Hey everyone,
I am exploring switching over to Linux but I would like to know why people switch. I have Windows 11 rn.
I dont do much code but will be doing some for school. I work remote and go to school remote. My career is not TOO technical.
What benefits caused you to switch over and what surprised you when you made the switch?
Thank you all in advanced.
Wanted a new adventure to go on and a chance of pace from Windows 10 at the time. Benefits were a less bloated system and more customizability and a way to strengthen my command line skills. I was surprised by how light weight and overall polished the experience was.
I switch to Kubuntu in 2020 because Microsoft discontinued Windows 7. Then I switch to Debian to learn more about how Linux work, and after that I moved to Siduction to get the up-to-date packages. I still rice KDE to look like Windows 7 to this day :P
Download a linux distro iso file
Burn iso to usb using rufus
Restart computer with usb plugged in
Get into bios by pressing your system’s specified key to get into bios while booting
Go to the boot settings
Select your usb
Linux should pop up after a minute with install menu
If you configure the settings right, you can have a dual boot setup with both windows and linux
After linux is installed you no longer need the usb
I was learning OpenGL at the time and I was frustrated that I could not play a game using OpenGL (When I use a technologie in programming, I love using software that use it) because none of the games in my library supported it. So I discovered Ubuntu 16.04 and I immediatly loved it. I also reinstalled it seven times because every time I broke it and I didn’t know how to fix it.
What realy chocked me at the time is how easy it is to install C++ dependencies for your project. You just use the package manager and boom, you link it to your project and your done and if for whatever reason the package is not available in your package manager, you can build it manually very easely.
However, there where some downside too. VSCode didn’t exists at the time (are I didn’t ear of it) and the only proper IDE was kdevelop which I never liked. Hopefolly, when VSCode came it was realy cool, but not as cool as when I discovered NeoVim. The gaming too was bad, Proton didn’t exist, Wine was not as advanced as today and DXVK was not a thing yet. You could only play games that where 5+ years old and only at 15/20 fps with a lot of glitches.
Linux nowoday serve all my needs, I only need to start Windows when I deploy and test some program to it or when I play a game that is not well supported on Linux and I only do it in a VM with single GPU Passthrough.
Windows 95 was dreadful.
Yes I am old and my knees do hurt, thank you.
Windows 10 sounded like shit, and Windows 7 stopped being supported.
I had some experience with Linux, most things seemed to work and for the rest I decided that it wasn’t worth the hassle of dealing with Microsoft.
For me it was a couple reasons:
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my brother installed Ubuntu 12.04 on my desktop for me when I was in high school, and I was enamored with the different desktop layout. It got me started on the journey.
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maintaining it is much easier than windows. Running one command/script to update a system is much faster than heading to the right window or menu and hoping Microsoft delivers you an update. Plus if it breaks it’s easier IMO to troubleshoot and fix.
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I kept having troubles with Windows 11 and I was also fed up with all the Microsoft crap and how they push they’re Cortana, Edge or other bullshit.
Switching has been amazing. Yes, also confusng at first, but you’ll learn a lot and rn I’m happier than ever with my machine.
I’m running Fedora Workstation.
My brother pushed some buttons in Windows lockscreen, which caused assistance settings to never go away again (I still don’t know how I should’ve fixed it), that was the final annoyance with Windows and I switched to Linux on my laptop. On my PC I switched once I didn’t need Windows for work (remote desktop) anymore.
Was bored one day and wanted something to do
Work. Software development is so much nicer on Linux and I grew to really enjoy the power and flexibility of the terminal. I started with dual boot on my PC and eventually deleted my Windows partition and went full Linux.
Many things have substantially improved significantly in the last 10 or so years such as gaming, drivers and overall desktop user experience to the point where I dread trying to use a Windows machine. Plus I’m pretty comfy now and like that I have full control over my machine when I use Linux vs whatever spyware MS is trying to shove down people’s throats.
Windows has just become worse and worse over the years. I was building a new PC and realized I wasn’t going to give MS my money for a terrible OS when Linux was free.
I only used Windows because I wanted to play video games. My family computer has always been an Ubuntu machine. Since starting university I played less games and I heard that compatibility has gotten much better since the last time I tried to play video games. I decided to Dualboot for a while and decided to fully switch after using the mess that windows 11 was when it was newly released
I don’t have the most overpowered PC. I just have a small little desktop (Minisforum UM700) and Linux runs a whole lot better on it. My work also was giving out some old laptops that they were retiring (still better devices than my laptop which was a Lenovo T420) but they came without an operating system. I’ve always enjoyed using Linux but never made the full change because I would need MS Office and switching from Excel to LibreOffice Calc was just annoying. Since I didn’t need to do work on my personal PCs anymore, I made the switch and I love it. Games run better for me.
I currently use Linux Mint but I might switch to just plain Debian (or Linux Mint Debian Edition once they release LMDE6 which will be based off Debian Bookwork).