Friday, January 16th 2026
TechPowerUp Readers Willing to Move Away from Windows after Windows 10 EOL: Frontpage Poll
In Q4 2025, we asked our readers if in the light of Microsoft discontinuing Windows 10 and rising dissatisfaction with Windows 11, they would consider moving away from Windows altogether to alternative operating systems. The results are fascinating. Over the quarter, our frontpage poll gathered over 34,000 responses. A significant majority of 55.4% (18,981 readers) voted that they would consider moving away from Windows to Linux. What's more interesting is that only 4.5% (1,538 readers) say that they're willing to move to macOS (replace their PC with a Mac of some shape or form). A marginal 1.9% say they are willing to give up the PC as their main client computing device, and switch to a game console, such as the latest Xbox Series S/X or PlayStation 5; and probably stick to endpoints handed out by their work/school.
These three responses add up to 61.8%, or nearly two-thirds of our readers being disillusioned with Windows. 38.2%, or 13,105 readers answered that they will not consider moving away from Windows. The poll suggests a general sense of dissatisfaction with being restricted to Windows 11. Comments suggest that this stems from its interface being seen by some as a downgrade from Windows 10, besides its latest slew of other Microsoft products, such as 365, Copilot, Teams, and Bing, being seen as invasive or bloatware.
These three responses add up to 61.8%, or nearly two-thirds of our readers being disillusioned with Windows. 38.2%, or 13,105 readers answered that they will not consider moving away from Windows. The poll suggests a general sense of dissatisfaction with being restricted to Windows 11. Comments suggest that this stems from its interface being seen by some as a downgrade from Windows 10, besides its latest slew of other Microsoft products, such as 365, Copilot, Teams, and Bing, being seen as invasive or bloatware.
104 Comments on TechPowerUp Readers Willing to Move Away from Windows after Windows 10 EOL: Frontpage Poll
I have played with many of versions of Linux and find it cool but I am not throwing away 30+ years of knowledge away, yet. I ran CentOS for many years on a tertiary rig, but then watched it get IBM'ed and decided it didnt matter what platform you use, there is always gonna be something you will have to watch out for because of greed and control.
Yes, I realize that I might have to move over when Windows 12 arrives because of some baked in horribleness, but right now Windows 11 is MY bitch and it does EXACTLY what I tell it to do and nothing more.
Run a follow up poll in six months to see what OS people are using then and I bet it'll all still be Windows.
I assume that the thread scheduler for some reasons does not work properly with my cpu and it is just stalling the rendering thread for reasons I can not understand (when the games are freezing the cores used by the game are in 100% (need to make sure that 1 or 2 cores are not assigned to the game else the freeze will take the os with it) and gpu usage is 0%).
Between feb until before nov patch it was just the random game freezing, game closing itself without a reason, november patch added the stutter that is showing up after 3 minutes of play, december patch made the stutter even worst. At least until november patch you could actually play the game accepting that at some point after a random amount of time it will crash but november patch killed it.
Unless there is a way to make the thread scheduler act like the one from win 10 22h2 and I can't find it, there is no way to fix the problem I have.
So yes in my case win 11 is a no go if i want to play games on it. It is funny because last year i built 3 pc in my house, 2 amd + nvidia, 1 intel + nvidia, just mine intel + nvidia is acting like this, other 2 have no issues with win 11...
It is amazing what you can do with Linux, but each one has it's audience.
I would consider moving away from Windows for gaming, and I have somewhat on my ROG Ally with SteamOS, but my gaming desktop still runs Windows.
For productivity though, no way.
Just sayin 😉
Life is good.
Advertising Linux as issue free for gaming ignores that reality. Plus it's a lot more tedious than just using LTSC, which resolves most of the issues people have with Windows, without introducing the issues Linux comes with for gaming.
You should know better than this.
Personally, I see no reason to play anything online with the sheer number of angry teenagers populating the servers, but each to their own. So for offline gaming, Linux is problem-free.Then don't sudo apt update. Let the OS handle things.
During my 15 months on Bazzite, I only had to fix something through the terminal once, and even that was a simple copy-paste job. Windows is a lot more problematic these days.
Also, installing a keyboard? Huh what? That's new to me. :wtf:
Seriously though it's a massive caveat that is conveniently ignored by those evangelising for Linux, noobs then go and install Linux because it's "better", then find out their games/software don't work and won't, for the foreseeable future.
Just play offline/Linux equivalent games isn't an answer. It's a limitation that doesn't exist in Windows, and those promoting Linux need to be honest about that from the beginning if they're going to suggest it.
What's the point of installing Linux to play games if you still have to switch to Windows every time you want to play with your friends online?
It looks like one really can't have an opinion with you around.
"gaming isn't an issue"
"points out issues"
"geez can't have an opinion"
There is nothing factual or misleading in an opinion. Opinions are, by their nature, entirely subjective.I ACCEPTED YOUR POINT!!!!! Better now? Or is your ego still not stroked enough?Linux is fine as long as you're not playing online games. If you do, then use Windows, obviously. That is my opinion. If you don't like it, that's your problem. I can't help you further.
11 Enterprise has been pretty solid here even though I didn't want to switch when I was still on 10...