The 'End of 10' is nigh, but don't bury your PC just yet
- Reference: 1747301170
- News link: https://www.theregister.co.uk/2025/05/15/end_of_10_campaign/
- Source link:
The [1]campaign is a noble attempt to raise public awareness. It carries a simple, clear message in large, friendly letters: when Windows 10 reaches the end of its life in five months' time, you don't need to buy a new computer. According to its [2]Mastodon account , the site is due to officially launch in two weeks, on May 28.
The [3]team behind End of 10 has people from several different desktop environments and organizations, including folk from the [4]KDE registered association , and the [5]site's source code is hosted on [6]KDE's GitLab .
[7]
One of the most interesting parts of the site is the [8]list of places where visitors can find Linux support. There are over 70 around the world, but with a noticeable concentration so far in Germany. (Our favorite is the splendidly named [9]Serious Cybernetics in Australia, and for clarity, [10]nowhere near Sirius .) This list is a great idea, but it already badly needs categorization – we hope that gets done before the campaign launches.
[11]
[12]
The opportunity here is huge. The signs are that Windows 11 has now clawed ahead of its predecessor – for instance, [13]US Government Analytics put it at 16.5 per cent, versus 15.5 per cent still on Windows 10. However, a lot of perfectly working Windows 10 computers can't be upgraded. Consumer NZ estimates that to be [14]400 million PCs , including anything with a processor more than six years old. The UK's Consumer Association magazine Which? [15]simplifies it well:
Not all PCs with Windows 10… have the necessary specs to upgrade… And if you have a PC running Windows 7 or 8.1 (or one bought with these and later upgraded to Windows 10), you almost certainly won't.
Which? also has a very pragmatic top suggestion if you [16]can't upgrade or afford to buy new:
Convert to ChromeOS Flex (if you're using a laptop)
We agree: [17]ChromeOS Flex works pretty well and it's not limited to laptops. You must use a Google account, though. If you've got a technophobic friend with a Yahoo, AOL, or Hotmail/Outlook account, they can use the [18]Gmailify feature.
[19]M365 apps on Windows 10 to get security fixes into 2028
[20]Microsoft moved the goalposts once. Will Windows 12 bring another shift?
[21]20% discount offer on Windows 365 expires around same time as Windows 10 support
[22]How to stay on Windows 10 instead of installing Linux
Last month, we wrote about [23]how to get Windows 10 LTSC , the IoT edition of which gets updates until 2032. We mentioned that the safe, easy route is to reinstall, but it [24]is possible to upgrade in place , and there are even [25]third-party tools to help .
It is possible, but as we said, we're not advocating it. As The Register's own SJVN puts it, " [26]Linux is forever ," or as close as any computer gets.
Which? suggests Ubuntu if you have the time, and at heart, that's sound advice: stick to one of the big players, and avoid the experimental stuff like immutable or rolling-release distros. However, we think the GNOME UI is confusing and alienating if all you know your way around is Windows. Mr Vaughan-Nichols suggests Linux Mint, and we wouldn't argue, but the Ubuntu flavors with Windows-like desktops – Ubuntu MATE, Xubuntu, Lubuntu, or Kubuntu – are also entirely viable. Mac users with geriatric hardware will find a very macOS-like desktop in [27]Ubuntu Unity .
[28]
We know there are nearly as many Snap haters out there as systemd haters, but honestly, both work pretty well nowadays. For a few years, we used the handy [29]deb-get tool to handle apps not included in Ubuntu's repos, and we've recommended it before – for instance, in combination with the [30]minimal version of Xubuntu . For us, though, especially after [31]Ubuntu "Noble" nobbled our Nvidia GPUs , we've stopped fighting and just switched to Snap packages for everything, with a few AppImages on the side. It's fast now, even on kit over a decade old, and it's cleaner and simpler than Flatpak. If you don't want either – and we don't blame you at all – then [32]Linux Lite is pretty good , too.
