Linux

Fed up of all my apps appearing with copilot in them. Fed up of apps like notepad becoming fucking laggy. Its bloody notepad for Christ sake.

I don't care about AI. I don't want it. Every time I uninstalled it all, it just appeared again a week later.

Then I found cachyos and realised I could play all the games I play. Never looked back.

I enjoy not feeling spied on. Not feeling my data is being sold on.

Skype and OneDrive. They just WOULD NOT GO THE FUCK AWAY. My hard drive died, so I already lost everything OS related, and re-installing windows 10 was already infuriating me, and then every reboot, even after disabling them, skype and onedrive just kept popping up at boot. I used windows to download i think 8 different distro ISOs, gathered a gaggle of flash drives and set them all up. Then I tried them all out until I landed on one that did everything I wanted it to and haven't looked back. I kept that windows drive for about 6 months before I realized I was never using it and the storage space would be better served reformatted to btrfs for the linux system to use.

Tried Linux out of curiosity. Found it better than Windows for all my use cases. Stuck with it and never went back.

My initial reason was computation freedom. It got so much better in years, I just take the rest as a great bonus.

The Windows key that I had been using for years stopped working. It was an old Win 8 key that I had updated to 10 then 11. Had to refresh the OS due to a random corruption and my Windows key wouldn’t verify. When I contacted Microsoft support they told me that since I don’t use a Microsoft account my registration wasn’t backed up. They don’t accept upgrades from Windows 8 anymore, so I would have to buy a new key. Instead I found a new OS.

I care what my computer does the same way I care about what my brain does. Since my computer is just an extension of my brain it needs to be transparent and ownable.

Windows showed me one too many ads in the start menu.

Also, I found a distro I like and can stick with forever.

My old windows install was so cooked thst I had successfully made an illegal CON file (cygwin?) on NTFS, which Windows would refuse to delete because it should be impossible to make such a file.

After a completely fresh install, the settings app refused to launch after a day and of course sfc/dism did jack all.

Said "screw it" and dual booted Fedora because my previous experience with Ubuntu sucked snd I saw that video of Linus saying he never used Debian or Ubuntu because it didn't used to be user friendly to install. Searched up his preferred distro and it was Fedora.

Kept Windows around for a couple of months for one game until one day windows overwrote grub after an update.

Nuked it again and installed only Fedora. Found out the game now had solid support in proton so I literally did not miss anything from Windows.

Because of Microslop. Who needs more reasons, huh?

It gets out of the way and let's me do my thing. Wether it's work or gaming.

Both Aurora on my laptop and Bazzite on my desktops, have been easier to use and maintain than Windows and OSX.

No ads, no nagging, no maintenance. The included gui and cli app stores give me everything I need. I freaking love it, it's pure bliss. Best computing experience I ever had.

~3 years running Ublue distros. 100% happyness.

I didn't choose Linux, Linux chose me...when windows got unbearably enshittified.

Although admittedly I'd been using Linux for years beforehand, just not for gaming.

Decades worth of windoofs hate. Finally did the full switch a few months ago. I have been using windoofs for gaming only anyway and professionally I already had plenty of Linux experience.

Linux isn't great either though and can be a real pain in the ass. Recently had to fix few lines of code in the kernel, because I had no audio. But the fact that one can do it in principle is already a huge win over windoofs. And although some games stubbornly won't run (stable), a lot do without having to tinker much, thanks to Wine, Proton, and a couple of startup parameters.

Professionally I mainly use Ubuntu, for gaming I did so at first as well but switched to CachyOS recently.

Because window is genuinely more of a pain to use in 2026.

It was just an extension of my interest in computers since I was young ^ ^ This new, completely different OS fascinated me when I was growing up, and led to me installing Ubuntu on an old laptop. I never made an actual jump to it until I was a few years older, and had Windows slowing down my laptop that I used for work. I jumped onto the Manjaro train that was happening at the time, and eventually ended up installing Arch on my main PC (´･ᴗ･ ` )

What's the option? Windows? Keeps getting shittier all the time. Now with AI Slop and bugs. No thanks. Mac? Their walled garden, making it so you can't upgrade your existing computer? No thanks. My last mac was a 2015 that let you upgrade things but it was a pain. They've since removed that so they lost me as a customer.

With Linux, I have a Framework laptop that let's me upgrade everything. It's easy to take apart, there are hardware switches for the mic and webcam.... it's very user friendly. Linux doesn't have any telemetry. The only AI that gets installed is if I install it myself, it's not intrusive. I've been using Linux for a long, long time but the Desktop experience has been lacking in the past. It's gotten way better recently and the last thing I would boot into windows for was Fusion 360. I spent some time learning FreeCAD and since 1.0 it is way better and now I don't need to boot into Windows anymore. Steam has made leaps and bounds with proton and now I can even game on Linux which is pretty huge. Is Linux perfect? No, but it does everything I need it to.

