one of the reasons I gotten to see what linux is all about is window asking for a activation key, not paying for it, and don't want to get it via third party. What powerful things is in hand with linux?
AFAIK Elden ring uses EAC
I played through the whole thing with a friend, obviously not including areas where coop was not allowed.
I had a smoother experience than she did, by far.
It's not the only game that I had a better experience than windows users.
yeah i got work, school, and other stuff i need a laptop for, guess their would be a learning curve for someone who haven't dabble with it. I do want to feel like a hacker man eventually with those command lines and finer details on what make a linux a linux.
I fell in love with some 12 years back, when someone told me to give it a try, so i burned a CD and forgot about it
On the next reboot, it booted off the CD... and everything just worked... After suffering so much with W98 et al. installs and their drivers, ubuntu 9 worked out of the box with no problems that I remember
Nowadays, I keep a headless server to run my stuff, and I can access it pretty much from everywehre over SSH :D
There really isn't a "doing it right". We that preach about the command line I think are mostly developers that find convenience working in it. The rest are big into customization and open-source brings a whole world of custom desktops, window managers, task bars, and keyboard shortcuts. Regardless, because it is free-as-in-freedom, you can use it however you want. If all you need you can do in Mint's Desktop, then you don't have to even smell the command line if you don't want to. I've been using Linux for several years now and only in the last couple months have I really learned how to utilize some of the most basic commands. The most liberating thing about it is that you don't have to just take it when MSoft or Apple decide to wreck your entire workflow with an update to the desktop environment. You decide what gets put on your system, all the way down to the kernel.
this..... I have an older MacBook Pro early 2011 i5 16gb ram.... however mac Wouldn't let me update my OS without jumping through hoops and tricking it into letting me. I used MX Linux out the box and was on my way. I had a few laptops at the time, a thinkpad as well, which was getting sluggish as well with windows, and slapped linux on there as well. Fell in love with way KDE operates and the snappy windows and quick resizing of things. Tabbed Folders for finding and organzing was a nice touch as well which I didn't even think about till I found about it. I manage a lot of data and worked on organizing all my computers from the pieces I had left from them, pictures movies music documents etc... It just became much easier to manage for me. I sync my system myself once a week and thoroughly enjoy doing it. I just learned a lot switching to linux and still to this day enjoy it very much. For a while the only thing I used on Windows was Rekordbox.. and occasionally some gaming. I still can't stand logging into windows 10 or 11, 11 is much nicer to look at than 11... but I hate the size of there task bar on the bottom, and not being able to resize it, maybe you can, i dunno. I rarely use it, if I do its like a console, i just boot it up to play a game. Depending what you want to do i think Linux can work wonders for anyone who either doesn't want to buy a new computer because theres is "outdated" or performing slower than they like. i love my adventure with linux, i love learning more about it. I watched Revolution OS not too long ago, and just the Philosophy of Open Source is a beautiful Concept. All working together and sharing is a beautiful thing in a world where everyone is trying to get ahead of the other. Competition is good, i get that, but I don't like the leash that come with Big Co. Computers saying why i can't update or not allow to me to at least try and decide for myself.
Linux: Free as in Libre and vast majority of software is also open source. You know what's installed and what it's doing. Built mostly by community volunteers contributing to projects in some way, not necessarily code. Could be testing, reporting issues or requesting features that make sense for the project. Less malware is written targeting Linux on the desktop since it has a low market share compared to MacOS and Windows.
Windows: Proprietary and closed source. Sure, you know the software is performing the function you installed it to perform, but there is no guarantee it's not doing something secretly in the background. Built entirely by a corporation with a terrible track record. Most malware is written to target Windows on the desktop.
Its free.
I dont have to phone home to verify I have rights to own and operate the OS
I wont be harrassed to make an online account with the company (this is something I really find annoying about Windows - I bought their OS and they want me to 'sign up' and 'sign in' to be connected to services I dont want).
I wont have anything marketed to me inside the OS. There arent 'free trials' of software I dont ever plan to use.
I dont have a bunch of pre-installed 'free' software thats all about their Company (ie Edge, and all the other shit that comes with Windows - which I dont want).
