Why did you move from Windows to Linux?

Self-respect. I'm not going to tolerate my property being sabotaged against me in service of some other entity, and I don't understand why anybody else would either.

As soon as Windows 10 "telemetry" (read: spyware) started getting backported into Windows 7 almost a decade ago, I was gone.

Windows users in 2025 are nothing but cucks and simps for corporate abuse. They don't "just buy, have, and use a computer;" they are part of the problem.

Windows users seem to want to just buy, have, and use a computer

That's just not how I would describe Windows. It's more like a digital bilboard with spyware that also runs programs. It actively prevents you from just using "your" computer.

it ran like shit, I never knew what was going on, trying to read the logs was a pain in the ass, I had to edit the registry for basic shit, they crammed ads into everything, I didnt use one drive, it eventually just stopped updating - it would try then fail without any useful info and say try again.

what a dumpster fire of an operating system and company. how they still have market share and are successful blows my mind.

Enshitification of Windows was my reason, I was quite patient, I let it slide when they backported telemetry to Windows 7, Windows 10 was still quite usable but the amount of bloat was getting on my nerves already. When I saw what shitshow 11 is becoming I jumped ship. I'm glad I did it early and didn't wait for Windows EOL.

I barely knew what linux was before I watched pewdiepies video on it a long time ago. Just knew that some people on steam would complain about games not running on it, so I never bothered to look into it, since that is basically all I use my computer for. However, over the past 2 years I have been becoming more aware of my individual footprint. Something I noticed was that I will complain about things I think are "wrong" with the world, and then not do anything about them. One of those things was Microsoft (or big tech companies in general). I hate them, yet I would be using their product/service. Literally giving money to something I don't like.

I honestly have never enjoyed learning about computers and coding, I've tried and it's never felt fun to me. I'm definitely not the "target" of linux I guess. When I turn on my computer, I just want to play some games or do homework/work with no fuss.

However, Linux is at a point to where I, someone who has no want or need to learn computers, can switch and mostly use it out of the box. So I just switched, because if I'm gonna sit here and shit on Microsoft for not doing what I think is right, then I need to stop using their product. Capitalism means as long as they make money, they aren't gonna change a damn thing.

Windows is terrible.

Windows is such a horrible experience and MS is such a horrific company.

I've been absolutely seething over Microsoft's bullshit for years. Over the years of having less and less control over my own fucking computer, the parasitic privacy invasion, the dumbfuck constant bloat, the cartoon level evil of Microsoft in general, the constant degradation, forcing unnecessary features and ads, and generally just the sheer audacity. Honestly, I've just kinda been putting up with it for not much more than "it works for now and I'm just tired, man". However, then Microsoft started pushing ai and some updates that were literally bricking systems so I could no longer justify having a switch from windows being such a low priority; it was now a liability. I'm now running CachyOS and I'm quite happy with the switch. Everything just fucking works, not to mention the very noticeable performance boost. Fuck Microsoft.

Combination of three things:

Windows XP. What a pile of shit that was. The enshitification began here. This is where microsoft ID's started. Where music downloads only worked with Internet Explorer. Where microsoft began data harvesting, and they started lying about being able to remove applications you didnt want.

The second reason was indirectly due to Quickbooks shitty software requirements.

Quickbooks, and windows wanted you at a specific computer. I thought this was bullshit. I realized with Linux I could work anywhere, and deliver my applications via x forwarding. No one "seat" rule.

So I added a linux server to work, and quickly started using Linux full time.

Funny about what you said though. I use Linux because I do not want to tinker, I want everything to just work. Windows and the applications for it go against you, change on you, require licensing of you, and generally are a pain in the ass.

Through a MSDN I have free access to all windows software. I have free use of an Azure node and Virtual Desktops. But I won't use them for anything personal, only if someone will pay me. MS just sucks that much.

I am willing to remote into, push code to, admin any window device for money. But I do it all from a linux machine.

