Personally, I’m not brand loyal to any particular OS. There are good things about a lot of different operating systems, and I even have good things to say about ChromeOS. It just depends on what a user needs from an operating system.
Most Windows-only users I am acquainted with seem to want a device that mostly “just works” out of the box, whereas Linux requires a nonzero amount of tinkering for most distributions. I’ve never encountered a machine for sale with Linux pre-installed outside of niche small businesses selling pre-built PCs.
Windows users seem to want to just buy, have, and use a computer, whereas Linux users seem to enjoy problem solving and tinkering for fun. These two groups of people seem as if they’re very fundamentally different in what they want from a machine, so a user who solely uses Windows moving over to Linux never made much sense to me.
Why did you switch, and what was your process like? What made you choose Linux for your primary computing device, rather than macOS for example?
I’m 70% there. Game is 100% since i use just the Deck. Browsing and casual also 100%. As a graphic designer i still have to keep Adobe around for now, but i’m also testing out alternative as Gimp, Krita, Kdenlive, Da Vinci and more. I’ll soon upgrade my ssd and use the extra room for a dual boot on my desk. On my portable i already use Mint.
It’s interesting how nobody is saying “because it’s free software,” which is kind of the entire point of Linux.
Don’t get me wrong, I didn’t switch for that reason either. But it’s telling how conditioned we’ve been to not even recognize a free culture exists.
No, some people said “poverty” as a reason. That’s fair. To be honest Windows is ok, it just kind of sucks. If I’m only paying like $150 for a machine, I am ok with them having Windows on it, but I would probably install Mint, but you know what maybe not, the computer is going to kind of suck a bit, maybe its going to be ok.
Self-respect. I’m not going to tolerate my property being sabotaged against me in service of some other entity, and I don’t understand why anybody else would either.
As soon as Windows 10 “telemetry” (read: spyware) started getting backported into Windows 7 almost a decade ago, I was gone.
Windows users in 2025 are nothing but cucks and simps for corporate abuse. They don’t “just buy, have, and use a computer;” they are part of the problem.
To be fair, most people who use Windows are ignorant of any of this stuff so while I guess they are technically part of the problem (debatably), it’s not knowingly. With that in mind it seems unwise to tar them all with the same brush and set them up as the enemy if we hope to convince any of them to abandon it.
Yeah, @grue@lemmy.world, it’s really messed up to say, “You’re an idiot!” to an idiot’s face. These people need help, not punishment. Saying the victims are “part of the problem” is insane. The only targets you should be allowed to judge are those who know about everything (both Microsoft’s antics and Linux) and still choose to not move; anyone else is not on the enemy’s side or anything near that dramatic, geez.
cucks and simps
Lmao!!! So true. But most people don’t know why they are actually these things.
Windows users seem to want to just buy, have, and use a computer
That’s just not how I would describe Windows. It’s more like a digital bilboard with spyware that also runs programs. It actively prevents you from just using “your” computer.
Yes, but most people haven’t realised that yet. They’ll buy whatever is sold to them and use it till they experience some malfunction and then buy something new and repeat the cycle
it ran like shit, I never knew what was going on, trying to read the logs was a pain in the ass, I had to edit the registry for basic shit, they crammed ads into everything, I didnt use one drive, it eventually just stopped updating - it would try then fail without any useful info and say try again.
what a dumpster fire of an operating system and company. how they still have market share and are successful blows my mind.
Enshitification of Windows was my reason, I was quite patient, I let it slide when they backported telemetry to Windows 7, Windows 10 was still quite usable but the amount of bloat was getting on my nerves already. When I saw what shitshow 11 is becoming I jumped ship. I’m glad I did it early and didn’t wait for Windows EOL.
Same.
I had been dualbooting between win10 and linux for quite some time, but at some point near the win10 EOL, I realized I had not booted to windows in ~8 months or so. Decided it was time to nuke the windows partitions.
Pretty much exactly same for me. While I am of the tinkering kind I prefer my gaming machine to game when I wan’t to game. Once linux became stable enough for my choice of games I had no need for windows and used the second ssd for game storage.
I barely knew what linux was before I watched pewdiepies video on it a long time ago. Just knew that some people on steam would complain about games not running on it, so I never bothered to look into it, since that is basically all I use my computer for. However, over the past 2 years I have been becoming more aware of my individual footprint. Something I noticed was that I will complain about things I think are “wrong” with the world, and then not do anything about them. One of those things was Microsoft (or big tech companies in general). I hate them, yet I would be using their product/service. Literally giving money to something I don’t like.
I honestly have never enjoyed learning about computers and coding, I’ve tried and it’s never felt fun to me. I’m definitely not the “target” of linux I guess. When I turn on my computer, I just want to play some games or do homework/work with no fuss.
However, Linux is at a point to where I, someone who has no want or need to learn computers, can switch and mostly use it out of the box. So I just switched, because if I’m gonna sit here and shit on Microsoft for not doing what I think is right, then I need to stop using their product. Capitalism means as long as they make money, they aren’t gonna change a damn thing.
