Free · test it without installing
Linux: your PC is fast enough, whatever Microsoft says
A 2015–2018 machine that fails the Windows 11 check almost always has more than enough power to run Linux well. The Windows 11 barrier is a policy rule about security chips, not a verdict on your hardware. Here’s the honest picture — including the people who genuinely shouldn’t do this.
You can run Linux from a USB stick without touching your existing installation. Your Windows setup stays exactly as it is; the whole system runs from the stick. Ten minutes of this tells you more than any review — you can check whether your Wi-Fi, printer and scanner work before you change a single thing.
Before reading further: run the hardware check. Four questions about your graphics, Wi-Fi, BitLocker and printer — the four things that actually decide whether install day is smooth — and it tells you the known fixes for anything that flags.
Who should not switch to Linux
Let’s do this first, because most guides bury it. If any of these describe you, Linux will cost you more than it gains:
| If you depend on… | The honest position |
|---|---|
| Macro-heavy Excel | Hard blocker. LibreOffice Basic has only limited VBA support and OnlyOffice uses an entirely different JavaScript macro system. Macros need rewriting, not porting. If your livelihood runs on a macro workbook, don’t switch that machine. |
| Adobe Creative Cloud | Hard blocker. No Linux version of anything. GIMP deliberately doesn’t copy Photoshop’s interface, Darktable has no CMYK (so no professional print), Krita’s text handling is weak. These are real tools, but they’re not drop-in replacements. |
| QuickBooks Desktop or Sage | Hard blocker. Windows-only. The realistic route is the cloud version in a browser, which is a different product with different costs. |
| Microsoft Access | Hard blocker. No Linux version and no genuine equivalent. Commonly underestimated. |
| Competitive multiplayer games | Hard blocker. Valorant, League of Legends and similar are blocked by kernel-level anti-cheat. See gaming below — single-player is a completely different story. |
| CAD or industry software | Usually blocked. SolidWorks, Inventor, Revit, and most vertical software (dental, legal, veterinary, EPOS) are Windows-only, often with hardware drivers that fail even in a virtual machine. |
If none of those apply — if your PC is mostly a browser, email, documents, photos and streaming — then you’re in the large group for whom this switch is genuinely undramatic.
Which Linux to pick
There are hundreds. For someone coming from Windows 10, two are worth your attention and the rest are a distraction.
Zorin OS 18.1
Free · supported to June 2029The gentlest landing from Windows, and the recommendation is based on evidence rather than taste.
- Its Appearance app can make the desktop look and behave like Windows 10
- Recognises 240+ Windows applications — double-click a
.exeand it suggests the Linux equivalent - A Lite edition for older or low-spec machines
- Ships LibreOffice with improved Microsoft Office compatibility
Best for most switchers. Passed 3.3 million downloads by April 2026, with roughly three-quarters coming from Windows machines.
Linux Mint 22.3
Free · supported to 2029The long-standing community favourite. Conservative, stable, enormously well documented.
- Cinnamon desktop is familiar in shape to Windows users
- The largest body of beginner documentation and forum help anywhere in Linux
- Very conservative about change — things don’t move around between releases
- Choose the XFCE or MATE edition on older machines; it’s noticeably snappier
Best if you like reading forums. If you get stuck, someone has already asked your question.
Mint’s own release notes flag problems between its newer kernel and VirtualBox and the NVIDIA legacy 470 driver. If either applies to you, Mint 22.1 is the safer choice — or use Zorin.
Testing it without changing anything
- Download the ISO from zorin.com or linuxmint.com. It’s a few gigabytes.
- Write it to a USB stick (8GB or larger) using balenaEtcher or Rufus. This erases the stick but touches nothing on your PC.
- Boot from the stick. Restart and press the boot-menu key — usually F12, sometimes F10, F2 or Esc. Choose the USB device.
- Pick “Try” rather than “Install”. You’re now running a complete Linux desktop entirely from the stick, with your Windows installation untouched.
- Test the things that actually break — see the checklist below. This is the whole point of the exercise.
