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

Linux doesn’t try to sell my elderly mother a subscription to onedrive

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.

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.

For me, it just came down to how unintuitive and slow Windows’s desktop environment is. Setting up the most basic customizations requires going through like 15 sub-menus or dealing with the registry. Also, GNOME and KDE are just so much prettier than Windows’s desktop environment.

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.

I really didn’t want to install Vista. I didn’t like how it looked or felt so I swapped out XP for Ubuntu. I stayed until Win7 and switched back to windows, but windows 8 rolled around and I went to Fedora. I’ve been here ever since.

I switched because I read Linux is secure and needs less resources, and also because of the open source philosophy. And because it’s free! Hahaha Sometimes I donate a little to different open source developers. Let’s help the community.

I never switched. I checked out BSD and Linux when it was new and I stuck with Linux.

Ok, I was on AmigaOS before, but it died.

Windows became unusable for me. Forced updates, unremovable adware, resetting user preferences, and shockingly stability.

I mostly game and tinker on my PC and for the most part everything’s just works these days. Sometimes I run into a game that has poor performance or something I need to tweak. But truth be told that was not unusual in windows either. I would frequently need to mess with ini’s and config files in games to make them work right or have FOV not designed for consoles.

Linux is not perfect but windows is also not perfect the big difference is your used to it’s quirks and the methods to fix them. If you use Linux enough and long enough you will get the same sort of skills.

There are a small list of programs I can’t replace like fusion360, Photoshop, and Visio.

If those Gimp is good enough to replace Photoshop for most my tasks but not always.

The last time I installed Windows after it broke itself I said that I had enough and would switch to Linux the next time it broke.

Windows ME sucked big time. Never looked back.

Work. Software development is so much nicer on Linux and I grew to really enjoy the power and flexibility of the terminal. I started with dual boot on my PC and eventually deleted my Windows partition and went full Linux.

Many things have substantially improved significantly in the last 10 or so years such as gaming, drivers and overall desktop user experience to the point where I dread trying to use a Windows machine. Plus I’m pretty comfy now and like that I have full control over my machine when I use Linux vs whatever spyware MS is trying to shove down people’s throats.

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.

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.