{"id":10887,"date":"2025-06-17T01:05:00","date_gmt":"2025-06-17T05:05:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.both.org\/?p=10887"},"modified":"2026-02-04T14:57:44","modified_gmt":"2026-02-04T19:57:44","slug":"breaking-free-from-windows-10-kde-plasma-is-your-upgrade-to-freedom","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.both.org\/?p=10887","title":{"rendered":"Breaking Free from Windows 10: KDE Plasma Is Your Upgrade to Freedom"},"content":{"rendered":"
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October 14, 2025, is a big day if you\u2019re a Microsoft Windows user. That\u2019s the day that support for Windows 10 ends. But what if you\u2019re happy with the computer you have now and don\u2019t feel like spending more money to stay with the guys from Redmond? Is there a choice for you? You bet. The KDE Community has precisely what you need. It\u2019s KDE for Windows 10 Exiles<\/a>. You now have a choice, and all you need to do is upgrade your operating system.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That might seem like a tall order to someone who has never done that sort of thing but it\u2019s not that difficult. The KDE Project has a website dedicated to helping you do precisely that. KDE recommends trying the Plasma desktop. You\u2019ll be glad you did too. That means you get to keep the computer you already have, and it means that from here on out, you\u2019ll be in the driver\u2019s seat, along with the rest of us, using free and open-source software. KDE\u2019s Plasma desktop ensures that \u201cyou get all the advantages of the safety, stability, and hi-tech of Linux, with all the features of a beautiful, modern, and powerful graphic environment.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There are several good reasons to choose Plasma, and one of them is that it\u2019s easy. The Plasma desktop doesn\u2019t look that different from the one you have been using. The launch menu is in the bottom left-hand corner, just like it is on Windows 10. Plasma is powerful and lets you move things around so that your workflow could be precisely what you need it to be. The best thing about Plasma is that it\u2019s free. It can be on your computer or everyone in your department could upgrade to Plasma for free. Plasma is powerful. You\u2019ll discover that Plasma lets you have up to four desktops. You\u2019re no longer constrained to just one.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Organizing your files and folders requires some planning, but it\u2019s an easy task. Get a USB-compatible external hard drive and store all the data you want to keep on it. Later, Plasma will have no trouble reading it. Most of the hardware you\u2019ll use, whether it\u2019s WiFi or Bluetooth, will be configured by the operating system. If you\u2019re a Microsoft Office user, your documents can be read by LibreOffice, which is included in most standard Linux distributions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Moving to Linux means that you\u2019ll be giving up viruses and virus-related scams. You won\u2019t be getting any advertisements from the folks in Redmond. There won\u2019t be telemetry built into your operating system and its software. You will begin to enjoy absolute privacy, and you won\u2019t be forced to upgrade. Your computer will last much longer. There are no hidden costs with Linux.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am a long-time Linux user, but I\u2019ve recently converted to KDE\u00a0Plasma on Fedora 42<\/a>. Many Linux distributions feature the\u00a0Plasma desktop<\/a>. There are many other desktop options for Linux, so if you don\u2019t care for Plasma, be sure to check these other desktop environments:\u00a0Gnome<\/a>,\u00a0XFCE<\/a>,\u00a0MATE<\/a>,\u00a0Cinnamon<\/a>, and\u00a0LXQT<\/a>. Use this do-it-yourself guide from the End of 10<\/a> to guide your journey. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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1 October 14, 2025, is a big day if you’re a Microsoft Windows user. That’s the day that<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":32,"featured_media":9577,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[704,746,158],"tags":[749],"class_list":["post-10887","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-kde-plasma","category-moving-to-linux","category-open-source","tag-migrating-from-windows"],"modified_by":"David Both","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.both.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10887","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.both.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.both.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.both.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/32"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.both.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=10887"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.both.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10887\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10889,"href":"https:\/\/www.both.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10887\/revisions\/10889"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.both.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/9577"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.both.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=10887"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.both.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=10887"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.both.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=10887"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}