Hey everyone,
I am exploring switching over to Linux but I would like to know why people switch. I have Windows 11 rn.
I dont do much code but will be doing some for school. I work remote and go to school remote. My career is not TOO technical.
What benefits caused you to switch over and what surprised you when you made the switch?
Thank you all in advanced.
These days, Windows constantly gets in your way with ads, forced updates, crappy apps that install themselves, useless features like Cortana, forcing you to make a Microsoft account, etc. Linux or the BSDs, however, usually give you a bullshit-free and distraction-free experience. Plus, no spyware, completely free, endlessly customizable, and low resource usage (if you use a lightweight setup, but even “bloated” distros like Ubuntu and Mint are often light compared to Windows).
And what surprised me? I guess the only thing that surprised me is how easy the experience is, especially for things like gaming, which Linux has historically had a bad reputation for. Also, how nice it can be to use the terminal, not that you have to, especially as a novice user.
Word is Microsoft quietly killed Cortana, so Windows has that going for it now!
Windows still got 99 problems, but that bitch ain’t one.
I was around when Clippy died. Fuck that bent piece of recycled pop can.
Then they gave us Cortana.
Just wait till they bring it back, now powered by Chat GPT!
Cortana had funny jokes, and would actually do passable imitations of characters like Darth Vader, but that was the only thing I ever used it for.
Things you mentioned about windows before “etc” can actually be disabled through group policy or other means. It’s an annoyance nonetheless. But after ~30 minutes of tweaking after a new install, windows is not that bad these days.
Anyway, if I don’t play games I’ll probably be Linux all the way. Most things today are web based anyway.
But how is gaming on Linux nowadays, if you may elaborate? I have top of the line hardwares but the games I play easily max out their usage. I know there are things like translation layer, but I’m afraid the performance hit may be not ideal…
Wine, DXVK, and other compatibility aids have made gaming a relatively trouble-free experience. Most of the time, if you use Steam, you can just click play and your game will work out of the box with Proton. Performance hit is usually not a big deal, and some games even perform better on Linux. Some games I play also have decent native ports. Outside of edge-cases, the only issues tend to be games with aggressive DRM or anti-cheat, which is hard to get around (though the situation is getting somewhat better with some forms of anti-cheat starting to be Linux/Proton-compatible). Though, personally, most of the games I play are at least a few years old, and most of the new games I play are indie, so I can’t exactly attest to the performance of new AAA games. I tend to hear they work well, outside of the previously mentioned issues, however.
But linux uses more power…
The telemetry and ads baked into windows. I’m so sick of ads creeping into every corner of my life
Apparently, if you go through the “privacy” settings in Windows and turn everything off, it still collects more data than KDE with all telemetry turned on 🤯
And there’s a chance they turn it all back on with an update.
I switched because after every Windows update they reset some settings and installed tiktok icons.
Also, when i blocked OS from pinging home every time i clicked start, it made windows freak out to a point where it affected PC performance.
I am tired of being treated like a cattle as paying customer.
PopOS was free and respects its users…
I got tired of windows pretending it knew better than me what i wanted, whether that was updates or security scans or fuck knows what else.
The final straw was when they shitted up the start menu with garbage and tried to shove their app store down my throat. At that point i was done.
For me it was the philosophy behind Free (as in freedom) software. Call me a Richard Stallman fan, but I would love to live in a world were everyone is free to:
- Run the program as you wish, for any purpose.
- Study how the program works, and change it so it does your computing as you wish. Access to the source code is a precondition for this.
- Redistribute copies so you can help your neighbor.
- Distribute copies of your modified versions to others.
Learn more at fsf.org
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 :)
Nah, I’m with you too.
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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You can make your computer your own. You bought it, you deserve control for it, you do not need a corporation to decide things for you.
The benefits of Linux is that you can simply multitask much better, and do things more efficiently. It’s honestly not the same and the two are just not comparable, but not everyone can appreciate or take advantage of that.
For an inexperienced person to set it up, of course it’s not that simple. Those that are comfortable with Windows find all of these benefits trivial over the perceived amount of effort to transition.
For an experienced person like me, Windows is much more of a nuisance to set up. I really like my setups clean, I just can’t stand how dirty Windows gets. To clean your system effectively, you’d have to reformat it. There are things like Scoop, MSYS, Docker, etc. I had to use Windows on my laptop for school. The way I use Windows is like how I use Linux, except Powershell commands are just non-intuitive. It just feels really awkward over Bash.
I switched because Microsoft just keeps getting worse and worse, and I like having complete control over my system. And limiting the amount of my data going out.
Linux in general uses much less system resources than windows, and I like being able to easily change my workflow (desktop environment, window manager, etc).
You may want to dual boot, especially if your classes are online. I’ve seen issue after issue using a Windows VM for online exams. But, for me it’d be worth asking a buddy or using the computer lab to get around an invasive OS as your daily driver.
