It took nearly 30 years, but the legendary “Year of Linux” has finally arrived, courtesy of Microsoft itself! When Windows 10 officially kicked the bucket on October 14, millions of “digital refugees” found themselves stranded between upgrading to Windows 11 or… doing literally anything else.

Enter Zorin OS 18, a slick Linux distro that launched the same day Windows 10 went dark like a penguin swooping in to rescue survivors from a sinking ship. In less than a week, it racked up over 300,000 downloads, with most coming from former Windows users.

Zorin’s secret weapon? It looks and feels enough like Windows that your grandma might not notice the switch, plus it runs tons of Windows apps through WINE 10. It even politely asks what you’re trying to install before suggesting the best way to run it.

The result? The biggest migration to Linux in history aided by campaigns such as “End of 10.” Even gaming isn’t a problem anymore thanks to Proton and SteamOS Holo, and with influencers like PewDiePie hopping aboard, the penguin party is officially mainstream.

As ZDNet puts it: “The ZorinOS team has taken a great Linux desktop OS and made it even better.” Meanwhile, somewhere in Redmond, someone is probably whispering: We may have created our own final boss.

[Via Mon Carnet (French)]