ColumbusTechAudit: Is Upgrading to Windows 11 Throwing Your Money Away?

Most of us said goodbye to a long time friend this past October 14th 2025 and adopted Windows 11. But is windows 11 really a safer alternative?

With a push toward everything on the cloud, Privacy concerns with Ai, Microsoft acknowledging significant issues with the Windows 11 platform, Azure outages feel like a daily situation and many IT engineers identifying multiple privacy concerns within the latest Microsoft offerings. Windows 11 continues to be marketed as the top alternative to Windows 10. But is it really?

While Microsoft continues to pursue options that few have requested or desire, the small but growing community of open-source solutions has gained a larger share of the Windows user base, successfully migrating many to Linux.

LINK: Microsoft Admits Significant Issues with Microsoft Windows 11

While specific numbers for distributions like Ubuntu, Mint, Parrot, and other Debian-based options remain undisclosed, the end of Windows 10 has led to a significant rise in Linux adoption, creating an 'army of new Linux users.' This mass migration from Windows has reached unprecedented levels. Microsoft has expressed concern over the growing trend, with recent statistics revealing a loss of over 400 million users to macOS, Chrome OS, iOS, Android and Linux-based systems since 2022.

LINK: ZorinOS Had Over a Million Downloads Once Windows 10 Went End of Life

LINK: Microsoft is starting to be concerned over a growing number of people dropping the Windows Plaform

A major factor driving the mass migration from Windows is that Linux-based systems can support older hardware. While Windows 11 requires an 8th-generation Intel or 11th-generation AMD processor, Linux can run on systems originally designed for Windows XP. With rising hardware and memory costs, many people simply can't afford the upgraded hardware costs associated with moving to Windows 11.

This has also been seen in small businesses around the area where companies simply can't afford paying $1400.00 for a desktop that was under $600.00 before Covid. These businesses are now running Windows 10 without protection. While, some have purchased extended support, the vast majority are running Windows 10 without any Security Updates at all.

We have started to see an increase in companies willing to try alternative Operating Systems, and have at least two clients running Linux Mint on older hardware in certain area's of the company. These upgrades were done free of charge, and are used for users who need heavy internet access. We have used 3rd party tools to allow us to install Office onto these machines. Clients have provided feedback on how much faster the systems feel, and how it's nice that everything just simply works.

These two desktops are vastly different in hardware specs, but neither supported windows 11. The companies we provided these options too, liked that they saved over $2000.00 in hardware costs, and over $50.00 a month in additional service costs, as Linux doesn't have the same infection rate with viruses, and remote access is done through the server.

While this isn't an option in every network, it is nice that people are starting to accept alternative solutions to Windows in Corporate America.

What Does this look like in a Small Business?

At Columbus Tech Audit, We support everything, Windows, Linux, MacOS, Unix and anything in between.