Because Windows works as dumbest os for now

Sound randomly staying off, micro sometime works, sometime not, if I try to touch sounds its sometimes just slutter all the system. I checked on viruses by free and paid subscriptioned and-viruses but founs nothing. So the best way to heal was to reinstall system. And I am do this. CachyOS going great, more faster and stable for several years even with bleeding edge updates

I didn't choose Linux. Linux chose me.

But in all seriousness, back in 2015, I got a PC that came with Windows 8. It had the horrible, completely unusable Metro UI. But my main gripe with that OS was how it forced me to use Microsoft’s solutions over everything else. Quite often, the PDF files I opened would launch in the Metro PDF reader instead of the one I had chosen. Usually, this kind of things happened after a Windows Update, which 'accidentally' reset my default application choices - including the PDF reader - and, as a final spat in my face, added an Internet Explorer shortcut to my desktop.

I started to feel as if I had no control over my PC anymore; it was Microsoft deciding what software I should use. Then and there I decided it was time to give Linux a chance. I had already noticed how Valve was pushing the gaming industry toward Linux, and I thought, those guys can’t be completely wrong.

Pissed off on windows 11. Couldn't change things I needed or wanted. Didn't allow for basic shit. Kept on giving me ads and other fucking annoying things. Broke a lot slow and pathetic. Wanted a fucking proper start menu back again the place I been using it for last 30 fucking years. Updates took forever and ever and often broke everything and have to reinstall. Can't disable auto update ad settings kept resetting each update.

I just wanted a simple computer that just worked. Turned on and just worked every time. Nothing changes without me changing them. Simple and intuitive.

I tried windows again as a duel boot. It wiped broke my Linux partition because micro crap hates people. Never ever going back unless it's a dedicated machine for the 2 games I rarely play that work slightly better on Windows.

Rather never play games or use the Internet then switch back to windows.

EDIT : got me so mad my Grammer and spelling went out the window. Lol

To give Microsoft the finger.

The main reason is to use an open-source system. The secondary reason is to achieve greater digital sovereignty and reduce dependence on US technology companies.

Running a singular OS—I like that I can run the same system on my current four computers—two servers, one desktop, and one 12 year old Microsoft laptop.

Selfhosting—It started with an interest in Jellyfin and Qbittorrent, which led to running my own server(s), progressing to wanting to learn more Linux and run a singular OS for all devices. I think this point is focused on an interest in selfhosting.

Control—I don't like customizing my systems, its a waste of time, but I enjoy having complete control and ownership over them.

Trust and Privacy—I don't want to use any software that doesn't respect the user enough to show the source.

Freedom—I believe media, software, and information should be open access to all.

It just works.

So people won't shout at me online.

I started because I heard it's good for programming which turned out to be true. Initially stayed because it was customizable but had windows for games. Now just Linux because it's better for everything I do. I think now people switching to Linux mostly do it because Linux is just better except for niche programs.

At the time, I needed a system able to handle editing a couple hundred pages document without issues. Windows with word couldn't do it, Linux managed it gracefully despite not even being at 1.0 (and it also handled the network much, much better).

I've been using it ever since.

I was experimenting with Linux for a long time, but haven't migrated fully. W11 was the breaking point for me. Everything built with unnecessarily heavy Electron making the user experience much slower than W10 pretty much forced my hand.

I've been a lifelong Windows user since Windows 3.1, and truly feel that Windows 7 was when Windows was at its peak. Windows 11 was the straw that finally broke the camel's back, with all of the constant pushing of Copilot and Office 365 and ads in the start menu and so forth. Fuck that, I bailed out about 2 years ago.

I've dabbled on and off with Linux since Ubuntu used to be distributed on free CD-ROMs, but never stuck with it for long, but things have come a massively long way since those days, and now Linux is very usable as a daily driver for many people. I feel like it brings my computer back under my control instead of someone else's, and isn't always trying to sell me out in the background. I eased into it with Linux Mint, and Fedora 44 with KDE is now my distro of choice.

I still have a Windows 11 installation on a spare 256GB SSD, but I only ever boot it up about once a month just to let it update itself in case I need to use it for something I can't figure out a way to make work on Linux.

A lifelong Windows user, dabbled in MacOS too, windows 11 was absolute dogshit, did some research and saw loads of videos about bazzite so dual booted into it, liked it so decided to make it my main OS, I also love learning about computers

I swap PCs regularly and I hate how long it takes to install windows.