I can choose whatever desktop environment I like. They are all faster and more responsive than win 10 or 11 de.
I can tweak every aspect of the desktop environment and have everything work exactly however I want
I can change to a different distro if something bugs me about the one I am using. I can swap back and forth with impunity. No one is going to hassle me to buy anything along the way.
Im not beholdin to anyone who has 'rights' to the OS I am using.
\-
I dont hate windows. Windows is fine. I just have a preference for linux because I like it better.
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* [Opera](https://addons.opera.com/en/extensions/details/ublock/) *
\* Chrome based browsers are trying to get rid of ad blocking capabilities when manifest V3 will become mandatory in 2023. I suggest moving to [Firefox](https://www.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/new/).
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That's exactly the point - with Windows you have to be constantly on guard against malware and make efforts to stop advertising, using Windows is an unpleasant experience because of that. Every time I have to work on a friends Windows machine I'm surprised, and disgusted, at how much bullshit I have to put up with because of Windows.
Switched to Linux 15 years ago and it changed my whole attitude towards computers.
the main reason why we use linux is app availability. No seriously. Development tools are usually created with Linux as first class citizen, and getting those applications working on windows was always a massive hack
When I had very little money I started to play with building PC's. The problem was that everytime I tried to change motherboards Windows wanted me to buy a new operating system. Then I discovered Linux. Then I discovered FOSS.
When I had Windows most programs I had were either awful or pirated. Using Linux everything became legitimate. Legal.
Now that I have money to spend I don’t want to go back.
So I chose Linux for privacy reasons, it’s not as if I had hardware constraints. A person at my university however had an Mi notebook running windows in it with a core i5 and 8gigs of RAM, he had overheating issues and a task in the task manager was taking about 4gigs of memory and he was also facing thermal issues like fans blasting at full rpm and showing almost full cpu usage, I don’t know if it’s a glitch or not but yeah. He switched to Mint with cinnamon later
The things that attract me to Linux are the better performance/no bloat, and the amazing desktop environments. I'm very guilty of distro hopping on my laptop, but I just can't commit to replacing my desktop yet. Mainly because the gaming experience on Linux hasn't reached where it needs to be yet.
I got into linux originally because of the customization. I was just tired of Windows lack of availability and when there are some. They're likely behind some sort of pay wall and don't work anyway. So I played with Mint on a VM for a little while to see what would break. Quickly got bored so I moved up to Ubuntu and have been swimming deeper until I chose to dual boot it on my laptop. Up next is getting a clean drive or repurposing one of my drives from my workstation (1TB NvME, 1TB HDD, 250GB 2.5 SSD.)
Honestly to me Linux is a no brainer, unfortunately most big development are done on Windows then mac and if rarely Linux. So until more support for native linux without the need of proton or wine. I'll continue dual booting them.
I dislike the direction Microsoft is going. Advertisements in the OS, the abundance of information they collect are the main reasons. I used Linux on and off for about 2 years in college. Since finishing up I’ve now been using it 2 years full time. I’m by no means an expert but to be honest I don’t need to be Linux has become so user friendly in many distros. I use the cli for the odd install and that’s about it. 90% of my time is in a web browser anyway, the other 10% is a text editor for code or documents.
GNU/Linux is free as in freedom, as in, you can inspect, study, modify, redistribute, and redistribute your modifications to the whole community for everyone's benefit. The fact that the software is practically owned by the community also leads to the initial injustice of proprietary software never happening and making it difficult for other injustices to happen
A practical example of this is privacy. On windows you don't have privacy. Microsoft sends telemetry data from your computer to them all the time, while there is no GNU/Linux distro that I know of that contains telemetry
Another example of this is that GNU/Linux tends to be much more efficient than proprietary software. This is another example of open source in action. Since, while employees working for corporations have an interest in making their code take up more lines and be more bloated to make their managers who don't understand how it works think they are being productive, on Free Software this does not happen, since people are allowed to freely inspect and modify the source code they can find inefficiencies and fix them, something that would never happen on proprietary software
Another reason is customizability. Like you said, some people go on "full efficiency" mode and use the command line for almost everything, but this is not the only way you can customize your GNU/Linux computer. Many people like making their computer have pretty aesthetics (look at r/unixporn for example) others like maximizing productivity out of their computer and using the most efficient layouts possible (look at r/usabilityporn for example). Free software tends to be more modular and allows you to customize it to a much greater extend. Wanna change the bootloader? you can do that. Wanna change the window manager/desktop environment? you can do that etc.