Windows 10 decided to update a machine in a client's office. The update took 4 hours and the employee could do zero during that time. A few weeks later a Win 10 machine at the same office crashed and would not start. I was left googling error codes from the BSOD. Nothing worked and I had to reinstall. I decided I needed to get my own work stack off of windows. I installed Kubuntu. 2 years later and I like KDE, I like the Debian base, I hate snap, but mostly I'm working and productive.

Privacy, freedom to choose whatever I want, focus on FOSS (I hate/dont trust proprietary software), and security features for hardening Linux (Landlock, SELinux, Bubblewrap, sysctl, hardened_malloc).

i switched to Linux in 2013ish to get away from my gaming habit and go all in on programming and computer science. that may not work these days as all the games i play work on Linux ha

Linux became so much less work to keep running than windows, even for gaming (if you've got an AMD gpu at least). I don't play competitive gaming in any capacity so I'm not missing pretty much anything.

I didn't move away from Windows, Windows moved away from me.

I would have been happy to stay on it if it hadn't continued to get shittier and shittier.

My computer wasn't compatible with Windows 11, and it's not that old, dammit. The thought of throwing it out because of some arbitrary push for Windows 11 from Microsoft made me angry, so I finally installed Mint since it's the one I kept hearing is easiest for people who don't know anything about Linux. I've been using it almost 3 months now and I don't find it difficult to deal with at all, and the games I play work on it. The biggest hurdle has been compatibility with some school stuff, but I've been able to use LibreOffice and Google Docs when all else fails.

Computers aren't my hobby, running into errors when I just want to get shit done pisses me off. I've been dealing with a minimal amount of that on Mint, I imagine mostly because I'm not tinkering with a ton under the hood (mostly aesthetic changes so that it looks how I like). If you have basic troubleshooting skills for Windows then a lot of that transfers to Linux, even though the actual solutions will be different.

If something better than Mint came along I'd probably switch to it, but I don't know what that would look like, since Mint is doing exactly what I want: running my programs and not popping up with a ton of useless AI crap or ads.

I simply hate being spied on. I also can't logically understand, why to pay for a product, while still losing privacy at the same time. Then I came to linux, and it does the best of both worlds: It can be used for free, while respecting privacy. I still donate to my distro though, but it doesn't force me to.

For me it was Windows 7 end of life. I always liked to tinker, and at the time I didn't wanted to spend the money to get a macbook, so I tried Linux, eventually moved completely to it and never looked back.

I hated Windows Update. There were other reasons, but this was the main one.

I had an overwhelming feeling of corporations telling me what they are selling and that I just have to deal with it. Apple, microsoft, adobe, all subscriptions that lock you in and hold you hostage.

Maybe I am just being over the top, but I miss feeling like I OWNED something. With linux? I own my laptop again.

Largely privacy, data ownership, performance, and a general shift towards foss and self hosting.

Linux requires tinkering and Windows doesn't? Is that some alternate-universe version of Windows? In my experience, the difference is social/psychological. When Windows fucks up, "everybody uses it," so the blame falls on the masses, not the user, who was just going along with what's normal and expected. People sort of mentally elide memory of the Windows fuck ups, because that's just how Windows is.

Linux is different and weird, and you have to stray from the herd to use it. Straying from the masses is scary, because when Linux fucks up, it's your fault for being contrary. That threat to one's place in the social order is quite memorable. Hence the reluctance of Windows users, who hate it, to even consider trying another OS that they know nothing about.

I never switched from Windows. I never used Windows as my main OS. I had an Amiga, then learned Unix on SunOS, so I was used to being weird. Once I got a PC, I used FreeBSD. It did require a lot of fiddling back in those days, and when I got tired of that, I switched to Ubuntu, which was amazing in that it Just Worked(tm). (Aside from manual installation of the Windows driver for the PCMCIA WiFi card with NDISWrapper.)

(I still do tinker with it, and sometimes break it, but the base OS has been rock solid. I noticed the other day that my main PC was installed with Ubuntu 18.04, and upgraded to 24.04.)