Maybe have both. Dual boot is not as helpful as a VM, or st least it wasnt when I was trying to make the switch.
For sure, but online exams for college see VM’s as a cheating option since the base OS isn’t accessible by the exam software to restrict. I’ve seen on going workarounds, but these exam programs always adapt, making more settings changes required for a VM to work on a test. As if a difficult exam wasn’t tough enough. Windows provides the exam software’s the lockdown capabilities they desire, so alt OS options aren’t allowed.
For those purposes yes you need dual boot. However, of you’re learning a new OS, dual boot is often just too inconvenient the rest of the time. It’s way easier to spool a VM because you can’t get your phone to connect and troubleshoot that problem later (compared to log out and restart to get a picture off you need) for example.
I’m saying have both. It’s just bytes on disk.
My reasons:
- You can completely customize linux to your liking. In win it is hard to customize even such a basic thing as keybindings.
- You can fully control what is installed, win had tons of stuff, that cannot be uninstalled.
- Things like proprietary software, telemetry etc. is opt-in, no need to deal with windows spying on you for example
- System is leaner, less bloated (you can fill it with processes if that is what you need ofc)
- Dev environment is a lot more comfy than linux
The biggest downside:
- Gaming is rough around the edge, even though it gets better and better.
When Windows decided to auto update in the middle of an important meeting without any prompt;
when I download files overnight and the fan takes off at midnight by its telemetry process;
when it gives me a full screen ad trying to change my system settings and stops me from entering the system on time;
when the system starts to integrate with ads from the browser to the taskbar.
It’s not because how good Linux is, it’s because how bad Windows has become.So I left after my little checklist of must-to-haves is fulfilled. With no regrets.
I think the straw that broke the camel’s back for me was when I learned msvc compiles telemetry calls into every binary.
It took a few years after that incident for the linux gaming ecosystem to mature to a point that I could switch over entirely, but I’m there now. EVERY time I use windows now, I groan at something it tries to do without me asking. It’s so nice knowing that my PC will only do what I ask it to now, and that I won’t get pushed into yet another garbage UI overhaul I didn’t ask for.
The amount of bloatware in windows 10 made me very uncomfortable (and the fact that they stopped supporting briefcases infuriated me) so I stayed on Windows 7 until Microsoft stopped supporting it in 2020. Tried out some distros like Mint, Pop OS, Puppy Linux. The one I liked the feel of most was Zorin OS.
The main thing that surprised me was how little I actually understood about what Microsoft has become. I did not know, for example, that you can use the Office apps online until this week. I also had been completely oblivious to Minecraft Java Edition being forked into a Linux Edition until I tried to install it. It honestly feels like waking up from a 5 year coma, where everything seems familiar but slightly different.
My main regret is that I can’t tell people I’m terrible with computers now, since my family and friends know I use Linux. The upside of this is I’ve gained some confidence with tech since I can’t just throw up my hands and go “oh no, i cant fix this, my tiny monkey brain could never comprehend the arcane arts”
I usually just say: oh that’s a [what they use] problem, I don’t use it so I don’t know how to fix it.
I usually say that, but still poke at it until I figure out how hard the problem is:
- If I can easily figure out how to fix the problem, I will fix
- If I know what the problem is but can’t figure out how to fix it, they get a free diagnosis followed by “idk how to fix that on your device”
- If I got no clue what is going on, I tell them that I have no clue what’s going on. I occasionally reccomend ritual magic, like leaving citrine/quartz under the monitor or letting the computer sit overnight in the light of the moon. It works sometimes ig?
Tbh the only reason I can get away with the free help is that I live a slow-paced life and usually only speak to 2-5 different people each day
I was writing just writing some code one day. I then realised something, I needed to press " key twice. I thought my keyboard had died, but the behaviour was consistent so that’s unlikely. Then I realised what happened. Windows had installed and set English international as the default layout, and I was unable to switch it out in settings. Even if I manually switch to English us, it would eventually go back. And editing the registry to remove it just made all windows system apps shit themselves.
Now at the same time, I had a laptop. It had an update pending for a few weeks, but the update kept failing and hence I had not allowed it to update this time. But as I open up my laptop to code on there with the right keyboard layout, I see the update screen. THE LAPTOP WAS NEVER TURNED OFF, and it was plugged in. I waited and waited till it finally failed yet again.
Also shortly after one more of these attempts was made my windows which wiped my encryption keys and made my system unbootable or recoverable.
I had used Linux on a Chromebook before with custom firmware, all my dev work happend in wsl, and I had did a lot of projects on the raspberry pi, so for me the logical step was to completely wipe my SSD and install Linux mint. That happened about 4 years ago and I have not ever thought of leaving Linux. I did switch to arch though, so I use arch btw.
Windows 95 was dreadful.
Yes I am old and my knees do hurt, thank you.
