I saved a doomed Windows laptop by embracing Linux

Two weeks ago I set aside my M4 MacBook Air and picked up a nine-year-old ThinkPad. It’s one of an estimated 200 to 400 million Windows 10 PCs that don’t meet Microsoft’s requirements for Windows 11. When Microsoft officially ended support for Windows 10 in October, it became “obsolete.” The solution, according to Microsoft, is to get rid of it and buy a computer that can run Windows 11.

But that’s not good enough. This ThinkPad — like millions of other PCs in the same boat — is still perfectly functional. Its hardware is more than capable of everyday tasks. I’ve been using it for web browsing, writing in Google Docs, talking to my Verge colleagues on Slack, and even some gaming on Steam. Not bad for a laptop that’s supposed to be retired.

All you have to do is reject Microsoft’s framing. It’s not safe to leave it on Windows 10, since Microsoft chose to stop offering security updates, and Windows 11 isn’t supported. But who says this laptop needs to run Windows at all? There’s another operating system that runs great on older hardware, is still actively maintained, and can prevent millions of computers from being scrapped before their time.

That’s right: The secret to saving this laptop, and maybe yours too, is Linux.

The spec that blocked my laptop from running Windows 11

This story was written on a Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Carbon Gen 5 with 16GB of RAM, 512GB of storage, and a 7th-gen Intel Core i7-7600U processor. It’s a more powerful version of a laptop The Verge reviewed when it came out in 2017. At the time, it was considered a high-end, ultra-portable workhorse of a laptop, offering upwards of eight hours of battery life in a surprisingly lightweight package. It started at $1,100 when it was released, but my configuration would have cost $2,100. I found this one used on eBay for just $250.

When it arrived, the ThinkPad was in almost new condition without any noticeable wear and tear. It even came with a new charger. It booted into the setup process for a clean installation of Windows 10 without any issues. After using it on Windows 10 for a few days, I had a hard time remembering it was a laptop from nearly a decade ago. It certainly didn’t feel like a device that was ready for the laptop graveyard.

It seems like this laptop should be able to run Windows 11, but it can’t. Microsoft’s base requirements for Windows 11 include at least 4GB of RAM, 64GB of storage, a TPM 2.0 security chip, UEFI Secure Boot, and a 64-bit processor with at least 2 cores running at 1GHz or faster. My ThinkPad has all of that — except its processor is one generation too old. Windows 11 requires a processor that’s an Intel 8th generation or AMD Ryzen 2000, or newer.

Technically it still works, but continuing to use it on Windows 10 without security updates could be risky. Even if I decided to opt in to Microsoft’s Windows 10 Extended Security Updates (ESU) program, that would only get me one extra year of updates, which ends on October 13th, 2026. So, whether now or later this year, this laptop is losing support from Microsoft.

Sure, you could use a tool like Rufus or FlyOOBE to upgrade to Windows 11 anyway, but that’s still only kicking the can down the road. Bypassing security requirements could cause problems with future updates. But also, who needs Windows?

Making the move to Linux Mint

I’ve been using Fedora Linux on my gaming PC for over a year now, but decided to go with Linux Mint for the ThinkPad. It’s one of the most beginner-friendly Linux distributions thanks to its stability, easy setup, and default Cinnamon desktop environment, which looks and feels a lot like Windows 10. It’s based on Ubuntu — the most popular Linux distribution — which means that just about any app that works in Linux will work right off the bat. It also works well on older hardware.

The Mint installer was easy to use, with just a few steps and clear explanations for each one. After about 10 minutes, Windows 10 was gone and a Linux machine was born.

Mint greeted me with a little welcome window offering to help me get started by customizing my desktop theme, checking for updates, or visiting the software manager to search for apps. Plenty of basic apps were also preinstalled, including Firefox and the whole LibreOffice suite, which is a free, open-source alternative to Microsoft Office.

I took my time searching for themes and customizing Cinnamon in between getting Slack and Steam installed. I had to install Steam through the command line, a process that will probably seem pretty involved for anyone used to Windows or macOS. Linux doesn’t have a central app store like those operating systems do, although there are a couple platforms like Flathub and the Snap Store that mimic app stores. So, most apps have to be installed using the command line, often by just copy-pasting a command from the app’s download page.

Steam is available in Linux Mint’s default repository, so I could get it with a quick “sudo apt-get install steam” in the terminal. I didn’t need the command line for Slack, though. I just downloaded the .deb file from Slack’s website then installed it using Mint’s built-in GUI tool.

Getting everything set up the way I like only took about an hour. After that, I benched my MacBook for the week and turned my attention to the ThinkPad.

This Linux laptop is obsolete no more

A nine-year-old laptop can still surprise you.

When I took the ThinkPad out of the box, I was legitimately shocked by how lightweight it is. According to our original review, the ThinkPad weighs 2.9 pounds, about the same as my 13-inch M4 MacBook Air, which weighs 2.7 pounds. The ThinkPad somehow feels like the lighter laptop to me, partly because of its plastic chassis. It might not look as premium as the MacBook, but it doesn’t feel cheap, either — it’s reinforced with carbon fiber. I didn’t notice any flexing or bending with the ThinkPad’s chassis during my time using it.

