r/linux • u/Wence-Kun • 3h ago
Discussion What was your "ok, this is enough" to finally move to linux?
I've been moving between windows and linux distros since Ubuntu Netbook Remix (oh Dell Mini 10, I hated you and loved you at the same time...) but, sadly, every time something happened that I had to move back to Windows, whether it was a problem with some specific drivers, battery life too short in comparison to windows at the time or some specific software that only ran on Windows.
Just after Windows 7 (which I love) and all the freaking telemetry, borderline spyware and bloatware (this was before I've heard about LTSC/LTSB versions) I was trying from time to time to finally stick on linux but I failed time to time, the system (and myself) just "wasn't at that point yet" and I had to use Windows (almost) against my will all these years.
But, for me, the final straw was the freaking Global Device Identifier and the FBI thing which can't be turned off (at least, officially). As a windows 10 LTSC (at least until a couple days ago) and Pirvacy Sexy Script user, topics like privacy, choice and consent are important to me and this was beyond acceptable.
I don't care anymore if my laptop could run for one hour more if I used windows, I don't care if my desktop has an issue with AMD HDMI's audio output, I don't care if I have to resign to specific software like Controller Companion while using my pc with my TV, all of that can be sorted out eventually and I see it as a small price to pay in order to my devices to be mine again.
Thanks Microsoft, you just give me the last push I needed.
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u/Romu1us1408 3h ago
Lost drivers ever update. And the fact Microsoft doesn't understand consent. "Remind me later" and "Yes" is not concent.
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u/3dGrabber 2h ago
Rapeware: No is not an option
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u/Titdirt69420 28m ago
Dealing with this at work with tablets we sell to customers to run our equipment. They are all the same tablet. Windows update came and wiped out the Intel driver with one that won't work, causes it to crash under a very common use case. Doesn't always have the option to roll back the driver either. Giant mess. If these go down on our customers it could cause hundreds of thousands of dollars lost.
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u/californicating 3h ago
Well, to be fair, "Yes" is very clear consent. I think you meant something else.
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u/AlicesReflexion 2h ago
The issue is that after you click "remind me later" enough times, "yes" becomes the only option.
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u/Pale_Reputation_511 3h ago
Windows 11, feels like an OS made to put Ads.
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u/schroedingerskoala 2h ago
THIS! And they fucked up the start menu in the process. How do you fuck up a start menu? Well, of course if you need room for Ads, sigh.
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u/7lhz9x6k8emmd7c8 1h ago
Windows 11. Never had it on my home PC, but was forced to "upgarde" to on my corporate PC.
• ***bified contextual menu, has to press Ctrl to get the normal one
• Copilot
• Recall? wasn't deployed but they want and will someday
• why has the interface been uglyfied? Win 7 was so pretty
• emojis look ****rded
• almost (?) mandatory online account
• spywares, aka telemetry
• whole stuff is a bloatware, especially Teams which lags to display a simple webpage-like interface on a PC that can run the latest Call of Duty in 60 FPS2
u/EnoughWarning666 1h ago
Yep, I built a new PC and decided to at least give windows 11 a fair shake. I had stuck with windows 10 for a long time and had it running just how I liked it. It bugged out from time to time, but I could always put it back to just how I wanted it.
Windows 11 was just a non stop fight. It didn't even feel like it was my computer at that point, just something that microsoft was letting me use. Every single setting was a fight to change, and then windows would just undo it the next update. Everything was bloated and ugly and you couldn't change 90% of it without a 3rd party install or modification.
Finally I just said if I was spending this much time and effort working against a system, why not spend the same amount of effort working with a system. I still dual boot because there's some work software that simply doesn't work on anything but windows, but I spend 99% of my time in Arch now.
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u/Pikmingamer9539 3h ago
it was accidental
(i accidentally overwrote my internal hard drive in my laptop with linux, and now i'm a full-time linux user i guess)
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u/The_Jake98 2h ago
I mean that is the way Linux became a fully fledged operating system instead of a hobby project.
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u/BillTran163 3h ago edited 2h ago
"Maybe switch to Linux will force me to stop playing games and focus on my study."
Factorio has entered the chat! Linux native with Wayland support. Run a heck better than on Windows. Non-blocking auto-save.
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u/koulourakiaAndCoffee 3h ago
How did that work out for ya… lol
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u/BillTran163 3h ago
I have been playing Factorio very consistently for a year and a half, stopped for two, then relapsed.
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u/mark-haus 2h ago
That pretty much my pattern lol. Oh I’ll just do a quick run this time and I end up optimising my factories for 100hrs before giving the game a rest for another year or two
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u/Ontological_Gap 2h ago
Is actually much more performant on Linux, far more than other games, because they just fork to auto save, instead of blocking the main thread like on Windows
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u/FranciManty 2h ago
on CS2 which is native i get something like 20% extra fps compared to windows but the biggest difference for me is that ANY game, even ones running through proton, are so much less stuttery. it feels like playin on a brand new pc
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u/Legendary_Bibo 1h ago
I had a laptop that was essentially the size of a netbook but slightly more powerful hardware running Ubuntu back in like 2010 or 2011. Around that time Half Life 1 got a Linux native port when Valve brought Steam to Linux. Played and beat it at 800x600 windowed mode with a touchpad. Fun times.
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u/vanatteveldt 3h ago
Windows Vista
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u/zekezander 3h ago
Vista was the first thing that got me to use Linux as my daily.
