News Before Windows 10 goes EOL, I'm testing three alternative Linux distros to save my 6-year-old laptop from the landfill

[Mr Majestyk]

Windows 10 is not stopping in October. Your computer will not explode or get infected. Critical security updates will still be around for years, lower severity vulnerabilities won't be addressed without paying $30 per year for ESU.

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/whats-new/extended-security-updates

Or in news just out yesterday and starngely not covered at Tom's (unless I missed it) , you can get an extra year of coverage free

Microsoft extends free Windows 10 security updates into 2026, with strings attached

End-of-support date isn’t changing, but extra year will be functionally free.

arstechnica.com

 

[Alvar "Miles" Udell]

100%

Actually Mac makes more sense than Linux, especially in office situations, since Microsoft 365, Adobe, and other software which they already may have a license for also transfers over, and a $500 area Mac Mini packs a huge punch compared to a $500 Windows PC.

 

[palladin9479]

Or in news just out yesterday and starngely not covered at Tom's (unless I missed it) , you can get an extra year of coverage free

Microsoft extends free Windows 10 security updates into 2026, with strings attached

End-of-support date isn’t changing, but extra year will be functionally free.

arstechnica.com

That's part of the article I linked, it just doesn't spell it out.

There are a few different ways to get your PC into ESU. If you are using a MS account with One Drive then you will be given ESU for one year "free". Otherwise if you don't want to use a MS account with One Drive you can pay $30 for a year, extendable up to three. There is also a third party company charging something like $27 a year to continue supporting W10 with security updates for up to five more years.

Finally, just like Windows 7 and some other EOL'd products, critical security updates will still be made available. These are not OS level patches but rather for things like DotNet framework, DirectX, Defender or other MS libraries that are also on the OS.

Example is this update published last year for Windows 7.
https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=49540

Fearing another repeat of Windows 7 where people don't "consume next product" like good little consumers, Microsoft has put out a ridiculous amount of FUD that is being further amplified by publications who do not understand the full scope of what is happening.

 

[Loadedaxe]

Actually Mac makes more sense than Linux, especially in office situations, since Microsoft 365, Adobe, and other software which they already may have a license for also transfers over, and a $500 area Mac Mini packs a huge punch compared to a $500 Windows PC.

Talking on an M4 Mac mini as we speak...



I just don't dare recommend it on a tech forum, the hate is unbelievable.

 

[Cliff3.141592653589793238]

I have been enjoying Debian Stable for the last 15 years. I don't even know or care what TPM 2 is.

 

[nrdwka]

First of all, Windows 10 continue to receive security updates until at least 2027 with LTSC brunch.

That update can be installed for free on any Windows 10 edition with tools like "Windows update mini tool" or manually with powershell.

Secondly, Windows 11 LTSC IoT can be without special tricks installed without TPM2.0 (and as bonus without MS account) and work just fine as regular edition.

 

[salgado18]

True, but we’re way further along than people give credit for.
I’ve got Linux running on my main rig, and between Proton, flatpaks, and wide hardware support out of the box, it’s honestly getting much better the it was even a year ago.

Many should at least try it. I digress, but people forget..... Windows didn’t exactly “just work” in its early days either. Driver issues, software crashes, and internal OS bugs were a nightmare all the way up through XP. It took Microsoft nearly 12 years to get their act somewhat together, and even then, it wasn’t flawless.

The “we’re not there yet” argument is getting weaker, devs are targeting Linux more, and the user base is steadily growing. The more people keep parroting that line, the longer it’ll take. Chicken and egg .....

Meanwhile, sticking with Microsoft is starting to feel like an expensive and futile attempt to hold onto a platform that’s actively working against its users and locking things down, pushing ads, data mining, and turning basic OS features into subscription bait.

It's not just about software anymore, it’s about giving up control over your system and your privacy. At some point, people have to ask, what are we actually staying for?

Oh wait, gaming ....

Microsoft Office and Photoshop. My wife's notebook is on Win10, and she uses both a lot. Libre Office is not as good as, and neither are free image editors. Luckily, she uses old versions of both (2010 and CS6), so I'm trying to find a way to run them using Wine. If it works, then there's zero reasons for her to stay.

