Windows 10 support is over. Likely switching to a version of Linux

Since now there are no more Windows 10 security updates, and I don't want to use Windows 11 (lots of reasons we don't need to get into here) I'm looking at switching to Linux. All my previous desktop computers have run Windows, going back to 1993.

My PC is getting pretty old so I will switch to new hardware rather than try to run it on the old system.

Torn between 2 hardware options:

1) The new Steam Machine that Valve announced recently. It runs SteamOS, a variant of ArchLinux. The huge support for gaming is a plus and the specs are pretty good. Price is estimated to be competitive and it's a small unit. More information will be announced soon, it's coming out early 2026. There's no need to configure any hardware with this option.
2) Make my own system from parts and run something like Mint, Ubuntu, or maybe CachyOS. More complicated. Some unknowns.

I'm also wondering about photo software/hardware compatibility. I'd like to be able to use old Epson scanners. I have heard that is doable on Linux. Does RawTherapee run okay? I'm assuming Gimp is no problem at all since it's part of GNU.

The time frame I would be looking at is the first half of next year.

What are your positive and negative experiences trying to use Linux as your all-in-one? It's userbase percentage is rising significantly as of late.

Reluctantly I switched to Windows 11 about 6 months ago. Haven’t noticed a significant difference. In some ways I regret having been recalcitrant.

Funny, my wife and I continue to get security updates on our three Win 10 machines. Free, too, and daily. I don't remember when I bought my desktop -- certainly before I retired in 2011 -- and it is still running well.

Go into Settings, then security and updates. Click on "Learn more ..." Upper right corner of the screen.

Not only that, to my considerable surprise we've received a .NET update this month. These will continue for a while. See https://github.com/dotnet/core/blob/main/release-notes/README.md

I'm not disagreeing with your decision to leave Windows. There is, though, less pressure to move quickly to the different OS of anyone's choice than I'd expected.

I bit the bullet and registered with Microsoft, so I'm benefitting from one more year of free Windows 10 updates.

BrianShaw said:

Reluctantly I switched to Windows 11 about 6 months ago. Haven’t noticed a significant difference. In some ways I regret having been recalcitrant.

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I'm haven't switched yet because our machines can't be upgraded to 11. I don't want to shell out for replacements just yet.

Rawtherapee, darktable, and gimp all work well under Linux. You can get surprisingly good deals on small form factor dell and Lenovo PCs online from commercial liquidators. Most companies run a ~3 year replacement cycle so you're not looking at terribly old hardware.

I paid $30 for a year of upgrades, put off buying a new PC until next year then I'll get a new PC. I have friend who turned off the wi fi and is using his phone for email and social media.

My computer is eligible to upgrade. I just haven't pushed myself. All my other computers are a mix of Win7, 8.1 and who knows what else. At this point they're airgapped from the internet. They still work fine but I'm not throwing them to the wolves.

Dan Fromm said:

I'm haven't switched yet because our machines can't be upgraded to 11. I don't want to shell out for replacements just yet.

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What pushed me over the edge was when Intuit announced the TurboTax desktop will not be supported in Windows 10 this year. Fortunately my computer is fully compatible but had it not been I’d probably buy a new one.

I'm in the same boat. I've just installed Linux Mint on two of my old Mac Pros from 2006. These were both sitting around gathering dust, since they couldn't run any Mac OS later than El Capitan, and that's been unsupported since 2018. I couldn't even run a browser on those machines.

Now with Mint, they can run the latest version of Firefox, as well as a whole suite of Linux based apps, such as Gimp, Darktable, etc.

I was going to switch my old PC's to Mint too, but I've changed my mind. I'm going to update a couple to Windows 11, and leave a couple on Windows 10. I'm doing that, so I can run other Windows based apps that I like use. I've always been wary of security issues with Windows, so I don't do any email on my Windows computers. I also don't do any financial stuff, and don't keep any personal info there either. This has served me well, since I don't get spam email, and I don't have anything to lose if they do get hacked.

@Sharktooth Thanks for the words of approval for Mint. I had no idea it was powerful enough to make 2006 Macs internet-capable. Now I'm seriously considering trying it out on the old laptop I used in college. That thing had built-in Harmon-Kardon speakers, was great for music and I've probably got 100 GB of it on there. Would be nice to rediscover what I've forgotten.

I upgraded from 10 to 11 while the upgrade was still free. It seems to run fine.

Alan Edward Klein said:

I upgraded from 10 to 11 while the upgrade was still free. It seems to run fine.

