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.
I’m thinking about switching. A couple of weekends ago I had Mint on a flashdrive and tried out a bit.
I’m worried about compatibility with games as I’m a Steam user and whatever launcher that game requires sometimes.
Should I just do it? Just do a brand new install but on Linux? Which distro should I use that would be good for gaming?
Other than gaming, everything else I do is just everyday browsing on reddit/lemmy, YouTube, email, etc.
Grab a 1 TB nvme, take the Widows one out, install the new SSD boot the USB thumbdrive, install Bazzite (or Mint) and off you go, that’s all I did. I’m running LMDE but not a big gamer, so the little I do play all works on Mint Debian Edition.
If it all gives you the shits after a time, just put the old SSD back in and boot back into Windows.
Bazzite is great for gaming if you want an immutable distro, Garuda is great for gaming if you don’t.
If you have a game that only runs on windows right click on it go to manage and chose compatibility then pick the latest version of proton and relaunch the game. To do it globally First, log into Steam using your login credentials. Then, click on “Steam” in the top-left corner, and select “Settings”. Go to the “Compatibility” settings, then locate the “Steam Play” section. Toggle on the “Enable Steam Play for all other titles,” choose the latest Proton version from the dropdown menu, click “OK,” and restart Steam. My whole library works.
Depends on your gaming habits. Check ProtonDB for Steam games compatibility, check Lutris for others. Some anti-cheats (especially kernel level anti-cheats) don’t work on Linux, if devs decide to make it work on Linux, they can. For example they enabled Linux version of anti-cheat and Hell Let Loose works fine for some time now. If you mostly play single-player games, you’ll probably be fine.
If you want every possible gaming related programs to be pre-installed, you might wanna go Bazzite. If you want to explore on your own pace, Mint is a solid choice. If you want something like Bazzite but mostly empty, there is also Aurora.
Do you have a spare SSD? Throw Linux on it and try it out for a while. You can always go back.
I do. I wanna say I did that a long time ago where I had two OSs on two drives? Would I have to disconnect the Windows drive to boot into the other? Or would it act like a dual boot and I can choose from a menu?
You can set up dual boot with your boot manager. This gives you all your installed OSs in the boot menu to select from.
https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Dual_boot_with_Windows
EDIT: BTW arch isn’t hard to install anymore, just use the “archinstall” command at the prompt when it’s finished loading.
My decision was to install Linux Mint first on my work laptop and not my main gaming rig, so I would have the ability to switch between both OS’s as needed, and have a fallback machine if either failed.
ProtonDB (Compatibility Database) should be your friend in checking what works and what doesn’t, and for the most part, Windows games “just work”, no need to even toggle a setting (unless you count forcing Proton instead of a native Linux port).
If you have software that is critical to your daily life on windows (Photoshop, Autodesk, VR software, anti-cheat heavy games), you dont need to jump ship on your main hardware. There are ways to get support after October 15th (Through IOT LTSC versions of windows 10, but you’ll have to find a way to get it).
All of your other use cases would be perfectly served by any Linux distro, the Interstellar Lemmy client even has a convenient flatpack for a 1-click install.
Check ProtonDB first (you can even log in to view all your library at once). If everything you would want to play works, go for it! If not everything works currently, I’d recommend getting your hands on IOT LTSC win10, and use a spare device to get familiar with Linux distros.
There’s no one “gaming” Linux distro that will work, but I personally just use Linux Mint because it is ol’ reliable for me - intuitive enough GUI, but just as configurable as anything else. You do miss out on some of the more bleeding edge stuff that distros such as Arch and Bazzite get, but unless you are using very new hardware, I’m not sure if it would be necessary.