The PC Gamer article’s title also says “upgrade or”. That’s a heck of a detail to editorialize out of the title.
From the Mozilla post it cites:
After this, no security updates will be provided and you are strongly encouraged to upgrade to a supported Microsoft Windows version.
Or, if your current hardware can’t handle Windows 10 or higher for some reason, you can switch to a Linux-based operating system. The vast majority of Linux distributions come with Firefox as the default browser.
I agree switching to Linux is the better option. I want to try Bazzite.
Bazzite’s excellent, just be aware going in that it’s an immutible distro and some stuff may be different than you’re used to.
It will be different anyway, as it is a completely different operating system that has nothing in common with windows.
Windows is mutable. That’s likely what they are referring to.
Except it will prevent you from mutating many of its system files. I mean it’s not a good argument for a former Windows user, unless they get a sudden urge to tinker with all possible system files on Linux (which is possible to do on immutable systems in one way or another, but it’s much harder and not as straightforward)
True, but a lot of Linux help and guides are based around normal distros where they won’t work
The worst part of immutable versions is when you go searching for help, you need to be careful about answers that might be presented to you.
For example, if I search for "how to install nVidia drivers in Fedora Kinonite 43, the first returns can often be for Fedora Plasma 43. Those terminal commands for Plasma won’t work for Kinonite. And even updating is different. Instead of sudo dnf update for regular Fedora desktops, you need to type rpm-ostree update for atomic versions.
It’s also not as stable as they market it to be
Bazzite is amazing, nearly bulletproof even?
I had a few times where it booted to the grub emergency shell, but it literally just fixed itself. Just reboot and it uses the other A/B slot. And the next update attempt just fixes whatever the problem was. That’s only happened twice in the last 5 months since I switched. Most longtime Linux users should be very familiar with the grub emergency shell, but I’ve never been on a distro where it just fixes itself. I don’t ever have to think or worry about updates, it’s just a reliable daily driver. It’s sick.
As people have said, Bazzite is immutable. You can install system packages/libraries if you absolutely need to, but you really should run your custom stuff in a Distrobox instead. Distrobox is preinstalled, supports graphical apps automatically, and most of the time you won’t even notice it’s not your real OS.
I think Bazzite is more stable and usable than Windows now. I’m tempted to switch my parents to it, it’s been much more fault tolerant than Windows 11.
Yeah, Linux is an afterthought, but I’m glad that they brought it up at all. They could’ve mentioned how Linux is more privacy-conscious than Windows, but that might’ve opened them up to a lawsuit.
If you’re still hanging on to old hardware. Linux is the way to go baby
At this point, if you have hardware, Linux is a good choice. New or old. The older it is might change which distro, but still a good choice.
I’m not very techie, so when I took my brand new Lenovo (cheap) laptop from w11 to Linux mint, it really felt like an achievement. I haven’t used a command terminal since college, and I straight up made a bootable usb and wiped w11
Nice, that’s sick. I’m soft modding my Wii atm and it also feels good.
Nice!!! But I feel those entry distros could do a lot more to be more user friendly, there are many edge cases where you still need to use a terminal and have some understanding of the OS. We need a truly GUI only distro with more wizards, and automatic repair so more people flee to Gnu/Linux
Edge cases are well, on the edge and sometimes you just need to let them go. You can’t always be everything to everyone.
TBH i really like that i had to get a bit techie again to make the switch. learning to use the terminal a little bit has ignited something in me, and the fact that linux doesnt track my shit has made me way more privacy conscious
Hell yeah brother
I’m still afraid to switch to Linux because I’ve used Windows since i was a kid with Windows 95. It’s gotten progressively worse, and I’m still reluctantly camped out on Windows 10, but the thought of firing up a new operating system and going back to being a confused adolescent who doesn’t know how to get around (with or without accidentally making an older woman crouching in red lingerie the desktop wallpaper on my family computer and then denying any knowledge of it) makes me really uneasy.
Please, Linux whisperers. Calm my woes. 😓
Most distro’s have a live bootable install. You download a .iso and burn it to a flash drive. Plug it in and boot from it, doesn’t touch or change anything with your current Windows install.
This lets you try out the OS before fully installing it. Give it a whirl.
I personally recommend Fedora KDE. https://fedoraproject.org/kde/
Instead of burning the ISO to the flash drive, I recommend burning Ventoy to your flashdrive. Then you can drag and drop ISOs for every distro you want to try without having to burn them every time.
Ventoy is so freaking cool!
