RIP Windows 10
What can I say that you don’t already? Announced like two years prior, this October 20th Microsoft will stop giving security updates to windows 10.
It doesn’t affect me of course, but for people who still have to use windows, it’s a low blow. Sure in GNU/Linux there are long term support versions too, and they usually last around five years each. But I think here’s the difference.
While in GNU/Linux you know that that version will be put out of commission (as in security updates) in around five years, and if you dislike what the developers are doing or just dislike the distribution in general, you can just install a different one without any trouble. Meanwhile you don’t know anything with Windows, Microsoft stated many years ago that w10 would be the last windows… It’s been like five years since w11 launched? I only know that windows 10 was released in 2014 (god I’m rotten).
Windows 11’s poor performance, bloating, programs forced upon the user such as copilot or recall and SSD breaking capabilities doesn’t help for it’s reputation either. Then what should you do?
Answering that question… Do whatever, I’m just rambling about windows being awful in my Linux Mint machine. It’s your life after all :V
But for real tho. Lately, windows has been getting worse and worse. Outside of forcing programs no one asked (or at least that most of people dislike) and making it impossible to uninstall, they even display ads on a OS you had to pay for, usually windows is included in the computer’s price when you buy it.
I’m not saying to use only free software just because. I’d advise you to go little by little. IE: If you have enough space in your hard drive (let’s say you have 300GB used in a 1TB SSD), you could make some space from the windows partition to install a distro like Mint or PopOS and dualboot. Basically choosing when to use Linux or Windows when you turn your PC on.
Another suggestion is to try FLOSS alternatives over big tech ones. Instead of Photoshop to draw, use Krita; to edit images, use GIMP (yes, UI is obtuse, but there are mods like photogimp to make it look like Photoshop’s UI along with it’s shortcuts); instead of Chrome, use Brave or Firefox (tho I’d recommend something like WaterFox or LibreWolf); Instead of MS Office, use LibreOffice; and a loooooong etc. All of these alternatives can be used in windows, are free of charge and more importantly, are free software.
Go step by step. Don’t try running before you can even walk. Like everything, you may take some time to adapt since they are different programs and operative system if you decide to switch to GNU/Linux. IE, try switching your browser first, then other FLOSS programs and then you make the switch to a distro. Or ignore this and just do the switch to whatever distro you feel is more user friendly.
In my case, I started with Lubuntu when my friend/mentor helped me installing it in my HP laptop at the time to dual boot with windows 10. I don’t remember exactly when I made the switch, but I think it was short after bitlocker in windows activated for no reason (basically no one can access to your data without your password, problem was that I didn’t set up nor knew about it’s existence) and deactivated by itself. After like two years I think, I liked the Cinnamon desktop environment more than LXQT and was kinda tired of Canonical, corporation behind Ubuntu, forcing snaps. So I switched to Linux Mint.
In my opinion, this is FLOSS greatest strength, if you don’t like the software or what the developers are doing, you can easily get out and use something else. I know I’m oversimplifying this, but this is just me rambling about this topic. If you want to suggest me a topic to write about like a tutorial on how to dual boot (tho there are thousands of guides online) you can write me an email to Contact@juangames.com(preferred) or a DM through Mastodon or Bluesky.
And that’s mostly it, outside of the recent news of windows 11 not allowing creating local accounts during installations anymore (which isn’t surprising anymore), I don’t really have anything else to say. Other than thank you for reading.