Support for Windows 10 ends on October 14, 2025. Microsoft wants you to buy a new computer. If you bought your computer after 2010, there’s most likely no reason to throw it out. By just installing an up-to-date Linux operating system you can keep using it for years to come.
Installing an operating system may sound difficult, but you don’t have to do it alone. With any luck, there are people in your area ready to help! Find someone to help you.
Y’all don’t want to hear this, but most people aren’t going to switch to Linux. Some might pay someone to install LTSC, but the vast majority of of people are going to cave to Microsoft and buy a new PC.
Y’all don’t want to hear this, but most people aren’t going to switch to Linux.
Nobody suggested that most people will switch to Linux, and I don’t think anyone expects that either. This is a campaign to help people who are looking for an alternative, or to empower the people that know how to make the switch, to help others to do so.
You’re probably right that the vast majority of people will buy a new PC, but it’s not about winning a battle - it’s just nice that there are people who are trying to offer an alternative.
Most people use Windows for work and can’t switch, no matter how much they’d want to.
And only after submitting to [email protected] did I realise there were 6 other crossposts. 🙈
That’s okay. This is the first one of this I saw, and I’m going to try to organize something for this at my local library
I’m probably gonna be the unlucky soul who has to do all this for my dad, if he chooses Linux Mint. I’ve showed him the cinnamon version and I’m probably gonna be the one helping him do a clean install after he backs up everything he needs/wants from his laptop. Alongside helping him learn a few things so he can run his laptop without too many issues.
Just remember that there’s always LTSC if Linux doesn’t work out for him.
If we’re talking windows LTSC, there’s no way you’d get my dad to buy into it. It’d probably be easier for both of us, but what happens after LTSC ends? It’s just delaying the inevitable, unless he gets a new laptop running 11, which I doubt he’ll do for as long as he can use his current laptop.
I did exactly that for my mom. Totally non-technical, but she was beginning to absolutely hate all the invasive noise and crap from Windows. All she wanted was to write free of distraction.
So we backed up her files, set up Cinnamon, installed LibreOffice, and imported her files. I set the system up to be offline, since it’s her no-distractions computer, showed her the basics of using it, and basically haven’t heard a peep about it since.
Linux just works, without the bullshit.
I think it is a bad idea to help someone install Linux. It isn’t that they shouldn’t use Linux it is because they are dependent on you.
Plus, the first step to learning Linux is figuring out how to install Linux.
If you can’t do the easiest part of Linux you’re going to have a bad time with the rest of Linux.
Edit: Well, wait up. Doing it for someone is one thing, teaching them enough to get by is another.
The way the post is stated, my brain went, “here’s your PC with Linux on it, bye.”
I might have agreed 10 years or so ago, but Linux has changed and this is entirely dependent upon the distribution and use case. Linux will hold onto the image of being a “difficult” OS for some amount of time of course, but I really don’t believe that is necessarily the case any longer.
I installed Mint for my parents who are in their 70’s ~4 months ago, showed them how to run updates, configured automatic backups, and I haven’t heard a peep since except for the few times they told me they liked it a lot more than windows because they feel like it’s a lot easier to find where stuff is. They can browse the internet as needed, work in Libre office as needed, get to all of their emails as needed, etc - they have actually 0 problems with it meeting their needs.
Furthermore since the middle of last year, I have incredibly helped 5 of my friends move over to Linux (at their request! It’s been really exciting to see the interest in Linux exploding.). While they had never installed an OS themselves, they have a good amount of experience in troubleshooting from their experience in windows, and this has translated into them being able to figure out things like running their games with proton, installing software, customizing their window managers, and so on all without my help.
I would argue that a person can have no earthly idea how to flash a USB or get into their BIOS/UEFI to change a boot order, or be afraid of doing so, but at the same time can use the OS effectively once it has been installed.
I think in part this is because people who have not installed an OS themselves find it more intimidating to interact with something as low level as the BIOS than a higher level operating system even if the task is straightforward, and generally they just want someone who has done it before there with them so that they have reassurance in that step.
I agree. The whole situation went completely different in my head, tbh. I’ve tried to get my 65 year old step mom to switch. If she does eventually, I’d set her up with what she needs and give her a run-down.
I was thinking more along the lines of an “up a creek without a paddle” situation where you have the local Linux buff put it on and then start messing with stuff on your own.
or maybe people can teach others. that’s not a bad thing. learning from someone who instructs you.
See, that’d make more sense to me. In my mind I was seeing someone just installing Linux and poof, that’s it, you’re on your own.
I should change my statement then; just installing Linux for someone is a bad idea. Stepping them through the small basics as you go is a good idea.
I don’t think it is rocket science to install Linux. You need some tech knowledge but not a ton.
