Windows became unusable for me. Forced updates, unremovable adware, resetting user preferences, and shockingly stability.
I mostly game and tinker on my PC and for the most part everything’s just works these days. Sometimes I run into a game that has poor performance or something I need to tweak. But truth be told that was not unusual in windows either. I would frequently need to mess with ini’s and config files in games to make them work right or have FOV not designed for consoles.
Linux is not perfect but windows is also not perfect the big difference is your used to it’s quirks and the methods to fix them. If you use Linux enough and long enough you will get the same sort of skills.
There are a small list of programs I can’t replace like fusion360, Photoshop, and Visio.
If those Gimp is good enough to replace Photoshop for most my tasks but not always.
I just use Photoshop CS6 (cloud subscriptions can get fucked) through wine the odd time I need it and so far I haven’t encountered any problems. Fusion360 is still super janky though, and I don’t know visio.
Package managers are a godsend and there’s nothing like them on Windows. Chocolatey is okay, but it’s got nothing on Linux pms. This discontinuity between installing and upgrading some applications, other applications, Windows apps, drivers, and system software makes me want to cry.
Customization. Man is Windows lame here. Colors on Windows is about all you can do, and it’s so limited. I bought the machine I should be able to set it up how I like. There are some deeper ways to theme and adjust things more directly, but they’re hard to use and risk breaking your system. On Linux, customization is easy, even on a more pro-default-option DE like GNOME. I just want things to work, and Windows fights me to get it to a usable state.
Bloat, telemetry, ads, proprietary garbage, etc, etc, etc. I like FOSS and using FOSS software, and I can use it on Windows, but I have to have so much other stuff too. Debloat scripts exist, but they can only do so much. There’s always gonna be something Microsoft owns on the system
Complexity and control. Linux is simple. Binaries go in bin, and the settings for them are usually in ~/.config or somewhere in /etc. Want to adjust some obscure setting to fix some issue in a program you installed? Oh go tweak this clear config and explicit setting to fit your hardware or whatever. Easy to fix. On Windows, all the system stuff is not only hidden, it’s restricted, and also so many times on Windows when you run into issues the solution is you have to edit shudder the registry, or worse you have to do a PC reset. Overtime your system slows and blue screens become more frequent too, and there’s nothing you can do. On Linux, you can learn 7 or so folders and understand how your entire system works, keep it maintained, and run it for years. Had a prof in college who was on like a 20yo Gentoo install.
Tiling. There are ways to do tiling on Windows, but they’re all bad and glitchy. Nothing on Windows comes close to i3, and I can’t go back to a non-tiling workflow. Windows wants you to do things the Windows way, and anything outside of that is always lack luster. People talk about Linux balkanization as a problem. It’s not. Those people are just ignorant and stupid. No system can ever really fit all use cases, so it’s important to support choice. Windows doesn’t just promote one way to do things a la GNOME, it actively works against doing things other ways.
Programming. Compilers and dev tools on Linux are so much easier to install and set up than on Windows. If you want to program, you’ve gotta be on Unix/Unix-like
Windows weirdness. There’s so many things on Windows that are just weird decisions. I’ll be using Windows and be like “why the heck did they do it this way?” I’m constantly left scratching my head. Windows has made me lose all respect for Microsoft engineers. They’re clearly stupid. On the other hand, everything on Linux makes sense and has good reasoning behind it. You need to learn very little comparatively to understand your entire system.
Stability. Not talking about applications/upgrades here, but rather Linux will never crash on you, but I can’t go a week without Windows blue screening.
Freedom. I like owning my computer. With Windows, Microsoft owns your PC. Does this directly effect everything constantly? Is it the end all reason for me to switch? No, but it’s icing on the cake. On Windows I feel stuck and miserable. On Linux I feel free and happy.
So I still technically use Windows, but only because I need it because of some software for school, but I still use Linux most of the time. It’s mainly the small yet super annoying things in Windows that caused me to switch. Like how everything has to automatically try and back up to OneDrive until you dig into the settings and disable it, or how it constantly badgers you to use insert Microsoft product here instead of what you want to use. Plus as a computer science student, and someone who spends a lot of time in the terminal, Powershell and the Windows command line feel so old and incapable compared to the Linux terminal (WSL has helped with some of that, but not all of it.) It’s just small issues that cause big issues when you run into them, because it just makes simple things harder to do than they need to be, usually for the sake of pushing their products.
