Ending support for Windows 10 could send 240 million computers to the landfill. Why not install Linux on them?

...What does the writer think support end means? Microsoft bricks the PC as soon as the support period ends?

They're going to just keep using Windows 10, security be damned. Probably a good number of users who weren't keeping their PC up to date even when Microsoft was forcing updates on them.

A ton of people can barely open a PDF and this sub thinks those people can change to a completely different operating system.

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People aren't going to throw the PCs out. They are going to continue using Windows 10 for years without security updates.

I still saw XP installs a decade after support had ended.

The problem is most people don't have the technical ability or interest in switching to Linux. Here is the solution:

1. We, as Linux users, must be better advocates for the platform to untechnical people.
2. We should make ourselves available to help people make the transition.

What if, sometime after Win 10 loses support a virus takes advantage of the lack of patches and propagates across all the machines with a simple message "This operating system is no longer supported, please click here to upgrade." The button then runs a script to download and install a user friendly Linux distro. The world is then saved.

Microsoft: Arbitrarily increases the system requirements for Windows 11 even though it runs perfectly fine on older pcs just to get people to buy new computers

Also Microsoft: Why's there so much waste??

We all know that won't happen because most users don't give a shit about things like conserving hardware or the resources that went into making them, and will just use this as an excuse to splurge on the latest shiny device.

Who the fuck throws out their computer when it's still working???

If these were all stacked laptops, stacked on top of each other, they would form a stack 600 km above the Moon.

Ummm... what??

Assuming 3 cm thick laptop x 240 mil = 7,200 km. Moon is on average 380,000 km away. Even 30 cm thick laptops (lol) would only get you to 72,000 km.

Although I’m not surprised, it is interesting that the same big tech companies like Apple and Microsoft taking stances on being “environmentally conscious” while also ignoring forced obsoletion of old hardware. Your average office environment just needs basic email, document/excel editing software and a browser. Now to continue to do these base functions, they have to buy new PCs to do the same exact thing. And it’s not even faster anymore due to the bloat.

If tech wants to preach about the environment, they best start figuring out ways to keep computers out of the landfills.

Windows 11 won’t work on my laptop. Installed Linux a few weeks ago. Works better now than it did with Windows 10.

It will be mostly Enterprise upgrading. The average consumer buys the cheapest laptop they can get. They won't be upgrading. I think nowadays not many average consumers even use computers. They just do everything on a phone.

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LMAO the clickbait delusion... has anybody not learnt for how long people stuck to Windows XP and 7? 10 is incomparably more secure and robust than 7 was, and 11 is almost a meaningless cosmetic upgrade. People that do not want to, will not use Linux, and keep using 10. Comfort and compatibility take precedence over security and privacy. People that do install Linux, however, will still want to keep 10 or 11 separately installed, and Microsoft officially suggests workaround to install 11 on any computers.

That picture generated by Dall-E looks like it came straight out of Wall-E.

My desktop and laptop are both eligible to upgrade, but I keep declining and will likely switch to linux when win10 support ends.

I'll install linux on my gaming rig when w10 support ends, I hate w11

Because the vast majority of people don't have a reason to do it. They've never used Linux before - heck there are people who have never heard of it before.

The other thing is you and I, chances are can find a use for our old machines, have a place to store it, or know how valuable it currently is. Most other people aren't aware of how parts or entire systems depreciates, don't have a use for a second computer, and can't afford the storage space to store a spare PC for a backup. They also don't really have time to do a lot of research on the issue or just plain old don't care.

So what do they do? Well there only remaining option is to throw it away, maybe theyll be a bit wise and take it to an electronics recycler, where you have to trust it won't get thrown away anyway.

I have a 12 year old CAD workstation that won't run Windows 11, but will run Mint just fine.

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More computers for us poor folk!

That's the MS business model in partnership with PC makers. It's a juggernaut. They've operationalized it.

This isn't a new thing. Free Geek has been refurbishing computers and installing Linux on them for over two decades now. It started in 2000 in Portland, Oregon and has since spawned affiliate locations elsewhere, including in Oslo.

One of the 240 million would've possibly been my friend's "old" gaming PC with a Ryzen 9 3900X, that he said could not upgrade to Windows 11. He sold it to me for cheap and I put KDE Neon on it. So far, it's running smoothly except for the challenge of trying to automate mounting a RAID 1 set of drives.