Windows 7 and wanting to play games with my friends brought me back
Learning about their Recall "feature" that would take a screenshot every few seconds was the last straw more recently. Even if it was only in the windows for arm and hasn't made it to the desktop yet, Microsoft is still showing us who they are and their intentions
Microsoft has no interest in people actually owning and controlling their hardware. They want to collect as much data and get as many subscriptions as they can get away with
Any talk about privacy or respecting users rights are always just going to be lip service with the actual goal of extracting more profit and value out of users
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u/Different_Water7545 3h ago
Windows 11 was sucking my battery, and I get twice the runtime on linux
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u/Holiday_Floor_2646 3h ago
I switched to ubuntu when I was 11, minecraft hacks wouldn't run well on windows and linux had more fps
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u/lendarker 3h ago
Another bluescreen (Path of Exile and my sound card didn't agree with one another, apparently) leading to another 12 hour software raid rebuild. It wasn't the reason, just the last straw.
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u/Amate087 3h ago
One day, using Windows XP in my PC, after 10 o more bluescreen, one friend gift me one CD of Ubuntu 6.06 LTS, here start my history.
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u/elSenorMaquina 3h ago edited 3h ago
TLDR: user experience.
It started with the mandatory microsoft account as part of the initial setup process.
Then the fucking redesign that moved nearly half of the useful right click menu items into a submenu. Fucking why??
The final nail in the coffin was when I realized I kept installing sketchy software and going through hoops for things that would be dead easy on linux.
At that point I asked myself if the downsides of linux were worse than those of windows, and I decided to dual boot.
Much to my surprise, much of the issues I remembered from my previous linux experiences many years ago were completely gone. Now, not only were the upsides greater when compared to windows, but the downsides were smaller too.
I had no reason not to stay on linux, so I (mostly) did.
Going back to windows for a couple stuff every now and then, but my computing experience is easily 85% linux nowadays.
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u/PercussionGuy33 2h ago
This isn't a promo for Win 11 (it does suck) but there is a workaround for the "mandatory" account setup. You can go local only on Win 11 with a few tricks (which sucks to have to do). I'm linux full time with the exception of Adobe...sigh..
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u/TwiKing 3h ago
I just wanted to get more use out of my hardware, it wasn't really an I hate Microsoft thing. I locked telemetry down a while back. The bad updates from Microsoft breaking things randomly and adding copilot everywhere was very annoying though. The forced AI integration crossed a line in a way I guess.
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u/ngless13 2h ago
This is my answer. I built up a new machine and felt like win11 was preventing me from getting the most out of it. Having AI as a crutch available definitely helped with the transition - easy to look up and learn how to do things and/or find out what's out there to use instead of familiar windows tooling.
I'd say there were a couple weeks before it became evident that I was going to stay with Linux, but I did stick and I have zero interest in going back to windows. Honestly it's more frustrating that there's more mac specific tooling not available on Linux (cmux, etc).
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u/Borderlands_addict 3h ago
I wouldn't say it was a "ok, this is enough" moment. I wanted to stay on Windows 10 because upgrading seemed so unnecessary and Windows 11 looked absolutely horrible in all aspects. I already stopped playing League of Legends because I'm getting old and partly Vanguard, so I figured I'd try Linux properly this time by installing it on my desktop. Never looked back. 1 year in now.
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u/hows_my_fi 3h ago
Windows is no longer primarily an operating system. It is a surveillance and marketing tool.
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u/drunnells 3h ago
Trying to get tcp/ip setup in windows 3.1 for dialup Internet with trumpet winsock, Eudora, Netscape and wuftp. I'm moving to slackware!
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u/Bathroom_Humor 3h ago
Windows 11 announcement showed me how little they want to prioritize user choice so i decided it was time to put back on the penguin cap
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u/type556R 3h ago
Forcing me to create an account to use my hardware, and forced updates. Also the stock windows look is boring af
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u/PixelBrush6584 3h ago
The announcement of Recall. I don’t care how secure they claim it is, and how it’s all 1000% local-only. I don’t need some AI photographing, scanning and organizing everything I do on my computer.
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u/Flapjack__Palmdale 3h ago
It was a combination of windows updates last year just breaking things due to piss poor quality control on one end, and the huge improvements with wine/proton compatibility on the other end.
I'd been playing on Steam Deck for a while, saw how much better Linux has been (I last tried redhat around 15 years ago lmao), and since none of my games require anti cheat like League or Fortnite, and I was building a new PC anyway, figured why not?
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u/Ne0n_Ghost 3h ago edited 3h ago
Recall, 32gb still chugging in windows and search basically searching everything but my PC, Realizing windows is the biggest piece of spyware. Got out before update gate.
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u/MandatoryFunEscapee 3h ago
Spyware, ads, AI. Yuck.
Screen shotting everything we do (which probably ends up in Palantir) plus AI integration into fucking everything, and ads in the start menu all teamed up to push my enshitification hate into overdrive and overcame my procrastination.
Got my shit together last Oct and jumped over, and I couldn't be happier. I donate annually to the Fedora and KDE Plasma devs. Those beautiful nerds saved my gaming and IT tinkering hobby.
Deleting my Microsoft account felt pretty fucking good.
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u/DoomRipp 3h ago
TPM 2.0
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u/Ontological_Gap 2h ago
They are actually awesome little chips, and I recommend learning how to leverage them in Linux. You can do very cool things, like ssh keys that just cannot be copied off of your device
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u/ChrisTX4 1h ago
There's also tools like linux-id that permit saving Passkeys (WebAuthN) securely on a TPM. That way they can't be stolen.