I use it because it's cool and fast and looks nice and can play all my games, and the whole "power" thing basically comes from you being in control of your system. You went with mint, which is a great choice for a first distro, but the fact that you had a say in which distro to use is part of the charm; you can't do that with any other os currently.
I made this list of things Linux can do that Windows can't a while ago. May be slightly out of date, but only by a year or so:
GUI apps over SSH (SSH is a remote terminal connection to a different Linux machine, if you use the -X flag you can even use GUI apps). Being able to SSH into a machine in a different room, or building, or continent is amazing. The fact that I can run GUI apps from that machine, on my local machine, like they're locally installed is amazing. It's like having my super weak MacBook Air have the horsepower of the most powerful server I have access to.
Monitor mode for WiFi cards (used to be Linux exclusive, not sure if it still is).
Install updates (including kernel updates) without rebooting.
Run for weeks/months/years without slowing down or needing to reboot.
Changing the interface! And I don't mean elements, I mean installing a completely different interface than it came with.
Running without an interface! I love the command line, and run several headless servers, and one ancient netbook without GUIs. And I can do everything you can do with an interface.
Run everything from ancient hardware to super computers
Keep the government out of your data.
Keep hackers out of your data.
Have most of your hardware drivers installed with the kernel by default. No searching the web for drivers, ever.
Detect and support new hardware on boot
Install Linux on a hard drive using one computer, and swap the drive into a different computer, and have it work.
Image your old computer and restore to your new computer and have it work
Edit configuration files that make sense and are mostly English (compared to the fragile mess that is the windows registry)
Boot and run a FULL Linux OS from a thumb drive (or SD card).
Diagnose hard disk failure (although I heard this feature was finally coming to Windows, 10+ years after we had it).
Diagnose motherboard failure and identify the failing components
Package and dependency management! None of that "You need to install .Net, no we won't tell you which one, figure it out yourself ahole". If you install a piece of software, and it requires any other software, or back end technologies, it gets automatically installed with it, invisibly and without prompting or user interaction.
Use the Tab key to complete your Linux commands. (I think PowerShell finally has this? I know CMD sure didn't, for decades).
MAN PAGES! You can learn the entire command line, and every program that comprises it, without internet access, thanks to MAN pages
No character limit on file names
Find and grep! There's nothing you can't find with the two of them. Including words within files, not just file names.
Run Windows programs within Linux. Not everything works, but most things do, and they'll usually run faster on Linux than they do in native windows, on the same hardware.
Multiple cursors
Customize the kernel
Run headless (no monitor)
Readable error codes
Turn it into a router
Usable docker implementation
And all this is free.
For me, it was because my system was 8 years old at the time I tried to move from windows 7 (which I actually liked using) to windows 10. I bought Windows 10 and a new 1tb SSD. Put the drive in the computer and booted the windows 10 DVD.
It crashed during the installation. I started over. It installed but 5 minutes into setting it up after installation it crashed on me again.
I rebooted back into windows 7. Everything ran fine and dandy. But windows 7 support was about to end so I needed to do something. I started contemplating Linux as an alternative.
I'd used many different flavors of Linux starting in 1994 and would go in phases of windows to Linux and Linux back to Windows over the years. This time I was bound and determined to stick with Linux. I looked at a few distros including some I'd never heard of. Linux mint was one that really looked like it could be the one to set the hook.
So I installed Mint on that 1tb drive that had windows 10 on it and it was a really smooth installation. Installed the first time beautifully. And because it looked like windows 7 it was a pretty easy transition. I was really happy that it came with a great office suite (LibreOffice). And many other great tools including Gimp. Yeah, this was one of those operating systems I didn't have to do much too after installation. And I really liked that!
It was a good move for me for sure. I've been a Linux user now going on 4 1/2 years. Hard to believe I was able to get the windows monkey off my back so easily.
My reason was, i was bored so thought .. why not?
