from Hacker News

End of 10: Upgrade your old Windows 10 computer to Linux

by doener on 6/19/25, 1:14 PM with 279 comments

• by pentagrama on 6/19/25, 4:29 PM

  This is great, but one UX issue I’ve always seen when trying to get regular Windows users to switch to Linux is the whole USB flash drive process and needing external tools like Rufus.

  Take Ubuntu, for example. It’s one of the most popular and recommended distros for non-techy users, but just look at the install process: https://ubuntu.com/tutorials/install-ubuntu-desktop#1-overvi...

  Let’s be honest, I don’t think most people would actually go through with that.

  One idea to fix this and get more people to switch would be for Ubuntu to offer a Windows app that handles everything. It could download the ISO in the background, format the flash drive, install Ubuntu in dual boot with Windows by default, and clearly explain each step so users know how to start using Ubuntu or go back to Windows.

• by etbebl on 6/19/25, 4:04 PM

  This is awesome. I'd be interested in helping if I could find some extra time.

  At the same time, we still have a major problem at work if Microsoft goes through with this. I work in a research lab with 10s of 1000s of dollars worth of Windows 10 workstations that cannot be upgraded. We use Windows remote desktop and plenty of other software that is Windows only. The hardware is still pretty new and capable. With NIH cuts the last thing we need now is to have to spend money and lots of time to replace all that for no good reason.

• by frollogaston on 6/19/25, 7:39 PM

  This website is great, but the first turnoff a normal user will hit is that they don't know what "Linux distribution" means, and even if they do, it doesn't recommend one.

  Even if it said go install Ubuntu or something... Very few people think of a kernel and OS as separate things. Hardware and software separation is already sketchy enough. Instead of people interjecting for a moment, can there just be a penguin-branded "Linux" OS already?

• by bearjaws on 6/19/25, 3:37 PM

  I just wish anti-cheat would work on Linux, Windows has become an absolute mess, the search is barely usable now, everything has ads and product placement.

• by xnx on 6/19/25, 3:34 PM

  I will share this ChromeOS Flex link every chance since I was delighted how easy it was to install: https://support.google.com/chromeosflex/answer/11552529

  I only wish the process/instructions were a little more friendly for normies.

• by p_ing on 6/19/25, 3:31 PM

  Repeatedly posted over the past two months:

  https://hn.algolia.com/?q=https%3A%2F%2Fendof10.org%2F

• by Frenchgeek on 6/19/25, 3:31 PM

  I've been mainly on Linux for 20 years now (damn already?), what started as a cheap computer with second-hand parts with a more powerful windows machine mostly for games is now a powerful machine in its own rights with an outdated windows one gathering dust right beside it... It's not perfect, but I don't have to spend half an hour removing everything useless I can. (Or have Microsoft assume I have nothing better to do than watch a full presentation on how edgy their new browser is. I'm not going to forgive that one.)

• by rubyn00bie on 6/19/25, 7:56 PM

  To everyone saying you can’t play games on Linux. You can. You can play an amazing amount of games, even on launch day, with nothing more than a click of the install button on Steam. I smashed install for Clair Obscur last night and it works great. If you don’t play highly competitive online games like League of Legends then you’ll be fine.

  Anecdata— a mate of mine plays Hell Divers 2, and thought he couldn’t play it or it wouldn’t work well. I told I had played it and it worked fine. Two days later, he’s using Linux and getting better performance than he was on Windows.

  It has been five years of gaming exclusively on Linux, and I have yet to find a game I can’t play with the only exceptions (for me) being League of Legends and iRacing. But I can live without them. If you don’t play extremely competitive online games you can probably play it. My rule of thumb is, “are there IRL pro tournaments for money?” if there aren’t it’ll very likely just work.

  My only tip is just use something like common. Ubuntu, Mint, PopOS, Arch, ZorinOS, Kubuntu… all will probably work with zero effort. Don’t go mucking about with weird distros, and bizarre tweaks, and you’re more than likely gonna have the most stable system you’ve ever used.

  I cannot recommend Linux highly enough. Five years ago I was skeptical and unsure but tired of Windows bullshit and here I am— still loving it. I’ve fully upgraded the system recently, except for the GPU (because 5090 prices are ridiculous and I don’t want less VRAM than my 3090 has) and it even booted from my old install and just worked.

  Try Linux, friends. It’s pretty freaking great these days.

• by npteljes on 6/19/25, 6:00 PM

  I don't think any amount of grassroots anything will make the year of the Linux desktop happen. What could work is what Valve does: providing a valuable device with Linux preinstalled. Microsoft's backdoor bundle won't be defeated from below.

• by gadders on 6/19/25, 4:50 PM

  "At this point you will overwrite all data on the computer, so have a back up of the files you want to keep."

  Can't help thinking that should be in a bigger font. It's a shame there doesn't seem to be a away to install Linux and keep your Documents directory at least. Is that due to file systems?

  [Yes, yes, backup to memory stick/external drive but I'm talking about for your average person on the street]

• by brushfoot on 6/20/25, 9:49 AM

  Linux has gotten in the way every time I've tried various distros over the years. And I'm a system administrator turned software engineer. I can't imagine the headaches for less technical users.

  Examples:

  - Screensharing in Teams. There was a gaussian blur over everything. I had this happen during a work call.