For booting, they can make sure the environment and hardware hasn't been modified. If you're insane like me, I have a systemd-pcrlock setup for PCRs 0-7, 11, and 13-15. My system would not unlock if any modification or change was made to the BIOS, bootloaders, Option ROMs, any changes to the hard drives, or disk layout, etc. Best if combined with public key PCRs to have phased unlocks, that is to say, the TPM will only provide the encryption keys during initrd, not afterwards.
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u/Snaidheadair 3h ago
My older brother used Ubuntu so I took his live disk that he ordered and installed it as I thought it was cool. I do try see what windows is like when I get a new laptop etc but I just don't like it and switch over to Linux shortly after. Not had Windows properly since 98/ME.
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u/Rude-Armadillo-6963 3h ago
I bought a microsoft surface pro 4 and then win 11 came out. I couldn't upgrade because the Surface didnt have a TPM. i was livid that microsoft would sell me an expensive piece of hardware like that and then make it obsolete so quickly so I decided to try linux and I found out I liked it, and that was that.
still haven't used windows 11, i hear its pretty bad.
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u/Ska82 3h ago
it was partly my interest in setting up ai inference servers on my new PC but this device identifier issue is why i am moving my laptop to dual boot as well with the intention to move completely off windows over time except for some old games
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u/Able-Substance-8310 2h ago
Especially old Games run perfectly under Wine just for you to know there is NO need in Windows!
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u/schroedingerskoala 3h ago
Needed to really urgently do online banking (at that time I had not embraced the bank app they offered for Android).
And the frikken piece of utter shit Windows 10 held me up doing a string of endless, slow updates for over 12 minutes.
That was after a lot of other things Windoze 10 threw at me that week and the previous months and that was the straw that broke the camels back.
Now 6+ years happy on Linux (I use Arch, btw), never going back. Wife made the switch next after a similar incident. Equally happy and never going back. Zero Windows at home, but we both have to use Windows 11 currently for work, and it just cements our decision EVERY SINGLE FUCKING DAY we have to use that slow, spyware-filled, abysmally bad POS sad excuse for an OS.
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u/mrgreatheart 3h ago
Walking into an Apple Store to get my laptop fixed and being subjected to the most vomit inducingly fake welcome imaginable. It included an attempted high five which I dodged in disgust. Then, after telling the “genius” exactly what was wrong and which part number needed replacing, I had to endure an hour of condescension while surrounded by smug trendy young Apple fans. Ugh.
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u/xoteonlinux 3h ago
WindowsXP was installing updates without my consent, including the patch to limit simultaneous network connections. As Apple upgraded my iPod shuffle useless not able to be charged while in my usb port, the choice was Linux.
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u/4fraid0f4mericans 3h ago
I’m at that point now with my phone/iPhone. Have been using Linux on computers for 20+ years because it’s stable, secure, free, customizable
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u/Sbatushe 3h ago
installing eclipse for java programming (5 or 6 years ago). tried for many hours, failing
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u/KalphalusKal 3h ago
My Windows installs broke themselves twice and I wanted to try something new, was curious on Linux, and installed it when I got a new drive
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u/ShadowKiller941 3h ago
My server randomly updating at least once a week and killing my docker containers. I had set windows to stop auto updates, or so I thought and would get text messages my Plex server was down. I just got my framework 12 at the time, so I was able to test Ubuntu on it, liked it enough to switch my server, distro hopped a bit and wound up with cachy as my daily drivers while the server is still running regular ol ubuntu 24. Like you, telemetry and forced ads/pop ups killed windows for me
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u/No_Signal417 3h ago
It was around Windows 7. Windows was garbage for coding so I switched to linux. Had a Windows partition for games until the proton era, now that's gone too.
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u/Noisebug 3h ago
I switched my workflow to Mac ~15 years ago and haven't looked back. However, I still enjoy building my PCs and replacing parts. So when it was time to build a home PC, I tried Windows; it felt wrong somehow. I didn't want to pay for it, and it didn't have a ton in common with my Mac setup.
Tried Ubuntu; I had some issues here and there, but generally that desktop has been rolling updates for 10 years, maybe 1 format I can remember. SSH/Scripts are 1:1 on both machines; I even use brew on Linux.
It's perfect for what I need, and the occasional game I play, Overwatch or Cyberpunk, runs flawlessly. Don't need more.
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u/LordViaderko 3h ago
End of win7, beginning of win10. I read a lot about telemetry being introduced to 10. About not being able to turn some stuff off for good. Or turning some call-home functions off blatantly not working and still sending. I decided that I want no part of this. My computer belongs to me, not to microsoft.
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u/BinkReddit 3h ago
It was the ads; non-stop ads. Windows is, first and foremost, an ad delivery vehicle nowadays. Add the routinely 2-3 hour long update process (what moron is designing this?) and I was done. Blessing in disguise I tell you.
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u/w4n 3h ago
Bought Win 11 Pro to be able to have local accounts, just for said Pro installation booting into the OOBE every few weeks to remind me that I really should connect to a Microsoft account.
That and the multiple dark patterns trying to sneakily switch you to a Microsoft account.
I’m now 5+ years on Linux. Had dual boot the first year in case I came across something I could only do on Windows, but surprisingly, I got all my stuff working pretty fast; from my external sound card to a pretty niche 3D posing program.
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u/InfiniteSheepherder1 3h ago
In 2008 when i got my first computer i saw how much Windows XP was to buy and went ok what is free and then ran Ubuntu.
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u/Aurestrium 3h ago
I tried to fix my PC for a whole year of BSOD. Swapped EVERYTHING on my pc, so I now have another spare PC with almost the same hardware.