Linux is way more similar and familiar than you likely imagine.
Of course, learning is inevitable going to Linux for the first time. But learning is not scary or bad. There are helpful docs and the community. Everyone here was once where you are now.
Also, try Linux risk-free on Windows in a virtual machine.
Next you can dual boot.
Next, you can resort to running Windows apps via Wine and other virtual evironments.
And only last but not least, can you go 100% pure Linux.
So there is a gentle and gradual migration path available. It’s not an all or nothing commitment right upfront.
You only have your chains to lose.
Before Windows 11, I told people to switch to Linux because open source software is better for the soul. Now, I tell people because the user experience is just better. I used XP/Vista/7 throughout my childhood, and modern Linux desktop environments really do feel closer to that experience than Windows 11. I use Win11 for work, and I can confidently say that it has the worst settings menu I’ve ever used.
If you know the basics of using a desktop computer, most things won’t feel that weird or foreign to you. The hardest part will probably be learning Linux-compatible alternatives for apps that only work on Windows. What kind of programs do you typically use on your Windows system?
You could do what I did: Install a second drive in your computer and install Linux (e.g. Linux Mint) on it. That way you can always go back to Windows should you come to the conclusion that Linux isn’t for you . But I have to say, being a recent switcher from Windows to Linux myself, the transition was really easier than I initially thought.
I’ve used Windows since i was a kid
substitute “Windows” with “computer”. If you have any history of resolving “this doesn’t work for me” on your own (as opposed to waiting for someone else do to it for you), you will be fine. Just be sure not to jump into unknown when you have urgent important things to do :)
I did what Lawnman23 mentioned, downloaded the latest Mint release and flashed it on an usb stick. booted into Linux Mint, and all my hardware did function right away from the start. Including my old printer, all my usb devices, bluetooth devices and no problems with my Nvidia graphics card. After that i installed linux mint next to my windows as a dual boot. I installed it on different SSD drive tho. Linux Mint is now the OS i always use, i got all my programs and games working on Linux, and now am deleting Windows from my pc.
You’ve got a very relatable situation. Switching to Linux can be a gradual thing. -Keep your windows main, and get a flash drive boot
- make a folder on you C:/ or D:/ to store your Linux user files (like downloads and documents). This keeps your windows files more separate from your Linux files. It also let’s you keep files across boots. You can delete the Linux folder if you don’t want to keep it around.
- Open up Firefox, and have a browse of your favourite sites. See about logging in and getting your account logged in.
- what’s it like? Is it different to windows? Is the vibe different?
- try installing your favourite app or game.
- get curious!
- too much? Your windows is still right there.
Baby steps! And remember, you don’t need to see the whole staircase, just take the first step :)
Win10 isn’t all bad, in fact many folks treat that as a decent os. The real issues is having win11 taking hours (from 8pm to 3 am real funny) to upgrade just to find out that copilot has the whole filesystem now. No privacy or sandbox mode. No nothing. A thousands different copilot buttons.
I keep my win10 machine as is because i have a lot of my stuff there, a lot really. But in the end, I have no issue in having a mini laptop with linux. It’s the most low end device i can think of and i freed some space. But, if you’re used to windows that much, 10 is still valid.
I don’t think the women dancing on lingerie phenomenon is ongoing. They make more money selling your data on free videos than they’d make after the money they’d spend programming it
One of the main places windows is used, like it or not, are organizations and companies. Especially small ones. Specially ones that are not in wealthy countries. And the only thing that keeps them from switching to linux is microsoft office. (Most importantly Word, excel).
My company has ~20 people and I would switch them over to linux if it wasn’t for word and excel.
While libreoffice is great on it’s own, companies send eachother xlsx and docx files. And libreoffice isnt great at reading or writing them. Specially complex ones. I don’t think it’s much of libre office’s fault, but more the shitty incompatible, unstandardized microsoft formats.
Currently I’m the only Linux user in the team, and I constantly advocate Linux, but I know if anybody switches, compatibility with microsoft office is going to be a problem. I can take the risk with the tech team but not the office section (hr, sales, secretary accounting etc.) really.
Try onlyoffice and slowly try to shift to libreoffice with open document formats. Or just skip that part and move everyone to the web versions of office. Also if you guys are on office 2010, the last time I ran it via wine, it worked completely fine.
No you cannot shift to open document formats because you can’t send an odt file to another company. They will not know what it is. In the enterprise world you have to “send them the word” or “the excel”.
