this post was submitted on 30 Jan 2026
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Writing this from Linux which I installed last fall in lieu of the Windows 11 update.
I'm still using both OS via dual boot, and I still have some unresolved issues on Linux, but I will fully transition during the course of this year.
One thing that is really mind-blowing is the difference in performance on my ~7 y/o laptop. My Linux Mint is just lightning fast compared to Windows 10. You can quite literally feel how Windows runs a thousand random things in the background (most of which I never asked for) whereas Linux feels very clean and... empty, but in a good way.
Something that I'm super chuffed with is that a few years back, one of my most cheapskate friends asked me for advice on buying a new laptop. When I presented their options to them, they were reluctant to cheap out and get a mediocre laptop that wouldn't last them very long, but they also balked at the price of even the midrange laptops (they weren't keen on spending more than £250 on a laptop, which wasn't enough to get anything that they'd consider to be decent and worth the effort/cost).
As a long shot offer, I told them that I could always try installing Linux on their laptop if they wanted to wring another couple of years out of their existing laptop. I was a tad surprised when they opted for this, and even more surprised at how well they took to it; I jokingly call them one of my "normie" friends, because they're one of the people whose perspective I ask for when I'm trying to calibrate for what non-techie people know/think. I only had limited experience with Linux myself at that point, having only played around with things on live USBs before. I had heard that Linux could give new life to slow computers, but I was surprised at just how effectively it did this.
(A small amusing aspect to this anecdote is that when I was installing it, I said that one of the side benefits of running Linux is that it could boost nerd cred amongst folk like me. They laughed and said that they didn't expect that this would be a thing that would ever end up being relevant. Later that year, they got a girlfriend who saw that my friend was running Linux, and expressed approval, which is quite funny to me)
Nice! I love reading about people ditching winblows. next thing you'll know, you'll be distrohopping in no time. :)
Ain't that the truth? I feel like Distro hopping is an integral part of falling in love with Linux. In my case, I get distro hopping zoomies every few months 🤣
Not sticking up for Microsoft, but when you first setup a Windows machine, all those metrics toggled on like advertising and keyboard or handwriting usage, etc, I turn all 6 of those off. One in Windows I now uninstall Copilot and disable stuff like phone link, OneDrive, and pretty much every application from running at startup ( Adobe if needed, etc)
This is just for work, but I can usually get away with lower spec machines by curating what's allowed to run by default.
until they turn back on at the next update "by mistake"