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 got tired of having an OS that is working against me. That is not a healthy relationship. With Linux you can really see there is a shift in the mindset. User experience is prioritized and you are allowed to do what you want wherever you want to. This means for example things like running a live iso, installing the OS and surfing the web at the same time is possible. I can remap the super key, and other keys. Oh, tiling Window manager exist like hyperland. Omarchy. And how about tabs in the file explorer. Why did not Microsoft implement it 20 years ago like when it came to Linux.

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.

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.

Final straw?

So it was contradicting itself and would not update no matter how many times I would hit "check for updates" over the course of a week.

So not only was the system not functioning correctly, but I could no longer trust it was going to be secure from third parties.

I had intended to switch for some time before then for a litany of reasons but this definitely convinced me to stop wasting any more time and I moved myself and family over less than a week later.

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 got Windows 7 hacking to a point where it was basically a weird Linux and then had a moment "why bother fighting the OS, it will not get any better".

Honestly, from curiosity and messing around with stuff, playing with Crunchbang on an old Win9x PC. (this was eons ago as Crunchbang wasn't BunsenLabs yet at the time)

Yes, really, the last time I actively ran Windows for any reasonable length of time was with Win9x, specifically 98se.

I messed around with Win10 LTSB for a bit on a laptop (this was in 2016, so when Win10 was still new and LTSC was still called LTSB), but eventually went back to running Linux, and given Windows' current trash-fire state, I'm not touching it on my hardware outside of a VM ideally, or a dedicated burner box if a baremetal install is ever needed for anything.

Because of Windows.

I was already somewhat interested in Linux (as a long time Windows user) when I started studying Computer Science, mainly for it's core philosophy of freedom and openness.

Given that most courses used Linux as the default OS I installed Ubuntu on my laptop to dual boot it with Windows, and began getting familiar with it.

Over the years I started using Linux more and more, making it my main OS, with Windows still installed for the few programs I couldn't use otherwise. Over time this set of programs became smaller and smaller, until it was just games.

Last year I bought and assembled a new PC to replace my laptop for daily uses, and given the higher specs and better support (AMD GPU instead of Nvidia) I see no reason to have Windows on it at all. Everything I need runs perfectly fine there.

I use Arch, btw.

Windows Updates

Got an update while finishing a large project for work. Tried to postpone updates, Micro$oft said no and reboot anyway. Rebooted and waited 2 hrs for the "Please Wait" to go away.

Oh yeh and also the in your face OneDrive adware. I swear, every single time I update, the laptop keeps asking if I want to sign into onedrive.

0: i tinkered with linux as a kid. didn't get it. no games?

1: in uni i went back to trying it out. mostly over microsofts policies.

2: i was surprised that the green and orange variety of it-just-works-linux were super comfy to set up.

3: in my dual boot phase a windows update messed up the boot loader.

4: i decided to wipe the win-partition with a wire brush, and never looked back.

It was fun! Not only do you have this new-fangled OS to just fuck around with, but it gives you more access to the system and you can actually learn how it works? Amazing.

Eventually it just became so ingrained in my personal workflow that I wouldn't be able to function without it.

They baked AI into the operating system and had that recall thing where they basically took screenshots of your screen every few seconds. Linux doesn't do that.

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.

Because I can tell it to do whatever I want. I get to control the device I own. Pretty basic. Same principle for my others devices, so deGoogle Android phone, earbuds with open source firmware, keyboard with open source firmware, Zigbee for IoT, etc. My stuff should do what I want.

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 want meaningful errors I can troubleshoot. "Oopsie poopsie" error messages tell me nothing.

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.

Basically, im getting old and weird and less willing to abide corporate fuckery.

About 10 years ago a friend discovered Linux during his studies and suggested I try it out.

I haven't looked back ever since.

I like to tinker, I like to have a level of control (or at least the option) of things I own, I like to learn, I like the idea of open source, and from Windows 2000 on I didn't like the direction it was going.

Back in the early 2010s, I bought a new PC with Windows 8 on it. Hated the way it looked and the way it worked. I wanted my Start menu and Aero and Classic themes back. Led me to learning about Linux. But uxTheme and Classic Shell kept me happy for a couple more years.