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If your machine has the updateable hardware built in, the upgrade to Windows 11 is free.
A huge percentage of the Windows 10 running computers out there don't have that hardware, so the normal upgrade path isn't available.
There are some workarounds for some of those computers, but they aren't as straightforward as that.
Only one of our computers has that hardware, and I am reluctant to run different operating systems on different computers - particularly since it isn't at all clear that a Windows 11 computer can be configured with our legacy backup hardware the way that we were able to configure the Windows 10 machines.

MattKing said:

If your machine has the updateable hardware built in, the upgrade to Windows 11 is free.
A huge percentage of the Windows 10 running computers out there don't have that hardware, so the normal upgrade path isn't available.
There are some workarounds for some of those computers, but they aren't as straightforward as that.
Only one of our computers has that hardware, and I am reluctant to run different operating systems on different computers - particularly since it isn't at all clear that a Windows 11 computer can be configured with our legacy backup hardware the way that we were able to configure the Windows 10 machines.

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My computer officially could not be upgraded because of hardware. A few minutes of research and tinkering with the BIOS rectified that.

Cholentpot said:

My computer officially could not be upgraded because of hardware. A few minutes of research and tinkering with the BIOS rectified that.

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And going forward, it will probably handle the regular Windows 11 support upgrades fine.
Unless Microsoft does something that you don't want them to do.
Not that that has ever happened ......

I haven't fussed with Arch Linux, but Rawtherapee is supported in the Extra repository, and so are Gimp and sane (scanning libraries).

SteamOS could be a fun way to go! I'm pretty impressed with the Steam Deck I picked up earlier this year, and as a bonus, booting into Batocera turns it into a retro gaming monster.

Cholentpot said:

My computer officially could not be upgraded because of hardware. A few minutes of research and tinkering with the BIOS rectified that.

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Can you help out with some detailed steps? I have three machines that run Win 10 perfectly well, and there's no reason to dump them.

Kumar

Laptop and Workstation both switched to Linux Mint. No real issues; everything I need to do can be done on Open Source software, I chose to purchase a copy of Vuescan, which allowed me to place it on up to 5 machines. Works great. The amount of free software that is very high quality is really impressive. Install and maintenance have come a long way and is automated for the most part.

Phone runs iodeOS ( a de-googled android rom), so I am pretty much outside of the techbro money machine shake-down.

Have fun with MS, Apple and Google harvesting every keystroke; I want no part of it.

MattKing said:

And going forward, it will probably handle the regular Windows 11 support upgrades fine.
Unless Microsoft does something that you don't want them to do.
Not that that has ever happened ......

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UEFI BIOS was the issue. It can be turned on or the BIOS can be taken out of legacy mode.

B.S.Kumar said:

Can you help out with some detailed steps? I have three machines that run Win 10 perfectly well, and there's no reason to dump them.

Kumar

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Turns out that most PCs built within the past 5 years or even longer can run windows 11 but the UEFI BIOS isn't activated. See if your BIOS can have the UEFI switched on. Find out what your bios is and look up how to switch it on. For me it was as simple as finding out which BIOS I had, looking it up and following the instructions.

Edit; I think what the UEFI activation does it allows the PC to run TPM. For me this is almost the limits of what I know. I'm a 90's kid, I'm happy messing around with my PCs but at some point my up to date knowledge runs out. As a smart person one time said, PCs to millennials is like cars to Boomers. (some) Baby Boomers have a mindset of 'how can you run a car without knowing the basic maintenance?' Millennials have the same view about PCs. But like cars which have become more dependable and easier to use but much harder to work on, PCs have become more dependable and easier to use but harder to work on. Therefore the old adage of ask a kid if your computer isn't working doesn't apply anymore. The kids know nothing, they can't even navigate 6 or even 7 folders deep on the tree.

MattKing said:

If your machine has the updateable hardware built in, the upgrade to Windows 11 is free.
A huge percentage of the Windows 10 running computers out there don't have that hardware, so the normal upgrade path isn't available.
There are some workarounds for some of those computers, but they aren't as straightforward as that.
Only one of our computers has that hardware, and I am reluctant to run different operating systems on different computers - particularly since it isn't at all clear that a Windows 11 computer can be configured with our legacy backup hardware the way that we were able to configure the Windows 10 machines.

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My main point was that I didn;lt have any trouble running 11. I held off and kept 10 until I couldn;lt any longer because of that fear, which turned out unfounded. At least for me and the programs I operate at home. I always hated upgrading from Windows 95 because I was hypnotized by its startup sound. It had this wonderful soothing feeling when I listened to it, over and over.