I had one, which is A3 token certificates. They just work on Windows anywhere, but on Ubuntu the only way I got it working is inside Firefox. Signing documents with them is a very hard process. But even then, a Windows 10 VM would do the job.

Otherwise, with Lutris and all the online software we use nowadays, Linux is enough for 90% of people. They just need to give it a chance.

 

[Urh82]

"I don’t want to use the terminal, everything has to be in a GUI."
The author has set themselves up to fail. As great as Linux is (I made the switch a year ago, and I will never go back to Windows), there are still some things that have to be done in terminal. Case in point, I was occasionally experiencing crashes due to my swapfile filling up (for some reason Linux Mint's default size is only 2GB), and the only way I could change it was using the terminal. But it's a one-and-done deal - I've set it, now I can just forget about it.

Frankly, Windows users who are scared of the terminal need to stop being babies. I've noticed that it's more of a young person thing - I grew up using MS-DOS, so the rare occasions I do use a terminal in Linux it's a bit of a nostalgia trip.

 

[rambo919]

You know.... its gonna be funny how many people will pirate LTSC now

 

[Loadedaxe]

Or in news just out yesterday and starngely not covered at Tom's (unless I missed it) , you can get an extra year of coverage free

Microsoft extends free Windows 10 security updates into 2026, with strings attached

End-of-support date isn’t changing, but extra year will be functionally free.

arstechnica.com

After thinking about this, (I saw this article elsewhere as well yesterday)
MS is testing the waters with a paid service, what better place to start.

Microsoft moving Windows toward a paid service model isn't a shock, it's just the next step in a long, deliberate transition. We've seen this playbook before. Office became Microsoft 365. Xbox went all in on Game Pass. Now it's Windows' turn.

This shift isn't about innovation or offering something better. It's about securing recurring revenue and locking users deeper into the Microsoft ecosystem. The signs have been there for a while, pushing Microsoft accounts, integrating cloud services you didn’t ask for, sneaking ads into the Start Menu and lock screen, and stripping out options like local accounts unless you know where to dig. It's all been leading to this...... you will rent your OS.

And don’t think this will come with major perks. A subscription based Windows doesn’t mean faster updates, more stability, or better features. It means you’ll pay every month just to keep what you already had. The quality of the OS won't magically improve, but the telemetry, the ads, and the “premium unlocks” will definitely ramp up.

For enterprise and IT departments, this won't be a hard sell. They're already paying for Microsoft 365, and Microsoft knows it. They’ll market this as a more secure, manageable platform. But regular users will get the short end of the stick. Once you're in the ecosystem, your choices get narrower, and more expensive.

Give it a version or two, and we’ll probably start seeing "Windows Basic" vs. "Windows Premium Cloud" tiers.

At the end of the day, this isn't about giving users value, it's about squeezing long term revenue from an OS that millions used to get as a one time cost. Microsoft isn’t selling software anymore. They're selling access. And once they’ve got enough people on the hook, you’ll never really own your PC again.

Question is, how many people fall for it?
Well, just like Apple, there’s always going to be a group that won’t use anything but Windows........no matter how bad the deal gets.

Anyone want to rent a PC?

 

[jp7189]

Windows 10 is not stopping in October. Your computer will not explode or get infected. Critical security updates will still be around for years, lower severity vulnerabilities won't be addressed without paying $30 per year for ESU.

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/whats-new/extended-security-updates

^this^

$30/ year is pretty cheap to stay secure and for those that it, check a box on the audit..

 

[jp7189]

After thinking about this, (I saw this article elsewhere as well yesterday)
MS is testing the waters with a paid service, what better place to start.

Microsoft moving Windows toward a paid service model isn't a shock, it's just the next step in a long, deliberate transition. We've seen this playbook before. Office became Microsoft 365. Xbox went all in on Game Pass. Now it's Windows' turn.

This shift isn't about innovation or offering something better. It's about securing recurring revenue and locking users deeper into the Microsoft ecosystem. The signs have been there for a while, pushing Microsoft accounts, integrating cloud services you didn’t ask for, sneaking ads into the Start Menu and lock screen, and stripping out options like local accounts unless you know where to dig. It's all been leading to this...... you will rent your OS.