Then I got a laptop with Windows 10. Felt my heart rate spike as I went through the settings and found out how much more hostile to user choice and privacy Microsoft had become. When the semi-annual updates kept undoing all my hard work debloating Windows, I decided it was time to begin using Linux in earnest.

At first, I had a dual-boot setup and jumped around between Ubuntu, Deepin, Arch, etc. Found myself booting into the Windows partition less than once a month, at which point I moved it out onto its own drive. Distro-hopping went on for about a year, after which I decided that Debian met all of my needs. Continued DE-hopping for about another year until settling on XFCE with Chicago95. Brought me enough joy to make a standardized setup in a VM, which I have since cloned to all of my computers except for the Windows laptop I keep around for work.

Avoiding studying for exams in 2007.

Office 365 in my face 24/7.

I have told this story several times.

In late 2013 or so, I bought a Raspberry Pi 1B as part of my amateur radio hobby. I did all my actual work on a Windows laptop, the Pi was pretty much just a toy, and I learned a little about Linux with it.

Mid-2014, the display in my aging laptop died. I was going back to school that fall, I needed a laptop. So I ordered a high end Inspiron from Dell. And Dell sold me a lemon. That laptop would just...shut off and never turn back on again. And then I'd call Dell's tech support. They'd send a tech out within a week or two. He'd throw a part in it, and then it would last somewhere between days and seconds. After waiting over a week to get a tech to come out and fix it, it didn't finish booting before it died again. I finally got them to replace the laptop outright, with a system that lacked many of the features I had explicitly ordered.

I am no longer a Dell customer.

That whole time, I needed a computer, and the only thing I had was that Raspberry Pi in addition to my Galaxy S4. It was real fun typing up homework in LibreOffice on a single core 700Mhz ARMv6 and 512MB of RAM.

I finally got a running Dell, after an entire semester, loaded with Windows 8.1. Windows 8.1 was a total pube fire. Linux felt more familiar at that point, so I tried a few different systems, discovered Linux Mint, and 11 years later I don't have any computers that run Windows.

Curiosity at first, but now all the stuff I usually do is easier from linux ssh, sshfs etc. WSL on windows is niftyish.

Productivity: once your Linux machine does what you want, it does what you want. It doesn’t ask if you’re sure you don’t want ai cloud storage telemetrics shoved up your hinders every 2 clicks.

Bloat: No explanation necessary.

I have ADHD: I get shit done on Linux. You can turn off whatever you want and it stays off. Windows (especially 11) is a bs distraction minefield by default. And it’ll actively work against you to keep it that way.

The last Windows OS I used was XP, around 2004-ish. Even back then, it was obvious to me that, because it was closed source, that they could one day start acting against my interests, and there was nothing I could do to stop it. I saw open source as an insurance policy - it prevents vendors from acting maliciously against their users. In that very quaint, old time, nobody believed that MS would ever do something like that, but it didn't matter - the fact was that they could, so inevitably, they would.

I'm quite proud of how prescient I was when I look at what they're doing today. No evil is too great to stop a greedy businessman.

Anyway, I decided to just be brave and create a partition on my main drive and install Ubuntu on it. All I needed to get my work done was OpenOffice, LaTeX, a browser, a compiler, Python.... Everything worked better in Linux than Windows so even though I was dual-booting, I practically never used Windows again after a couple weeks. Later on, I switched to Debian, and the next laptop that I bought, I just wiped the hard disk and used Linux for the whole thing. I kept the recovery partition because I was paranoid but obviously never needed it.

Today, there's no doubt in my mind that Linux is the best OS. Sure, Macs have better batteries, but if I'm doing productive work, then I don't really need more than an hour away from my charger. I could maybe agree that the BSDs are better, but I've never tried them.

It was a couple of years ago. Continuing enshittification of Windows pissed me off enough to look into it (10/11 restricting of options, CoPilot, various bloat etc).

2 years later, i'm running Mint on my laptop, Arch on my desktop, a server with OpenMediaVault and a miniPC with Batocera. My computer life has never been better!