Microsoft kills support for most popular operating system, users now get full-screen ads
That's 240 million more Linux users!

Methinks you missplet "Mac users."

I was in my dentist's office the other day and happened to mention Linux. The person I was chatting with had never heard of it. I doubt that she is unrepresentative of the general public.

Gonna be lots of cheap second-hand kit around for us linux folk to take advantage of.

I gave up on Windows a very long time ago. I cannot argue with the system's general stability and market success, but I do not like the actions of the company that makes it and I haven't used it (for myself) in a very long time. There is no "payback" to justify its endlessly expanding hardware requirements. And its obsession with spying on you.

Unfortunately, I can now say the same thing about Apple. I am never going to pay more than $1,000 for "a phone."

It's a year and a half till EOL. When that happens my <$250 Win 10 laptop will be 8 or 9 years old. I'll take it off-line, buy the cheapest 11 laptop I can find, drop all my well catalogged and backedup data onto the disk, install WSL and go on my merry way. This laptop will go into my 'junk' room with a ton of other outdated gear and serve as 'backup' just as my still working Win 95, 98, 2000, Millenium, XP, and Win 7 boxes do at the present.

I no longer have a Windows 10 unit. I run one Windows 11 laptop and four Linux units. My technology graveyard of still working items is growing in my basement.

As with most here, I've been Windows free for many years now. Win 7 being the last M$ OS that I owned. Never missed a thing. Pocketbook bleeding ended as well. Apple doesn't work for me as it is a closed system... And expensive. I don't see why more people haven't made the jump to Linux from my perspective, but I do think it is because of it comes down to the 'already installed' syndrome. All you have to do is turn the machine on, register with M$ (no go here) and off and running. Bottom line I doubt EOL of Win10 is going to create more Linux users. If Linux isn't advertised on talking heads channels... The general public won't even know it exists ... nor care.

Ignorance is bliss for me in my neck of the planet.

Some times, I end up with free gear.

And yet there's two Windows 10/11 users in this thread - 25% is a depressingly high number for a Linux forum.

And if/when it does get talked about, Microsoft will respond with a smear campaign. There would need to be an awareness/preempting of that if people truly want Microsoft's market share reduced.

Pointing out the environmental impact of Microsoft's choice of obsolescing older machines is worth doing purely because of the environment impact, but it is also an opportunity to educate people on alternatives - and if that is done with honesty and an understanding of their needs, (rather than the crazed zealotry frequently demonstrated on LQ and elsewhere), it might have a degree of success.

(I'm not holding my breath.)

Not sure that I've got room for any more 'Windows Users Cast Offs'....

My thin clients run fast enough for my online perusing, even when using Firefox.

My back up for when Linux goes bad, (as in too much big business interference), is NetBSD &/or OpenBSD, which are leaner than even my Linux distros are for what I need.

I'm not sure what EOL means to Microsoft. Windows 7 was EOLed on January 1, 2020 and I'm still getting security updates from Microsoft for my Win7 VM.

I too have been guilty of being a bit of a Linux zealot in the past. Joe Average computer user doesn't care what's running on his PC as long as it just works. My 2020 Lenovo Legion gaming laptop will run multiple versions of Linux, but, it runs better with Windows 11. I use it for media consumption, Zoom, and light gaming(I suck at gaming). The average computer user won't run Linux until he/she has a need to run it and can get it preloaded with Linux.
I do generally prefer Linux and have used it and the BSDs since 2002. These days I believe that you should use whatever operating system meets your needs. Linux and BSD own the smart phone market, but it's unlikely that Gnu/Linux will ever make a dent in the PC market.

I have a few Windows 7 that may never get upgrades.