An Introduction - Windows 10 End-Of-Support, October 14th, 2025

Windows 10 will reach end-of-support on October 14th, 2025.

Because of the hardware requirments for Windows 11, this will leave hundreds of millions of PC's unable to upgrade to a newer version of Windows.

Despite the fact that these machines still function quite well, Microsoft is rendering them obsolete, as far as Microsoft's operating systems go. 

Continuing to run Windows 10 online, connected to the internet, will be a huge security risk after October 14th of 2025.

These machines are perfectly capable of running Linux in most cases, and in some cases, Chrome OS, or other less-weel-known operating systems.

This blog will focus primarily on efforts to keep these machines running and out of landfills by converting them to Ubuntu Linux, or in the case of machines with older hardware and lower-end specifications, Linux Lite.

The reason for choosing these two operating systems is because:

1. Ubuntu is very-well supported and updated fairly often, sometimes weekly. (You can choose when to install updates in Ubuntu)
2. Linux Lite is derived from Ubuntu, and is intended for machines with lesser hardware. However, it is still a powerful operating system with great features, and updated fairly often.
3. I am more familiar by far with Ubuntu than any other operating system, so if I'm going to help others, it should be on a platform I know how to help with.
4. Ubuntu and Linux Lite have good graphical user interfaces, making them mostly point-and-click. This minimizes the need for users to work in the terminal.
5. There is a very large library of free and open-source software, as well as proprietary software available for Ubuntu.
6. Ubunti Desktop (Which works fine on most laptops and desktops) is itself free and open-source. There is no cost or subscription fees required to install, run, or update Ubuntu.

I personally came to start using Ubuntu in late 2017. I put it on a laptop that I was using as an IT student at the time, and set that laptop up so that I can run either Windows 10 or Ubuntu on it.

I have since set the same configuration up for my desktop PC, and have installed Ubuntu on multiple other laptops for non-profit organizations that I have helped with IT support.

I have found that, over time, I have wound up using Ubuntu on these machines 95% of the time. I rarely boot up Windows anymore, and then only for software that I particularly like that won't run in Linux. There are not many.

In the case of my desktop, it used to regularly give me the dreaded Blue Screen of Death and crash. Despite having an MCSA in Windows 10, I was never really able to figure out why. I was afraid to record anything on it, because I was afraid it would crash.

Using Ubuntu on the same machine, it has frozen up on me maybe twice in the last four years (and counting).

Ubuntu also boots a bit faster than Windows as well.

For most users, Ubuntu will do most of the things you need it to quite well, particularly the basics like web surfing, creating documents, video-conferencing, and recording audio and video. 

Ubuntu comes with the Firefox browser, and Libre office already included.

There are a lot of reasons to like Ubuntu, and it's not at all hard to get used to after Windows.

I don't like wasting perfectly good hardware, I hate e-waste, and I hate subscription fees. So on that note, I will try to build resources here and help others migrate off Windows, and if necessary, continue to run Windows 10 safely after October 14th of this year. That lasst, however, is another blog post.

Regards,

Dan