As pointed out up thread you can get another year of Windows 10 support and security updates.
There is a version of Windows 10 that gets security updates for 10 years but it is not available in the retail channel.

loccdor said:

@Sharktooth Thanks for the words of approval for Mint. I had no idea it was powerful enough to make 2006 Macs internet-capable. Now I'm seriously considering trying it out on the old laptop I used in college. That thing had built-in Harmon-Kardon speakers, was great for music and I've probably got 100 GB of it on there. Would be nice to rediscover what I've forgotten.

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The 2006 Mac Pro was the first Mac tower to have Intel processors. Before that they were all Power PC processors. I think there are still Linux versions that will work on with Power PC chips, but probably not anything current. Even the first generation of Macs with Intel processors are problematic with Linux. The first gen Intel Macs had a 32 bit EFI, but a 64 bit OS. You have to hack the Linux installer to get it to work. Matt Gadient has some pre-modded Linux installers for these early Intel Macs from 2006. That's where I got my Mint installer. https://mattgadient.com/linux-dvd-images-and-how-to-for-32-bit-efi-macs-late-2006-models/

If you have an intel Mac from 2008 or later, you should be able to use a standard installation.

The only issue on Linux is the limited available software, other than that it is a superior system. Just be aware you might run into problems of getting 100% compatible drivers for gpu and cpu.

I run both windows and linux on my pc, both are on separate drives and I switch between them via boot options from biox. I am stuck with windows for editing both photos (PS) and videos (Resolve).

But linux is pretty much immortal and even if you delete a part of the system accidentally you can still fix it. So if you use gimp and darktable only, go ahead. If your concern is security linux makes sense also, since.. not many people use it = not many hackers targeting it

In my opinion make your own system, if you look at 7 years old hardware it will be almost as fast as the new stuff, but for bargain price. The reason why new hardware isnt much faster is moores law, which we have hit a couple of years ago.

I have 12 core threadripper 1920x on x399 taichi motherboard, 128gb ram and some fancy new nvidia gpu I forgot the name of. But you should get new power source unit of at least 1kw, I would never buy old PSU. Works great, except the cpu isnt supported for windows 11. I dont think I will ever need another computer honestly, at least not because it isnt fast enough. This system was a complete overkill back then and it still is. I use the full power only when rendering videos, or rendering some 3d graphics. And I have never reached the 128gb ram in normal use, just in some programming tasks

I personally hate laptops, because of poor cooling and once one component dies you can pretty much throw out the whole thing.

MattKing said:

There are some workarounds for some of those computers, but they aren't as straightforward as that.

Click to expand...

The workarounds are quite straightforward, really. There's a few available and there are clear instructions in many places online. It's a fuss-free process that involves basically one step that you do before the upgrade and after that, the upgrade proceeds as if you have the required hardware.

I've never warmed up to Linux and god knows I've tried for years. I've told that story often enough; to each their own. Ultimately I wanted a fuss-free, productive desktop environment and Linux didn't give me that, so after years of trying to love it, I backed out of it. I do run it on some servers.

Cholentpot said:

UEFI BIOS was the issue. It can be turned on or the BIOS can be taken out of legacy mode.



Turns out that most PCs built within the past 5 years or even longer can run windows 11 but the UEFI BIOS isn't activated. See if your BIOS can have the UEFI switched on. Find out what your bios is and look up how to switch it on. For me it was as simple as finding out which BIOS I had, looking it up and following the instructions.

Edit; I think what the UEFI activation does it allows the PC to run TPM. For me this is almost the limits of what I know. I'm a 90's kid, I'm happy messing around with my PCs but at some point my up to date knowledge runs out. As a smart person one time said, PCs to millennials is like cars to Boomers. (some) Baby Boomers have a mindset of 'how can you run a car without knowing the basic maintenance?' Millennials have the same view about PCs. But like cars which have become more dependable and easier to use but much harder to work on, PCs have become more dependable and easier to use but harder to work on. Therefore the old adage of ask a kid if your computer isn't working doesn't apply anymore. The kids know nothing, they can't even navigate 6 or even 7 folders deep on the tree.

Click to expand...

Thanks, I will check that. Until the time my PCs ran Win7, I knew all kinds of hardware and software stuff. But after I upgraded to Win10, I didn't need to re-install any time and have forgotten almost everything. Touch wood!

I installed Linux Mint on an old laptop a few years ago, but the geeky repair stuff put me off. I have a Mac Mini for my Sinar back that I use regularly, but am still not comfortable with it.

Kumar