Linux

A Windows 10 update brought my decent PC to a halt and at that very moment I had enough.

Windows XP pushed my off Windows. You can trace all of the crap that annoys people today back to XP where it all started.

As for why I keep choosing it? It is the most reliable and stable OS while having the best workflows. I need a computer for work, Linux is the best tool for that.

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.

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 was linux-curious for a long time, finally dipped my toes in with the steam deck and got pushed over the edge by win11

I tried Linux multiple times (out of curiosity / contrarianism I guess) until Windows pissed me off enough, while the Steam Deck proved I could reliably run games with minimal tinkering (frankly not any worse than what I had to do on windows).

So I made the jump, and I have not looked back

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

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

I was tired of listen the computer fan

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.

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

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.

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.

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

It's better.

I never bought into the ecosystem. My first laptop had os/2 warp, then I moved to slackware for years. After that onto FreeBSD when I became a sysadmin. I was turned onto Ubuntu by one of our developers (12.04) and then ended up on Debian when I started gaming. Played guild wars and bf1942 for years until ea used anticheat that was Linux compatible, but disabled it, then moved away from games with a community so toxic it requires software to stop cheaters. I even had an employer pay for a windows xp cert for me and thought it was the jankiest operating system I'd ever used. It was impossible to update everything, the command line was neutered and it t was so slow compared to everything else I used.

Currently I run proxmox and debian on home servers and cachyos on my laptop and gaming computer. I buy computers with no os, or build from scratch where I can and only choose games based on Linux compatibility. I don't have a need for windows because I've never used it for anything besides software testing. I never understood how windows and a FreeBSD clone became the two biggest players in the market.

Windows is like McDonald's. No one really likes it, but it's ubiquitous, you know you're not going to like it, and you're going to regret it as soon as you bite into it, but you expect that, so you choking it down doesn't seem so bad. It's convenient and a lot of other people eat from there, so you try to convince yourself that it's acceptable for dinner and eat it anyway.

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

Freedom.

Was building a PC years ago, while in college, and forgot to get a Windows license (eventually got one through my university). After finishing the build I was so hyped to use it I just installed Linux (had played around in it in a VM in the past, so I knew my way around).

Got used to using Linux as my main OS after that, and stuck with it. Paying for a $100 OS is silly when the free alternative is just as good (though, I admit I do still use Windows for work).

Note: I used to game in Windows as well, I don't do that anymore. Thanks, Steam!

All my equipment is 8 years old and I can't afford a new system - not even a basic one. I'm permanently unemployed (until the economy fixes itself) but at least it's put the brakes on wasted money. Now it's just food + rent + transport.

If I want games then there's Xbox and other systems for that, so gaming is not going to entice me back to Windows. Sure there are some games on Steam that aren't on Xbox but I'm still finding dozens of games to play or replay on Xbox.

If I bought a new system in the future I'd put Linux on it again. There may be some occasional issues but it's a lot better than Windows which I see as too commercialised. Microsoft wants me to use their browser and search engine, and any "free" application that I install will have ads and nag me to pay a subscription. On Linux I don't have this problem with my apps and there aren't any pop-ups except tips upon start-up. I really can't go back because it's not for me. I'm not a wealthy person looking to spend $2 a month on cloud storage or buy hundreds of games in 90% sales only to never play them. It isn't my mindset.

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.

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

I'm just grateful it exists.

I have a better understanding of what's under the hood. I lost the plot with Windows somewhere around Windows 2000. Apple got a pass for a while because OS X is founded on UNIX roots, but even it feels a bit more opaque these days. I was also raised on UNIX (Solaris) systems at Uni back in the 90s as Linux emerged out of Helsinki, and I took it for a spin. Over time, Windows and Mac just fell away. Typing this from my M1 MBP on Asahi.

When I first discovered Linux 20 years ago, I was trying to get a computer up and running for my sister to use to write her homework on. The first distro I tried that mostly worked on that ancient Athlon proc was Ubuntu.

I wound up switching to Ubuntu from Windows XP on my personal computer because I liked that it didn't try to hide anything from me. I could (and did, often resulting in me needing to reinstall) twist all of the knobs and dials of the OS. The entire world of software that was entirely free to use, that I wasn't blocked from using because I was poor....was the icing on the cake.

