The countdown has begun. On 14 October 2025, Microsoft will end support for Windows 10. This will leave millions of users and organisations with a difficult choice: should they upgrade to Windows 11, or completely rethink their work environment?
The good news? You don’t have to follow Microsoft’s upgrade path. There is a better option that puts control back in the hands of users, institutions, and public bodies: Linux and LibreOffice. Together, these two programmes offer a powerful, privacy-friendly and future-proof alternative to the Windows + Microsoft 365 ecosystem.
The move to Windows 11 isn’t just about security updates. It increases dependence on Microsoft through aggressive cloud integration, forcing users to adopt Microsoft accounts and services. It also leads to higher costs due to subscription and licensing models, and reduces control over how your computer works and how your data is managed. Furthermore, new hardware requirements will render millions of perfectly good PCs obsolete.
This is a turning point. It is not just a milestone in a product’s life cycle. It is a crossroads.
No updates for consumer versions of Win10. Including security ones. If on October 15th a zero-day exploit is out in the wild, Microsoft would not be obligated to patch it. They may regardless (see WannaCry Malware patch for Windows XP), but it will not be ongoing, and probably not all-encompassing.
The longer you use the machine on win10 after October, the more exposed you are to any exploit found in the existing windows 10 version.
What this post is trying to present is that Linux distributions almost never run into these issues - especially when it comes to running on legacy hardware. If you install Linux Mint today, you’ll still be able to update it in october and beyond, for the foreseeable future.
Edit: There will be a subscription option to receive extended security patches from MS for Windows10, but it will not be free, and the price will rise as time passes (similar to win7).
Sad truth but regular users don’t care about security updates.
The more who are aware, the more who will care. And hey, not like typing an honest answer hurt anyone here.
One caveat: Linux distributions, even LTS variants, usually have a shorter support period than Windows, after which you have to upgrade your distribution, which is much like doing a Windows upgrade.
A particular version of Linux Mint, the example you mentioned, is supported for 4 years, whereas Windows 10 was supported for 10 years.
I know this is a definition question, but yes, Enterprise LTS versions of Windows 10 will be supported for 10 years. For normal versions, you will have to update to a newer Windows 10 version to be supported - just like Linux Mint.
I think you misunderstood. Windows 10 was released in 2015, and will have general support for all versions until October 2025. That’s 10 years.
The current version of Mint, 22.1, was released in January 2025, and will receive support until April 2029. That’s 4 years.
Had you installed the latest version of Mint in 2015, it would have been EOL in 2019. Had you installed Windows 10 in 2015, it would only be EOL later this year.
Generally though when you update Mint you won’t get bombarded with 20 UI changes and some AI crap and naggin and advertising and strong arm tactics to get you to use their cloud services.
No, not all Windows 10 versions will have 10 years of support. Example for home and pro: Windows 10 version 1507 was released in 2015 and support ended in 2017. Only Version 22H2 is supported into 2025.
Again, it is a definition question. For me “Windows 10” is a product name, like “Linux Mint” or “Windows Vista”. The version number e.g. 1507 or 22H2 is the version number, like 22.1 is for Linux Mint or “SP6a” for Windows NT 4.0. And it makes sense to differentiate between versions of Windows 10 and not treat them as the same, as there are big differences between version 1507 and 22H2.
There are LTS(B) versions available for Windows 10 that offers 10 years support and even some that is supported beyond 2025.
So you’re considering the 22H2 builds et al. separate versions, I just consider them service packs. They come with the regular updates, and the user experience doesn’t significantly change. I couldn’t ever tell you what “build” of Windows 10 or 11 I was on, but I usually know pretty well which distro version I am on.
But I guess it’s true that they contain more feature updates than typical Linux updates.
Different Windows 10 versions also have different hardware requirements e.g. CPU support is removed for older CPUs in 22H2 (but some old CPUs are kept for whatever weird business reason, compare 1511 to 22H2). The monthly updates are regular updates that only bump up the minor version numbers and installs in a few minutes. The big updates bump up the major version number, takes much longer to install, get rolled out slowly and often has a different startup screen (first start after update). They often also doesn’t just install but need the user to approve - however this has changed a lot over time. Keep in mind that the last major Windows 10 version is almost 3 years old and since then it has just been “minor” monthly updates (that have contained some new features). Microsoft have really messed up the whole update process in regards to changing how it works, multiple times. Gone from major versions had a meaning (wow, new features!) to more of a rolling release where major updates often had only a few things (meh, just a new ISO spawn point) as most new features was rolled out in monthly updates.
For the genereal user, Windows 10 should just be “Windows 10” and not think about version numbers. The system should just update when the next major version has become stable (a few monthly updates added to it) and just mind it’s own. Going to Windows Update and click update now, should give you the latest. This is just not how it worked with Windows 10 or 11. You often run into something blocking you - could be Microsoft that know you have a incompatible configuration (software/hardware) or some other reason that you can’t figure out and at some point your Windows is not updated anymore because the Windows version you’re on is not supported any longer.
I have not worked with Linux on a regular basis for a long time, so I might run into same weirdness (updates not working) in the future, but so far it has been a smoother. I do use Debian Stable, so it’s not a big thrill ride.
True, but often the distributions have an upgrade plan (for free). In example you can install an Ubuntu LTS and upgrade 4 years later to the next major LTS release. However, sometimes this has problems, because so much time and changes are in between. This is for sure.
There are distributions with longer support period. Debian comes to my mind. But I don’t know how long and there were 10 year supported distributions too.
Yes you can and should upgrade, which is what I was trying to say really. It’s less set and forget as in “just let it update and it will keep on trucking for 10 years”.
I think only the enterprise distributions (RHEL etc) do 10 year support, but they are not very usable for a desktop system, and I can tell from experience you start to run into compatibility and support issues with software if you actually use it for that long.
Debian is ± 5 years by the way.
At least with rolling releases this is not needed. You only install once, and only update this one version basically. EndeavourOS and Arch based distributions are like that. So its basically support without end, which beats Windows in that regard. :-) These are normal desktop systems BTW, not Enterprise.
The typical LTS support in Linux distributions are 5 years, but some have longer support available. With Ubuntu you can get additional 7 years by using the free for Home users “Ubuntu Pro” subscription. Which brings it to 12 years. Professionals have to pay a little bit (its not expensive) to get that support. For anyone who really considers using the same distribution for 10 years, they should consider Ubuntu Pro.
I use Arch myself (BTW :p), but I wouldn’t really recommend that for users who freshly migrated over from Windows.
Yes, there are ways to get extended support (on Windows too btw), but a thing that should also be kept in mind is that “support” only means security patches and bugfixes, and not feature upgrades. There is also no guaranteed continued hardware support, nor guaranteed support from third party applications. On Ubuntu there’s at least the HWE kernel, but that’s also limited in time.
It’s not criticism btw, it’s just worth mentioning that the support model on Linux looks a bit different than what you get with Windows, and users should generally be encouraged to keep up with the latest release of their chosen distribution.
Thank you!
You’re welcome! Always glad to help ppl with these kinds of questions!
You said no updates for the consumer version, but there will be optional paid extended support available for consumer users who opt to pay for updates for a year.
Good point, I should have mentioned that. Although I think it would be reasonable to say that paying a subscription for security updates would be a non-starter for almost all of the home users.
You’d be surprised. I run a small IT business and I have many elderly customers on a fixed income. Linux is unfortunately not an option for most. Some have opted to buy a new or used W11 compatible PC, but many will be paying for extended support. For $30 for the whole year, it’s much cheaper than a whole new computer.