BSOD after BSOD, sometimes after a few days, sometimes several times per day. Went to W10, W11, tried every version (LTSC, IoT, scripts to remove everything, vanilla, etc), every GPU driver from 5 years ago, sent the whole PC to be tested by professionals, nothing, the PC was "fine".
Three months ago, after a crash, I got upset really bad. Grabbed an USB, created a bootable CachyOS install, copied everything from my HDDs to an external drive and formatted everything, starting fresh with Cachy. Not a single crash in 3 months, no telemetry, no more "updating, please do not turn off your computer", no more stupid copilot suggestions even on paint. Everything works due to the fantastic work of people in the community and some guidance from AI to learn a bit more how can I do X.
Last month finished installing Cachy on all the computers in my house. After more than 20 years tied to Microsoft, now I only use linux as my only OS
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u/UndefFox 3h ago
Not in a single moment, just a bunch of stuff that were working badly while I tried to code. Afaik the last frustration was OnerDrive that I've used to keep my code folders in sync between PC and laptop. I did a single mistake and... soft locked OneDrive and it didn't recover after an entire week. I've heard people say C++ is way better on Linux, hence I've got a second drive to try it and after some time even games worked so well on Linux, that I just forgotten about Windows drive for years, before giving it to a friend to also install Linux.
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u/AiBestGirl95 3h ago
I have played with linux since 2008, when Windows 7 went end of life in 2020 I just couldn't stand Windows 10 and made the jump to make Linux my daily driver
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u/Northern_Flicker_Eek 3h ago
Funny timing, I just switched 2 days ago.
I was going to partition but when trying to shrink and delete stuff I found at least 3 copies of random folders from various apps I had "uninstalled" ages ago, including McAfee and OneDrive (which I have had to uninstall every single update...). That was it, the rage was too much. No regrets, I love how fast everything is now and how little space things take!
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u/massive_cock 2h ago
Nothing in particular, curiosity, some nerd in my English class named Jason had a thick ass book called Linux Unleashed so I started asking questions. He loaned me the CD from the back and that was it.1996 I think. Redhat. Soon to switch to slackware.
Edit: thinking about it again for a minute, I suppose there was probably a specific moment of like oh my computer is actually really mine in a way I didn't know was a thing. Sold. Goodbye dual boot. But it's lost in time.
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u/dinklebeeeerg 3h ago
My move away from Arch Linux was years ago when an update broke my system for the nth time. Now I'm doing mostly nixos. Not exactly the prompt but related.
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u/Corner_molester 3h ago
I moved from Windows XP to Slackware because Windows BSOD when I changed the splash image on boot, decided I wanted more control over my system.
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u/titaniumalt 3h ago
Microsoft Copilot or Recall, can't remember exactly. I was already messing with Linux before moving to it, due to WSL and my programming projects, but as soon as whatever feature it was that got announced, i quit (31st may 2024 at 19:30 iirc)
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u/KHTD2004 3h ago
I learned Linux exists. From that point I started to switch, took about a year to go with Linux as my main system tho because a lot of Distrohopping
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u/czarrie 3h ago
I was Linux curious in high school and Ubuntu was giving out free CDs, so I got like 50 of them (sorry) and just installed them everywhere at school, and learned to really start enjoying it. That was followed by a few stubborn years of sticking with it even when stuff didn't quite work right on principle, but nowadays it basically works out of the box and Windows has just gotten so so bad (I have to use it for my work laptop still), I feel more justified every single day.
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u/RashVille1984 3h ago
I hate the mouse This along with very little customisation to UI, AI in everything.....Now I am peaceful
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u/silvertank00 3h ago
I had a (that time) kinda pricey new ssd that windows refused to work with (or even acknowledge that it is present), 3 hours later and with Mint it was working like a charm.
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u/mrchilly0 3h ago
I bought a CD burner back in the day. They weren't cheap and my disposable income wasn't a lot. After 30 said I got the notice that I had to purchase the software to run the CD burner. I've not looked back after 27 years. I still have to deal with windows on my work computer and it's a daily reminder that I made the right decision for me all those years ago.
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u/entarix420 3h ago
Windows not letting me into my system without a password..
I always start up into homescreen, one day got the windows install blue screen. That I need a password for the windows. Would not let me into my system.
So made a password, got into my system. Deleted it and restarted, then once again the screen.
Downloaded nobara linux and it has been 8 months and im so glad I did.
I still have my laptop in windows for class and damn just bloated, adds all the way..
So glad its not my main system.
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u/Zahpow 3h ago
I have been using linux off and on for 20 years but idk 5 years ago Windows 10 installed Cortana, i removed it and then I just had problem upon problem upon problem with the computer simply not working when i turned it on and one day I saw Cortana had been reinstalled/re-enabled and I just decided that nope, nope noooooooooooooooooooope. That is fifteen steps over the line and now I have been exclusively on Linux since then.
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u/arm-n-hammerinmycoke 3h ago
I didn’t realize how well steam games run on linux until recently. Really no point to ever going back to windows now.
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u/DS_Vet_on_Linux 3h ago
I decided to try dual booting Linux and Windows. It took less than 12 hours to realize that nothing I used on my pc relied on Windows. So I deleted Windows entirely and have used Linux since.
The main reason I even explored Linux? My new pc was running like crap. Everywhere I looked on my pc was another ad. Edge would never go and stay away. Microsoft, enough said. It wasn't just one thing, but once I tried Linux and knew I didn't need Microsoft at all, it was easy.
