Linux

I own my computer. But on Windows, it doesn't feel like that...

• Closed source (has always been bad for an OS, a 1-US-company controlled blackbox at the heart of your "personal" computer)
• Privacy nightmares (and getting worse)
• Forced cloud integrations (and getting worse)
• Forced AI integrations (and getting worse)
• More bloat and ads (and getting worse)
• More restrictions (e.g. local user accounts) (and getting worse)
• More dark patterns to try to annoy the user and get him/her to accept something that MS wants (and getting worse)
• More opt-out, on-by-default bad stuff being added (and getting worse)
• There's probably more...

The question is wrong: it's not why do you "still" hate Windows. I did like Windows 7. It was the last Windows I liked. After that, it's just a downhill enshittification spiral. The only real question is: at which point will it be too oppressive for the common user that even the most common user will try to avoid it entirely. And I fear that there's still more than enough room for MS to make Windows worse before enough people migrate away from it.

Cool operating system bro. Does it run KDE?

Back when I first used a computer we were told if it has ads and pop ups constantly then you have installed a virus. Try using a fresh install of windows....

I don't hate Windows, but I find Linux a much more natural way to use my PC. I started with Linux in 1996 and have been daily driving different distros since 2010 on all my PCs and servers. 

Over the years, I’ve come to appreciate how flexible and customizable Linux is. The open-source community is always ready to help, making the experience even better. For personal projects or managing servers, Linux is efficient and reliable, and I’ve grown to depend on it.

On the other hand, I've had to use Windows at various jobs and never found it enjoyable. The constant updates, 'bloatware', and lack of transparency can be frustrating. 

While Windows is user-friendly and compatible with many programs, it often feels less intuitive and more restrictive compared to the freedom I have with Linux. 

Each time I switch back to Windows, I’m reminded why I prefer Linux for both personal and professional use.

Windows has basically become malware. It does a fuck ton of tracking, and all of its features are about appeasing shareholders over users.

If we want to get technical: I loathe it because even in the year 2024, it’s the only operating system I’ve witnessed that will absolutely grind to a halt when a third party application stops responding or crashes. There is no valid fucking reason why the parent system should be halted by an application that crashes.

Also, ads in the start panel. Absolutely not, Microsoft. No way in hell am I allowing that to live on a computer I own. Yes, I’m aware third party apps will address that but it shouldn’t be a thing to begin with.

Oh yeah, and it decided to automatically update itself to the latest version on my ASUS ROG laptop while the thing was closed and not in use. So upon booting it up and seeing ads in the UI, I wiped the system clean and installed Nobara. Bye bye. 👋

For me the straw that broke the camels back was the fucking updates. I got so tired of Windows forcing updates, and I never could get the registry edits to disable it to stick. Besides, you shouldn't have to EDIT THE REGISTRY to just turn off updates! But there's also stuff I'd really miss if I went back (I've been on Nobara for a year now) like the package management on Linux. I love that I can choose to update on MY terms, and that almost everything updates during the process. I have a few random jar apps for Switch hacking stuff, and an appimage for R2Modman, but besides that I don't have to worry about needing to download the latest version of shit all the time. AND, having most of what you need just available on a software store is so nice. Never mind that its so much safer to not have to download random .exe's from all over the internet. These days the only thing I actually struggle with is modding certain games. Like BG3 took me awhile, but then I found out there's a Linux mod manager called lampray and it works perfectly. Then there's also the fact you have to know how to do DLL overrides for things like bepinex or anything that adds some kind of DLL. But otherwise, it just works and infuriates me less than windoze

They killed Clippy! Those bastards!

Because the only redeeming quality of Windows is the fact a lot of software works on Windows and only on Windows, which is also exactly the problem with Windows. It's great WINE can exist, but not all platforms support WINE, and as an OpenBSD user first and foremost it means I can't play many of my favorite games on my preferred platform.

Ultimately, Windows sucks and is a standard because our society puts corporate greed and thieves like Microsoft above superior projects; and even if Microsoft were firebombed off the planet tomorrow, they're just a symptom of the problem, and it's only be so long until another thief steps into Microsoft's position and ruins everything again.

It is not Windows I hate, it is the people how have not idea how people want to use there computer makeing the choices with where it is going.

I don't. I just like Linux.

I dual boot, but I've been dreading booting back into Windows recently because I upgraded my motherboard/CPU and know they are going to make me buy another license. And I understand Windows is more convenient for a lot of people but I am not one of them.

I can't think of anything that is more convenient for me on Windows other than that I have to use it to run Studio One to record music from time to time. But "software availability" has nothing to do with the operating system itself; market position does. And a company's market position rarely drives my purchasing decisions.

I dislike Windows for all the reasons people here typically state.

I honestly fully believe that proprietary software is bullshit and all software ought to be Free Software. I'm not saying I don't use proprietary software, but I don't trust it. If I run proprietary software, I go out of my way to try to run it in prison. I don't let my Nintendo Switch connect to the internet except when I have a very specific reason and then I disconnect it immediately after I'm done. When I bought a robot vacuum cleaner, I bought specifically the model that I knew I could hack to not phone home. I bought a phone on which I could run LineageOS without the Google apps. (And, yes, I'm running a proprietary EFI BIOS on my main desktop machine and such. But I do take a lot of steps to limit how much influence proprietary software has on me and my devices.)

Freedom FTW!

3. The joy of "figuring it out" and customizing everything you want to the minutest details

Customization is my reason. I've got a two-monitor setup in KDE with different panels on each one. Each one is highly customized specifically to me, and the customizations can't be done in Windows.

"An unknown error occurred." And you spend hours trying figure it out for it to be something stupid that should just have a distinct error.

Because I have to use this shitshow of a software at work because some companies use "license managers" that don't work under Wine.

