Over a million Windows 11 & 10 users have already downloaded and installed this Linux distro

Microsoft this week announced that the company is implementing new security hardening measures on Windows 11 25H2 and Windows Server 2025. As such it explained why in some aspects, the latest OS versions are getting twice as demanding to run.

Microsoft has always prioritized the security side of Windows 11 ever since its inception back in 2021, which is why it introduced the strict system requirements for Windows 10 users. TPM 2.0 and MBEC-capable CPUs were deemed necessary.

As such, many users who have old PCs with unsupported processors are having to give up on Windows entirely and look for alternatives, as Microsoft has also warned about the security issues that can creep up if you run an unserviced system. That is where Linux comes in, and there can certainly be some compelling reasons to switch over.

While there are many Linux distros out there, one of them that has managed to gain popularity in the recent few months is Zorin Group's Zorin OS. The group teased Zorin OS 18 in September of 2025 right before Windows 10 ran out of support. A huge new feature list was on offer with the latest version of the OS.

Seeing the opportunity it had, the Zorin Group released Zorin OS 18 on the exact day Windows 10 mainstream support was drawn to a halt. With an estimated 240 million Windows 10 PCs being unable to upgrade, this was a good chance to increase its foothold.

Over the next few months, Zorin Group has been sharing its success story as it noted that the launch was its "biggest ever" as it claimed that over 100,000 people downloaded it in just a couple of days. And later in November, that number increased by tenfold as downloads crossed one million. It said: "Zorin OS 18 has amassed 1 million downloads in just over a month since its release, breaking all previous records."

This month, Zorin revealed that the number of downloads has again doubled to reach 2 million downloads. An interesting tidbit added this time is the claim that three-fourths, or 75%, of the downloads have come from Windows users.

On its official X handle, it posted: "Zorin OS 18 just crossed 2 million downloads in under 3 months. More than ¾ of these downloads came from Windows users, helping to grow the Linux user base even further. .... Thank you to everyone who supported and shared our biggest release ever"

This is an interesting one for sure, as it indicates that around 1.5 million Windows 10 and 11 users could be on Zorin OS. It is hard to gauge exactly how many of them have come from Windows 10, though, and also the number of people who may be using it as a daily driver as many may simply be trying it to get a feel. Perhaps we also have many Neowin readers who are among them. Let us know in the comments how your experience has been.

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Posted Wednesday 14 January 2026 at 4:10 am AEST (my time).

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