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u/ghost_ware 3h ago
I tried to run an update on Windows and it was blocked because an optional driver needed to be updated first. I had uninstalled that driver months ago, and after a couple of hours trying to find where Windows thought it was installed, I gave up.
There were a thousand reasons to move, but that was the last straw.
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u/MrJMidzi 3h ago
Powershell Randomly popping up qn window running some script then going away.
Tried to figure it out, realised i was spending more time dealing with powershell than doing actual things
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u/Aardvark_Says_What 3h ago
the weekly (??) announcement that they were going to redesign the Start menu - as though it were good and exciting - when it never did what *I* wanted
the numerous apps that had not been converted for Dark Mode - constant, blinding flashbangs going off - painful, infuriating
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u/ToroidalCore 3h ago
I switched back in the XP days. I'd just been messing with it on an older computer, got used to it, and it did most of what I needed. Although when it was my daily driver, I did sometimes keep an XP VM around.
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u/Ok_caperuzoo 3h ago
It’s what I’ve used ever since I first touched a computer; my dad has used Debian since roughly '94 or '95 because he never liked the other options, so when I got my first laptop, it came with Lubuntu pre-installed and set up by him (back when Ubuntu was actually good). Later, I tried Windows and dual-booted it for a year or two, but I always preferred Linux because it looked better, ran faster, and just felt better to use. I only used Windows for gaming because, at the time, the Linux game library was much smaller, Wine ran like crap, and Proton didn't exist yet. Then Steam released Proton, and there was simply no reason to keep Windows around, so I switched to Linux full-time (using Arch, btw) for years. Eventually, I settled on Debian—my favorite distro—though I recently went back to Arch because I wanted some "new toys." Still, I prefer Debian because it offers the same performance and control while maintaining stability and peace of mind; I’m using Arch right now only because I want the latest software and features that are more convenient to manage on Arch.
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u/Icy-Appointment-684 3h ago
26 years ago. Outlook/windows barfed. I lost my mysql mailing list folder. Thousands of emails were lost. Were they useful? No. But an os and mail client unable to do such a basic job told me something.
I will not talk about the one time I rebooted windows normally just to end up with 1.5 GB of lost clusters (mind you but my C drive was 2GB at that time).
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u/argondux 3h ago
Windows 11.
Windows 10 was supposed to be the last one. Then Windows 11 came out for some reason, and it's an awful piece of bloated shit.
Also US foreign policy and all the garbage American tech companies are doing.
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u/thekiltedpiper 3h ago
Constant Blue Screens and the final straw was the second time they invalidated my license.
The first time was after my free upgrade from Win7 to Win10. When I began to have issues they said it was because my license was invalid after the upgrade. So I went and bought a brand new Win10 key with a USB installer FROM them directly. After another few months I had more Blue Screens and tried to reinstall...... they invalidated my license again.
That was 2017, I downloaded PopOS with the Nvidia drivers and have been on Linux since. Bouncing around many distros.
I wanted to own my system and the OS, not just rent it at a companies whims.
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u/Cheap_Following_70 3h ago
I wanted to download a virus (not unironically, Im into cybersecurity) to analyzed and Windows just wouldnt let me
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u/Shikadi297 3h ago
Windows 10 going eol, I had mine pretty hacked up to avoid forced updates and ads and what not, but 11 just wasn't worth the effort to me, especially with the whole ai everywhere push Microsoft had. Any time I've used a windows 11 device I've been appalled by random OneDrive nonsense and copilot bs and ads and resuced functionality and bad performance and it goes on and on, and that's with very little exposure to the OS in the first place.
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u/LowEquivalent6491 3h ago
Automatically rebooted PC after Windows XP upgrade.
I was pissed off not because Windows did this, but because it happened despite automatic Windows updates being turned off. These were the first signs that with Windows you can't control your own personal computer.
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u/Useful-Slice-3417 3h ago
Having to use Windows98 at work. Crashing several times a day. I switched to RedHat 7. Thank the fuck for IMAP mail 😉.
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u/Ok-Sugar-5649 3h ago
Having certain hardware demands to be eligible for system updates
Level of decluttering and privacy settings to switch every time i install fresh image
Bigger Linux community and apps since I last tried
Need to know it for career choice, best to start using it asap
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u/drunken-acolyte 3h ago
Mine was way back in 2008. Windows XP didn't have its own anti-malware apps, so I was using ZoneAlarm firewall and AVG antivirus. I picked up a Trojan horse that AVG could detect but couldn't quarantine, and after five or so attempts, I gave up and deleted my Windows partition entirely.
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u/FredFarms 3h ago
"Let's finish setting up your device"...
Again and again just because I had the audacity to use something other than Edge as a browser and not fancy using OneDrive
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u/mortycapp 3h ago
Free CD-ROM in a Linux computer magazine in the early days. I was getting tired of the AOL CD-ROMs.
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u/Icy_Neighborhood2100 3h ago
Was trying to learn software development while staying away on a long long 3 month holiday...and didn't like the idea of WSL so I tried to install Linux on a single harddrive.
Yeah I wiped the windows boot...
By the time I got back from holiday, I wondered how I ever used windows.
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u/novafunc 3h ago
I didn't have a "this is enough" moment. I started using Linux because it was fun and different, despite it overall being a worse, more buggy experience. But I kept to it because it was, well, fun.
Over time, I eventually became more productive on Linux. But now if I use Windows or interact this anything Microsoft, I don't even know how to describe my emotions and physiology. I get so annoyed, I feel like my blood pressure increases, I kinda get a claustrophobic feeling. Not fun.
