Technology

Switch to linux but keep your old windows on a partition or different hard drive for whenever you want to work on that stuff.

You can pause Windows updates, although I'm not sure I would suggest it because they are usually patching a baotlad of security vulns.

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/deployment/updates-lifecycle/pause-updates-in-windows

Not defending Microsoft in any way, just pointing out that the option exists. Of course you will get updates once it unpauses, but maybe another CU down the line won't break shit.

It's an optional update. It doesn't automatically install without activating the option to do so.

I've been skipping windows updates for years.

there is an automatic cutting device used to make crafts projects and the only way to run it is with its manufacturer's software which only runs on windows

I tried to get it to work on Linux and had mixed success just getting it to start, but it failed miswrably at trying to communicate over the USB connection to the device no matter what I did

the only thing that worked was running a windows VM with VirtualBox and that got the connection to work but the experience of operating it became poor so until that device dies or the app gets Linux support (neither happening soon) at least one machine must be windows, and right now getting another PC is prohibitively expensive

i'll get downvoted for this but I don't care. I was on linux for years and this past week I switched back to Windows on my secondary drive. I still daily drive OpenBSD.

to be blunt I switched back because of the linux community. I got tired of it. the constant in-fighting, the near daily drama, the elitist mentality especially on support forums or chat channels, people leaving projects for one reason or another, the advocacy for FOSS but as soon as someone with a lot of money and questionable ethics starts handing it out then political opinions quickly start changing. Suddenly getting 10mil from a facist "isn't so bad and helps Linux". With Windows at least I know who I'm getting in bed with.

And as far as Windows being horrible...I don't see it. I've been back on it for a solid week or two now after several years away and I just haven't experienced what was constantly shoved down my throat from the Linux Community about how bad it is. I don't have onedrive, i'm not being hounded to set it up, i don't see it. I don't have copilot, I don't have AI, hell I don't even have any ads in my start menu. where is it all? Things work. The boot time is faster than any Linux distro I previously used. zero driver issues, things work and believe it or not the games I play now perform better on windows. It's like I was drinking the kool-aid about how bad windows is when currently I don't see it. I haven't even been hounded to update anything yet. It's got winget and scoop now so I can install stuff on this thing just like I would with any Linux package manager. I don't have to deal with protons or any of that.

I will say though maybe it's a hardware thing. When I had an ASUS Rog Strix laptop it was a miserable experience on Windows and on Linux it was better. On my Thinkpad it's the opposite. and on OpenBSD my Thinkpad absolutely swims.

Don't get me wrong I still like Linux, I just don't like what surrounds it. I'll probably go back in a year or two but right now Windows works for me and works well. for my dev work OpenBSD is perfect, it stays out of my way. All my stuff works on that, all my stuff works on Windows. But frankly the Linux community being so divided and clearly consuming the kool-aid opened my eyes and turned me off from it. I just no longer can take what linux users say about other operating systems seriously when I'm just not currently experiencing any of that with OpenBSD and Windows.

That's why I'm on Windows.

Pirated games and modded games