Man I feel you and I know it’s just how things are. But I often ask myself the following question: Why are lots of office workers so bad with computers? It’s the tool they use for 1/3 of working day in their life. Just like a craftsman should learn to use their tools. No, instead they always act like it’s something only tech guys should know about.
An electrician drives around in their van full of their tools. They are expert in their tools, but some can’t even change a tire on the van.
It’s the same with office jobs. You use a bunch of tools on the computer, but the computer isn’t necessarily a part of your tool set, it’s your vehicle.
This might be a bit harsh, but to be honest, you can’t expect them to be smarter. Otherwise they would also be engineers.
I’m most case you provably want to just send the document as PDF, don’t you? For which use case do you want to send an editable document to another company?
Many companies will send you docx files out of sheer idiocity. And tell you to “send the word” to them.
And excel is always transferred as xlsx
It’s called collaboration. When I worked as a toolmaker, I needed to use SolidWorks, despite not being a big fan, because our customers used SW and they were often literally on the other side of the planet.
Did you try OnlyOffice? I heard it has good compatibility with Microsoft Office’s files, it’s available on almost every OS, and looks easy to use. However, I’m not sure if you can create very complex documents like with Office.
It’s good but not great. The documents will still get messed up and look wierd sometimes.
That’s the rub isn’t it. It’s good, but not quite good enough all the time, every time.
Microsoft dominance in businesses is part of what’s making me think all businesses are in cahoots with each other to make sure the only businesses that are successful are ones that take power away from the public.
There is stuff Office 360 or whatever is called to that online Microsoft Office can do just fine from Firefox or Chrome based browsers. But if things get overcomplicated, it’s as good or even worse than Libreoffice at handling xlsx, docx documents.
Even current Office struggles with early Office documents.
This is the same thing that keeps my parents on windows. I do agree it’s not libre offices fault
Windows 7 users are switching to forks that still support the OS, like r3dfox, Pale Moon, Mypal, and Supermium. Home users stuck with 7 and 8 probably won’t upgrade or try Linux, they didn’t even update to 10 for some reason (and it was free!) .
I mean… if they’re still on Windows 7, they’ll likely keep using Firefox anyway?
thats so weird. if someone is forced to be on win7, no way they gonna change to linux. there has to be some compatibility issue in the background.
“Most browsers, including Google Chrome and Microsoft Edge, have already ended support for Windows 7, 8 and 8.1.”
To me Millions of flies can’t be wrong: eat shit. is a crappy argument but at least they’re
“If your current hardware can’t handle Windows 10 or higher for some reason, you can switch to a Linux-based operating system. The vast majority of Linux distributions come with Firefox as the default browser.”
I mean, it’s a lot of work to make security updates for a browser on an operating system that doesn’t get security updates anymore. Why spend money fixing the weapons on a sinking ship?
Windows is so shit. Glad I switched, everything works so much better (and faster) on Linux.
95 was the last good windows i said what i said
98SE enters the chat
XP SP3 enters the chat.
Ride the sine wave…Or the cosine wave until it hurts so good.
I did like 98SE a lot, was impressed by 95 and loved 3.1, but the first really great, stable, modern windows was 2k
I had all the above but I had 2k the longest. I miss it.
Probably hard to support old platforms if the entire toolchain, predominantly owned by Microsoft isn’t supporting them either.
Well, as an addition to all the calls for switching to Linux:
Its completely doable to install Windows 11 on unsupported Hardware, using an official ISO from Microsoft and letting the Rufus imager apply a few changes and Win 11 should run on hardware that is about 10 years old or a bit older (i think i have heard Microsoft has removed support for the Core2 generation of CPUs). If you want to get a really clean install the best tool is - i think - tiny11builder which cleans up an official ISO and makes the whole experience of running this OS on older hardware way more pleasant.
Currently i have a test system (a laptop) with an Celeron N3010 and 4 GB RAM on my desk at work running Windows 11 modified by tiny11builder and it is - while not exactly fast - absolutely useable for classical office tasks.
Its Kind of insane to think about that you have to put so much effort into deshittifying windows 11. At that point its probably easier to switch to Linux (if you dont have anything that forces you to use win 11)
I personaly am not forced to use Windows, quiet on the contrary - at the moment i am daily driving Haiku. But there is always this odd person in the extended family that cannot switch because of an pigeon breeding management software or some obscure program used for some niche interest… so its nice to have a roadmap to let them keep using an system that keeps getting updated.