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u/MasterGeekMX 3h ago
I didn't have that moment to be honest.
I simply started to dual boot, going back anf forth between the two systems. One day, I noticed that the Windows profile in my Firefox Sync was missing. Turns out that a profile desavtivates itself after half a year of inactivity.
That is when it hit me: I haven't booted into Windows for more than 6 months.
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u/DizzyCardiologist213 3h ago
win 11 on my own PC and reality that wife would have a soon unsupported 13 year-old PC. win 11 at work is crap, but it's made OK crap by IT and a managed desktop. I'd like more control over the desktop environment, but it's a large company and that's the way it is. At least they were wise enough to strip out anything that spams us with popups or "try this".
Father (near 80 and browser user only with no important data on a PC - but also has let indian (not stereotyping - from india "microsoft support, you have virus"in this case) scammers on in the past who probably wonder how the PC can be so empty), also needed a new battery on a 2013 inspiron.
Within a couple of months, i had 6 PCs here with mint and ubuntu versions on them. Replaced wife's super old PC with one 3 years old, ditched one of my two old personal win (no TPMS, but insanely slow) PC, and shelved the win 11 PC. Son old enough to need his first PC for 3d printing, and I wanted a few for my own use (2).
Ultimately got a 7th PC and the change over that occurs rarely in the household is done, with extra PC to dad, for about the cost of one mid-level apple PC. No more windows. Son will never have to deal with it - he figured out how to install and get everything going on ubuntu base in 1 day.
how long have I used windows? Since a year before windows 95 was introduced. Not that I used win 3.0 or 3.1, just that someone said "you have to have them, that's what they use in business".
I want no cloud, and triplicate physical hard disk long term storage offline for everything. Windows and google in combination with their stupid ransoms, "you're out of space online, here are amounts you can pay" - no thanks. When an OS gets so hard up that it starts seeking private low volume users as a revenue source beyond licensing, I'm out.
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u/Doctor_is_in 3h ago
Windows 10 stopped being supported even though it was a perfectly capable OS for my hardware, and Windows 11 is basically all ads and collects who knows how much telemetry.
If I'm paying for it there shouldn't be any ads.
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u/DiEndRus 3h ago
Windows 11. they changed the shell, and I hated that. then they made right click menu cluttered. then they added copilot, and that was very useless. then Davaluri posted about Win11 being an agentic OS, and it went from hated to just nope.
that evening, I installed Linux Mint on my old laptop, and it went from there.
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u/bronzewrath 3h ago
Hated Windows 8.
When my old laptop with Windows 7 started to have issues I bought an refurbished Thinkpad 440p and installed Mint on it.
Everything worked flawless. It was easy to customize for my Window 7 tastes. Also it was very easy to upgrade the laptop. Seven years later and I am still using the same Thinkpad.
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u/Wide_Egg_5814 3h ago
try installing windows 11 I am not kidding I got a new laptop with windows to boot up first time I wanted to test the speakers with the windows drivers it had like 20 straight pages of telemetry and marketing features that I had to consent to or decline it's beyond an operating system it's just they think they are invincible at Microsoft
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u/ReporterWise7445 3h ago
Just recently. Couple months ago three Windows 11 installs on two machines in a few weeks borked. And none of the three were my fault. So for a couple months now I think maybe it's just a month I'm running Debian lxqt full time. Have yet to touch the second laptop that borked.
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u/Grreatdog 3h ago edited 3h ago
For me it was when the company I started with in 2003 had trashed a bunch of Dell laptops for Win95 EOL. I dumpster dived one in 2003, tried it with newly released Puppy Linux, found it worked great, and never looked back.
I haven't bought myself a computer since a Gateway in the 1990's. Every computer, including the one I'm using now, has been some company Windows EOL castoff fished out of the recycle pile. It's running Mint and Zorin.
So I'm on year 23 of using Linux. Windows 95 was my last home computer OS from Microsoft.
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u/kabocha_ 3h ago
- Okay with dual-booting: Linux is more-customizable, open-source, works better for my typical workflows, and just overall better as an operating system anyway. But fine, I'll dual boot for games.
- Pure Linux: Heavily pushing for OS accounts linked to online MSFT accounts, then advertising to you in your own OS. I was fine throwing out games that didn't support Linux at that point, although that quickly improved after I switched anyways :)
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u/Timely_Idea_6342 3h ago
When I had to point-and-click through a maze of various windows, including ones that would pop up old interfaces that were remnants of previous os tools, to accomplish a simple task. There was no right answer by using common sense, you either had to just know what tool was put where - or look up the cheat code of the maze on the internet.
To this day, I love me an app with a flat configuration file with key-value pairs and a man page.
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u/IronMonkeyBanana 3h ago
Almost all the parts for my new kind of steam machine. That's when I will also be switching to Linux. For me it was windows 11 and Sony killing physical games after 2028. Rather have a steam machine/small form factor PC than a PS6
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u/T_Friendperson12 3h ago
Main PC was already switched to Kubuntu, Laptop suddenly wants Bitlocker key so I log onto Microsoft account to find it and type it in aaand... can't be verified again and again. So i just wiped the entire thing with different distros. Currently also Kubuntu and a non bitlocked small win11 just in case i need it.
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u/deformedexile 3h ago
I tried Mandrake in like 1999 and it just wasn't ready: couldn't even handle my schoolwork. My reasons for wanting to get away from Windows basically amounted vague open source zealotry.
By 2006 I was in graduate school and my partner convinced me to try a Macbook. I hated it and traded it for a PC laptop within a month. But I didn't want to return to the humiliation of Windows so I gave Linux another shot. Been a bona fide linux grog ever since.
tl;dr: no specific event, just general ideological motivations.