Capitalism must feed. And, if we don't give them huge electronics landfills to search for scrap, what are our children and grandchildren going to do for work?

1. I am not sure if posting this in a linux community raises the awareness to a relevant degree.

2. I am not sure if i am scared by the fact that there will be potentially 240 million pcs still running windows 10 and are posing as potential bot net.

I’ve had windows 10 tell me I can’t upgrade to windows 11 because my SSD was formatted incorrectly even though it had always ran windows 10 fine. None of this was properly explained to me or how to fix it. By the time I finally got it working I didn’t even want windows 11.

I think Microsoft should actually be forced to either extend support or give the user one option to be secured. With the later I mean pay for license or click here to automatically choose a Linux distro that the user will be migrated to. It could be Mint or one of MS own Linux distribution with OneDrive preinstalled and links to Office 365 online word. Even install Android could be one option.

This is better than getting all the devices on the landfill.

Remember that 99% don't know what to do with their computer or are lazy. One easy fix should be available.

I guess I should hold off on upstaging my systems. There are going to be a lot of deals.

That's what I'm gonna do with my Windows 10 gaming machine. It's been working just fine since I bought it in 2016.

Damn, where is that magic landfill?

Many companies still use Windows XP, so...

My laptop is a cast off from a member of my staff who said it was too slow - a (dmidecode) - Product Name: HP 255 G6 Notebook PC. It now runs Arch (actually).

It previously slogged along with Win 10, Outlook n O365 n that. Now it does Libre Office, Evolution and much more. I use KDE, which isn't known for a light touch on the resources. I also do light CAD and other stuff.

My office desktop is even older - it was a customer cast off, due to be skipped around six years ago. I did slap a SSD into it and I think I upped the RAM to 8GB. Its a (ssh, dmidecode): Product Name: Lenovo H330 and the BIOS is dated from 2012! I run two 23" screens off it and again, it runs Arch (actually) and KDE for pretty stuff. I run containers on it - at the moment a test Vikunja instance. I have apache, nginx and caddy fronting various experiments backed up with postgres and mariadb.

Both devices are "domain joined" and I auth to Exchange via Kerberos, via Samba winbind. File access (drive letters for the Windows mindset) is currently via autofs. I have a project on at a member of staff's request to switch from Windows to Linux. I'm going to take my time and get it right. My current thinking is the Fedora KDE spin and this: Closed In Directory

Windows 7 or Linux would be fine, Windows 10 is hardly that bad

So what do people think of TPM, supposedly why they're doing this?

win10 is still supported for 3 more years - if you pay for it.

I'm about to abandon/relegate my old Windows 10 PC to a backup, and replacing it with a raspberry pi 5 running Mint. I'm trying to run quieter with less power consumption.

IMO ppl should be using W10 IoT LTSC. That's the only right way to use W10.

Also, no Linux as Linux still can't run SM Office. /s

So you pretend that what was running on windows to run in Linux?. Dafuq people are naive af. We are talking mostly enterprise machines, most corporations didnt migrate to windows 11. So its not just installing steam lol

i pretty much dont give a fuck what companies do.
except its hella destructive/wastefull to the environment.. and also will probably drive up the price of computers for everyone.

They should face huge fines for this kind of waste. $25M USD for each computer arbitrarily obsolete.

Because the hardware is being made obsolete for a reason. They are inefficient compared to modern hardware, consume way too much power and there are cheaper and more powerful options available.

A modern ARM-based computer like the Raspberry Pi 5 can outperform most computers and laptops running Windows 10 and have a smaller environmental footprint.

The problem is that the obsolete hardware is not cost effective to decommission and recycle. They have not been designed for an environmentally conscious world.

240 million laptops stacked on top of each other is not going anywhere close to the moon, this is a masterclass in hyperbole.

Why not install Linux on them?

Because 1) it wont cut it and 2) when Windows 10 EOLs (and trust me MS will extend the current date) those machines will be trash either way.

I feel like most of these computers are underpowered and worthless to most people outside of a web browsing machine. Which is fine I guess if you don't have a computer at all. But when some of us are rocking six or seven computers in our house, do we need anymore?