I like linux and I use it (Raspbian, Zorin, Ubuntu, Arch: diff machines). I also enjoy using Win 8.1 on my Lenovo M93p Tiny (8GB ram), as a Playnite appliance / console. This allows me to play emulated games (Wii, Gamecube, PS2, to about 1.5-2x upscale), ~2013ish era AAA titles (Fallout 3, Just Cause 2, Dead Rising 2, GTA IV) and select indy games (like Donut County, Untitled Goose Game, EXO ONE) all from one device.
Normally, the advice would be to use something like Bazzite or Batocera (and I agree!)…but given the hardware limitations and the “it just runs” nature of these older Window games (under windows) I’ve had better experiences sticking to Win 8.1.
YMMV but the “switch to linux cause windows too old” thing has some shades of gray.
If you play on a machine that is not connected to internet, then by all means there is no reason to switch. But of you are connected to the internet, then those system pose security risks and you would be better off having an up to date system. If Win 10 wasn’t EOL then maybe the advice to upgrade to Win10 would be solid.
Possibly…but I think some of that depends too on what is meant by “online.” Obviously, if you frequent questionable sites and install unvetted software, that’s a bad idea. OTOH, having a machine with strict firewall rules (so not everything can just phone home), limited outbound access, no daily browsing/email, and only going online occasionally for specific, known downloads is a different situation than using it as a general-purpose internet PC.
Even occasional access to a small number of mainstream, HTTPS-authenticated sites (e.g., major services where the browser can verify certificates) isn’t the same exposure as wide-open browsing. (nb: Firefox’s ESR releases have historically helped extend browser security support on older systems for a while, which can reduce risk somewhat - though obviously not indefinitely.)
Look, I’m not arguing that EOL systems are “safe.” They’re not getting patches. But exposure matters. A mostly appliance-like gaming box that’s segmented and tightly controlled isn’t the same risk profile as someone’s primary web machine.
ICBW and YMMV.
Soooo, supermium, then?
There’s also the project “Firefox for Windows 7”. Which is the current version of Firefox rather than the ancient ESR version that Mozilla offers. It works perfectly well in my experience.
it was bullshit when they ended support for XP, and now I have to find alternatives on 7!!?
fuck you Mozilla, you just lost a customer!
Calm down, XP was 13 years old when it was retired. It lived a long, happy life. And Windows 7 was released seventeen years ago.
Using either OS in 2026 is extremely dangerous and stupid. Please switch to Linux.
lol how much have you been paying them?
at least $25 a month for the past year!
they won’t get another dime from me, that’s for sure.
Rookie mistake. After your free trial is over, just cancel it and start a new one.
is that why they send me all those AOL CDs?
if you’re serious pls update your shit it’s time to move on big bro
I run all my systems on XP and 7. I don’t like all this techno AI bullshit.
my whole work laptop is from 2002 and runs XP just fine!
Then upgrade to Linux.
Dude you are my worst nightmare as a security person modern hacking techniques are so unbelievably far ahead of XP, just go to Win10/Linux at least
ew gross!
isn’t linix one of those things hackers use?
besides, Win10 got rid of my computer and hid control panel. it’s a garbage OS that can’t even run DOS properly.
XP sp2 is peak performance!
Hackers do use Linux, but only Kali Linux. And Tor browser.
Windows 10 is more secure because they added security (to stop the hackers). And epic OneDrive login so all your files can sink.
I don’t need onedrive, I have My Briefcase.
I also have a really secure password on my XP install so no hackers can get in.
Ummmm. Buddy. Microsoft can’t train Copilot from a briefcase, you’re not being very community-oriented.
And hackers can type really fast so they can guess your password even if it’s something complicated like GoPanthers123!
Forgot the /s mate
Funny how often people get downvoted to hell here for posts that are obviously sarcasm.
I don’t get it.
/s stands for sarcasm, which is what I think you wanted to say.
Because its really hard to expect anyone to understand if you are joking or not in text form.
ok, I can’t keep stringing you along because I feel like you’re literally not getting the sarcasm.
yes, it was sarcasm.
no, I didn’t forget it.
still don’t understand? read the meme.
You need to be clear with things like this.
I am literally unable to understand sarcasm.
I understand. I don’t agree, but I understand.
How did you know that it was supposed to be sarcastic, then? You said they forgot the /s. How were you able to identify sarcasm if you can’t understand it?
You can infer sarcasm by context. Some of the best sarcasm has no change in tone; this is called “dry” sarcasm and is common in Britain, for example.
Or you could move away from legacy systems entirely by installing Linux.