Because for me Windows was not easier to use.

I only got my first proper computer in 2020, and comparing Windows 10 with Linux Mint 20, I found the latter much simpler to use not having used either one prior. Just having to bounce between Control Panel and new Settings, plus a lot of tutorials shown magic with registries...
Also, I had a lot of problems with uninstallers failing or not removing programs completely, and getting permissions to remove files directly was also pain in the ass, even as "Administrator". That often resulted in me booting up live Linux DVD to remove crap programs from Windows.

I gave it a try, but I didn't like it. Perhaps I'd like MacOS though. It seems similar enough. But Windows just feels like 2 decades of hotfixes glued together.

I don't think the ability to destroy your entire system by one command is a good thing for a desktop operating system. On Linux random program with root rights can bring down your entire system by one poorly written script, but Windows at least has multiple mechanisms in place to prevent that.

It's been a long time since I used Windows myself, however one of the big reasons for switching was the inherent instability. At once point I was developing code in Visual Studio and constantly loading/closing quite a few different programs to test things out. Windows just didn't seem to handle memory-recovery and I would have to reboot every week or two (usually because of the whole OS locking up). In comparison, I run a variety of software on my linux machines which can involve anything from testing code in multiple browsers to image editing to 3D CAD drawings. Sure that tends to drain the memory but when I close something I get that memory back. I'll frequently get down to the last 100K of RAM, close a couple programs that may be holding large caches (Firefox really hates me having hundreds of open tabs), and then I'm right back up and running again. Reboots may occur about every 6 months.

I have to support other people using Windows at work, which reminds me how much I'll never go back to it. My biggest frustration is that Microsoft is constantly changing things. Hell you can't even directly reach the control panel any more, you have to run searches to find the specific item you want. Want to check the settings of a certain printer? Good luck, that doesn't seem to be available in the right-click menu any more. It's just all these idiotic changes making it difficult to actually use or maintain Windows. Why should I have to google how to find something when everything used to be under the control panel or a right-click away?

Windows is bad and immoral but I can't say I hate it because I almost never use it. Most of the time Windows is just bad news in my feed which makes me anticipate friends asking beginner questions for their GNU+Linux install.

I stopped using Windows when it became clear it's purpose is not to do what I want unless that happens to be what Microsoft wants. It was many things that all added up but I can only remember the last straw which broke the camel's back. I was trying to get something to work and made an online account in desperation - then I struggled/failed to find a way to revert the change and make the user become an offline account again. Faced with a reinstall I couldn't go through clicking "no, don't fuck me" several times to reinstall Windows.

Well I really dislike updating my computer ~~(and on this topic, Windows Update is inconvenient and slow as balls!)~~ and finding some new BS from Microsoft on it.
One day it's Copilot, which I could just use on the browser if I really wanted to, the next day it'll be Recall, which just.... no.

Know what I mean?

Honestly, privacy and freedom of choice alone is why I switched back.

I will give windows credit, it's definitely better than any other platform out there when it comes to support and it is really nice just having things "just work". I went relatively 8 years having almost zero issues with gaming with the exception of my graphics driver which was a fault of AMD not necessarily Microsoft. All I would have to do is install a program maybe restart the computer and then run the program the way I went. With my current system I can't even guarantee if the software I want to use will work because the ecosystem is geared towards Microsoft so every product out there is Microsoft first Unix if we get around to it.

My only reason for switching was the lack of choice I was getting. While I never had to restart for updates because it automatically updated nightly when I turned it off so it was very non-invasive, the fact that I I wasn't trusted enough with my computer to be able to turn those updates completely off if I wanted to, on top of the fact that every major update seemed to hard push the office suite, and every update seemed to respect my privacy less and less was already putting me on the edge of switching every time that I had it happened to me.

But the recent rumor wave that was going through that Windows 10 when it reached end of life wasn't going to be the same way that every other OS that they've had has been where they will release security updates past closing and instead they're going to open the business only support tier to your Standard customer and offer Windows 10 at a subscription price instead, on top of the fact that Windows 11 wasn't going to support how I wanted to set my computer up without having to reinstall it anyway, I just took the plunge and went back to Linux. Overall it has been enjoyable, but I really do miss the ease of being able to just install something and have it work that comes with being in the dominant ecosystem. That being said, It is nice not having to worry about what a mega company thinks I should run the computers that I paid for, built, and set up myself.

I think hate is really too strong of a word, dislike at most for me.
My biggest issue with Microsoft is a lack of trust. Apart from that, I just like my Linux setup more and find it easier to use.
Stuff I want to do works how I want to do it and how I'm (now) used to it.
Regardless, I use Windows at work, manage Windows Servers and Azure. It's just how it is.

I dual boot on my primary/desktop PC, and only run Linux on my laptop and Steam Deck.

I find more often times than not, I feel like I'm either fighting with Windows or it does these small but annoying things that when added up tend to really get on my nerves. For example, one thing that I've been running into a lot (and happened earlier today) is if I put my computer to sleep while its booted into Windows, it'll randomly decide to wake itself up for who knows what reason - flooding my room with light often times while I'm trying to sleep or relax. It does it enough where I should by now remember to just physically turn off my monitors when I put my computer to sleep, but why should I have to? The 95% of the time that I'm booted into Linux, if I put my computer to sleep it stays asleep until I explicitly wake it up, and thus I haven't formed a habit to turn the displays off.

The only reason why I even keep Windows around on this PC is to occasionally play Destiny 2 and some VR stuff with friends every now and then.

I don't hate. It's just a piece of software. I just use Linux because I like the privacy and I'm a tech savvy person

I don't wanna learn Windows whatsoever, cause I can do everything I need on Linux and it serves me well

Because it makes doing the things I want to do with a computer difficult and annoying.