And don’t think this will come with major perks. A subscription based Windows doesn’t mean faster updates, more stability, or better features. It means you’ll pay every month just to keep what you already had. The quality of the OS won't magically improve, but the telemetry, the ads, and the “premium unlocks” will definitely ramp up.

For enterprise and IT departments, this won't be a hard sell. They're already paying for Microsoft 365, and Microsoft knows it. They’ll market this as a more secure, manageable platform. But regular users will get the short end of the stick. Once you're in the ecosystem, your choices get narrower, and more expensive.

Give it a version or two, and we’ll probably start seeing "Windows Basic" vs. "Windows Premium Cloud" tiers.

At the end of the day, this isn't about giving users value, it's about squeezing long term revenue from an OS that millions used to get as a one time cost. Microsoft isn’t selling software anymore. They're selling access. And once they’ve got enough people on the hook, you’ll never really own your PC again.

Question is, how many people fall for it?
Well, just like Apple, there’s always going to be a group that won’t use anything but Windows........no matter how bad the deal gets.

Anyone want to rent a PC?

MS provided 10 years of free updates. It's unreasonable to expect them to provide free support forever. Also, they provide a fee based extended support for almost all of their products going back to NT and Exchange 5.5. This is nothing new.

 

[Loadedaxe]

MS provided 10 years of free updates. It's unreasonable to expect them to provide free support forever. Also, they provide a fee based extended support for almost all of their products going back to NT and Exchange 5.5. This is nothing new.

You're completely missing the point.

No one’s shocked that Microsoft offers paid extended support, that’s old news for enterprise. What is new is shifting basic security updates for a mainstream OS behind a subscription wall for consumers.

This isn’t "extended support" like NT or Exchange 5.5, this is turning Windows 10 into a service you rent just to stay secure.

It’s not about expecting "free updates forever", it’s about watching Microsoft pivot from selling an OS to monetizing it like a streaming service. They’re normalizing paywalls around fundamental functionality.

So no, this isn’t business as usual, it’s the groundwork for Windows as a subscription. Big difference. And pretending this is the same as old school support contracts is either naive or willfully ignoring what’s actually happening.

 

[das_stig]

Said it once, will keep saying it, the W11 requirements are artificial, to boost the sales for Microsoft and hardware manufacturers, using the same old security scaremongering and unwarranted EOL. Microsoft can't use the code base excuse, as the differences between W10 and W11 are not that great or compatibility would be broken and thats the core of Windows, I have yet to see a W11 only app that cannot be back ported but what surprises me, is the fact regulators are not investigating Microsoft and its hardware friends for monopolistic conspiracy.

 

[Dr3ams]

I have Linux Mint installed in a virtual machine, along with various Microsoft operating systems going back to 3.11. I also have an older second PC that I use as a mule to run Windows XP 32 bit. The only thing installed on it is my library of older games. Some Linux distros are great operating systems, but for my needs they aren't fully baked yet.

 

[alceryes]

That's part of the article I linked, it just doesn't spell it out.

There are a few different ways to get your PC into ESU. If you are using a MS account with One Drive then you will be given ESU for one year "free". Otherwise if you don't want to use a MS account with One Drive you can pay $30 for a year, extendable up to three. There is also a third party company charging something like $27 a year to continue supporting W10 with security updates for up to five more years.

Finally, just like Windows 7 and some other EOL'd products, critical security updates will still be made available. These are not OS level patches but rather for things like DotNet framework, DirectX, Defender or other MS libraries that are also on the OS.

Example is this update published last year for Windows 7.
https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=49540

Fearing another repeat of Windows 7 where people don't "consume next product" like good little consumers, Microsoft has put out a ridiculous amount of FUD that is being further amplified by publications who do not understand the full scope of what is happening.

Microsoft is finally setting the bar low enough to extend updates for another year.

1) Come mid-October, set yourself up with a new hotmail account that you will only use for this one purpose (extendupdates0499@hotmail.com, or something like that).
2) Make sure that you have a local admin account on the computer.
3) Log in to the computer with that new throw-away hotmail account.
4) Set it to backup one folder within the root directory of your C: drive.
5) In that folder have one simple document with one sentence to Microsoft detailing how you feel about superficial requirements that will needlessly cause hundreds of millions of computers to become e-waste.
6) Go back to logging in to your computer with the account of your choice and enjoy another year of updates.

