Reviving an Old Computer with Open-Source Operating Systems

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A computer that Microsoft has declared "unsupported" is usually not broken. The processor, memory and disk still work – only the rules have changed. Below you will find a bit of history, a few numbers, and a practical overview of how to give such a computer a second life with open-source systems.

A Bit of Operating System History

The first computers had no operating system at all – the programmer operated the machine directly, usually with punched cards. One of the first systems that ran jobs automatically, one after another, was GM-NAA I/O from 1956. In the 1960s, OS/360 and Multics established ideas we still use today: sharing processor time among several users, memory protection, and hierarchical file systems. When Bell Labs left the Multics project, Ken Thompson and Dennis Ritchie started writing a simpler system in 1969 – Unix. The name is a pun on Multics. What mattered most is that in 1973 it was rewritten in C, which made it possible to move it to completely different machines. If you are curious how the code and versions intertwined, take a look at the Unix history repository on GitHub, which goes back to 1970.

The 1970s brought the first personal computers and with them CP/M. When IBM introduced its PC in 1981, Microsoft supplied MS-DOS, which it had bought from Seattle Computer Products. In 1984 Apple released the Macintosh with its graphical interface, and in 1985 Microsoft answered with Windows 1.0, which was at first only a graphical shell on top of DOS. Meanwhile Richard Stallman announced the GNU Project in 1983 – a completely free replacement for Unix – and founded the Free Software Foundation in 1985. In 1987 Andrew Tanenbaum released Minix for teaching and, quite unintentionally, planted the seed for the next big turn.

In 1991 the Finnish student Linus Torvalds announced that he was working on a free kernel, which soon became known as Linux. Since GNU already had almost all the tools around the kernel (compiler, shell, libraries), the combination produced a system we usually call GNU/Linux. In the early 1990s FreeBSD and NetBSD emerged from BSD derivatives, followed by OpenBSD in 1995. In 1993 Debian and Slackware appeared, soon followed by Red Hat and SUSE. In the same decade Microsoft was developing two parallel branches: the DOS-based Windows 95 and Windows NT (1993), which was designed from scratch. In 1998 the term open source was coined for free software that businesses could also embrace.

Two important things happened in 2001: Windows XP merged the consumer and business lines on the NT kernel, and Apple released Mac OS X – built on NeXTSTEP and Darwin, which contains a lot of BSD code. In 2004 Ubuntu appeared and brought Linux to a wider audience. With iOS (2007) and Android (2008) operating systems moved into our pockets – and precisely through two descendants of Unix: iOS from the BSD/Darwin branch, Android from the Linux kernel. Chrome OS added a system that is almost entirely a browser in 2011. Windows 10 was released in 2015 and Windows 11 in October 2021 – and for the first time in Windows history the minimum hardware requirements were raised so much that many perfectly usable computers became "unsupported" overnight.

Some resources for history:

• History of operating systems (Wikipedia)
• Timeline of operating systems (Wikipedia)
• Operating system (Wikipedia)
• Linux Distribution Timeline
• Computer History Museum

How the Different Branches Developed

If we compress decades into a few branches, the family of operating systems today roughly splits like this:

Main branches of operating systems:

It is important to understand that Linux is not "one system" but an ecosystem. The kernel is shared; what differs are the desktop environments (e.g. Xfce, LXQt, MATE, KDE Plasma, GNOME), package managers, update cycles and default software. This very modularity is the reason the same Linux can run on a watch, on a supercomputer and on a computer from 2008.

How Things Look Today

The numbers depend on who measures, what they measure and when. StatCounter counts visits to websites, not devices, so the monthly jumps are sometimes unusually large: according to their data, Windows was below 57% in June 2026, and around 63% again in August. Treat the data as a direction, not a precise measurement.

Desktop operating systems worldwide (StatCounter, August 2026, rounded):

Windows versions on desktop computers (StatCounter, July 2026):

On Steam, where users are mostly gamers, Linux is at between 3.5 and 5% in 2026 – with a notable share of Arch-based systems (SteamOS, CachyOS). On mobile devices the ratio is about 71% Android to 29% iOS. On servers the picture is completely different: according to W3Techs the vast majority of websites whose system is known run on Unix-like systems, and on the TOP500 list all supercomputers have used Linux since 2017.

The conclusion: on the desktop Windows is still far ahead in first place, but Linux is, at least by some measurements, near or above 5% for the first time, and in the USA some measurements have already put it above 10%. Everywhere else – in phones, in the cloud, on servers, in embedded devices – systems based on the Linux kernel or descendants of Unix are already the majority.

