Support for Windows 10 ends on October 14, 2025. Microsoft wants you to buy a new computer. If you bought your computer after 2010, there’s most likely no reason to throw it out. By just installing an up-to-date Linux operating system you can keep using it for years to come.
Installing an operating system may sound difficult, but you don’t have to do it alone. With any luck, there are people in your area ready to help! Find someone to help you.
I think it is a bad idea to help someone install Linux. It isn’t that they shouldn’t use Linux it is because they are dependent on you.
Ongoing support is a separate discussion… could be money, could be beer… but I agree, it should be discussed so that a dependency is understood / avoided
The same could be said about Windows. It’s a bad idea for people to use Windows without installing it themselves because they are dependent on MS and the OEM that installed it for them.
Better that they’d be dependent on someone that cares about them than soulless corps that just want to exploit them.
Honestly they shouldn’t get a Windows device either. Get a tablet since chances are they don’t need anything more.
The same could be said about iOS and Android. We just gotta help people when we can.
Plus, the first step to learning Linux is figuring out how to install Linux.
If you can’t do the easiest part of Linux you’re going to have a bad time with the rest of Linux.
Edit: Well, wait up. Doing it for someone is one thing, teaching them enough to get by is another.
The way the post is stated, my brain went, “here’s your PC with Linux on it, bye.”
I might have agreed 10 years or so ago, but Linux has changed and this is entirely dependent upon the distribution and use case. Linux will hold onto the image of being a “difficult” OS for some amount of time of course, but I really don’t believe that is necessarily the case any longer.
I installed Mint for my parents who are in their 70’s ~4 months ago, showed them how to run updates, configured automatic backups, and I haven’t heard a peep since except for the few times they told me they liked it a lot more than windows because they feel like it’s a lot easier to find where stuff is. They can browse the internet as needed, work in Libre office as needed, get to all of their emails as needed, etc - they have actually 0 problems with it meeting their needs.
Furthermore since the middle of last year, I have incredibly helped 5 of my friends move over to Linux (at their request! It’s been really exciting to see the interest in Linux exploding.). While they had never installed an OS themselves, they have a good amount of experience in troubleshooting from their experience in windows, and this has translated into them being able to figure out things like running their games with proton, installing software, customizing their window managers, and so on all without my help.
I would argue that a person can have no earthly idea how to flash a USB or get into their BIOS/UEFI to change a boot order, or be afraid of doing so, but at the same time can use the OS effectively once it has been installed.
I think in part this is because people who have not installed an OS themselves find it more intimidating to interact with something as low level as the BIOS than a higher level operating system even if the task is straightforward, and generally they just want someone who has done it before there with them so that they have reassurance in that step.
I agree. The whole situation went completely different in my head, tbh. I’ve tried to get my 65 year old step mom to switch. If she does eventually, I’d set her up with what she needs and give her a run-down.
I was thinking more along the lines of an “up a creek without a paddle” situation where you have the local Linux buff put it on and then start messing with stuff on your own.
or maybe people can teach others. that’s not a bad thing. learning from someone who instructs you.
See, that’d make more sense to me. In my mind I was seeing someone just installing Linux and poof, that’s it, you’re on your own.
I should change my statement then; just installing Linux for someone is a bad idea. Stepping them through the small basics as you go is a good idea.
I don’t think it is rocket science to install Linux. You need some tech knowledge but not a ton.