(not all of these steps are necessary, but it will make me feel better doing them 😜)

 

[Alvar "Miles" Udell]

Talking on an M4 Mac mini as we speak...



I just don't dare recommend it on a tech forum, the hate is unbelievable.

I hate the Mac UI with a passion. Even though it's come a little ways its still way too obtuse and lacking compared to Windows and Linux (same goes for iPhone and iPad), even Mac sites will tell people this. That's the main thing keeping me from buying a MacBook, using ExplorerPatcher to make Windows 11 usable is one thing, having to use multiple pieces of software for Mac would be a different story.

Though the hate towards Microsoft and Windows 11, despite Apple doing the same things, is immense and threads like this often just devolve to "LET'S BASH MICROSOFT". Makes me wonder how many of these people use an Android phone without a Google (and/or Samsung) account, iPhone without Apple ID, streaming box or TV without their account, etc...

 

[alceryes]

I hate the Mac UI with a passion. Even though it's come a little ways its still way too obtuse and lacking compared to Windows and Linux (same goes for iPhone and iPad), even Mac sites will tell people this. That's the main thing keeping me from buying a MacBook, using ExplorerPatcher to make Windows 11 usable is one thing, having to use multiple pieces of software for Mac would be a different story.

Though the hate towards Microsoft and Windows 11, despite Apple doing the same things, is immense and threads like this often just devolve to "LET'S BASH MICROSOFT". Makes me wonder how many of these people use an Android phone without a Google (and/or Samsung) account, iPhone without Apple ID, streaming box or TV without their account, etc...

Just because it's very difficult to 'detach oneself' from the tracking and telemetry gathering of big corporations, because of the ubiquitous nature of their goods and services, doesn't mean we shouldn't care about our personal metadata (e.g. was it collected legally, who collects it, for what purpose was it collected, how is my data protected from illegal or careless dissemination, is enough of my data stored in one place to identify me specifically, etc.).

 

[JayGau]

Windows 11 got released in 2021. At launch, Microsoft said that computers that were less than 5 year old should be fine, but older machines might not be supported. We are now in 2025, which means, that a 6-year-old laptop was 2-year-old in 2021, so it's very likely compatible with the OS. Stop thinking with this 5-year-old age limit. It was only valid in 2021.

 

[JeffreyP55]

Or you could use a tool like Rufus and install Windows 11 because TPM 2.0 is the only thing hindering most Windows 10 machines from running 11, or you could redeem 1000 Microsoft reward points for a year of extra upgrades...

Windows 10 users can get extended security updates using Microsoft points

Microsoft says Windows 10 home users who want to delay switching to Windows 11 can enroll in the Extended Security Updates (ESU) program at no additional cost using Microsoft Rewards points or enabling Windows Backup to sync their data to the cloud.

www.bleepingcomputer.com

Windows 11 is still working just fine on my relatively antique (and underpowered as heck) Surface Pro 3 after installing with Rufus.

Windows 11 loaded and had some functionality on my ancheint Z97, 4790k, GTX-1080ti. No SMBus driver available from MS. BSOD's deluxe. The Gigabyte windows 10 chipset drivers were a wash. It was just a test anyway. I have much more modern hardware. However, I am not going to spend hours trying to get windows 11 running properly on a great-grandpa PC.

 

[mikeebb]

I have both regular-use computers running Win11, and both meet MS' minimum requirements (10-11 gen i5-i7, 8-16GB RAM, secure boot, TPM2 in UEFI, etc.). The Big One (g10 i5, 16GB, ATX tower with a bunch of disks) dual-boots Linux Mint, and I'm happy with Mint with an asterisk. The Olde ASUS laptop conveniently died (hardware failure) a couple of months ago. So the only Win10 left in the house is the spouse's laptop (fairly recent i5 ASUS that meets Win11 requirements - trying to get her to upgrade) and an ancient RCA 2-in-1 that came with an early Win10. RCA (or whatever Chinese company owns the trademark) of course no longer offers any support at all, as if what they did offer at one time was worth anything.

