Microsoft's Dirty Secret: Your Old PC is Now Trash! ~ Dave's Garage (Video)

[Bigun]

I will soon-ish, since my next computer will be running it. I refuse to use Windows 11.

Heck, I'm still using Windows 7 in a virtual machine running on my Windows 10 system, as my day-to-day OS.

I now have it up and running on two machines and like it @Ghost Bear

[Ghost Bear]

I now have it up and running on two machines and like it @Ghost Bear

That's good to know. I have experience with other Linux flavors from using it on past jobs, but this will be my first time using it on a home PC. I've heard a lot of good things about Mint, so I decided I would try it. I've used Ubuntu and Red Hat in the past (on the job) and didn't really care for them.

[roamer_1]

Do you use MS Office - Word, Excel, or Outlook - and are those applications a must-have?  If the answer is 'no' or 'not really' then see if you can find someone like @roamer_1  who could backup the existing drive, wipe it, then install Linux Mint onto it.  You'll get a lot more years and mileage out of the same hardware.  I could do it, but I'm in NY, on L.I., so that's probably too far away.

Sorta agree. It depends so much upon the client. Elders, and especially elders without tech backgrounds, have real and abiding difficulties changing operating systems. I supported a Linux drive for a while - Pointedly selling folks on moving over... And then loading their boxen with Mint or Ubuntu, converting/relocating their files, and providing a real helldesk experience, with all Linux questions answered for free for the first year... With the offer to put them back on Windows for free within 60 days of the original installation. Especially for hillbillies, whose equipment tends to be older anyway.

I don't offer that anymore. Helldesk horror. It's one thing to help one or two folks over that divide...Another to have thirty. Nope.

I would say, if you are reasonably technically endowed... There is nothing stopping you. If you have a spare machine that won't be messin with your day-to-day, then there is no downside. Have at it, with my every blessing.

But if the changes between windows 10 and windows 11 are enough to scare you, don't for a minute think the change between Windows 10 and Linux Mint  would be easier- Well, that's just wrong. It will be much harder.

If you have one machine, and one you rely upon, the sweet spot would be to find a local tech oriented friend or family member to help you get on ebay and find a used off-lease machine capable enough to handle your needs, and also capable of moving to win11. Quite literally, a couple hundred bucks and you're all done.