You'll find it looks and feels a lot like Office 2003. That's a win in my book. Instead of Edge, Mint and most other Linux distros come with Firefox as their built-in web browser. Or, if you want, you can always install Chrome or a host of other browsers.

As for email, personally, I can't stand Outlook. I'm not alone. On Linux, your best choice is Evolution. Many people prefer Mozilla Thunderbird. The choice is yours. If you really love Outlook – there's no accounting for taste – just sign into Outlook on the web. No sweat, no mess.

Some people say you can't game on Linux. Wrong! So, so wrong! Many Steam games are available on Linux via the Steam Store. For that matter, with the Chrome web browser and the Xbox Game Pass, you can run streaming Xbox games on Linux. That said, if you're really serious about games, why are you on a desktop anyway? Get a PlayStation 5, which runs a customized version of FreeBSD, by the way, or an Xbox Series X. Consoles are better and cheaper for serious gaming anyway [cheaper, yes, but not better, according to our author of The RPG – ed].

Oh, one final software thought. Unlike Windows, where every month a new batch of serious security bugs appears on Patch Tuesday, Linux was built securely. That's not to say that Linux has perfect security. It doesn't. What it does have, though, is essentially no desktop security worries. In all the time I've been running Linux, I've yet to have a single serious security problem.

How safe is it? To the best of my knowledge, there are no Linux antivirus programs available for desktops. There was simply no demand for them.

Still not convinced? Tell you what, go to your local junk shop and buy a cheap computer. Unlike Windows, Linux runs on pretty much anything. For instance, Mint only needs 2 GB of RAM (4 GB recommended), 20 GB of disk space (100 GB recommended), and a graphics card that handles 1024 x 768 resolution. In other words, any PC from the last 20 years or so should do just fine.

Also, keep in mind that you may not be able to "upgrade" your Windows 10 PC to Windows 11. Microsoft demands that your PC have a Trusted Platform Module (TPM) 2.0 and other newer hardware. Linux doesn't care. Linux will run on pretty much anything. So before "the biggest Ctrl-Alt-Delete" in history, you should consider upgrading your out-of-spec Windows 10 machine to Mint.

Now, I admit shifting your machine from Windows to Linux is the one thing where you need to have some computer smarts. Still, upgrading from Windows 10 to Linux Mint isn't that hard.

If the very idea scares you, try it out first on an aforementioned scrapheap PC. Get two, they're cheap.

Or you could just buy a Linux PC that is all set up and ready to go. Of the big PC names, Dell and Lenovo both offer Linux desktops and laptops. There are several smaller vendors that offer Linux. Some of my favorites include System76 in the States, Slimbook in the EU, ThinkPenguin globally, and Juno Computers in the US and the UK.

So, as the end of Windows 10 closes in, do yourself a favor. Give the Linux desktop a try. I think you'll be glad you did. ®

[bankwalker]

Does Linux support backwards compatibility with older versions?

[Openurmind]

“If my Win7 goes bonkers, I’ll have to revert to MS-DOS.”

That is exactly what I thought nine years ago when I was faced with getting Win 10. I got Linux Mint and was blown away that it is almost exactly like using Win 7.

So don’t go backwards... Go forward and do yourself a huge favor. Believe me, you will never look back and never miss MS.

[Bob434]

For those that want to keep using a secured windows 10, there is the ability to pay (ugh spit) for updates for awhile longer, and then there is a site that will do updates well beyond microsoft’s end date- can’t recall it now- I’ll see if i can find it

[ShadowAce]

Does Linux support backwards compatibility with older versions?

Yes.

[Bob434]

photoshop runs kinda wonky in VM’s unfortunately-

[Bob434]

[[and I have only a few games that require Windows to hold me back from complete transition right now.]]

Many games now run on linux with proton (different versions to try to get the games working)- it’s pretty easy- I’ve installed several of my old windows games, and they run fine-

[Bob434]

[[”Hey, Windows 12 is coming out but you’re going to have to buy a new infabulator in order to run it and we’re pulling support for everything else. Have a nice day.” Nope.]]

Yup- the writing is on the wall- Windows will be unusable to all but the most cutting edge computers soon- already is really- I have a brand new computer- all spankin new parts, and windows 11 just blue screens over and over and over- I spent over a month trying to work out all the stupid blue screen errors- wow! Talk about frustrating and time wasting-

I have windows 10 on as well, and it runs pretty well BUT with updates lately, it too is running into blue screens too- with cryptic error messages-

Linux never has a problem- no crashes- no freezing- it just works-

[Billthedrill]

Thanks - it's a thought I'll pursue. So is running a Win10 VM but if you do that you still need an OS license and they will find you if it touches the outside world.

I do have a new toy that's kind of intriguing, a Galaxy data pad running on Android. The downside is that selling my soul to Goggle instead of Micro$oft may not be much of an improvement but it's working fine so far. Office apps, email, web browsers. Even supports a big monitor (old eyes, dontcha know). Same problem with games, though. Maybe...just maybe a 72-year-old man doesn't really need games? BLASPHEMY!!

[Openurmind]

“Does Linux support backwards compatibility with older versions?”

This is where Linux shines. Just about everything Linux will run on anything Linux. Old new no difference. It does not have all the “MS will not let you do this, you have to upgrade/update” BS like MS does.