It also beats my MacBook on ports: two USB-C ports with Thunderbolt 3, two USB-A, one HDMI, and a headphone jack. There’s even a combination SIM tray / microSD card slot hidden in the back edge of the keyboard deck, beside one of the hinges. I was able to plug in the USB-A dongle for my favorite wireless Razer mouse directly, instead of needing a USB-C hub like I use for my MacBook. My favorite Bluetooth headphones worked perfectly with Linux, without any driver or companion app issues.

This ThinkPad also has one of the most satisfying laptop keyboards I’ve ever used, and I’ve tried dozens. You can really feel the key travel when you’re typing. All of the media keys and even the iconic trackpoint work as intended in Linux as well.

The webcam and mic work fine in Mint, although you can really tell they’re from 2017. Video is washed-out and grainy, and the mic audio is mediocre and picks up background noise a bit more than I’d like. But the webcam and mic are still clear enough to be perfectly functional for something like a Google Meet or Zoom call. Likewise, the speakers are a far cry from my MacBook’s, but they’re loud and clear enough to get the job done.

Linux Mint itself performed great on the ThinkPad. It also has some quality-of-life features preinstalled that make it ideal for Linux beginners, like a graphical interface for running updates, which you otherwise would have to do through the terminal. The Cinnamon desktop environment isn’t the most cutting-edge in terms of design, but it works smoothly and reliably without draining battery life any faster than Windows 10. And it looks a lot like Windows, so it’s very approachable for new users. Customizing Cinnamon is easy, too. Through the system settings, you can add and remove various themes other users have made or download them and add the theme files to your “.themes” folder.

This ThinkPad is no gaming laptop, but I was able to get a handful of lightweight games running on it through Steam, including Wildfrost, Dead Cells, Hollow Knight, Fields of Mistria, and Rogue Heroes: Ruins of Tasos. They all ran surprisingly smoothly, but it helps that none of them have demanding graphics.

Luckily, game compatibility wasn’t an issue. Valve’s Proton compatibility layer, which is baked into the Linux version of Steam, allows most Windows games to run on Linux, with the exception of certain games that require kernel-level anti-cheat. The battery life on the ThinkPad disappeared whenever it was running Steam or a game and not plugged into its charger, but gaming will drain the battery on any laptop.

Working on a nine-year-old ThinkPad isn’t perfect

Unfortunately, there were a few drawbacks compared to a modern laptop, especially when it comes to battery life. The ThinkPad typically lasted around four hours per charge on both Linux and Windows 10, give or take an hour. For comparison, when The Verge originally reviewed this laptop, it was getting upwards of eight hours per charge. So, this is one area where this laptop’s age — and its 400-plus battery cycles — really shows.

While we didn’t swap it out, we were able to find a replacement battery for around $70, so it’s nice to see that this is still repairable even after all these years. The screws on the bottom of the ThinkPad are also easily accessible, which makes replacing the battery — or the SSD, or the Wi-Fi card — that much easier.

A couple of minor issues came up, too. Mint didn’t recognize the ThinkPad’s fingerprint reader out of the box. I was able to find a guide to fix this, but it required using the terminal to replace the fingerprint reader drivers.

Thanks to its much slower storage, loading times for games and apps are also noticeably longer than what I experience on my MacBook. The ThinkPad also slowed down a bit when I had more than 10 or so browser tabs open at once. Additionally, the bottom of the keyboard deck got noticeably warm from time to time when the ThinkPad was being pushed to its limits.

Those drawbacks aren’t deal-breakers for me, though, and were a relatively small price to pay to get the ThinkPad running on an operating system that still supports it.

Linux is (sometimes) the answer to forced obsolescence

Microsoft’s decision to end support for Windows 10 made millions of working devices just like this 2017 ThinkPad obsolete. According to Microsoft, users should switch to Windows 11 for its superior security features; it includes support for virtualization-based security and makes the Trusted Platform Module (TPM) and UEFI Secure Boot mandatory, both of which make booting up and logging in more reliable and secure. While those are good features to have, they don’t necessarily justify buying a new computer for most users.

Discontinuing support for Windows 10 has left millions of devices less secure than they were before, and many people may not even realize that their perfectly functional Windows 10 laptop is a cybersecurity risk now.

If you have one of these devices and can’t or don’t want to replace it, Linux could be the solution. Linux has become significantly easier to learn and use as a daily driver over recent years, especially more beginner-friendly distributions like Mint. It’s also more robust than ChromeOS, which is one of the most common alternatives if you’re looking for a laptop under $500, although there are also many Windows 11 laptops available at this price. Plus, Linux is free.

Linux isn’t for everyone, though. It’s still more complex to use than Windows or macOS, and app compatibility can be a deal-breaker for some people. I didn’t have any issues working on my aging ThinkPad for a week, but I don’t need any apps that aren’t available on Linux, like Adobe apps, Microsoft Office, accessory companion apps like Razer Synapse, or tax apps like H&R Block.

