Linux

Windows Vista kinda sucked and Kubuntu 7.10 was so much snappier, and I was already dealing with Linux servers so I liked it for web development.

Windows ME sucked big time. Never looked back.

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.

Back in the day (1999/2000) Linux seems to be a small niche, fun and novelty. I started with Turbolinux :D

I saw a post from r/unixporn on all and thought it looked really cool.

I've been growing increasingly frustrated with how much my computer felt less and less like my own with every Windows update. They have been steadily removing control away from the user and putting me in frustrating positions. I've used Linux for a week here and a week there over the last few years so I thought, screw it!, and made the switch about 3 months ago. I don't feel any need to go back.

The last straw was when using the Xbox app. For some reason I didn't have ownership of the folders where the games were installed. I couldn't see how much space they were using and I couldn't access them to troubleshoot an issue I had. Well I could, but I shouldn't have to manually give myself ownership of non-critical files on my machine while using an admin account. In addition, after uninstalling a 100GB+ game, it for some reason just left the files on my drive (That I also didn't have ownership of to delete.)

The Xbox app also one day decided that it couldn't update any games, the error codes are shit and don't lead to any usable information or the copy/paste responses from their troglodyte community helpers telling you to run sfc, chkdisk, Windows repair then they just tell you your RAM is bad. (This applies to most of Windows' generic ass error messages) To top it off, the Xbox app now launches THREE other launchers by itself... without asking (Ubisoft, EA, Riot). Whoever decided that needs to be fired, ideally into the sun.

I don't want to use anything from a company that hires brain-dead morons that make and/or allow those kinds of design choices.

Originally, because I was a poor middle school student with a bunch of dumpster hardware. I could not afford a windows license (this was the XP days). I immediately liked Ubuntu (gnome 2 at the time) more than windows, everything felt faster and more customizable. It really screamed on my pentium 3. I used Linux of various flavors all the way through school and continue to use it as my OS of choice to this day. I remember my teachers always being mad that I didn't use "times new Roman" font when I turned in papers, explaining that I used Linux and TNR was not an available font didn't do much for me. I would switch to windows for AAA games back in the day, but that is quickly becoming less necessary.

The biggest benefit I have seen over the years is that it is so much easier to keep old hardware alive (and still secure) with Linux. If your old matching is starting to bog down you can always find a lighter weight distro to load it up with. And when you are ready to upgrade hardware the old stuff can easily be turned into a server, game console, or PC for grandma. Anything to keep it out of a landfill is pretty easy to do. It used to be that you never had to worry about paying for an upgrade either, but now that windows is essentially free for upgrades that is no longer a huge benefit.

For me it was pretty gradual. In my university research a couple years ago I needed to work with the university's supercomputer running RHEL, so I got some exposure there. At some point I put Mint on my laptop, keeping Windows on my desktop "in case I needed to do any real work", then about a year ago I put linux* on my desktop as well. I do still have a Windows dual-boot just in case there's some weird software I need to use, but I haven't touched it more than once or twice since. I switched partially out of curiosity, but largely as part of an effort to de-google and de-microsoft my stuff so I'm more in control.

*distro-hopped a bit, but now am settled on EndeavourOS

I was surprised at how much you needed the terminal, but also how easy it was to use the terminal after a bit of practice. I prefer it to GUIs for a lot of things now (like git). Also, installing software from a package manager rather than going to a website and downloading it. I didn't like that at first, but I love that concept so much more now, since I can just sudo apt upgrade and everything is up-to-date (no downloading the new version after an update).

I'm now to the point that when I do need to use a windows machine for some reason, it takes me a second to remember how things work. It's kinda a weird feeling tbh haha

Switched to Linux in November 2022. I was tired of not owning my pc

Because it was mandated by our communist party!

My brother pushed some buttons in Windows lockscreen, which caused assistance settings to never go away again (I still don't know how I should've fixed it), that was the final annoyance with Windows and I switched to Linux on my laptop. On my PC I switched once I didn't need Windows for work (remote desktop) anymore.

For me it was a couple reasons:

1. my brother installed Ubuntu 12.04 on my desktop for me when I was in high school, and I was enamored with the different desktop layout. It got me started on the journey.

2. maintaining it is much easier than windows. Running one command/script to update a system is much faster than heading to the right window or menu and hoping Microsoft delivers you an update. Plus if it breaks it's easier IMO to troubleshoot and fix.

I made the switch when windows ME was released, right now I'm using win10 for work because of some software that really doesn't have an alternative in Linux but I do run it on all of my other computers. Benefits:

• customization: If you want a desktop environment there's KDE, Gnome or XFCE, if you want just windows or a tiling window manager there's tons of them too
• package managers: update all your software on your own terms while you brew some coffee.
• scripting capabilities: you can automate lots of stuff with bash.
• scalability: do you have a potato computer, no problem, do you have a nice one, even better.