Where to follow the data:

• StatCounter – Desktop OS Market Share
• StatCounter – Windows Version Market Share
• Steam Hardware & Software Survey
• W3Techs – Operating systems
• Stack Overflow Developer Survey
• DistroWatch – distribution popularity ranking

Why Windows 11 Won't Install on Your Computer

Windows 11 has system requirements that are stricter than for any previous version. Roughly: a 64-bit processor, 4 GB of RAM, 64 GB of storage, UEFI with Secure Boot and a TPM 2.0 chip. On top of that, the processor must be on the supported list – in practice that means Intel 8th generation or newer or AMD Ryzen 2000 or newer. A computer from 2016 can be perfectly fine performance-wise and Windows 11 will still reject it. You can check yours with the PC Health Check app.

Support for Windows 10 officially ended on October 14, 2025. In June 2026, however, Microsoft quietly extended the free Extended Security Updates (ESU) program for individuals until October 12, 2027. In the European Economic Area (which includes Slovenia), enrollment is reportedly free if you sign in with a Microsoft account. That is a legitimate option if you need the computer right now – but remember: it is only one more year of security fixes, without new features, and then you are back at the same point.

There are also unofficial ways to install Windows 11 on unsupported hardware. They work, but Microsoft does not guarantee updates for them, so I would treat them as a stopgap, not a permanent solution.

Some thoughts to consider:

• Global E-waste Monitor
• The Restart Project – repair instead of replace
• Right to Repair Europe
• End of 10 campaign

Open-Source Alternatives

When Windows 11 is ruled out, there is no need (and it often makes no sense) to look for a "lighter" Windows. Open-source systems are designed for a very wide range of hardware, and most support computers from the Windows 7 and Windows 10 era. The choice is easy if you can answer three questions: how much RAM do you have, is the processor 64-bit or 32-bit, and how much comfort do you expect from the desktop. Whatever you choose, you can try any system first from a live USB, meaning you boot it without installing.

A few choices for older computers (my own judgement, not test results):

It also matters that the software selection today is far better than ten years ago. LibreOffice handles office work, Firefox browsing, Thunderbird mail, VLC playback and GIMP image editing. You can find programs on Flathub or in the system's software manager. If you absolutely need a Windows program, try running it with Wine, and check games on ProtonDB. If that doesn't work, the alternative is a virtual machine, but on an old computer that is usually already too much.

Some resources:

• DistroWatch
• Linux Hardware Database – will your computer work
• ArchWiki – the best documentation, useful for other distributions too
• Comparison of Linux distributions (Wikipedia)

Procedure

Working with disks can result in the loss of all your data! Before you do anything, back up everything you need and verify the backup on another device. Should you decide to act upon any information on this website, you do so at your own risk!

1. Check the condition of the computer. Assess the disk with smartmontools and the memory with Memtest86+. If the disk is mechanical (HDD), replacing it with an SSD is the most noticeable upgrade you can make.
2. Back up. Copy your files to an external disk. For a full disk image, Clonezilla is useful.
3. Download the image (ISO) of the chosen distribution from the official site and verify the checksum.
4. Write the stick with Ventoy, balenaEtcher or Rufus.
5. Boot from the stick. At startup press the boot menu key (often F12, F9, Esc or F2; it depends on the manufacturer). On older computers you may need to turn off Secure Boot in the BIOS or enable "legacy" mode.
6. Try it first. Check sound, Wi-Fi, graphics, display and keyboard. If something doesn't work, search the hardware database or the distribution's forum.
7. Install. Choose "erase disk and install" or partition manually with GParted. If you want to keep Windows, choose "dual boot" – though on a small disk that doesn't always make sense. For laptops, consider disk encryption (LUKS).
8. Update the system and install the programs you need. Regular updating is crucial with any system.

For very old computers there is also a warning: the firmware (BIOS/UEFI) and processor microcode are no longer updated, so some vulnerabilities, such as Spectre and Meltdown, cannot be fully fixed. Software mitigations in the kernel helped, but they are not a magic wand. For home use the risk is usually acceptable; for sensitive tasks a new computer remains the better choice.

Two starting points (not test reports):

• Example 1: a computer from 2014–2017, 4 GB of RAM, HDD. Suggestion: replace the HDD with an SSD + Linux Mint Xfce or Lubuntu.
• Example 2: a very old computer (2 GB of RAM or less, perhaps a 32-bit processor). Suggestion: antiX or MX Linux; browse with a lightweight browser and few open tabs.

A Few More Thoughts

A computer we can no longer update is not necessarily a computer we can no longer use. The line between "old" and "useless" is often software, not physical. At the same time, it is only fair to say that Linux is not a solution for everything: some software (e.g. certain professional programs, tools for working with documents in closed formats and some anti-cheat systems in games) is not available there or will work worse. Before installing, write down which programs you really use.