In this video, I reveal why Microsoft ended Windows 10 support in October 2025? The answer is simple: they want to rob you of your digital sovereignty. They won’t be happy until each and every one of us are digital serfs in their digital fiefdom. But there’s a way that you can fight back: free software. Linux.
Read the full article and get links to all the required software and equipment here
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About Gardiner Bryant: A native Maine resident, Gardiner (yes, that’s his first name) is an enthusiastic Linux evangelist, a believer in the efficacy and superiority of the Free and Open Source way, and President of Heavy Element. Heavy Element offers web design, media production, and YouTube consulting services to individuals and companies in Maine and beyond.
Gardiner Bryant is a privacy advocate and public speaker on the topic. Learn more about his speaking series and schedule an engagement at your institution at https://gardinerbryant.com/
#windows10 #windows11 #linux
00:00 Microsoft abandoned you, you should return the favor.
00:27 Digital Sovereignty
01:24 The software we use is robbing us
02:45 Microsoft’s Windows 11 Strongarm Tactics
03:38 There is hope
03:57 Choosing your first Linux Distro
04:23 Installing Linux on your PC
04:44 Quick note to macOS users
05:02 Step 0: Back up your important files
05:54 Step 1: Create Bootable Linux USB Drive
06:13 Download Linux Image (ISO)
06:53 You’ll need a USB thumb drive
08:12 Step 2: Reboot your computer
09:30 (A note on Secure Boot)
10:14 Step 3: Installation
12:05 Step 4: Give your new install a test drive
This is how I feel more and more. I do IT stuff for non-technical folks on the side and they’re just squirming with these machines that can’t upgrade to Win11. I dump Linux Mint on there, and they run like a dream, even at 10 or 11 years old. In some cases, the RAM cannot be upgraded beyond the 4 or 8GB it shipped with, and even so, they can watch streaming video, they can video conference…you know, of course, they can do office work in LibreOffice. It’s a fucking joke that Microsoft is trying to lie to them—to all of us—and say their computers are no good any longer. And between the homelabbing I’ve been doing lately and all the machines I’ve been rehabbing for people, it just reminds me how much I enjoy using Linux. Even if it can be a pain in the ass. Even if it can be cryptic. It feels like honest-to-god computing in a way macOS hasn’t felt like for a long time, and Windows no longer even resembles.
I use a Mac laptop because I always have, and I appreciate the convenience of the ecosystem (AirPods snapping right to the machine, iMessage letting me text from a desktop app, and so forth) but just because macOS’s descent into enshittification is slower doesn’t mean it’s any less noticeable. I want a Framework laptop so damn bad, so I at least have the option to daily Linux. Dual-booting on an M-series Mac is just a little too inelegant. I want something with good support and flexibility, where the maintainers aren’t fighting an upward battle to make a black box transparent, you know?
Anyway, I really believe this is “the year of the Linux desktop” as they’ve been saying, and I have become that annoying part of my friend group who won’t stop recommending it. Seems like every week someone bitches about Windows 11, and every time, I dump three more articles or videos about how 90% of games work, and some even work better on Linux, or whatever, to try and tempt them out of their Windows-shaped box. We’ll see if it ever takes. But we know this much for sure: Windows is only getting worse.