Edit: I forgot to say that I run Debian on most of my machines.

I switched back in 2005 (I think), because Windows XP didn't have the drivers for being installed on an S-ATA drive and SUSE could be installed without any hassle. I feel very old.

For me I just want to see Linux get more support and it'll get that with more market share so I switched. I think there should be an alternative to windows or mac. Also the terminal is so nice to have. After many years on linux I'm very comfortable in a terminal but still don't know a lot of the powerful commands, but now with ai I can just ask it how to convert videos or move files from one computer to another and it gives me the command

Privacy concerns and a growing view of closed source software as malware.

I didn't want to pay for windows.

It was easier to set up than Windows. Windows took longer and had more missing drivers. Linux Mint worked almost perfectly out of the box--all I did was change the video driver for my dedicated graphics (and that was done easily by picking one from a provided list).

There was no special reason for switching 25 years ago. A friend of mine used Debian and I tried it out. Not being a gamer must have helped because if you like playing, chances to encounter a game that only runs on Windows are quite high.

Now the reason why I never changed back. Once the system runs, which may take some rime depending on how customized you want it, it always runs the same way. I never had a slowing down due to updates. Another reason may be not having to think about viruses or malware. Never had it and most likely never will. Antivirus? They may exist for Linux but I have never used them.

In a few words. It just works.

Windows is just constantly trying to distract you from work. It's slow, hogs resources, kills my battery.

After tinkering a lot I have found a workflow that works great for me on Linux and I couldn't have found that with windows.

To be honest though. To switch to Linux I'd say you'd have a reason. If you don't work a techy job and don't plan on doing so and don't have much interest in it, you'd just have an easier time with windows.

But let me tell you once you go into Linux with an open mind and willingness to learn, you'll love it.

Honestly? My old laptop was having issues (not major but not ideal in terms of overall performance) running Windows 10 and it inspired me to try out a few distros. I later learned after trying a few:

• Overall Linux isn't scary at all, with an abundance of tutorials and documentation provided. (Just be aware of trying not to solve all problems with random hammers, or rather using any tutorial to fix the symptoms you're having)
• In terms of customization it's second to none. Privacy wise has been well documented, but even aesthetically via the UI you have a ton of options. (Plug for [email protected] for some inspiration.)
• Finally it's nice just to tinker with Linux as a project. There's only so much you can do with Windows or MacOS, while Linux is open and allows for a variety of programs, tools, and more. It allows you to get more comfortable with your computer and by extension more comfortable with technology in general!

sick of windows. spyware, forced updates, no customizability... ect

Why did I switch to Linux ? I pushed Windows XP as far as it could go (skipped Vista altogether), and after that I became so frustrated with Windows 7 being so bad that I switched to Linux and never looked back since.

Critical last straw for me was having shit Internet and windows updates eating literally all my bandwidth. Other reasons include privacy, ownership, etc. I was already familiar with Linux when I switched.

Windows kept annoying me. Somewhat ironically, the last straw for me was right after I tried linux for the first time using a live usb. Upon trying to go back into windows, BitLocker locked me out for changing secure boot settings. I thought, no problem, I'll go online and get my recovery key. I go online to discover there's no bitlocker recovery key. After some investigation, I found out if your OneDrive is locked down (for me because I went over my storage limit, something that only happened because windows insists on uploading all of your personal files to onedrive) you can't get your recovery keys. I deleted the stuff but had to wait a full day before onedrive was unlocked and I got my recovery keys.

So, in summary, windows locked me out of my computer that I own because I tried another OS, then didn't give me the option to unlock my device because I used too much storage in the cloud service they made me use. No thanks, I'd rather have control over the device I paid for and I own rather than it being controlled by some massive corporation.

And I gotta say, when you actually learn how to interface with your device on a deeper level, having complete control over everything is super nice. Also, the unix-style command line makes way more sense and is far easier to learn than the windows command line IMO. While a lot of newer Linux distros don't need you to use the console, it is really nice to know how for more advanced usage.

For me, it was much like iPhone vs Android. I've twice been back to owning an iPhone and have kept leaving because of the more closed ecosystem. The freedom to explore, take apart, modify, hack, learn, etc. I don't do a lot of that, but it is nice to try things out. So in summary for me its the philosophy behind it, and I can install it freely across all computers, Pi's, etc in the home.

EDIT: I forgot I'd also bought Vista at the time, and it was not great. I vowed after that not to pay for another Windows OS.

Private, Secure, FOSS. I want something that I know is my own and not a $200 license to a proprietary POS operating system that spies on me. Run a packet tracker on any Windows system and watch that guy ping to Windows with every bit of telemetry you can offer.