Also windows borked a games drive once and I never forgave it.

Then I learned all the privacy stuff.

What started off as a kid as mild interest in something "different." Different in the sense that it was different than that of what I grew up using. Anywhere from the lame old school Mac computers in primary school, to the Windows PCs that were everywhere. I did go to school for a degree in Cyber Security; and of course got my hands on some different Linux distros over the years, so between my younger years of tinkering, and schooling I had exposure to Linux early on.

Fast forward a bit, years and years pass by and I was a Windows user because that was just readily available and accessible and what I had primarily used for most of my life; and I was getting fed up with what Microsoft was doing and pushing. That being said, I initially switched from Windows 10/11 to Arch Linux out of hatred for Microsoft.

Well, my reasoning has changed drastically. It used to be because I hated Microsoft and all of their shenanigans. Now I use Linux out of love for Linux. Sure, I still hate Microsoft; but that is a naturally progression the further I get into my niche.

I love open source, and my beliefs on open source has permeated through other beliefs. I think that the collective of human knowledge should be effectively "open source" and available to all. We shouldn't be limited on what we want to learn just because of a corporation or business entity says they arbitrarily own a subset of knowledge.

Anyways, tldr; started as hate for Microsoft, and turned into genuine love for Linux and Open Source Software.

Windows is slow, buggy, and overall shit software, even on high end computers.

I've used Linux for over 20 years, it just works and gives me the freedom I want, so there's no reason for me to use anything else.

I'd been using Windows forever and always stuck to the "rule of two": I skipped Vista and Windows 8, and was holding out to see if a Windows 12 was going to happen. When it didn't, I jumped ship to Linux. 11 took everything I hated about 10 and made it all worse, and that's without even considering all the telemetry. I'd already started using open source software, so that only made it easier to switch.

And for the record, my hardware was plenty new enough to install 11. But boy is it zippier with Linux! Just goes to show how much bloat Windows has. I have to use 11 on my work machine and I hate every minute of it.

Control. I want to control what my PC does and when it reboots. With Microsoft Windows and Apple macOS both I don't have control, these US-based corporations can do to my PC whatever they choose to. With those operating systems I don't feel in control.

runs well on my potato pc, infinite customization, transparent and easy to inspect, made by nerds

It's a compromise.
It supports modern hardware well enough and the environment is good enough.
I do like the cleaned up state of BSD better, but the missing hardware support is pretty much killing that.

Also, all the machines I'm developing for and controlling are running some kind of RT Linux.
So I don't have that much friction between systems.

What can I say? I wanna be the very best, like no one ever was. To catch them all is my real quest, to train them is my cause.

From a practical standpoint, when combined with upgradable hardware, it means you can run the same machine for several years, saving money and reducing e-waste. I also believe that FOSS will always provide better long-term solutions than proprietary alternatives.

FOSS and copyleft: I want software built for the good of the public, with good intentions. Anything with corporate licensing us off the table, and ideally so are non-copyleft open source programs as corporations will hijack them for their benefit and privatization.

UNIX Like: It is my preferred workflow for development and everyday use. The windows paradigm is messy, convoluted, and inconsistent by comparison.

Fast, free, customizable: all nice to haves connected to the big two above

I've been dabbling for years, but my old computer couldn't run Windows 11. That delay made me wait long enough to see all the recall shit, so my new computer has been Linux since day 1, no dual boot.

I switched to get away from the windows telemetry that started to freak me out, but i stayed for the customization that allows me to completely make it my own, and the fact that linux doesn't do shit in the background without me knowing it and just does what i actually want it to do. I tried using windows again in a dualboot configuration when i wanted to play gta online, plus i ended up needing hdmi 2.1, but i just couldn't do it, it was too frustrating and annoying to use. I bought a dp to hdmi adapter and figured i'd rather give up on anti-cheat games like gta online if it means i never have to touch windows again.

Much better than Windows 11, the only other choice I had.

I'm just grateful it exists.

I started using Linux for science. I was using a Raspberry Pi for a study and got to learn some basic stuff as part of that. Then I started to deploy my own Pis at home for self-hosting different apps I like, like Pihole. I also have an ancient desktop I bought on clearance that was running terribly, so I put Ubuntu on it and that solved a lot of performance issues! I host some stuff on there too.

I’d been using Linux at work for many years, then self-hosting on Linux. I wasn’t too keen on desktop Linux because popular distros default to Gnome, which I thought was pretty meh, and it wasn’t until I tried Mint that I was compelled to make it a daily driver. I’ve distro hopped a lot and always come back to Mint.