Linux or Landfill? End of Windows 10 Leaves PC Charities with Tough Choice

> Sorensen, who founded the company in 1998, told us that he’s comfortable giving clients computers that run Linux Mint, a free OS that’s based on Ubuntu. The latest version of Mint, version 22.1, will be supported until 2029.

I've been working at an ewaste recycling company for about 2 months. Due to the certifications we have (and the lack of MS licensing), we can't install Windows on anything we sell. I started off installing Debian on laptops, but switched to Mint about 3 weeks ago. I've recently fallen in love with the OEM install option they have. It sets up a pre-OOBE environment, letting me run things like fastfetch to get the system specs, then click the 'prepare for shipping to end user' command to trigger the user and password setup on next boot (so I don't have to set and write a password on a postit note on the laptop, and hope it doesn't get lost).

I put my parents on Xubuntu over 13 years ago. I told them it works like Windows[0] and showed them around for 5 minutes. I expected a call to "put it back to what it was," but it never happened. The only call I remember was mom wondering why solitare was different (the gnome-games version), and guided her to change the game type to klondike.

[0] If "it (Xubuntu) works like Windows" triggered you, I'd like to point out that most people don't care about how operating system kernels are designed. They care about things like a start menu, and that the X button in the corner closes programs.