According to what was reported by researchers at Canalystthe end of life of Windows 10 it would cause a real “wave” of electronic waste.
The company’s experts, in fact, have done the math estimating that approximately 240 million computersor the 20% of those currently on the market, are not capable of hosting the latest operating system Microsoft due to hardware limitations.
Although a shock to the market is natural when a major update is released in OS contexts, the requests for Windows 11 it is quite expensive and creates quite a few problems for users unable to purchase a new PC.
Despite this, it should also be considered that the end of the life cycle of Windows 10 is still quite distant. Microsoft, in fact, has stated that its operating system will be supported until October 2025. By that period, many users and companies will most likely have switched to much more powerful machines than the current ones.
End of life for Windows 10: the date is still far away, but the problem must be addressed well in advance
For Canalys, however, it must still be taken into account how the cycles of the operating systems have an enormous impact also from the point of view of pollution.
Hardware considered as “outdated”, in fact, can only rarely be subject to updates and, more and more often, does nothing more than end up in landfill.
Although initiatives to recycle dated PCs are multiplying, the crux of the problem is the fact that, most likely, in October 2025 there will still be working computers that will necessarily have to give way to more performing models.
Given the problems relating to the absence of support and the consequent ones cybersecurity risksthe only concrete way to keep these devices alive is to find alternative operating systems.
In this context, distributions exist Linux able to work without problems even on dated hardware and which, by their very nature, are constantly updated. Making this alternative route even easier is the fact that many distros have opened up to a wider audience by offering interfaces e functions which make them much more accessible.