About 5 years ago, I was gifted a new PC with Windows 10 preinstalled.and I decided to give it a try for a while and as long as I was only playing games, working on a text document, or watching Youtube, it was fine. But as soon as I tried to actually do something either sysadmin related or creative, it felt like the OS constantly fighting me.

WSL helped with the sysadmin stuff (mostly, but not with anything related to Windows itself) but if I was working on music, forget it. It was like working covered wet cement. I was always fighting the OS to do whatever it was I was trying to do.

I wound up wiping it and installing Linux on it after about a year of fighting Windows. First NixOS (which I liked) before going back to the distro I know best. Ubuntu.

For me, now, computers are not the toy they were in my youth. They're a tool. The best tool for a particular job is usually the tool you already know how to use. I know Linux, I can't say the same for Windows.

I've gotten old enough that I no longer have the time to study and really learn how everything in a new OS, or even new piece of software works. So, I stick with what I know until I run into a job that requires me to learn a new tool. Doesn't happen often anymore.

I've been using it since 2013-2014. It was for the love of computing first and foremost, then it extended into concerns over Windows 10 telemetry, then it became more and more viable, and here we are.

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.

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.

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 can continue using the hardware I already own, and it still runs well. And now I have a reason to learn how to make it work even better, so that's fun

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

I started playing with Linux in the late 1990s more out of curiosity. I bought a book on Red Hat Linux 6 that came with an installation CD. I have used Linux off and on since then but now have gone exclusively Linux.

Windows updates and app installs in general are a pain in the ass. Linux is so much nicer to use for these things.

I have an appreciation for FOSS. Even when I was running Windows, I looked for FOSS options when possible.

Gaming has gotten so much better. I am not a heavy gamer but I am glad I can play on Linux when I do.

Also, last but not least, the wife acceptance factor kept me dual booting long after I would have switched. She was using my PC for some tasks and did not want to "learn Linux". I solved that by getting her a PC of her own.

Better privileges over my own hardware and the software I install on it. Less interruptions, annoyances and adware.

Its's free/open source, I get not shitty "upload to the cloud" and generally forced to stuff I don't want, it has the super button where it shows all the apps and I can click right on it, I don't need a task bar. Also sticked to it when I was in college and now it became my main OS.

Had an old laptop with win xp and tried out Ubuntu instead of moving to vista which was terrible.

I still dual booted Windows 7 for many years on my main PC but at some point that was too bloated and I moved permanently to Ubuntu and later Arch.

As a programmer I got to experience the evolution of almost all tools support going from back then "Windows install instructions, Mac install and Linux - you're on your own" to now: "Linux, maybe Mac.. and Windows, just use our Linux VM"!

so i can scroll unfocused windows with the mouse wheel

If I had to put a name I would say customizability and ease of use. I dual booted for several years, it started as Linux was my programming OS and everything else was on Windows, but organically I started to spend more time on Linux and at some point I noticed Windows had become my gaming system, anything else I was doing in Linux. I fiddled with Wine and some games I could get to run on Linux so I only had to reboot for some games. Then Humble Bundle gave me a few games for Linux and I found other ones that offered Linux builds like Project Zomboid and I decided "you know what? I don't even game all that much, between Humble Bundles and Wine I can probably get enough games to keep me entertained and I don't have to keep dual-booting" so I nuked windows from my system and a short while later Steam came to Linux consolidating my choice.

So yeah, it wasn't that I chose Linux it was that using both for long enough pulled me to one side. I can't tell you exactly what pulled me, but whenever I try to use Windows everything seems so clunky and rigid that I think that played a large role. I remember several times when I had issues on one OS I would jump to the other, the issues in Linux were mostly self-inflicted (even though I didn't knew it at the time), whereas the Windows issues were random, unpredictable and unfixable with time the Linux ones became fixable and even predictable.

The whole point of Linux to me is I have complete freedom, choice and control of my pc.

The price you pay is the same though, you have the freedom, choice and control of everything your pc does, and if you do something wrong you can break it.

Windows protects you from yourself by giving you almost no freedom, choice and control. That way you can't break it.