I realize this is a Linux community, but I was wondering why you still hate Windows. I mean, I love Linux, but I will not argue that it’s more convenient to the average person in most use cases to use Windows, I recently had to switch back to Windows and I realized how convenient it all was and how I was missing so many things because of my love for Linux. But at this point, Linux is a part of my personality and my self-image and I will not leave it, but I gotta be honest, it’s pretty convenient being on Windows. So, why have you guys chosen to still stay on Linux? Some reasons I can appreciate include

  1. The terrible privacy policies of Microsoft. It sometimes makes you feel like your computer is not owned by you but lent to you by Big Tech.
  2. The community and the spirit of sharing
  3. The joy of “figuring it out” and customizing everything you want to the minutest details
  4. FREEDOM!!! sudo su Kinda ties into the previous points, but still one of the best selling points, the freedom to do whatever you want is liberating. You can run a server on it or you can create a script while knowing you have control over almost every FOSS app there is or just destroy your whole system with one command. Idk, feels good man!

These are the big ones, but one must realize you are sacrificing many things while not using windows too, productivity can be much greater there if you are a normie, it’s really convenient! So yeah! Give me your reasons! Also, how many of you dual boot?

  • Dae
    21·
    5 months ago

    I swapped away from Windows about a year and a half ago. The last straw was them sticking ads in the OS. And from everything I’ve heard, they continue to boil the frog; they continue to add more and more telemetry and unasked for “features” and bloat the system more and more and more with every update. Even my own parents are growing tired of Windows; it’s a clunky, poorly optimized operating system that’s positively frustrating to use.

    I will concede that not everything that runs on Windows will run on Linux. It’s true. But I severely disagree that Windows is “easier to use.” Of course, when you grow up on Windows, Linux has a learning curve. It’s different OS. But once I got past that? Nah, Linux is far easier and more intuitive in most cases.

    Installing programs? Open your software manager and click a button.

    Playing video games? Open Steam or Lutris and click a button. Occasionally you might need to tweak things, but you have to do the same on Windows sometimes, especially for older games!

    I could go on but those are the biggest two examples that come to mind immediately.

    As to another point you made, I personally gave up almost nothing. Destiny 2 and League of Legends don’t work, but I quit league before fgsh added Vanguard and neither of these games want me. That isn’t my fault, and it isn’t a short coming in Linux’s fault, it’s the devs being assholes.

    In spite of this, I do acknowledge some people would have to give up more than me, and for some people that’s too much, and that’s valid! I hope one day they truly get a choice.

    • Ganesh Venugopal@lemmy.mlOP
      21·
      5 months ago

      bloat the system more and more and more with every update.

      Kinda why I call Windows the “Fat Man”

      Of course, when you grow up on Windows, Linux has a learning curve. It’s different OS.

      tbch, it’s not that. I haven’t used Windows in 7 years, never touched it, but gotta admit, the new Windows 11 is pretty cool

      • Dae
        1·
        5 months ago

        I don’t mean superficially. Linux Mint was very similar in feel to the Windows 7 days. Just thinking about it makes me nostalgic.

        I mean in the way that sometimes you gotta run something in WINE, or trying to mod a game only to run into how different the file structure is. Back end things that make you go “Oh, this really isn’t Windows.”

        And it’s not. But that’s okay. It doesn’t need to be. It shouldn’t be. We moved to Linux before it’s not Windows. It’s a little frustrating at first, but taking the time to learn how it works was worth it. I’ve never looked back.

    • eveninghere@beehaw.org
      11·
      5 months ago

      You write like one can do stuff on Linux with one command.

      However, Linux enthusiasts simultaneously tell the user to spend time troubleshooting problems on their own, and say that’s a given.

      It’s a double standard I see on the web.

      • Dae
        1·
        5 months ago

        You write like you just came here to be angry at people who’ve made a personal decision to leave Windows like it affects you, and that’s gonna help neither you nor us.

        At no point in my comment did I say you “write a single command.” I’m saying basic, every day things that I do are point and click. I want a new program? I open my distro’s app store, which is a GUI, and click download on the app I want. I want to play a game I have? I click play on Steam or Lutris. You know. With a mouse. No typing involved, my guy.

        It also sounds to me like you’ve run into some real fucking assholes when you needed help. And unfortunately, they’re out there. But that isn’t all of us. I hope one day your negative first impression of our community changes, but it never will if you keep engaging in bad faith like this. So please stop.