Ending End-of-life Windows with Linux

Zorin Linux

XP, and now Windows 7, are end-of-life-ed. What that means is that the software may continue to live, but Microsoft says it will consider them as if they were dead. In reality, end-of-life means end of Microsoft support, unless one is a massive corporation or a government able to pay huge support contracts. Microsoft continues to update these unsupported operating systems, but the average user will not receive those updates -- except, in the rare case where a security issue is so critical that Microsoft feels responsible.

End-of-life is more than just not receiving updates from Microsoft. Vendors stop making versions of their software for your operating system. You might be happy with Word 2003, but your browser may decide not to work any longer. In short, you don't want to be on an unsupported operating system.

Microsoft would like you to upgrade to the newest operating system. But what if you cannot? Old operating systems are generally found on equally old PCs. Old equipment may not be able to support newer operating systems. And, if they do, you may not have the disk space to install it or have the processing power to make the experience feel quick enough to be usable.

In comes Linux. Linux is not a single operating system. No one runs an operating system called "Linux". Linux is a core set of technologies that are based on UNIX. There many versions of Linux, called distros, on the market. Some are commercial, in that you pay for them, and most are free. Fortunately for end-of-life Windows users, there are a number of Linux distros designed specifically to ease the transition from Windows to Linux. One of the prime examples is Zorin Linux, but there are perhaps a dozen others. These distros offer interfaces that can be adjusted to look like specific versions of Windows. You want XP, done. You want Windows 7, fine. Windows 10, no problem. Because Linux tends to run well on older hardware, the transition will not be accompanied by reductions in speed. Some distros even come with utilities that will backup all your Windows data and then import that data into your new Linux distro.

If you are not sure which distro you like, or just nervous about Linux, you can run a distro from a USB device or dual install it  with your current Windows installation -- assuming you have the free disk space.

So, before tossing our your end-of-life PC, give Linux a shot. You'll be happy it allows you to keep your old PC and may find that Linux is the operating system you will want on your next new computer.