October 2025 | Nextworks
Do you have a Windows 10 home computer that is nagging you to purchase a new computer because it is too old? Microsoft wants you to upgrade to Windows 11, but only modern computers are capable of Microsoft's new operating system. If your computer is (roughly) less than 10 years old and has a solid state (SSD or NVMe) hard drive, well then, your computer is probably still perfectly useable.
Perhaps this is an omen to find an alternative to Microsoft.
Of course, you can get a Mac, which is a great Windows alternative. But this defeats the purpose as you would have to buy a new computer. Besides, even a Mac won't let you upgrade to Apple's latest operating system if the computer is generally over 8 years old.
Mint is free, has better performance on older hardware, and is eloquent and simple to use. Lean about Linux Mint.
There is another perk, or even a primary reason to consider Mint. Linux is more secure with greater privacy than Windows 11. So even if you have a new computer that runs Windows 11, Mint is worth looking into.
Rob Braxman Tech explains why to be weary of Windows 11...
Installing Mint does take a little bit of computer skill. You will also need a removable thumb drive.
Walking you through the process...
Alternatively, most local computer repair shops would be able to do this for you.
Installing Mint on your computer will wipe all your data. So first you want to back up your data. For this you have a few considerations:
You will want to log into your web browser and synchronize your web data, such as passwords and favorites. (Alternatively, you can export your web browser data to a file.) Once using Mint, log back into your new browser to recover this data. (Mint supports Chrome, Firefox, and others, but not Edge.) ☥
Copy all of your documents, pictures, etc. to a removable hard drive. Or better yet, get a Dropbox account and copy your files to Dropbox. Once you have Mint, you can install Dropbox to access your files. Using Dropbox will keep your data backed up and safe. (Mint does not natively support OneDrive.)
A lot of software has versions for most operating systems, such as Windows, Mac, and Linux (of which Mint is a flavor of). Any software that is web-based should not be a problem. But for any applications that you must have, do a Google search to see if that software is available for Linux, or better yet, Mint specifically.
Mint also has a strong gaming following.
We still recommend Windows or Mac for most business use. Most business software does not work with Mint, and you would find yourself swimming upstream. However, it's becoming much less common today to install software on home computers as more applications migrate to a web environment. This is no problem for Mint. Nevertheless, you will find tons of software available in Mint. Almost all of it is open source and free.
Try Mint. It's minty fresh.
☥ Would you like to take privacy a step further? Share your browser data across multiple computers and devices without trusting Google or Microsoft with your passwords and other data. Try Brave. You can securely synchronize your data peer to peer.
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