Linux

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.

It's better.

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 want to use open-source software, developed from people for people. I don't want corporates to exploit my data and take away my freedom.

It’s open source and not owned by an evil corporation. It doesn’t have ads. It doesn’t mine my data and sell it to the highest bidder. It doesn’t have AI shoved in every nook and cranny. It’s much lighter to run. I can easily run it on a 10 year old laptop.

IT worker, close to 50 years old, only ever could afford low-mid range tech, gamer. Been using windows for over 30 years and linux for 8. Linux works better than windows and it allowed me to improve my tech skills beyond a desktop machine.

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.

I had bought a magazine with a CD-ROM inside... Something called Slackware was written on it.

I got sick and tired of windows turning onedrive back on and moving my files.

I tried it because even with most of the bloat disabled Microsoft still kept threatening to downgrade me to windows 11, so having heard most games were working through proton and knowing gimp and Firefox run natively I figured it was worth giving it a try.
I stayed because with KDE it feels like an "unlocked" windows, windows with all the annoying parts stripped out, delimited, or fixed. Installing it was simple, customising it was extensive and easy, games run better, GIMP loads faster, installing programs from the bazaar is trivial, and it doesn't run into any more bugs and errors than windows did, so it's just a net upgrade. Weirdly bugs are often easier to diagnose and fix with the help of a search engine too, because the questions and answers tend to be a lot more in depth and informative than you get with windows.

many reasons, already told by others, but the one that made me jump was that it does not install apps without me telling it to.

Obnoxious Windows 10 "upgrade" nag screens on Win 7. If you think you can push me, I'll push back harder. That, and Snowden showing the world that American tech is backdoored all the way to hell and back.

A complete and total lack of bullshit.

If something is wrong, there's a concrete reason, no matter how deep the cause and you can always dig far down enough to catch and deal with it.

• I have the radical idea that when I own something, I should actually own it.
• I’m a software engineer, both professionally and hobby. Developing on a non Unix platform is bullshit
• HaikuOS is 20 years too late
• What is the alternative? Windows is user hostile ad infested crap, MacOS is a prettier flavor of user hostile ad infested crap. The BSDs have their place, but a daily desktop or laptop isn’t really it.
• Copyleft FOSS or GTFO
• I don’t do a massive amount of customization, but the things I do I want to have. I know that will be the case with Linux. Who the fuck knows with closed source software
• When I find a bug, missing feature, or something just isn’t right I can fix it, file a bug, or just talk to the actual human beings who wrote it. Good luck with any of that in non-FOSS unless you are spending $$$ on a corporate account.

Freedom and customization. I'm a pretty laid back guy but one of the few things I'm super anal about is UI and navigation. I'm sure there's a million reasons why windows chose the UI/UX elements it has along with its (lack of) navigation controls, but I can't fucking stand it. With Linux I can rip the whole thing apart and rebuild it exactly how I want.

On the other hand my wife is in no way technical and just wants it to work. So I rolled mint and she has barely noticed the difference. Options are good.

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.

Because it's Free Software. Free as in freedom.

I think Haiku was the first FOSS OS I tried, but GNU/Linux was more usable.

I had used FOSS on Windows and Mac OS X before. Apps such as Firefox, and VLC. But didn't really get it until I found and read the gnu.org and fsf.org sites.

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.

For me, I got fed up with Windows 11 updates resetting my settings and even reinstalling copilot. I felt like I had no control over my computer, so I put Linux on it to get some control back.

Windows bugged Out more and more. I am Just annoyed by the Bad Performance.

Troubleshooting in windows is also a pain. When I've learned how easy the Switch can be done, the Deal was sealed.

I was tired of listen the computer fan

i like having a usable desktop and a nonblinking disk access led within 30 seconds, including bios and bootloader.

I really like the control and malleability

Independent to the above, using windows feels really, really bad these days.

Windows 11 was stress. I was spending far too much time keeping it the way I want it - stable, no cloud, no AI. A four hour call with MS tech support (that went in the most idiotic circles) kinda sealed the fate of my new desktop build (old one had a failing MB, no choice but to finally upgrade hardware) and switched both it and another desktop the next day.

Much less stressed now, even when things go weird and wonky.

It just works.

Because I feel at home with it

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･ ` )

Because of Microslop. Who needs more reasons, huh?

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.

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 wanted to try something new

Because I love proper i3 style keyboard based tiling and I can't imagine my workflow without it

It started because I was poor and resented the idea of paying for software. Then I became a professional developer and the advantages of the OS became more obvious. This was ~15 years ago.

Since then the enshittification of MS has made me more and more confident in my decision.

Ideological and practical reasons. It does everything I want how I want and doesn't get in the way.

I like being able to debug stuff.

Windows nowadays does not provide any meaningful logs, so everyone in their forums and such is just guessing around why things won't work.

DirectSound libraries are missing? Install them via a sub menu of a sub menu of a really small text in the settings, wait 20 minutes for a „loading bar” telling you nothing, and guess what problem it had when it just told you no.

Aside from all the bugs like the menu bar just not opening and preview updates being shown with the same size as regular updates (great because older people will just install those updates too)

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.

Same reason as with Google Android. These genocide supporting companies take the liberty to collect and sell my data, manage my hardware and frequently break core functionality with updates to push their slop on me, while adding ads to EVERYTHING. Most updates are not even about security. There is like a 100 reasons, really. I could sum it up as "annoying".

1. Win31 sucked
2. I needed a modem terminal for my 386.

Originally because fuck windows 10

Since then it's the sheer joy of it all. It's just fucking cool that a bunch of people just get together and make something that benefits everyone, with dozens of forks that allow for freedom of choice.

I switched to Linux full time because I didn't like Windows Xp. Windows has only gotten worse since then and Linux has only gotten better.

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

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