It came down to right-to-repair/upgrade. I’ve been a mac user my whole life. The 2012 MacBook pro was the last model that users could upgrade themselves. I got a decade plus out of those machines because I could upgrade them. They actually still run quite well, but Mac no longer includes those models in their software updates and no longer allows users to easily upgrade any of their laptops manufactured since. That was it for me. Got a System76 laptop and made the move. Couldn’t be happier.
I have to use Windows for work, and I choose to use Linux for all of my personal devices. Windows is trying very hard to corral me into using bing, edge, cortana, etc. and gets in my way when I try to use the tools I prefer instead. It intentionally obscures what its doing with updates and security. That is unacceptable. This is my computer, not theirs.
No Linux distro that I’ve tried does any of that shit. They have never tried to push my behavior in one direction or another, they aren’t watching everything I do to help their product teams develop an even more annoying desktop. The various Linux distros I’ve used have felt like nothing but a way to let me use my damn computer.
I do have a small partition with Windows on it to play the occasional game I can’t run on Linux with Proton. Thanks, Valve!
Is faster. I don’t care about the extra bells and whistles, and I want a straightforward functioning system that allows me to do what I need to do. I also like that I can customize my desktop experience to my heart’s desires. I can literally change the way my system looks if I get bored of it. Most importantly, the lack of tracking/telemetry and being a smaller target on the web.
When I was in college, one of those stupid Lockdown Browsers broke my laptop’s ability to use its physical speakers. No amount of modifying Windows registries or even clean installing Windows could fix it. I booted Linux from a USB stick and lo and behold everything worked as normal. I wiped Windows and never looked back.
For vim, terminals, and keyboard-driven window management. It’s nice to have full control and feel like a first class citizen instead of a product. Or like the developer actively thinks you’re an idiot.
I first dual-booted Linux back in 2008 because I’m a musician and at the time I was a broke highschooler trying to use Ubuntu Studio to record and mix songs without dropping $500 on a Pro Tools license. After that I’d generally always have a dual boot system because I like using Linux for its flexibility.
Back in December I switched to 100% Linux Mint on my main gaming PC because my Windows 10 install was starting to die in all kinds of ways and I was gonna have to reinstall, so I just formatted the partition and went all Linux.
I also self-host a bunch of little servers for various stuff on like 5 different little single-board-computers (Pi 4, M1 Mac Mini, etc), and they all run various flavors of Linux, mostly Debian and Ubuntu but also Asahi on the Mac.
In general I find it waaaay easier to maintain, update, repair, and modify. Package managers should be available for every OS by default, not as an ugly hack like on Windows or MacOS.
I switched when my old Windoz XP install deflated in a blue screen of death. I didn’t even know there was a difference between an OS and the computer as a whole, but a friend gave me four live CDs with linux distros on them (Ubuntu 12.04, Bodhi, PClinus, can’t remember the fourth).
What made me stay was the FOSS ideals that make software available to all. I was so broke at the time that I didn’t have the money to buy a new $100 windows install. Without Linux I wouldn’t have had a computer. Since then it’s always been the ethos that has kept me with Linux. That being said, here are the unexpected benefits:
Entire file system is stored as text files. Super easy to back up ans administrate.
Support communities (Arch wiki, ubuntu forums, etc…) are filled with highly educated members who have very often asked and answered the questions I had.
The app repositories. It blew my mind when I found out I didn’t have to hunt around on the web for an .exe file that might be coming from an insecure source. Linux apps (distro repos, flatpaks, snaps) are centrally available from your terminal just for your distribution.
Lastly a more overarching meta-point, the software respects thr user. Windows and MacOS don’t respect you and make it difficult to maintain freedom in the way that you use your computer and manage your files.
Call me a filthy casual or whatever, but I use Windows, Linux and macOS equally. My preference is Linux but I don’t limit myself by just pretending the other two options don’t exist :)
Sorry but you aren’t special, everyone here already used windows or Mac and the fact that I’m not using other systems righr nowmaybe is more related to I not liking/needing it than pretending they do not exist.
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