From an October 14, 2025 report in Brussels Signal:

• “A group of protesters gathered outside Microsoft’s EU office to complain about the company’s decision to end security updates for its older devices running the Windows 10 operating system.”
• “[This] includes millions of older devices that cannot run its newer operating system, Windows 11.”
• “Right to Repair Europe, which organised the protest, said Microsoft had now made users choose between a system that will become steadily more insecure, or buying a new laptop.”

I have been running Linux exclusively since August 2020. I switched to Linux when I built a new desktop computer to replace the previous desktop I had built back in 2011, so it was not a forced obsalescence case. However, I did once have a Windows XP netbook that I could not upgrade. It was my only laptop. Instead of purchasing a new laptop, I installed Ubuntu on it. All I really knew about Linux was that it was a free operating system that some tech people used. I am sure I chose Ubuntu because that was the only Linux thing I had heard of. It went fine. While I am not going to say that everyone can switch from Windows to Linux like I did, I would encourage even those people who need to “upgrade” to a Windows 11 laptop re-purpose their old laptops with a shiny new Linux distribution and give it a go. Some without specific work-related concerns may find that Linux works as well or better for them than Windows.