I'd like to make the RCA a Linux machine, but it has problems. There's stuff online discussing how to get some Linuxes into it. Ubuntu and Debian seem to be the most likely to work, sort of. But none of it seems to be easy, a lot of command-line pounding is needed, and certain things like the cameras have never worked for anybody apparently. Basic issue is Lack Of Resources and Funny Features. Lack of Resources: it's Atom Z3735-based (technically a 64-bit chip), but it only has 2G RAM and 32G Generic BIWIN "disk" - both of those numbers hardware-limited by Intel so no expansion possible); Funny Features: even in Win10, the touch screen and accelerometer no longer have drivers so a clean install fails miserably, and worst of all, while technically a 64-bit computer the UEFI is 32-bit, so a 32-bit bootloader is necessary regardless of the OS itself. It ran with 32-bit Win10 for years until a random update pickled some drivers and replacements are no longer available.

Since Linux is no longer supported for 32-bit computers (the ideal arrangement), some hacking is necessary. I'm not fully comfortable with some of the online stuff, and in any case it's several years old so I don't know whether the things that didn't work (like the cameras) have ever been fixed. So question for the house: worthwhile project or e-waste?

 

[ezst036]

6 year-old laptop? That's a good life lived. Recycle and move on!

Times have changed. 6 years is not nearly enough.

 

[mikeebb]

If your doing a Win-2-Linux review, then you have failed to include a major feature.
Windows users are tied to their OneDrive storage and Linux has little or no support.
Yes their is Google drive, but your average user may have financially invested in OneDrive extended storage , doesn't want the hassle or time to download from OneDrive and upload to Google or any other alternative.

There is in fact a decently functional though unofficial Onedrive client for Linux. It's command-line, but a GUI shell has also been made for it. Very clear instructions, even if (as in one case I had early on) you have to compile from source. Works great for me in Mint, though there are occasional glitches in the sychronization (less so in recent releases) that require reversion to offline backups. Ordinarily though it's pretty transparent even using the command line.

https://github.com/abraunegg/onedrive

Onedrive, of course, can also be used in a browser after logging in with your MS Account credentials.

 

[MG1103]

Why not just consider Windows 10 IoT Enterprise LTSC 2021?
Purchase a key code for about $30. Installs from a USB drive like normal. Receive security updates until 2032.

This gives you additional time to decide what you want to do in the future.

 

[mikeebb]

Linux Mint with asterisk...

Forgot to complete this thought. I basically agree with the author that nearly everything in Windows has an equivalent (if not a cross-platform option that is even better than equivalent). But ...

If you're wedded to something in Windows, the equivalent will not be what you're wedded to. If (as I do) you use the same software (like Libreoffice) on both platforms, great. If you're not, then at best there will be a serious learning curve.

Graphics, for instance. If you're embedded in the Adobe mire (PS, Illustrator, etc.), moving to GIMP and Inkscape will be a serious wrench. I can go further: I use ACD (formerly Deneba, now "GFX" or something like that) Canvas GIS 17 in Windows, which is effectively PS+Illy+CADD+ArcView all in one app, able to use any type of object (maintaining scaling) on any layer. Not really available any more, having converted to subscription-only aimed at corporate users. But I have the older one that works fine, and the UI (based ultimately on the early versions originating in Mac) is just way too easy to use. Anyway, replacing that in Linux would probably require a combination of GIMP, Inkscape, some kind of 2-D CAD (like LibreCAD), and QGIS. Learning all of those, and especially learning how to combine them, is a hard slog that I haven't even started to figure out.

Yes, in theory, I could run Canvas under WINE, but when I tried that it would start then freeze. Every time, no obvious reason except once there was an error suggesting that it tried to call home to verify its license but couldn't locate a network port. Crud. And there's audio: I use Diamond Cut in Windows to track, clean up, and remaster old vinyl for personal use. Yes, in theory, much of that could be done with Audacity, but not everything, and DC is just better designed for the workflow than Audacity with whatever plugins. Again, it doesn't seem to like running under WINE. So while Linux and Windows are broadly equivalent in terms of ordinary use, and I frequently use it for Linux that way, there are specific non-gaming issues that come up requiring that Windows access be maintained.