In a nutshell: As Microsoft prepares to end free security updates for Windows 10 in October, a significant challenge looms for charities that refurbish and distribute older computers to those in need. With an estimated 240 million PCs unable to meet the stringent hardware requirements for Windows 11, these organizations face a difficult decision: provide potentially insecure Windows 10 systems, send them to e-waste recyclers, or explore alternative operating systems like Linux.
Microsoft’s requirements for Windows 11 include a 1GHz or faster CPU with at least two cores, 4GB of RAM, 64GB of storage, Secure Boot capability, and TPM 2.0 compatibility. However, the supported Intel CPU list only goes back to 8th Gen chips, introduced in 2017, while the AMD list includes Ryzen 2000 series and above.
how is this a hard choice? windows will keep ratcheting to shit. it will not improve. the question is: linux now, or tons of expense and trouble, and linux later?
The choice is hard because many charities already have a hard time maintaining what they have. To move to linux, they’d need people to know linux. Many volunteers that support this stuff simply don’t and are barely power-users themselves. I spend a good chunk of my day interacting with JUST windows users who have no idea how a computer actually works… they just know how to barely operate windows.
There’s a barrier of entry to linux for sure BUT it really depends on the distro.
The issue I think is “marketing”. I’m sure most of these computer agnostic folks would be fine using Linux Mint or Ubuntu but to someone who doesn’t understand these things, just the fact that there’s a choice to make there is probably barrier enough.
If we lower the barrier of entry for installation and choice for them, the decision to switch becomes way easier, I think.