Stop Throwing Away Perfectly Good Computers!
August 4th, 2025
Today, while browsing the Debian website, I came across a little blurb on the Why Debian page:
"Windows 10 support ends in October 2025. Your computer may not run Windows 11, but it will run Debian for many more years without buying new hardware. Debian supports the End of 10 campaign."
I thought, what is this End of 10 campaign? So I hopped over there to take a look.
First, that website is professional and beautiful. Apparently, it is run by the KDE folks.
Second, just yesterday I wrote My Elevator Pitch For Emacs and, by doing so, I learned firsthand how challenging it is to come up with an elevator pitch. I have no idea whether I came up with a good one. (Perhaps you could take a look and let me know!) But looking at the End of 10 campaign website, I saw what I think is an excellent elevator pitch for switching from Windows to Linux.
I won't repeat what they say there, or even try to summarize it. They have already done a much better job than I could do! Instead, I'll just add my own commentary:
On many occasions over the years, I've heard people make statements like:
"My computer is slow. I need a new computer."
or
"My computer has a virus. I need a new computer."
or
"My computer is messed up. I need a new computer."
In most cases, it's not the computer that's messed up, but just the software. If you're a nerd like me, you probably know that and you probably also know how to discard any software on the computer and start over from scratch to get a clean, fast, secure system again. Like me, you may have helped people by setting up their system for them.
But most of the population doesn't have that level of computer skills.
How many otherwise perfectly good computers end up in landfills because of that?
And now there's a new reason:
"A new version of Windows is coming out. I need a new computer."
The End of 10 campaign and its supporters are doing something about that while also trying to win new converts over to Linux.
I must have been living under a rock to not have heard about this before, but I am glad I heard about it now.
I'm writing this article in the hopes of doing my small part to raise awareness of this campaign.
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