Continuous Growth for Linux on the Desktop
For quite some time now, Linux has been waiting for that long-awaited “breakthrough year” on the desktop market: a chance to chip away at those percentage points that signal real progress.
This time around, something might actually give it that extra push. It’s worth analyzing point by point to understand what could be a fundamental transition moment.
End of Support for Windows 10
On October 14, 2025, Microsoft officially retired its well-known operating system, leaving only a tiny window for receiving security updates through Extended Security Updates (ESU), which should provide the most critical security patches until October 13, 2026.
Windows 11 Imposes Harsh Hardware Requirements
This release isn’t a simple “click and accept” update, but one that has significant implications for hardware choices.
The requirement to use TPM 2.0 (Trusted Platform Module) technology for encryption integration, enabling Secure Boot and UEFI firmware combined with a defined CPU list to achieve optimal performance, highlights considerations that you ignore at your peril:
- Minimum requirements are much higher than before.
- Any upgrades are decidedly disadvantageous, resulting in high costs or even a complete workstation replacement.
- Compatibility is questionable for some hardware and all software that worked on previous versions.
According to various estimates, between 40% and 50% of PCs currently in use do not meet the minimum requirements for Windows 11, despite still being perfectly functional. At this point the problem is not purely economic: every year over 50 million tons of electronic waste are generated globally, and software-induced planned obsolescence contributes significantly to this phenomenon.
Many machines, therefore, risk becoming effectively unusable due to an update that (release number aside) has practically nothing to do with actual evolution. If a path that leads to supposed progress imposes costs in terms of financial outlays, usability, licensing constraints, and (last but not least) a significant ecological/environmental cost, the direction is clearly wrong.
Let’s try instead to follow a more functional path: with many Linux distributions it’s possible to give value to hardware that is still fully operational, adapting the system to available resources instead of imposing forced upgrades.
Updates, from that point on, will no longer be such a problem.
Ubuntu, in its LTS (Long Term Support) versions, allows guaranteed updates for 5 years, with an extension to 10 years for security issues and possible extensions that can reach 15 years.
More details can be found directly on the official website: https://ubuntu.com/about/release-cycle
Beyond the optimal hardware management and lower technical requirements (which improve energy efficiency), Linux offers advantages related to flexibility and control of the work environment.
Users can choose the components, interfaces, and services they actually need, avoiding the bloat and unwanted features that vendors like Microsoft force on customers for commercial reasons. This results in more stable systems, predictable updates, and better integration with open and multi-platform tools.
In a context where the desktop is increasingly a point of access to distributed services, Linux stands out not for the quantity and stability of features offered, but for the freedom to adapt the system to the user’s real needs, without adding further weight on the economic and pure user experience front.
Or perhaps the real question is not whether Linux is ready to take over the desktop market, but whether the “traditional desktop” as we know it now still makes sense as it’s being imposed today, especially when tied to constraints that defy the logic and timelines even of a modern world like ours.
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