Windows 10 shit the bed and needed a reinstall so I went through all the steps needed to get it just right again in my head. I realized it’s gonna take me most of the day and I installed pop OS instead, that was like 2 years ago and I haven’t looked back.
• 1) I’m disillusioned with and sick of Windows. I’ve been in there since the days of XP and 7, back then those systems could take a crapload of abuse from my young clueless arse prone to downloading hundreds of malware, yet still be functioning largely flawlessy. Hell, even Vista and 8 were still quite resilient, and I say this as someone who used Vista for 2 years. Meanwhile, Windows 10 completely falls apart if I so much as look at it wrong, and I never had a W10 installation last longer than 6 months without falling apart with bizarre bug after bizarre bug (such as leaving me completely unable to open any image files) - and this is without my past proneness to getting malware. I don’t have the patience for that anymore, and then 11 comes in adding ads to the start menu and I just can’t anymore.
• 2) I’ve come to appreciate how Linux handles some things better - mostly with regards to Flatpaks and their self-containment making it less risky to run some things and easier to keep track of what I have installed. I find it’s also easier to deal with backups on Linux than Windows, especially with Kinoite (and I heard Tumbleweed also does a good job at it with snapper, too). In general I feel safer when using Linux, but on Windows I’m always paranoid about downloading a virus again - and with how brittle 10 is…
• 3) I don’t really like monopolies and don’t like the idea of Microsoft becoming basically synonymous with computers (and Apple isn’t any better).
It’s not perfect, mind you, and I do still feel many frustrations with Linux (I had to deal with Steam stopping working for no reason lately, but at least I could rollback to an earlier version), but I’ve genuinely not had much better luck with 10 at this point.
I initially switched because I heard about Windows planning to drop support for Windows 10 and I knew that Windows 11 was slow as hell so I jumped ship. I stayed because I really like the customizability and all the options Linux affords me as well as being able to just… switch distros if one company does something I don’t like. Being able to update when I want to is also amazing.
I get you, OP. Sometimes it seems like people treat Steam as the pinnacle of Linux. It’s even more baffling when people say that they like Linux but wish they could run MS Office, Photoshop etc. Do you really like Linux or do you just hate Windows? Because for me almost the entire point of Linux is that it’s FOSS. If all I wanted was to run proprietary software, I would use an OS that the proprietary software officially supports and was designed to run on, saving myself a ton of trouble.
Yeah this is my main point, I feel the same way when people are trying to run other proprietary software. I understand just being very particular about workflow, big part of the reason I use any given Linux distro, but moving to Linux to then go through the hoops of running MS Office, which even in the best case scenario will be another app that is not easy to update, has always seemed silly to me.
Made the switch way before any kind of support from steam, had several games from aspyr and feral, bought a codeweavers license and all that. For me at keast it’s about the lack of interruptions and actually enjoying the workflow on gnome. I also love the idea of fetting in touch directly with the people making the programs I enjoy and not a random support rep on the other side of the world.
On the other hand, you should probably take a deeper look at steam. There are a ton of extra modifications you can do to the client, all of them unofficial and some straight up illegal, from changing the theme to injecting enhancements on the store (e.g. displaying protondb score on store pages) to aome shady shit like unlocking DLC. Steam is DRM but it’s not denuvo or something like that. It’s easily circumventable to the point I feel safe buying games on it, knowing if they ever go for a rug pull, I could keep most if not all my stuff regardless of the platform itself.
I swapped because I did not like the direction that Microsoft is taking Windows. It felt like just more tracking, more ads, and less control with each iteration. I always felt like Linux was better, but did not meet my need for gaming. The steam deck came out just a few months before I switched, giving me the confidence that I would still be able to play the games that I enjoy.
I use it for my servers and for remotely programming for over a decade. Using it on a desktop setup for work or games? Fuck no!
It’s my criticism of the Linux community: They don’t understand what “being productive” really means. I need to do work during the day, and produce results. I don’t have time to deal with my docking station not working, monitors settings breaking, and tinker with them every day… not because I can’t, but because I SHOULDN’T NEED TO.
It was cool when I was a teenager… now I need to make money.
As frustrating as it sounds. On windows and mac, literally plug and play. Every time I get the exact same setup. On Linux… dear Lord… every day a different problem and a different tinker until I swore that I’m done, and went back to remote use of Linux. Linux terminal is perfect, and that’s probably all I’ll need. Linux desktop through VNC, if ever.
Random breakage and weird behavior is why I stopped using Windows at home. On so many machines, I’ve seen the Start menu just stop functioning… or what’s up with the system trying to update the video drivers to the version dated 1968 (the year of Intel’s founding)? Nagging me (again?!) to change my web browser to Edge… Is your browser compliant to web standards this time, Microsoft? I still don’t want to use it.
Users are taught to fear Linux “because you might have to use the command line!” when in Windows you need to use brain-melting Powershell commands like
You pay for Windows, but the privacy terms make it clear that it’s Microsoft’s computer, not yours, yet you have to fix it yourself when things spontaneously break. If I manage to break Linux (by my own actions), at least I feel like I’m learning a bit in the process of fixing it.
Because it’s easier to use/troubleshoot and fix problems. “Oh something broke on an update” revert to the last update. “I have an issue and it outputs an error code in the terminal” copy paste into Google/chatGPT and find the solution.
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