Linux

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.

Took Windows apart until i couldn't anymore what i wanted, because it broke it's fickle update process and i realized, i'm fighting against the system here. That's where i switched 100% to Linux.

Because Windows 11 will never touch hardware I own. I've been using it at work for several years, I've experienced first-hand their utter disdain for users, and privacy.

Linux works better then Windows 11. If you don't need Windows for specific software needs, I recommend Linux. If you do need Windows, buy a license off of ebay for cheap.

All games work unless they block you with anti cheat, which are usually the big AAA games like cod/battlefield.

Coding is better on linux.

I was dabbling for ~10+ years with Linux out of curiosity, but I was heavily invested in windows since 95. I used and liked vista, survived windows 8, but the moment everything started moving towards big brother I had enough. I was in the early access program and the insider program and I hated the idea of recall. The moment it came out in an early access program it was hacked less than 2 hour in the program, and all data could be extracted from the pictures as banking etc. Thus negating the need of complex viruses, you simply have the data in front of you. Then copilot... The fact that is deeply integrated in to everything like file explorer will break if you try yo remove it etc. I just realized this is not my computer anymore, I can't do anything with it that I want and I am paying premium to own this system.

Moved to Ubuntu, loved it but had some things I did not like, things like forcefull integration of not matured system changes on already proven systems (the rust saga), and other things. Moved to arch and I have been personally using Linux for close to 3 years and never looked back.

All the things I nerd work, those that I want and don't work natively I can try and run somehow and often it works often I have to find an alternative. The things that do not work anymore I don't nerd them. Like ms office, adobe (some already work natively or cloud based), and kernel level anti cheat games... I can save my time in to other games. 99% of the games I want run flawlessly or EVEN better than windows, I wonder why hahah.

Planing to move to fedore for a change at the end of the year :)

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.

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.

I started running foss apps and loving how small and efficient they were in comparison to what I was used to. At one poit I realized that everything I was using could be used on linux, so I migrated and never went back!

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.

i didnt like w10 with already pre-installed software, from games to random shareware. Didnt like that there where starting to test ads in the start menu or that OneDrive had decided to start operating in the background without notice.

I already had a mac, but didnt like that I could play most games, mainly used it as a work pc for design work. So then I searched and learned that linux was having many changes with proton and wine, and decided to give it a go, and I think its been 3 or 4 years since then. There are things, like graphic design work that I needed to re-learn, but it hasnt affected me greatly. I fully recommend it for most people. Running Mint

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.

Nix provides me the tools to create coding environments much easier and faster than usual. So I went a step further and now I run NixOS.

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"!

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.

So people won't shout at me online.

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.

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.

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.

I'm a retired Unix admin and I hate Microsoft and Apple.

Originally when I started the move to Linux in 2015, I did it because Windows 10 was wholly incompatible with my ISP. I lived through dial-up, HEO satellite, HSPA, LTE, fixed wireless, and currently fiber. During the period with dealing with HEO satellite, every provider at the time in the US (WildBlue/Exede/Viasat, Hughesnet) had alright speeds at best paired with a very aggressive soft monthly data cap (10 GB, eventually 26GB in like 2018), that would revert the speed capabilities back to 32-96kbps. Upgrading from Windows 7 to Windows 10 was largely a mistake for many reasons, but one of them was the sheer frequency, size, and aggressive nature of how Windows 10 tried to download and apply updates automatically. Windows 10's frequent auto updates would easily eat several gigabytes each month of the tiny data cap. The rest of the amount of idle networking Windows 10 did also didn't help during throttled periods, eating up most of the bandwidth available from just one workstation. Knowing that Windows 10 wouldn't be another Windows 8 and that Microsoft would go forward with 10, I decided to seriously look into alternatives.

Eleven years later, I have virtually no restrictions in hardware nor networking. Despite that, I still use Linux exclusively. Nowadays, there is little to no compromise in using a Linux-based system for many general tasks. Certain niches vary in usability on Linux, especially if the niche is cemented in certain proprietary software. Modern Linux-based systems (both distro and desktop environment) are just more polished than the experience to be had on Windows 10 or Windows 11. Many common frustrations when using Windows (device driver installation, printers, drawing tablets, HDR, system updates, software updates, system maintenance, lack of dark patterns, error message clarity, etc.) are things that a modern Linux system deals with a lot less, to a lesser extent, or just not at all. After spending many years learning both Windows and Linux, Linux systems are just more functional and easier to use.

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.

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

I'm just grateful it exists.

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.

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.

I'm over twenty years deep. I had a friend who was always my go-to for technical problems with my windows laptop. He ended up becoming a technical support guy for windows shops. anyways, he mentioned Linux one day as I was babbling about file sharing during the Napster days. I went down the rabbit hole from there. I've been called a systems administrator, server administrator, systems engineer, DevOps engineer, etc as job titles. it clicked in my head how or why it worked and it felt liberating. I'm the grumpy guy scowling trying to figure out how your windows or Mac operating systems work like how normal people are trying to figure out how mine works.

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 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.

Idealogical reasons.

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.

My old laptop works well on Windows 10. Mint does about 99% of that and other stuff I don't do in Windows. The only thing that I miss is a multi monitor setup (and I've been told that CachyOS or KDE Neon would do it).

While just running better for most of the tasks I do (and being more customizable) are a huge plus. I am also personally sick of the way Microsoft (and most other large corporations) do business. So Linux is my way to do what I can to not support them and move towards a better future.

Lots of reasons today, but I started out of necessity: a poor kid that couldn't buy new hardware, much less a windows license. Discovered the magic when I picked up a little pre-Chromebook XP mini laptop that the person gave me for $20 because it just couldn't run usably with windows' overhead. Put one of the light Ubuntu distros on it, and damned if that little thing didn't get me through college.

Honestly stoked a real passion for how Linux can be a really effective way to repurpose what would otherwise be e-waste and get it to people who otherwise wouldn't be able to really get into technology all with an opportunity to learn how the machine works.

I'm likely relocating soon, but I've really considered afterwards setting up a local non profit dedicated to flipping old machines like that to get them into poor kids' hands, maybe even with pipelines into basic Linux/terminal learning, security basics, programming, etc for those that show an interest.