Linux

On October 14 Microsoft wants to turn [your computer] into junk. It may seem like it continues to work after that date.

I don't begrudge KDE for fishing for converts. It's a prefectly reasonable idea and hey, already more structured marketing than most Linux initiatives ever get around to deploying.

The page does highlight some of the contradictions in the W10 EoL being the great big hope for a major Linux transition for average users. For one thing... yeah, it won't seem like all those computers keep working, they will keep working. Indefinitely. Which is a bit of an issue.

The whole page is a who's who of flawed arguments Linux advocates keep impotently making at Windows users. It may be more useful as a guide for the things Linux contributors should be focusing on fixing than as an outreach tool.

Just for a few examples:

For the technically minded, need to connect to your web server to update your blog, or your cloud to upload photos, or even your software repository for development? Just pop open Dolphin, Plasma's file explorer, and use its connectivity tools, that include FTP/SSH clients, cloud integration software, Git/SVN/Mercurial, and more.

Yeah, who the hell is out there SSHing into their web server "to update their blog" but needs to be talked down like a toddler to convince them to try out Linux? This is a mythical beast of an user that does not exist.

You may be wondering if you will still be able to do what you did on Windows.

Linux does take some getting used to after years of using Windows, and you may need different programs to work and play.

Right, that's a big red flag right there for any normie or semi-tech literate professional with a set workflow.

But there are three tricks that will make the transition easier:

1. Rely on the Free Software community ... And ask a lot of questions! Linux users are a proud bunch and will happily guide you so you quickly become at home.

Nobody wants to ask any questions. Users want to be hand-held by their interface, not a community. Definitely not the Linux community (see the inevitable set of comments soon to materialize below this as an example).

2. Do not expect the same things you would use in Windows ... but instead look for the programs that will do the same job on Linux.

This is a massive dealbreaker for a whole bunch of people, for understandable reasons.

Keeping all your files and folders will require some planning, but it is not hard. Get yourself an external hard disk you can plug into a USB port and dump all the stuff you want to save on that. You will have no problem reading it from Plasma later on.

This is simultaneoulsy an over and understatement. You can very likely access your old Windows drives from Linux, but it's janky enough that this piece of advice makes sense. Plus you're very likely to squash a bunch of your storage when installing Linux anyway. And when you think about the idea of pulling a couple of terabytes out of your machine just to copy them back over to the exact same drive this seems like a bit more of a hassle than presented.

I haven't thought about this particular issue in a while because I'm set up so it doesn't matter much to me when I install either OS, but... yeah, someone should find a better solution to this.

No forced updates

However, every single tutorial and guide you read will tell you to update all right at the top with the compulsive zeal of a puppy who has just smelled a hidden treat. You may not grow to be as annoyed by this as I am... but if you do, know that I see you.

Again, I am on board with the initiative. I just think there is a bit of denial about both the upcoming demise of Win10 and about how viable this transition process is for the types of users stuck in Win10 at the end of 2025. The entire document is an accidental admission of the gaps that still exist and I would love for it to become a roadmap of things to improve more than a pitch at this void Venn diagram of hypothetical users. If the caveats they list here get fixed it will take remarkably less coaxing to bring users over next time.