Honestly, I grabbed linux because I wanted something that worked and wouldn’t change.

Windows keeps changing, a lot. Now getting to the point where none of my computers could handle 11. So I just said screw it, kept my hardware and now I run Ubuntu

Was not as disruptive as I thought

I switched from Win95 to Redhat out of curiously. The first attempt ended in kernel panik, the second succeeded. Despite many challenges I was happy there, because there usually was a way to fix things to work in a way I could live with. There was also lots of opportunity to break things and learn. Also the shell in Linux was much better than in windows. Been using Linux at home, university and work since. Seeing what windows has turned in to I am glad I switched many years ago.

Privacy concerns for the most part. Also for better desktop performance and less bloat on my existing hardware. I was not going to buy a whole new laptop just for macOS, and also gaming on macOS is not nearly as viable.

I would like to somewhat dispute this idea that all Linux users enjoy fixing problems for entertainment. Don’t get me wrong, I can and do solve problems in Linux, but once I have a setup that works, I just use my machine normally rather than constantly tinkering with it.

As for how I went about the switch, fortunately, my laptop at the time had 2 NVMe slots, so I installed a second drive and dual-booted between Windows and Linux for a while until I had set up replacements for all the programs that I use regularly.

I switched because of a strong dislike for Microsoft and their spyware. I didn’t even bother dual booting, I ran baptism by fire right into Fedora and it was way smoother than I expected it to be. I enjoyed Fedora so much that I decided to try Arch. Very different experience, but now I’ve learned so much that I dumped Fedora and I use Arch for almost everything. I do keep a machine with Debian that way I feel like I’m getting the most well-rounded experience in case I ever need to help a friend with a Debian-based distro.

Gnomes workflow fit me a lot better and I like the idea of flatpak trying to bring mobile-like samdboxed apps to the desktop. Windows just killed its sandboxed UWPs

I’d been considering it for a while due to various garbage they’ve done over the last couple versions, but forcing that stupid Copilot on me was the final straw. Also the huge uptick in Linux compatible games was definitely a factor.

I didn’t want to deal with the spyware of an OS. Recall looks nightmarish and I don’t want ads in my OS.

I was Windows only and a gamer growing up. Work and music production had me on Mac learning UNIX, bash anyway.

After this year’s Windows 11 updates and the amount of Linux gaming support available thanks to SteamOS and Proton, I now boot to a Linux distro more often than not. If it isn’t a specific Windows only game, I can do everything I want on Linux and not feel like I am inside of a corporate office building in my mind. My personal Mac has become my Logic machine.

Ubuntu works pretty well out of the box. Manjaro as well if you want to pretend to use Arch :)

It’s significantly easier to use and I wanted to create a maximally ergonomic setup that I designed the ux for.

windows wouldn’t let me choose, linux did, also when linux has an issue it’s never because someone was doing something malicious, on windows it nearly always is.

Tldr: GNU/Linux is easier to use than Windows.

Let me tell you, I am a user that does not want to fiddle around with my operating system. I want my operating system to be basically invisible and just run the programmes that I like to use, even though I am tech savy. I became “tech savvy” because I needed to troubleshoot my computer constantly, thanks to Microsoft Windows.

In my free time I liked to play video games, and I didn’t know about Proton until 2021. When Windows 11 rolled around, I was already fed up with the constant Win10 trash, forever reinstalling and fighting the system to just behave normally. With Windows 11 and the stupid TPM, where Microsoft could disable my computer and turn it into literal e-waste, that was the final straw that broke the camel’s back. That was 2021. Then I installed GNU/Linux on all of my computers, no dual boot. I once experimented with it in 2010. And ever since then it has come a very long way. In 2021, basically 80% of my games worked through proton. The nicest surprise were the programmes that I found. I got in contact with many of the “flagship” FOSS projects, and I was delighted. They worked all so well, so much better than any of the proprietary ransomware that constantly extorts you for money. I exclusively use those for work as well now. And by now, all of my games are supported by Proton. Literally every single one. Ever since installing, I haven’t looked back. Because GNU Linux is so much more simple, the programs do not need to be updated individually, they can just be updated normally through Flatpak or Apt for example. The system doesn’t need constant reinstalling, and it doesn’t have any sort of Windows rot. The system and the programmes on it do not require any internet to function.