  - Nvidia. I kept getting screen-tearing. I went through various guides, installed drivers and so on, but it never worked properly.

  - Office. LibreOffice slaughters my Office docs. The formatting is wrong, things are broken.

  - Media. I had issues watching things that I could just watch on Windows.

  Those kinds of issues were fun to me 20 years ago; they were part of the adventure of roughing it and sticking it to the man. Today, I don't have the time or energy. I'd rather use an OS that Just Works. When I need Linux, WSL has worked great.

• by mrweasel on 6/19/25, 3:14 PM

  One thing I've noticed is that the price of used hardware has gone up in my area. Sadly it seems like the Windows 10 only hardware is getting scrapped, rather than getting price dumped.

• by subjectsigma on 6/19/25, 3:17 PM

  Clean, clear, compelling. I’m not a huge fan of desktop Linux and I’ve posted that several times, but I can still find joy in other people’s success. This is the kind of marketing work that operating systems like Mint and Ubuntu need! Thanks for posting and/or making this.

• by timetraveller26 on 6/19/25, 7:33 PM

  Funny enough I've been on Linux +10 years, and I've seen the same arguments, it's ugly, games don't run, etc.

  There's been ton of progress, thankfully people keep using linux besides the very vocal frustrated "failed" migrations.

• by sgt on 6/19/25, 6:41 PM

  I don't fully understand. Is Windows 10 completely dead in the water due to lack of security updates? You can just keep using an old Windows 10 PC and take your chances. The browser will be a barrier, and the built in firewall and anti malware as well. Not perfect, but a solution.

• by yapyap on 6/19/25, 4:10 PM

  Honestly the biggest drawback of Linux for new people is IMO the massive amounts of distros, that choice alone between dozens of distros is enough friction to turn someone off the idea

• by 29athrowaway on 6/19/25, 7:36 PM

  If you are curious and work in software, you will at some point install Linux or other operating systems and have an informed opinion about what OS you like the most and use that.

  If you are not driven by curiosity, most of the time the driver is either money, a vision of software as only an occupation, work life balance, etc.

  Which is usually the kind of people that is not excited by software, doesn't have a passion for it and even take passion away from others.

• by trapatsas on 6/22/25, 5:36 AM

  Haven’t been involved with Windows for quite a while but what happened to the “evergreen” promise? Weren’t they meant to be the “last version of Windows”?

• by globular-toast on 6/19/25, 4:16 PM

  Installing Linux is easy. The problem that inevitably arises is moving all of their data across. Things like their browser bookmarks and email inboxes etc. Is there a fool proof way to do this? If they knew where all their data was then they'd be half way to being able to install Linux themselves.

• by deterministic on 6/23/25, 5:28 AM

  Windows 10 security updates will continue until 2028 so no need to do anything until then.

• by southernplaces7 on 6/20/25, 10:13 AM

  Or just go download and run Windows 10 LTSC and celebrate with a fresh hot cup of coffee for saving yourself all kinds of headaches, with both microsoft's bullshit and with navigating Linux distros.

• by eviks on 6/19/25, 8:03 PM

  > But what if you could make your current one fast and secure again?

  At a fraction of time spent following this guide you can extend win 10 by a few more years by switching to ltsc or go win11 bypassing all software restrictions

• by Jaxan on 6/19/25, 5:49 PM

  I tried installing Ubuntu on my surface pro 4. But the support for touch and stylus is bad. Also it didn’t properly shut down and emptied the battery that way.

  It’s still a great device, it just sucks I’m stuck with windows (10).

• by whiterook6 on 6/19/25, 9:28 PM

  I am not getting rid of windows 10 for several years at least. Too many of my workflows require windows apps, and windows 11 is incoherent, full of ads, and way too controlling.

• by Spivak on 6/19/25, 3:40 PM

  I like it, I think it's a good way to encourage people who otherwise may have not given the linux desktop a chance. I think one of the big hurdles he's going to be getting new users used to the command line. Because I know there's lots of discussion about like how everything should be done with the GUI but when you need help or get support with Linux it's most often going to take the form of a command that you can copy and paste into your terminal and will do what you want. You don't have to have guides with 50 screenshots of what settings to tweak. It's just a line or two of text.

  In a way I kind of wish this was how more windows support was handled just because PowerShell is so uhh... powerful.

  It might be that Linux is less capable for your use case, but people seem to be generally content with ChromeOS and I think that the standard Fedora desktop install is more capable than that so I think the market exists.

• by 2Gkashmiri on 6/20/25, 3:40 AM

  I have successfult migrated 30% of my office to Linux (KDE neon) and im not seeing any much working difference.

  Granted we use remote desktop but still.

• by cosmicgadget on 6/19/25, 5:54 PM

  "Just use Linux." Great solution. Except I already have a Linux boot. Still need a Windows boot.

• by dave333 on 6/19/25, 7:13 PM

  Is it possible to upgrade your hardware so that it becomes upgradable to Windows 11?

• by aduwah on 6/19/25, 7:23 PM

  Can't play a lot of mainstream games on Linux is the issue

• by jonplackett on 6/19/25, 4:07 PM

  I feel shallow for admitting it, but Linux is just a bit too ugly looking for me. This website has similar lack of attention to design. I guess it’s just an open source thing. You can’t expect so much attention to detail for free.