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.
Dota (1, in warcraft 3) would have a hitch every once in a while, and i’d die if it was in a fight. Cause was swap writing to disk, that you can’t turn off in winxp. I was already looking at linux, so i said f it. Bdw warcraft 3 runs well on linux if you add -opengl.
I don’t know if the 10M is a pun or something but it reminisce the same amount that Mark Shuttleworth pledged when he started a Debian fork project called Ubuntu.
About the reason for switching, it was something pretty small, actually:
Windows' UX getting increasingly worse for keyboard-centric usage (it slowly but surely got to my nerves e.e" ). Added with my HDD with Win10 dying after 6 years, being impulsive and loving to learn new things, I set to test new systems, in search for the ideal UX for my needs. Then, the Linux distros fitted like a glove, even more so with how customizable they could be, and they became my main systems (Mint currently). Still, ever since stopping using Windows as my main system family, I don't shy away from testing other systems. Even got the chance of testing Vista (surprisingly functional despite its infamy) and Macintosh 7 (I got very lucky in finding someone with such a computer).
And as mentioned before, a good part of Linux is being customizable. And surprisingly (from an outsider's perspective), you don't need to know coding most of the time! You just need to know how to do troubleshooting (which Linux programs more often than not facilitate by showing the error in detail). Also also, from an ADHD point of view, it is good for non-linear learning, since small things you learn in one activity can help immensely in other activities, potentially even helping with non-Linux systems.
But as a cautionary tale, not all things work on Linux, so it's always good to have a back up system or system installation ISO around. And given Linux's open nature, you either have companies working behind them, such as Canonical, Red Hat and Microsoft (this last one with their "Azure" server system), potentially deteriorating their systems for the sake of profit, or systems made from users to users, which then depend on the devs being interested in continuing development, so don't expect your favorite distro to be supported or viable forever, and be ready to make the jump to other distros if you need to.
Windows XP looked like such a downgrade from Windows 2000. Lacked stability. Wanted something more customizable. I liked the idea of community powered software so Linux was the solution.
Back in the days of Vista, I had been dual-booting and using Knoppix (Live CD) as needed for a while. My main daily use outside of games was all open source that was available on Windows and Linux, OpenOffice (would recommend LibreOffice now), Firefox, Thunderbird, etc.
Windows used to get dreadfully slow, unless you reinstalled. Or maybe I was fixing something. Reformatted the hard drive, set up the Linux partition (Ubuntu 6.06 IIRC), Synaptic, tick all my usuals, apply. Come back a little bit later, fully up to date, do some logins, Linux is fully usable. Even installed Battle for Wesnoth in case.
Boot over to Windows, update, reboot, update, reboot, install drivers, more reboots. More drivers, more installables, more updates, more reboots
It was bedtime, off finish off later, and I ended up using Ubuntu as my main for a week.
After that week, I found I only booted to Windows for games. Never looked back. That week is the week I flipped from 60%/40% Windows/Linux to 60%/40% Linux/Windows. Since then Linux only gets better, and I use Windows less and less.
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