And if you like you can even change out kernel versions at will with just a couple clicks of the mouse.

[Openurmind]

Good article Ace, Thank you!

[Bob434]

[[Windows, no matter what I did, kept s l o w i n g down to a crawl.]]

YUP! Same- AND, the hard drives works like a rabid dog on cocaine- whirling and buzzing and clicking- fire up linux and everything is nearly silent- I just did a fresh install a few weeks back with windows 10 and it was ‘kind of fast’ getting to the desktop, but it has been slowing down slowly but surely-

With windows, I’m constantly having to ‘fix’ something- or tweak something, or change something back the way i like it until the next update when MS changes it back on me again-

I for one am tired of the games with MS -

[EVO X]

I’ve thought about moving on to a newer PC, but I’m told that now I can only rent Microsoft Word

The last time I looked(last fall) you could still by a 3 year old version of office from the M.S. store

[Bob434]

lol i gotta have my games- it’s an escape from reality for me- I like the adventure games now- getting away from the shootemup and racing games- too much ‘stress’- just dloaded American Trucker trial and have been exploring America lol-

[Leaning Right]

> The last time I looked(last fall) you could still by a 3 year old version of office from the M.S. store <

Thanks. I’m going to try to find it on Amazon.

[Myrddin]

I was a UNIX user on a daily basis starting in early 1983. At home, I used Xenix on a 68000 based TRS-80 Model 16. It was mid-1985 before I put Windows on a box for the purpose of compiling C++ with the Borland product in support of Phil Karn's KA9Q TCP/IP over AX25 effort. Phil was instrumental making mobile TCP/IP practical during his tenure at Qualcomm. At the office, UNISYS mainframes and minis and Western Electric 3B20 processors. Large scale UNIX. Later, HP9000 to host a specialized project. I prefer a UNIX environment. I observed over many years as Linus attended UseNIX and gleaned valuable support in his crafting of Linux. Eventually it was ready for prime time. It became my default at home and office.

Today, I have good, working Windows 11 hardware. I also have 2 hardware platforms running Windows 10 that aren't supported by Windows 11. One is a desktop built in 2013 with an i7-2600k CPU, 32 GB RAM and 4 TB SSD (SATA III). I will have to migrate the data off that box, gut the motherboard/CPU/RAM and rebuild with Windows 11 compatible hardware. The other platform is a nice ASUS laptop. 16 GB RAM, i7 CPU, 1 TB nVME disk. No upgrade path, but also very little time invested. It will find a new life as a Linux laptop. If I need a Windows 11 laptop, I'll buy one.

[Dr. Sivana]

The web version of Excel is NOT real Excel. That goes double for Outlook. I wish Corel would bring back WordPerfect for Linux, and that Claris would make a FileMakerPro client. Some good sites run poorly on Linu. (e.g. cardgames.io, stratego.com), or maybe I have to tweak my java.

[dagunk]

I buy refurbs from Amazon, usually less that $150. Had to replace the hard drive in one out of five, they’re cheap. They all get the windows wiped anyway.

Loaded Linux Mint on one for wife after having to fix windows one-more-time. Did a backup of her home directory/folder tree to an external drive, uploaded it to the Linux Mint.

To back up the Firefox I did a backup from the bookmarks manager and an import from the bookmarks manager to the replacement machine. Everything transferred, no problems.

Showed her how to get to Firefox and her recipes/pictures/etc files. No further problems with her machine, although she forgets to turn on the printer sometimes (she’s getting better).

Wife is very happy with the performance and trouble-free operation.

I’m on FreeBSD. I like it better and I’m an old command-line dinosaur. I run X so I can have a batch of terminals open. If “command line” makes your eyeballs cage you probably don’t want to go here. I also used it at work for programming to control and download test equipment, crunch and graph the data for reports, and write the reports.

Also have FreeDOS and Borland Turbo C loaded on an ancient laptop.

And I still have my MSDOS 3.3 on 5 1/4” and 3.5” diskettes.

Raspberry Pi4 floating around here too. It’s more a Science Project / toy but it runs fine.

No windows machines here.

[Openurmind]

If you use MS Office you can use Libreoffice. And files are compatible between the two.

If you want to test it out and play with it then it is free to download. And they make windows versions both 32 bit and 64 bit.

If you like it, it is pretty much a standard app that comes preinstalled in almost all popular Linux distros to replace MS office.

https://www.libreoffice.org/download/download-libreoffice/

[Myrddin]

To the best of my knowledge, there are no Linux antivirus programs available for desktops.

Ignorance doesn't look nice when pretending expertise. I've been installing McAfee and related AV software on our Linux and UNIX systems since 2009. I did some support work for the Army Corps of Engineers where there were thousands of Linux/UNIX systems that receive daily security scans and checks to ensure the AV software and databases are up to date. To be sure, there are also thousands of Windows 10/11 machines getting the same scrutiny.

UNIX/Linux wasn't as attractive as a target for viruses and malware early on. Windows was the big payback. Not so much any more. Linux is a legitimate target. Protect your systems. Fedora has a free AV called "clam AV". Easy to install and updated regularly. If you need enterprise quality protection, McAfee is a good starting point.

[SkyDancer]

I’m still using Windows 7, some friends still have Vista.