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.
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.