A PCWorld columnist has installed Linux on a personal machine for the first time, reviving an old laptop — and the deciding factor wasn't cost or customization. It was security.

The piece lands on a familiar tension for anyone eyeing the switch: Linux is free to download, but it isn't free to run. The hidden cost is time — learning new workflows, troubleshooting hardware quirks, and replacing the muscle memory built over years of Windows. That's the 'rabbit hole' the author describes plunging into.

Still, the security argument is gaining force. With Windows 10 support wound down and older hardware locked out of Windows 11's requirements, millions of serviceable laptops face a choice between running an unpatched OS and trying something new. For machines that can't make Microsoft's cut, a maintained Linux distribution offers ongoing patches where the alternative is none — a trade plenty of first-timers now seem willing to make.