There are ways around this, like running Windows apps through a compatibility program like Wine, but performance can vary from one app to another. There are also alternatives to many apps that aren’t natively available on Linux. For instance, you could use the web versions of Microsoft Office apps or try LibreOffice instead. Similarly, GIMP, Darktable, RawTherapee, Kdenlive, Inkscape, and LibreOffice Draw can all be alternatives to some Adobe apps. They might not be a viable solution for everyone, but they’re worth considering.

If you don’t have any app barriers that would make Linux a no-go and you don’t need a particularly powerful laptop, an older, former Windows laptop running Linux could get the job done, save a laptop from the landfill, and save you money at the same time.

I recommend looking for a Lenovo laptop, since they have the best track record of working well on Linux. Used business laptops like this ThinkPad X1 Carbon can often be a particularly good choice, although a more modern model would probably be a good idea, like something from the ThinkPad T14 or P14 lineups. Used Dell and HP business laptops can also be good options.

If you’re new to Linux, you might find the wide variety of versions, known as distributions or “distros,” a little overwhelming at first. For most new Linux users, it’s best to start with something popular and easy to set up, like Mint. Ubuntu, Fedora, Zorin, and Pop can also be good distros for beginners.

But the nice thing about having so many options is that if you ever want a different look on your laptop or different features, you can just install a new distribution. You’re not locked into one operating system controlled by one company.

Before switching to Linux, it’s also a good idea to read a bit about how the command line works and how to install apps on Linux so you know the basics to help you get off to a smooth start.

Old laptops aren’t always obsolete laptops

Even if you don’t plan on trying Linux, buying a used laptop over a new one could still be a more cost-effective option, especially if you’re on a budget. There are plenty of modern Windows 11 laptops and Chromebooks available for under $500. Unfortunately, one big drawback with these is that you’re most likely going to get much less storage and RAM than you might be able to get with a used laptop, especially with RAM and storage prices on the rise.

An older laptop like this ThinkPad X1 Carbon could be a viable option if you’re trying to find a laptop on a sub-$500 budget, but you have to be aware of what you’re signing up for. You can get plenty of RAM and storage at a bargain price on an older laptop, but you’ll be sacrificing some performance since these laptops also have older processors, although it depends what your alternatives are. The performance gap isn’t as significant as you might expect compared to similarly priced modern laptops.

I ran Geekbench 6 a few times on the ThinkPad, and its Intel Core i7-7600U processor averaged 1260 on the single-core test and 2322 on the multi-core test. Its single-core performance keeps up surprisingly well compared to the processors in modern laptops around the same price point. For instance, the Intel Core i3-N305 in the Acer Spin 14 has a single-core score of 1142 on Geekbench 6 and the AMD Ryzen 5 7520U in the Acer Aspire 3 has a score of 1169, both lower than what the Core i7-7600U averaged.

Unfortunately, the Core i7-7600U lags much more on multi-core performance, since it only has two cores. This is where the Geekbench results show a much wider gap: 4192 for the eight-core Intel Core i3-N305 and 3679 for the Ryzen 5 7520U, compared to just 2322 for the Core i7-7600U.

So you’re not sacrificing much, if anything, in terms of single-core performance by going for an older laptop like the ThinkPad over a modern budget laptop. However, you will be giving up some multi-core performance. If you’re just doing web browsing or working in Google Docs, that probably won’t be an issue.

For many people the increased RAM and storage in an older laptop is worth more than a little extra raw performance. Modern budget laptops, like the Acer models mentioned above, may have faster CPUs, but they’ll almost always have half as much RAM and storage as something like our used ThinkPad, which can have a more direct impact on everyday use than processing power.

Forced obsolescence is not the end

Before joining The Verge late last year, I didn’t have a laptop that could run Windows 11 or macOS. All I had, besides my desktop PC, was a 2017 HP laptop running Windows 10. I’d logged countless hours writing on that laptop, spent long nights playing Minecraft on it with my friends, brought it along with me through college and multiple internships. But it was getting old, and I could tell — the battery life was getting awful (two to three hours max), it was running noticeably hot, and it wasn’t going to be eligible for Windows 11.

I couldn’t afford a new laptop at the time, but thanks to Linux, I didn’t need to. I spent an afternoon replacing my laptop’s battery and installing Fedora on it. When I booted it back up, it was running much cooler and smoother and getting around five hours of battery life. Putting Linux on that laptop gave it a second life, saved me hundreds of dollars, and allowed me to keep using a laptop that had come a long way with me over the years. The same approach also saved this ThinkPad from unnecessary obsolescence.

Microsoft will warn you in your device’s updates menu if you’re not eligible for Windows 11, but what it won’t tell you is that Windows isn’t your only option. Linux might be a bit more complicated to learn and use, but it can also give you the freedom to decide for yourself when it’s time to upgrade your laptop.

My ThinkPad might not be able to run Windows 11, but it’s far from obsolete.