I wish I could say that I am sad to see the end of Window’s 10, but I am just not.

Microsoft is ending support for Windows 10 on the 25th of October 2025, and I am abuzz with excitement!

After October the 25th 2025, Microsoft will no longer provide updates or technical support for Windows 10, as it reaches it’s much anticipated end of life (Yay!).

This does however mean that you’re faced with a choice; continue to be bullied and spied on by Microsoft by moving to the overpriced Windows 11, or choose Freedom and switch to GNU/Linux.

Biased opinion aside, what exactly does the death of Windows 10 mean for you or your business?

  • Your infrastructure, cyber and data security risk is increased. Since Windows 10 will not receive security updates, your devices will be exposed to the latest vulnerabilities which can expose your devices, and business to new threats.
  • Possible penalties / compliance issues. Certain regulated industries require the use of vendor supported software, and therefore running an insecure / unsupported operating system may cause legal issues in future.
  • Increased insurance costs. Insurance companies, particularly those in the cyber security space insuring against data or intellectual property loss, may increase insurance premiums for businesses using insecure or outdated software.
  • Software compatibility issues. Proprietary software developers tend to provide support only for the latest supported operating system. This means that you may be forced to upgrade to Windows 11, or risk losing the compatibility of your software.
  • You’ll have to upgrade your hardware. Windows 11 hardware requirements are quite something, and Microsoft Windows 11 does not support older hardware. If you are a business, with a larger number of laptops, desktops or servers to maintain, downgrading to Windows 11 could end up costing quite a bit.
  • You’ll have to start paying for Windows 11. The cheapest copy of Windows 11 at the time of writing this article, is R3300 excl. In a company of 10 users, this could mean a software upgrade cost of well over thirty thousand rand. That does not include the monthly costs imposed by Office 365 for a basic set of organisational and productivity tools. Nor does this include the hardware upgrades that may be necessary.
  • You’ll be forced to create a Microsoft account. Gone are the days of local / offline Microsoft accounts. Recently Microsoft made the decision to prevent users from using Windows without first creating a Microsoft account. Needless to say, this is massively inconvenient for anyone who simply wants to use their computer, without also giving away massive amounts of private information to a corporate monopoly.
  • Your data may be fed into an AI beast. Read Noiz’s article on Microsoft Recall and Copilot, and the strange anti-privacy decision Microsoft has made with Windows 11 to take screenshots every few seconds and feed these images into their new AI software.

Fortunately there is still some time before Windows 10 drops the axe on its users, but I do suggest that you start planning and budgeting soon.

keep calm and install linux

So, how do you break free from the tightening grip Microsoft has over your day to day computer systems?

Ever since the release of Windows 10, I have been championing enthusiastically for the use of Libre, or Free and Open Source software such as Linux. The GNU/Linux operating system is at the core of the copy left movement, Freeing users from the corporate grip of proprietary software companies.

Here are some things you can do immediately, on your own or with the help of Noiz.

  1. Switch to Linux. Read my expanded article on why and how one should switch to GNU/Linux, including replacements for common non-free applications. Libre Office and Thunderbird are two of my favourites.
  2. Try Noiz’s GNU/Linux installation service. Send us your laptop or desktop computer, and Noiz will upgrade it to a GNU/Linux machine. Noiz will revive older machines with a fresh new operating system, specifically Linux Mint, or any other flavour of GNU/Linux that Noiz supports. What other flavours of Linux does Noiz support? (Whonix, Tails, Ubuntu, Debian, Mint, Mandragora, etc).
  3. Learn Linux. Learning GNU/Linux is much easier than it sounds. Not only are there countless courses and material available online, but Noiz also offers training workshops, and provide remote support plans to make sure you and your team are well equipped to handle the transition to a new system.
  4. Buy a Linux computer, from the Noiz store. All of the laptop and desktop computers sold by Noiz come ready to go with GNU/Linux. I’ve been using Ubuntu for years, but decided to start providing Linux Mint to Noiz’s clients, for a number of reasons. Read about why I chose Mint as my Desktop environment.

Change does seem frightening initially, especially big changes, like using slightly different software. As the saying goes however, good things take time, but great things happen all at once.

It’s time to choose Freedom.

P.S. It is worthwhile noting that we accept Monero for all of our products and services.