“End Of 10”: How the FOSS Community is Combatting Software-Driven Resource and Energy Consumption
Joseph P. De Veaugh-Geiss, belobe, Carolina Silva Rode
The end of free support for Windows 10 was 14 October 2025. Well, sort of. Microsoft moved the date to 2026, one more year the FOSS community can introduce users to sustainable software. 14 October is also KDE's birthday, International E-Waste Day, with International Repair Day following on 18 October. The irony is deep, but what is not ironic is that millions of functioning computers will end up becoming security risks or discarded as e-waste. This means manufacturing and transporting new ones, the biggest waste of all: hardware production accounts for over 75% of a device's CO2 emissions over its lifespan.
The FOSS community had an opportunity and we took it! In 2024, KDE Eco's Opt Green project began a global, unified campaign across FOSS and repair communities to upgrade unsupported Windows 10 computers to Linux. We held BoFs at SFSCon, CCC, and FOSDEM. We thought big and acted boldly. In this talk End Of 10 contributors will discuss the campaign, what has worked and what the challenges have been, and how FOSS provides a solution to software-driven resource and energy consumption.