I haven't switched. Not fully. Gaming is still far better on Windows. Yeah I have a steam deck amd the games that are supported run amazingly.

Anyway, I switched because as a software dev, Linux is such a better development enviroment. Getting a working C/C++ compiler working on windows without using VS is a huge pain, but most linux distros come with GCC preinstalled. Need to do Java? Just a command away.Rust? Ruby? Python? Same deal.

I switched because of Bejeweled ads in the Start menu, honestly.

I was on windows 10 without an SSD. There is only so much dog slow you can handle before you want to change it. I was amazed by how much faster linux was. Windows 10 was the first windows I noticed that struggled this much. It's like they gave up on performance and just relied on the hardware. I dual booted from there with linux mint and over time, I started windows less. I haven't used it in months.

I was learning OpenGL at the time and I was frustrated that I could not play a game using OpenGL (When I use a technologie in programming, I love using software that use it) because none of the games in my library supported it. So I discovered Ubuntu 16.04 and I immediatly loved it. I also reinstalled it seven times because every time I broke it and I didn't know how to fix it.

What realy chocked me at the time is how easy it is to install C++ dependencies for your project. You just use the package manager and boom, you link it to your project and your done and if for whatever reason the package is not available in your package manager, you can build it manually very easely.

However, there where some downside too. VSCode didn't exists at the time (or I didn't ear of it) and the only proper IDE was kdevelop which I never liked. Hopefolly, when VSCode came it was realy cool, but not as cool as when I discovered NeoVim. The gaming too was bad, Proton didn't exist, Wine was not as advanced as today and DXVK was not a thing yet. You could only play games that where 5+ years old and only at 15/20 fps with a lot of glitches.

Linux nowoday serve all my needs, I only need to start Windows when I deploy and test some program to it or when I play a game that is not well supported on Linux and I only do it in a VM with single GPU Passthrough.

I really enjoy copying URLs / bash scripts off the internet instead of downloading a file and pressing enter on it.

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So it was 1995, and a new version of Windows came out. Sadly it didnt run on our 486 so we upgraded to a new computer with a Pentium processor (a week before the Pentium Pro was released). My parents got their new machine and i was left with with Windows 3.11.

A friend of mine from school, a few years older, had just come back from a computer show down in Green Bay with a box fully of floppy disks (like 70). That weekend i brought my computer over to his house along with a few other friends and we all installed Slackware. At that point we were all using the Universe of Wisconsin's dialup service and were able to get online, do some Gopher, IRC and MUDing.

The only other time i ran a non *nix OS would be when work gave me a Windows machine or when I was gaming (Quake, Ultima Online). Otherwise it has been Linux and BSDs since 95

W10 came out and W7 security updates was done. Had to move to W10 for work and our engineering software got slower. Moved home (older) computers to W10 and they became useless bricks. Found SUSE/OpenSUSE supported my CAD software with their linux release. Swapped to that. Speed was back for work and home stuff. That was 2017 or so. I haven't gone back to Windows except for some shared excel reports. Teamviewer, Webex, zoom, MS teams all have linux versions for work collaboration.

My AMD graphics card had atrocious driver support in Windows, and every time windows forced the half-yearly big update on me, my PC would go into a BSOD loop and I would not be able to run windows. It was becoming a massive annoyance and a humongous time waster.

So I switched to Linux Mint. No hardware problems at all. With the graphics card working, I played a video game that literally worked better in Linux than Windows.

Then I bought a new laptop and dual booted different distributions. But every time I log into Windows after doing something in Linux (Fedora KDE spin), my windows clock would get messed up. There are professional softwares I have to use that only work on Windows, so completely switching to linux was not an option, and windows boots up Much faster than linux.

So when I needed some space for an online multiplayer game, I got rid of the dual boot. Now I run everything using WSL2.

Windows remains the default platform for small developer teams, and large video games. So it takes a large incovenience to abandon it. And just a little bit of friction is enough to make me switch back to windows. Sorry if I disappointed you guys.

crazy updates which broke normal functionality, absence of tiling window manager

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 and 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.

I hate all of the spying that Windows is engaged in now. What really pushed me over the edge is that Windows started opening a full page Office 365 add in my browser every time the computer woke up from sleep. I couldn't find any information about how to stop it and eventually just said "fuck Windows" and installed Linux. That was about 3 years ago. I still have Windows as a dual boot because I need it for Fusion 360, and the piece of shit still does the O365 add that I can't get rid of and now constantly tries to trick me into upgrading to Windows 11, despite the fact that I've already said no about 10 times. Fuck Windows piece of shit spyware/adware masquerading as an operating system.

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.