Yeah, I feel this sentiment very strongly. Complacency is what they want, because then you just mindlessly participate in the system. It’s difficult to not participate in the system by default since it’s like “hey man, I just
worklive here”. So not only do you need to be educated in wtf these systems even are, why they’re bad, and how to best engage/disengage with them, you have to actively make an effort to change with energy not a whole lot of people have these days. Some may see this reaction to Microsoft as silly and overblown, but people getting rid of windows could literally save their life due to the systems of surveillance built by Microsoft aiding increasingly dangerous and malicious political actors.That’s a good point. I guess even if you had to go through a few additional steps, it wasn’t very difficult for you, so it’s worth it.
I am kind of in the same boat as you, except I haven’t yet tried Linux. I’ve just been reading up information about it and I also mostly use my PC for gaming and some work, but work is mostly in a browser anyway. I hecking despise Microsoft now for Windows 11 and just had to battle their forced updates that nearly bricked my computer and I’ve finally had enough. May I ask, which version of Linux did you find worked “out of the box” for you?
I use POP!_OS. Works pretty much perfectly for me, although they just came out with a new cosmic desktop which I am not using (but looking into), so you might have a different experience than me. I have some issues like FPS in deadlock slowly degrading (I think if I use steam overlay) or sometimes games with third party launchers (like Mass Effect) just wouldn’t work until I tinkered around. These aren’t dealbreakers for me though. Most games work out of the box for me. If you’re really worried, you can always dual boot it with windows just to be safe, that’s what I did. https://ostechnix.com/dual-boot-windows-and-pop-os/ here is the guide I followed. If you don’t want Pop OS, I’ve heard decent things of bazzite as well for gaming.
POP and Mint seem to be the most recommended ones so I think I will start with one of them and see what happens. I’m not terribly opposed to tinkering a little bit and I generally try to avoid games with 3rd party launchers, so I’m sure it’ll be fine. The only thing that concerned me was reading about Nvidia being a bit finicky (stuck with a 3070, but probably switching to AMD when this AI craze eases) with Linux, but I’m sure it’ll be fine.
Kind of excited to dive in tbh, and that doesn’t happen too often anymore, lol. Thanks for the reply!
Windows is terrible.
Windows is such a horrible experience and MS is such a horrific company.
Combination of three things:
Windows XP. What a pile of shit that was. The enshitification began here. This is where microsoft ID’s started. Where music downloads only worked with Internet Explorer. Where microsoft began data harvesting, and they started lying about being able to remove applications you didnt want.
The second reason was indirectly due to Quickbooks shitty software requirements.
Quickbooks, and windows wanted you at a specific computer. I thought this was bullshit. I realized with Linux I could work anywhere, and deliver my applications via x forwarding. No one “seat” rule.
So I added a linux server to work, and quickly started using Linux full time.
Funny about what you said though. I use Linux because I do not want to tinker, I want everything to just work. Windows and the applications for it go against you, change on you, require licensing of you, and generally are a pain in the ass.
Through a MSDN I have free access to all windows software. I have free use of an Azure node and Virtual Desktops. But I won’t use them for anything personal, only if someone will pay me. MS just sucks that much.
I am willing to remote into, push code to, admin any window device for money. But I do it all from a linux machine.
I’ve been absolutely seething over Microsoft’s bullshit for years. Over the years of having less and less control over my own fucking computer, the parasitic privacy invasion, the dumbfuck constant bloat, the cartoon level evil of Microsoft in general, the constant degradation, forcing unnecessary features and ads, and generally just the sheer audacity. Honestly, I’ve just kinda been putting up with it for not much more than “it works for now and I’m just tired, man”. However, then Microsoft started pushing ai and some updates that were literally bricking systems so I could no longer justify having a switch from windows being such a low priority; it was now a liability. I’m now running CachyOS and I’m quite happy with the switch. Everything just fucking works, not to mention the very noticeable performance boost. Fuck Microsoft.
Linux-only users really hate Microsoft, your rants are always A+
Haha, thanks man. For me personally, I’m a socialist and punk to my very soul, so the hate for Microsoft runs ultra deep. In addition to everything I mentioned before, I’ve become much more wary of the software running in my house due to an increase in political risk. There’s no longer just a privacy consideration for general security, but now a heightened existential risk involved. Microsoft is part of the problem in perpetuating the existing system of oppression, so absolutely fuck em.
Windows 10 decided to update a machine in a client’s office. The update took 4 hours and the employee could do zero during that time. A few weeks later a Win 10 machine at the same office crashed and would not start. I was left googling error codes from the BSOD. Nothing worked and I had to reinstall. I decided I needed to get my own work stack off of windows. I installed Kubuntu. 2 years later and I like KDE, I like the Debian base, I hate snap, but mostly I’m working and productive.
Privacy, freedom to choose whatever I want, focus on FOSS (I hate/dont trust proprietary software), and security features for hardening Linux (Landlock, SELinux, Bubblewrap, sysctl, hardened_malloc).
i switched to Linux in 2013ish to get away from my gaming habit and go all in on programming and computer science. that may not work these days as all the games i play work on Linux ha
Linux became so much less work to keep running than windows, even for gaming (if you’ve got an AMD gpu at least). I don’t play competitive gaming in any capacity so I’m not missing pretty much anything.
I have Nvidia and no problem gaming here. Dx12 titles do seem to have lower framerate however. If anyone have Nvidia and not sure to switch because of that, don’t think about it. It is fine.
On LMDE, you literally just install the driver from the software manager like you would download most other things.
And about that… Software managers save so much time instead of visiting websites to download installers.