There are a growing number of distros gunning for Windows exiles right now, and we plan to look at some of them soon. But for the absolute minimum hassle, if your needs are simple enough that ChromeOS will do, try Flex on a spare junker PC. You might be pleasantly surprised. ®
Get our [33]Tech Resources
[1] https://endof10.org/
[2] https://floss.social/@endof10
[3] https://endof10.org/team/
[4] https://ev.kde.org/whatiskdeev/
[5] https://invent.kde.org/websites/endof10-org
[6] https://community.kde.org/Infrastructure/GitLab
[7] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_software/oses&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=2&c=2aCW7PzQbt4g4drLco68YCgAAARM&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D2%26raptor%3Dcondor%26pos%3Dtop%26test%3D0
[8] https://endof10.org/places/
[9] https://sericyb.com.au/
[10] https://hitchhikers.fandom.com/wiki/Sirius_Cybernetics_Corporation
[11] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_software/oses&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44aCW7PzQbt4g4drLco68YCgAAARM&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[12] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_software/oses&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=3&c=33aCW7PzQbt4g4drLco68YCgAAARM&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[13] https://analytics.usa.gov/
[14] https://www.consumer.org.nz/articles/windows-10-shuts-down-in-october
[15] https://www.which.co.uk/news/article/windows-10-is-losing-security-support-in-october-aZV723o24RP9
[16] https://www.theregister.com/2025/05/07/microsoft_hardware_gates/
[17] https://www.theregister.com/2022/02/16/google_chrome_os/
[18] https://blog.google/products/gmail/gmailify-best-of-gmail-without-gmail/
[19] https://www.theregister.com/2025/05/12/windows_11_support/
[20] https://www.theregister.com/2025/05/07/microsoft_hardware_gates/
[21] https://www.theregister.com/2025/05/02/windows_365_discount/
[22] https://www.theregister.com/2025/04/22/windows_10_ltsc/
[23] https://www.theregister.com/2025/04/22/windows_10_ltsc/
[24] https://gravesoft.dev/in-place_repair_upgrade
[25] https://github.com/TheMMC/In-Place_Upgrade_Helper
[26] https://www.theregister.com/2025/01/28/windows_10_demise_linux/
[27] https://www.theregister.com/2024/05/09/ubuntu_unity_2404_plus_lomiri/
[28] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_software/oses&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44aCW7PzQbt4g4drLco68YCgAAARM&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[29] https://github.com/wimpysworld/deb-get
[30] https://www.theregister.com/2024/04/30/xubuntu_2404_snapless_ubuntu/
[31] https://www.theregister.com/2025/01/29/nvidia_gpu_ubuntu_downgrade/
[32] https://www.theregister.com/2024/06/10/linux_lite_70_arrives/
[33] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/
app Mnaagers / installation of apps
One thing I found when looking at getting wine running.. where do you get it from ? app managers have so many variations and which is the one to choose ?
Reading various sites and you are told to download this, edit that, do something else. All great if you are prepared for it or techy minded, but a lot of Windows users just want a siimple download this exe, run and install and forget . That really needs sorting in my view
or in many cases, just forget post install and call on their friendly IT person when it has died and said friendly IT person realises no updates for 12 months+. When they try to update it takes hours and are asked "why so long ?" Finally, when sorted, you explain how to do regular updates (just windows - nothing else), and you still get into this loop
Re: app Mnaagers / installation of apps
I would highly recommend using Bottles https://usebottles.com/ I've found it to be much easier to get working than Lutris with its random user-submitted scripts that fail half the time. The UI is a bit quirky in places but other than that it's great.
New PC, went Mint
Due to finding 10 at work stressful, then a downdate to 11 cemented that opinion.
Mint was a no brainer for a home PC.
TODO
They're going to have to [1]work on this page bit . It says:
"1. Download a new OS: Download the operating system you want to install. Search for Linux distributions for beginners to get some suggestions."
As much as they want to remain impartial, if they don't give an easy to understand description and a link for a handful of distros at most then this is not going to convert the masses.
[1] https://endof10.org/install/
As a Mac user, I can’t quite believe I’m about to use a very Windows user argument. Forgive me Gods of open-source.
Replacing the hardware is the cheap part. Yes, I fully subscribe to the argument that you shouldn’t have to, but that isn’t an argument that will carry any weight at the big software vendors. It’s the software that’s expensive. Some open source software is a good match for commercial software, other software doesn’t have a good open source alternative. So, replacing Office is a mostly a straight swap (LibreOffice is good), but there’s no good open source swap for Photoshop or Illustrator, Xcode or Autocad (to pick a few names). There are alternatives, but they don’t quite fit the bill, they’re not quite as capable.
So the cheapest alternative might be a new PC. Or just hacking the latest OS onto your old computer.
Not so much "end of life"
as "end of being blocked from doing your work unexpectedly by a monstrous update, then finding your settings have been changed back to unwanted defaults".
If I have to use Windoze, I'll not miss this at all.