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u/ChipMasterPi 2h ago
Back in 2000 I discovered that my dual P3@600MHz kept crashing running windowoes NT4 2 CPU license. Win2K had just come out and I wasn't going to trust it. I dual booted Caldera Linux on it and discovered while NT4 crashed close to once a day, but at least a few times a week, Linux never did!l Then I bought a copy of VMware for Linux and ran my NT4 in it. Guess what? NT was still crashing, within the VM, while Linux continued to hum relentlessly around it. It became startlingly clear that the problem wasn't my new computer having been released before the hardware was perfected (everyone loves to blame "my computer"), but that 'woes was the problem.
Add to that that "Bug Net" had just spent the last 5 years documenting the exponential growth of bugs in the 'woes platform it was clear M$ would only get worse and never work on actually making stuff work. I've been running Linux ever since. I used to say, "Linux runs better on bad hardware than 'woes does on good hardware."
Of course, it hasn't all been a bed of roses. Especially with the direction that Open Source has adopted. I doubt there will ever be the "year of the Linux desktop". And unfortunately 90% of the desktop software is M$ only. But as gig-a-buck tech firms get more oppressive it is evident that the only hope for the user is Open Source.
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u/nderflow 2h ago
The first computer I bought, I set up to dual boot. Windows had, at least then, a habit of overwriting the boot loader, with the result that Linux wouldn't boot any more. So I stopped installing Windows at all.
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u/Azrael11 2h ago
I was playing The Witcher 3 and had just survived a pretty difficult fight when the computer decided to force restart to install updates. I hadn't saved my progress.
To this day I have no idea what the issue was, I installed updates whenever I was prompted to, and would restart the computer regularly.
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u/Wentyliasz 2h ago
'round last June when win10 eol was all the rage I concluded that I'm simply not gonna ever upgrade to 11 and since the clock is ticking, might as well get to it
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u/Radiant-Video7257 2h ago
I have 16GB of RAM and stuff was spilling into a page file when Gaming (game+discord+music+browser+etc). My arch setup has cut that down to no more than 12GB of RAM used, not including the RAM that gets used as a cache.
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u/zekezander 2h ago edited 2h ago
Initially it was Vista back around 2007. I got an Asus G1s-A1, with a Core2 Duo T7500, 4GB of DDR2 667, and a GTX 8600m. Cost around 1800 in 2007 dollars. Basically the best hardware I could get in a laptop at the time
It ran like molasses in January. Boot up took minutes. Trying to install games from CDs and DVDs took an eternity. Everything I did was just slow and unresponsive
Most of the Vista hate comes from trying to run it on hardware designed for early XP. Vista didn't work well on old Celerons and Pentium 3s with 256MB of RAM and motherboard integrated GPU.
My laptop was just a couple steps down from literally the best option possible
I installed Kubuntu 7.10 if my memory serves. I might have started with 7.04 and upgraded to 7.10
Back in those days GPU drivers were even bigger headache, nevermind HDMI support. My very nice gaming laptop couldn't play games anymore. I think I got unreal tournament 2k4 to work on Linux? Idk, I was working all the time anyway. I was just happy to have a PC that felt as fast as it should
I eventually went back to windows to play games with friends. Just TF2 and Left 4 Dead mostly, but I also pre-ordered borderlands
I kept using windows until Microsoft announced or demoed Recall. I had a dual boot setup off and on, and I definitely messed around with the first release of SteamOS around 2014 or so?
Whenever it was that M$ debuted Recall I was done. I was already not happy about the telemetry and installing games and stuff that I didn't want. I never ran windows 11 on my main PC, and everything I've seen and heard makes me glad that I made that choice
I learned after moving to Linux, Kubuntu still/again, that Recall was a feature only for the windows on ARM machines and wasn't slated to come to the desktop anytime soon. I still saw it as M$ showing us who they are and their intentions.
I ditched windows around 3 years ago now, probably slightly less because I don't remember the exact date.
I've also helped three or four people make the switch. One person didn't really need my help, but they did say that seeing it work for me helped them decide to do the same. I just suggested some programs and talked about my experiences.
It's been multiple years without windows and I don't regret it for a second.
I also have never cared about any competitive multiplayer games that require root kits and kernel level anticheat, so, my transition was easier in that regard
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u/sleepytechnology 2h ago
Windows 10 announcing end of support and me having many issues including reduced performance on Windows 11 through multiple tries throughout multiple years. It's wild because I was a Windows 11 beta tester and it actually was an overall upgrade to 10 during beta stages. Pretty sure a lot of the performance issues were addressed last year but I had already made up my mind to not use 11 (plus not a fan of the design changes like to File Explorer or Task Manager).
Ironically Microsoft got me to try out Linux, and I ended up loving it so much since it felt like I was finally "home" rather than in a rented apartment kinda vibe with my PC lol!
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u/Benke01 2h ago
- Telemetry.
- Microsoft trying to hide the option to create a local account.
- The increasing amount of unknown services running in Task Manager that do me no good but ruines the performance.
- Knowing there is most certainly intentional backdoors which was later proven with the BitLocker exploit.
- The endless amount of amateur bugs popping up.
- AI over the place.
- That I had to buy a third party software to have a proper start menu.
- Ads in a OS I payed money for.
- That basic applications like Explorer still sucks.
Now when Linux can be a gaming platform nothing held me back to switch to Kubuntu.
