KDE is welcoming Windows 10 exiles to switch to Linux
Windows 10 will reach its end of life in October. While Microsoft is advising users to ditch their old PCs and upgrade to a newer one that supports Windows 11, the Linux community has other suggestions.
KDE, known for its various Linux software, has hit out at Microsoft for trying to turn old computers into junk. The web page educates visitors about the risks of running an outdated version of Windows 10, which could soon become obsolete, and prone to being hacked when more bugs are discovered. The result could be chaotic, as it could result in data and identity theft, or even a remote attack that takes over the PC's control. New apps may not run on abandoned operating systems, either.
KDE accuses Microsoft of tech extortion, stating that it has done the same in the past when it stopped supporting old PCs that were running on Windows Vista and Windows 8.
The article points out that not only will users be forced to spend their hard-earned cash, but this call to abandon PCs will result in polluting the earth, water when old machines rot in landfills. Microsoft did suggest recycling old PCs, but KDE makes some strong points, you don't have to abandon your old computer simply because it cannot run Windows 11.
KDE is welcoming Windows 10 exiles to Linux. It highlights an important point, the fact that computers that are 10 or 15 years old can run on the latest versions of Linux. KDE also showcased Plasma, its own desktop environment, which looks very similar to Windows desktop, but also offers more features.
KDE also backed the End Of 10 project, which aims to attract Windows 10 users over to Linux. Many users are afraid of making the switch to Linux. Most of the popular Windows apps are available on Linux, or may have an equivalent alternative. Do your research to see if the apps you want are available. Linux can run most games too, thanks to emulation tools like Wine, Proton. Remember, you don't need to understand how to use a terminal to use Linux. You don't have to pay for the OS, Linux is free, open source, and devoid of the telemetry and AI bloat that is plaguing Windows. Many distros are very user-friendly, like Linux Mint, Ubuntu.
Microsoft is a terrible company that’s screwed it’s users for too long. Switching to Linux is a good move and it’ll save you money. My grandpa is in his 80s, he downloads and uses Linux Mint on his own. If he can do it anyone can.
Sounds like none of the above commenters have ever used linux or they loaded it up one time 15 years ago.
Aside from the few people who know better and use and enjoy KDE (or another DE/WM, there’s actually choice in desktops/window managers in Linux, not so for the one boring stupid closed source desktop in Windows!) all these Linux articles are going to attract is PAID M$ TROLLS. The first two posts here are an example…
“Joe Soap” attacks “Linunx” at 1pm, followed up by efromme a little later at 1:15pm, also using the strange string of letters, “Linunx”, which is not even a popular or known way of condemning Linux; it’s not even a meme!
My personal preferences are Cinnamon, Xfce, and even MATE. The appearance of KDE is childish.
Gnome is still the best functional tool ever made in Linux. KDE is mostly bloatware.
Minor detail is that KDE is just a veneer desktop environment (with a few native apps), sitting on top of generic Linux underpinnings. Installing any complete GNU Linux OS by a novice, non geek is totally dependent on an heroic Linux installer. If it fails or misses in any way or in part, then the end user will then most certainly need to learn the more esoteric underpinnings of the OS. Including having to understand and navigate the command line/terminal’s cryptic drudgery.
To a novice, it’s a crap-shoot at best whether all your devices will be found and properly configured. All that before you can even try to evaluate whether the alternative apps/programs available will meet your even basic needs.
Windows is the complete OS. And even though Microsoft has become more and more controlling and user hostile over the years, Windows remains the only viable desktop OS environment for most end users.
A complete GNU Linux Desktop OS could have been a real competitor to Windows but was held back by Richard M. Stallman of the FSF Free Software Foundation. The FSF is the only entity that could have pulled all the needed players under one tent for a generic Linux desktop. But RMS was such an unmitigated acerbic A-Hole, demanding that only Free/Libre software could be used on any system he would endorse/allow. Absolutely prohibiting any closed source applications or binaries.
Had he allowed them in an official FSF end user desktop, Linux would have taken off.
I’ve always refer to this attitude as his absolute prohibition on allowing OS training wheels.
Yet another non-article babbling on about a ‘switch to Linux’ fantasy.
What exactly is the news here?
“KDE Has Done Nothing More Than Any Previous Linux Effort To Help Windows Refugees”
That’s what this ‘article’ amounts to. Oh, and some routine scaremongering about security issues most users will never even be exposed to.
Meanwhile, until at least September, Mozilla still supports Firefox on Windows… wait for it… SEVEN. As they should because that’s feck all reason not to.
The likes of the Linux community need to wake up to themselves. It’s not Microsoft that is necessarily forcing old computers into landfill. It’s Linux! There’s too many distributions, yet very few people want to use any of them.
It’s that simple.
It’s not *just* MS monopolist tactics preventing some fanciful Linux Spring that everyone keeps dreaming about, that is routinely muttered about whenever a Windows version is made end of life. It’s the very nature of ‘Linux’.
There is no such thing as a ‘Linux’ alternative to Windows.
See if you can stop, wait, think for a much longer than ‘internet speed’ chunk of time, without distractions, turn off the PooToob and your ‘socials’ … and see if you can imagine three points that go a long way towards proving that statement is true.
Yeah that’s cute. Now present a good, simple and stable linux operating system that runs the latest KDE Plasma as the alternative for all the Windows 10 refugees. Oh that’s right, you can’t. BECAUSE THERE ISN’T ONE.
You need a website that says: Wanna dump Windows? USE THIS! There is one big download button for a .iso and a big clear text linking to the simplest way to get that .iso on a usb stick. Then a few more lines explaining how to turn off fastboot in Windows, orders to backup all personal files and what settings need to be changed in BIOS/UEFI so the usb can boot from it. For our American friends there must also be a warning text that the usb stick is not food or a suppository.
That’s it.
But since that magical KDE Plasma OS is nowhere to be found, everyone should just install Zorin OS instead. UNLESS the user is over 50 years old, then Linux Mint is mandatory. The boomer OS. Khaki pants and New Balance retro-sneakers OS.
“Many users are afraid of making the switch to Linux. Most of the popular Windows apps are available on Linux, or may have an equivalent alternative. Do your research to see if the apps you want are available.”
That sounds like an interesting article if you could do the research for us. As an ex. MS Word, does it work on Linunx or not, if not, what’s an alternative sw?
I wonder, is there a software that can convert/transition a MS machine to a Linux machine?
I have been trying fo 20 years to do a full switch.
Despite trying 5 or so times to do that, I have always ended up on Windows. Even as I type this, all of my machines apart from one experimental one are on Windows.
Perhaps one day when Linunx can handle locales correctly and I can RDP properly from a Windows machine to a Linux desktop.
Until then, there is no way.