While running from the USB stick, check: Wi-Fi connects (the single most common problem), sound plays, your printer prints, your scanner scans (a separate system from printing — one can work while the other doesn’t), the screen resolution is right, and your webcam works. If all of those pass, your installation will almost certainly be fine.
The NVIDIA problem nobody mentions
You’ll read that NVIDIA drivers on Linux are fine now. That’s true — for recent graphics cards. It is least true for exactly the cards in the PCs this site is about.
Those generations (Maxwell and Pascal) can’t use NVIDIA’s modern open driver modules and need the older proprietary driver. It works, but it’s the fiddliest part of a 2015–2018 era install and it’s the specific case the “NVIDIA is fine now” articles aren’t describing. Test it from the USB stick before committing, and factor it in as the most likely thing to need help with.
Documents and Office files
For everyday documents this is a non-issue. For complex ones, be realistic:
- Microsoft 365 in a browser works on Linux and is officially supported. Word, Excel, PowerPoint and Outlook all run. But: no VBA macros, limited add-ins, and no offline use.
- OnlyOffice is the best choice for fidelity with Microsoft formats —
.docxand.xlsxare its native formats rather than conversions, and the interface closely resembles Office. - LibreOffice is more capable overall but uses its own format natively, which is where layout drift on complex documents comes from.
- Macros are the wall. Not a conversion problem — a rewriting problem.
Gaming: better than you think, with one hard limit
Valve’s work on Proton has transformed this. Roughly 90% of Windows games launch on Linux, and most simply work when you press play in Steam.
The exception is absolute: games with kernel-level anti-cheat. Valorant and League of Legends are blocked by Riot’s Vanguard. Fortnite is unavailable because Epic chose not to enable it — notably, the anti-cheat technology does support Linux and Epic ships it on other titles. This is a vendor decision, not a Linux deficiency, and it isn’t likely to change.
Anti-cheat support changes, and any status we print here will eventually be wrong. Look up your games on ProtonDB (per-game reports) and GamingOnLinux’s anti-cheat list (kept current). Ten minutes there beats any general claim.
For context on the hype: Linux reached a record 5.33% of Steam users in March 2026, then settled back to about 3.69% by June. A lot of articles are still quoting that March peak as if it were current.
Should you dual-boot?
Probably not, and this has become more true recently. Modern Windows installs encrypt the drive with BitLocker by default. Changing the boot sequence alters the measurements the encryption depends on, which can trigger demands for a 48-digit recovery key — potentially at every boot.
The old advice of “just disable Secure Boot” actively causes this, because Windows needs Secure Boot to unlock the drive automatically.
In order of preference:
- Live USB for testing — zero risk, and it answers most questions.
- A second physical drive if you need both systems. By far the biggest risk reduction, and cheap.
- A clean full switch once you’re confident, after a complete backup.
- Same-disk dual-boot only if you’re comfortable troubleshooting boot problems.
Save your BitLocker recovery key. Sign in to account.microsoft.com/devices/recoverykey and write it down somewhere that isn’t the computer in question. Skipping this is how people lose access to their own files.
Getting help from actual humans
The End of 10 campaign — run by the non-profit KDE e.V. and backed by the Open Source Initiative — maintains a directory of repair cafés, hackerspaces and user groups who will help you install Linux, usually free. Their coverage is strongest in Germany, Austria, Switzerland and Belgium, with listings across the UK, US, Canada and Australia too.
If the Wi-Fi or graphics part sounds daunting, this is the answer: find somewhere near you and let someone who has done it fifty times do it with you.
What about ChromeOS Flex?
It comes up a lot as the “very old hardware” answer. It’s a narrower option than Linux, not a wider one:
- It needs UEFI boot — genuinely old machines can’t even start the installer, which is the opposite of the usual assumption.
- No Android apps, no Play Store, unlike a real Chromebook.
- ⚠️ Machines from around 2013–2014 lose Flex support at the end of 2026 — so for exactly the oldest hardware, it sends you off one cliff onto another.
It’s a reasonable fit for someone who only uses a browser and wants zero maintenance. For everyone else, Zorin or Mint gives more and costs the same.