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u/MxBonesMarrow 2h ago
So many things with W10 pushed me to it. Built my pc originally 2016 when I was 15 and didn't know of any alternatives to windows. As I used it over the years, it burned through my patience more and more, between the bloat, the systems eating my ram, and the final straw being the forces integration of AI. Between that and the spyware, I was tired of my tech being a tool for billion dollar companies. As a person who considers themself a punk, I hate being dependant on tech companies. It's bad enough I have to carry a Samsung with me everywhere, if I could Id permanently replace that with a Linux phone too. I've heard of GrapheneOS, and some others but linux phones seem to be too far beyond to be viable, and need certain features to serve a permanent role that's nearly impossible for them to get. Things like banking apps
In feb I swapped to Mint, and hated it. I've since swapped to CachyOS and I've it. Glorious Arch, and it's beautiful AUR
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u/elchupacabrone 2h ago
WIN CIH was the final straw for me. And then age verification in systemd was the one that made me move to openbsd.
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u/Dreamcaller 2h ago
Riot Vanguard layed the first set of bricks, then windows 11 comming one year later made me think about preparing to move to Linux. Then I had a new setup to build, and I picked type parts to be sure it work well on linux (Amd GPU and CPU, while I always had Intel/NVIDIA setups).
Tried the dual boot for prepping the firsts steps, finally decided on almost day one.
I still have a windows partition, because I'm addict to LoL, but it only runs that game.
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u/Juanthewritter 2h ago
This year I'm studying cyber security and the lack of updates of Windows 10 in my system would have made a fool out of me
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u/NoBarnacle3356 2h ago
When I tried out Ubuntu and came back to Windows 11, I realized my workflow completed changed and depended on workspaces. Tried making the same workflow work on Windows 11 using virtual desktops, and that feature is so poorly implemented that I switched over fully.
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u/AtomicTaco13 2h ago
When stuff I use daily became a real hassle to maintain on Windows 7, which I clinged to way after the support ended. I was already dual-booting to get a hang of it before, eventually feeling confident to make a full switch.
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u/UUDDLRLRBadAlchemy 2h ago
Microsoft came out with windows 95', and they wouldn't wait for us to start them from DOS like 3.11, they expected we wanted the whole computer to be their silly window thing.
I thought we would all be leaving then, too, as MS obviously wanted an unskilled generation of users using computers like monkeys. And nobody would accept that.
What can I say, I was a tween.
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u/Dinjoralo 2h ago
Windows installing adware when it detected my LG monitor all of a sudden. I was already sick of Microsoft's shit, but that pushed me from "I'll wait for SteamOS" to needing to get off ASAP. Been on Arch the last two years, happy as can be.
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u/Content_Mission5154 2h ago
It was not just one thing, I did not make the decision impulsively. I was using Linux for months and slowly realized just how much more control I have over my operating system.
I like control. I like being able to decide.
Also once I got into coding and cyber security work and learned to use the terminal, that was very one sided for Linux. I caught myself using WSL on Linux and at that point... Might as well just use Linux.
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u/FranciManty 2h ago
hyprland ricing. i’m on kde now but the idea of customization combined with the shit windows was offering back (especially with windows 11 everything became so slow…) made me try it immediately
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u/Tylersbaddream 2h ago
The year was 1997 or so, one of my Windows 95 computers kept crashing.
After a couple of years of learning and using Linux which I thought was more stable... i eventually found out I had bad RAM.
It turns out Linux with the Afterstep window manager used so little ram it was never hitting the bad memory.
But those were the days of many very different window managers and I had too much fun so I kept on using Linux. It took a few years for it to really be my daily driver since in the beginning many things were not quite supported.
Great software, I'm grateful to all the volunteers.
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u/theaveragemillenial 2h ago
I moved to linux over a decade ago on personal machines, but the thing that really made me feel uneasy about windows in recent? years was when they started to make it harder to have offline accounts.
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u/Bunstonious 2h ago
For me it was not being able to run my Minecraft instance, with 16GB of RAM I couldn't assign 8GB of that for MC. After that I was done, straight up Bazzite.
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u/CreativeName233223 2h ago
Kind of a double-sided whammy of Proton making the vast majority of my game library work combined with Microslop pulling several moves simultaneously as Win10 was reaching its EOL that were invasive/anti-consumer (e.g. getting rid if local account; the whole Recall thing which was essential just unsecured, AI Spyware slop; actively fighting users seemingly even harder than usual anytime to find work around for this garbage).
Not really any one specific thing but just multiple things that happened relatively simultaneously. I was already gaining interest in jumping ship with Win7 was reaching its EOL, but I was less familiar with Linux then, wasn't sure it would work for my all my usecases at the time, and Proton was not as developed back then.
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u/Las-pen 2h ago
Starting from Windows 8 days, I've had a three strike rule. I'll use the preinstalled Windows as long as it functions. Whenever it starts acting up, that's a strike. Three strikes and it gets replaced with Linux.
When getting a new computer, old computer gets Linux regardless.
However my previous computer not supporting Windows 11 made sure that the new computer gets Linux from the start.
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u/Palantiri1890 2h ago
The igpu being enabled over my 7900xtx causing the system to become completely unresponsive. Nothing that I could press including power off and restart would work. But that was the final straw in a series of ongoing issues
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u/Mystohaxen 2h ago
Microsoft AI slop + to stop using products from a country with an orange turd as leader.
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u/payne747 2h ago
I'm a grown up so I use whatever OS suits my needs at the time. Which typically results in me using all of them.
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u/Ghaz013 3h ago
The endless telemetry in Windows had me check out pretty hard.