So in short, I love GNU/Linux because it made the computer frictionless. You didn’t need to fight it in order to be productive with it and to do the things that you want. And all of those years I looked back and I thought to myself how little my computer actually worked on windows. The “worst” maintanance with GNU Linux that I ever had was I needed to install a driver for the Wi-Fi/Bluetooth card of my Microsoft Surface tablet. That’s it. No registry, nonsense, with disabling bundled viruses, no forced one drive, no forced ads, no slow down of the system over time, actually being able to uninstall programs, and many more things, make GNU/Linux superior in my book.

about 1 or 2 times a year, consistently, Windows for whatever reason would kill my wifi on my system. uninstalling and reinstalling drivers wouldn’t work, hard resetting wouldn’t work, nothing. Just randomly disabled my wifi and looking online the ONLY solution was a complete reinstall of the OS. I don’t know why it did this, but it was an annual thing for me to have to reinstall the OS just to get wifi working again.

I had enough. decided to try a live usb of Linux Mint and I liked it so I installed it on my system. after 2 weeks I switched to CachyOS and now i’m on NixOS.

Microsoft spyware mostly. I feel stressed using a surveiled and monetized system for personal stuff. Also cause I have always loved Linux utilities and it’s teminal.

I had also mostly finished switching over my software stack to FOSS. So most things just felt easy to move over.

Initially because i had a HTPC and windows with big picture mode still felt like a second class experience as there were no system settings in big picture mode itself. Went to bazzite as soon as i got an amd card.

Then I had a surface go 2 that could no longer update to the next version of windows because Microsoft didn’t give it enough built in memory to process the download. So i went to arch hyprland and gained so much more time on battery and things ran smoother. So now all of my other devices (except a work laptop) are now on Linux (cachyos is my go to now).

If you want an OS that lets you own the machine you bought, Linux is the most viable option. Conversely, Windows is not an option. I don’t consider an OS where you are the product to be one that works for me at all, much less one that “just works”.

Linux users seem to enjoy problem solving and tinkering for fun

Like with any OS, those are a subset of users, but not all. The thing is, Linux users spent the last 30y building a set of tools that enable you to use as little effort as possible to do very powerful things with your hardware, and yes, with great power comes great ability to break everything. But in the last 15y, there are distros designed for people who want an OS that “just works”, that don’t require you to know or use the risky tools that could break things, and they’re getting better every day.

Why did you switch

I wanted to use Linux for the last 15y, but gaming was a sticking point. Around 5y ago, thanks to valve, it is no longer a sticking point. I do all my gaming on Linux.

what was your process like?

I first switched to fedora on my laptop about 12y ago. I didn’t do a lot of gaming on my laptop, so this was fine. Eventually I switched to Manjaro. Around 5y ago I put Manjaro on my desktop. Then eventually switched both to endeavor.

I’ll admit, I create problems for myself by refusing fully featured Desktop Environments. But I always learn something more about my machine in the process. As a result, I believe I can now simply do more with less effort on Linux than I could on windows. I have bash scripts on keybinds that open custom UIs for various things. I can seamlessly access multiple servers on my network running various services. I don’t ever have to worry about some update overhauling my UI and sneaking an AI in the background. Any experimentation I do with AI is on my own terms, and none of my data gets shipped off without my consent.

What made you choose Linux for your primary computing device, rather than macOS for example?

I used a Mac 20y ago. It was solid. But eventually the cost outweighed the hardware capabilities. And then they deprecated every graphics API but Metal. Now there’s relatively nothing in the way of gaming on Mac. On top of that, it’s just as bad as windows when it comes to doing what some company wants it to do rather than what I want it to do. So I don’t consider it an option that works for me.