PCs that cannot run Windows 11
Windows 10 support ended in October 2025, and Windows 11 needs TPM 2.0 and a recent processor. Nixorium needs a 64-bit PC with UEFI, so many of those machines can stay in service.
Coming from Windows
You do not have to give up Windows on day one.
Most school labs run Windows, and the same two worries come up every time: some software only exists for Windows, and staff are not used to Linux. Both are real. This is how Nixorium’s first lab handled them.
- Hardware
- 64-bit UEFI PCs
- Licences
- None, for system, monitoring and reset
- Windows
- Kept on a second disk
Why labs look at it now
Three things have changed.
Nothing to license
Nixorium, NixOS, and every application in the software profiles are free and open source. That includes classroom monitoring and the reset at every boot, which on Windows usually mean extra products.
Lessons are moving to the browser
More school work runs as a web app every year: documents, registers, learning platforms. In a browser, the operating system underneath matters less and less.
Lesson software
Most lessons already have what they need.
The list of Windows-only programs gets shorter every year. For each one, the free alternatives: applications from the software profiles you choose at setup, and the ArtCraft apps shown below, separate projects that a lab can add.
PhotoCraft: Photoshop clone
- Photoshop
- GIMP, Krita, Inkscape and PhotoCraft
- AutoCAD
- FreeCAD, CADCraft and Blender for 3D
- Word
- LibreOffice Writer, WordCraft, or Google Workspace and Microsoft 365 in the browser
- Excel
- LibreOffice Calc and GridCraft
- PowerPoint
- LibreOffice Impress and DeckCraft
- Acrobat Pro
- Papers, the GNOME document viewer, LibreOffice Draw and PdfCraft
- Figma
- FigCraft
- Illustrator
- Inkscape and VectorCraft
- Premiere Pro and After Effects
- Kdenlive, OBS Studio, FilmCraft and EffectCraft
- Audition and Pro Tools
- Audacity and SoundCraft
- InDesign
- DesignCraft
- Programming
- VS Code, C/C++, Java, Python, PHP with a local Apache server, MySQL and MySQL Workbench
- Maths and science
- R, Octave, Maxima and Gnuplot
- Web apps and school platforms
- Chromium, included in every profile
The Craft apps above are from ArtCraft: free and open source, they run on Linux as AppImage. getartcraft.com
Windows-only software
Keep Windows on a second disk.
Some programs still exist only for Windows, including software required for public-sector exams. Nixorium’s first lab kept two disks in each PC: NixOS on one, Windows on the other. The boot menu lists both, so Windows is there on the days it is needed.
- Separate disks. Nixorium installs on the disk you confirm and erases only that disk. It does not shrink a Windows disk to share it.
- NixOS by default. The PC starts NixOS unless someone chooses Windows in the boot menu.
- Windows stays yours to manage. Nixorium does not update, reset, or reinstall the Windows disk.
People
Nobody has to become a Linux expert.
Teachers and technicians who have only used Windows are the other common worry. Day to day, very little of Nixorium looks like “Linux”.
Students
The PC opens a ready desktop with no login. They use a browser and the applications for the lesson.
Teachers
A desktop, a browser, and the classroom view: every student screen from the teacher’s desk, with buttons to lock, show your screen, hand out files and pause Internet. No commands to learn.
Technicians
Routine work is a guided menu: choose the software, choose the PCs, confirm. A reboot undoes whatever a student changed, a system update can be rolled back, and when something is interrupted the menu says what to do next.
The first installation is the demanding part: it needs someone comfortable starting a PC from USB and answering questions in a terminal. Editing configuration files is only for advanced changes.
A lesson from the teacher’s desk →What the administrator does →
Start small
Try it without changing the lab.
- Two spare PCs. Make one the controller and one a student PC. Nothing else in the school changes.
- One real lesson. Let a teacher use them with a class and see what is missing.
- One room. Move a single lab and leave the others on Windows.
Need the head teacher’s approval? A printable summary for your school →