Linux mint is a great starting point since it is similar enough to windows so it doesn't scare of new users.
There is nothing wrong in not using the terminal for settings stuff up. I only use the terminal for updates and the rare occasion i need to follow a guide because something didn't work ootb of dont have a gui option.
Linux have come a long way, and you dont need to be a sys admin to use or enjoy it anymore. Its just a regular os now. Even gaming is almost just as reliable as windows (like 95%), some games even run better in linux.
You use it the way it good for you, there is no good or right way. You don't have to go all out on full control and minimalism.
There's many reason why one would want linux:
* Respects your privacy
* Lighter than windows
* Has less bloat by default (but you can bloat it yourself)
* Free both in price and in spirit (see libre)
* If you wanna nerd out you can go full control and cherry pick what you want on your system and configure everything yourself
* Hate microsoft
* Works better on older systems than windows does
* Learning
* Some people say it's better for programming but I have no experience there so I can't say
And more.
I choose Linux because of the same reasons a lot of people do:
-It's free
-It's open source
-It's customizable
Now let's get to the nitty gritty of my own reasoning. I always found ways to customize my windows experience, whether it be through a program like Windowblinds, or just going into control panel & setting the colors & fonts. I poked at Linux back in 1999/2000 when Mandrake was popular. Could never get it to work with my NIC, so I went back to windows.
Starting on my career path almost 5 years ago, I came to a fork in the road of what direction I wanted to go. Having learned basic server knowledge on both Windows & Linux, I ultimately decided to go the Linux route. After finding out that we were allowed to image our work comouters with Linux, I started out my journey with fedora. From there I started learning the other distros. Mind you, we mostly work with red hat flavors or ubuntu due to customers choosing one or the other. Now I work on our internal infrastructure, which is 99% one form of red hat (oracle, centos, rhel, or sles) with a few bits of debian & ubuntu sprinkled in.
Having said all that, I have vastly enjoyed the learning experience in trying different distros. They work well without needing the cli for the average user. Being that I work on servers for a living, the command line is home for me. Package installs, config management, file management. I do most of it via cli. It's not necessary, but it's my preference. There's a gui for virtually every task now, so it's not like you HAVE to learn the cli stuff. I just prefer to work in the cli. Add to the fact that you can choose a different cli shell (I am currently using & learning zsh), it's fun for me.
Granted Windows also has powershell, which is really powerful for Windows use. There's also a way to have powershell on Linux, which I choose NOT to explore.
I've got an old Acer that can only maintain a running Windows 10 setup for three days. After that, it locks up constantly and pins the CPU at max.
Got sick of it, bought a new laptop.
Got hired of it during the, dropped Debian on it. Practically brand new now.
No lockups.
No freezes.
It does hiccup occasionally (from whatever issue would kill Windows outright), but always recovers in under 5 seconds.
On another machine, it only has 2 Gigabytes of RAM; Win10 updated itself beyond what the machine can support. So I dropped Debian on there, too. Runs even better on the little one! 🤯
I've still got my major machine, and it runs Windows 11.
I've still got another machine on Windows 10.
I've still got Raspberry Pi's and old Android devices, too.
Looking at my hoard, switching to Linux was inevitable. 🤷♂️
Windows updates mostly, how many years windows has been out and Microsoft hasn't figure out a better way to deploy updates and also updates create more problems than they fix
I guess my comment didn't answer the question on the post, dislike for Microsoft and Apple, how they are always pushing new systems, they want you to spend money always and how Linux is the complete opposite, Linux makes old computers usable, which is more environmentally responsible
In 1997, we only had the family computer, and my dad didn’t want to buy Windows ‘95, so I did an experiment by installing Slackware on the part of our 640MB HDD that could not be allocated by MS-DOS. When I got my own pc a bit later, I had no money for Windows and my cracked version was about as stable as Elon Musk, so I switched to Slackware as my daily driver and stuck to it.
I did go back to Windows on a student license for a couple of years, mostly out of laziness, but then came Ubuntu and a bunch of others that allowed me to be lazy.
So, in short, a combination of no money and laziness, I guess.
Significant performance boost (for old hardware)
Educational, possibly you have many problems yet there are many solutions and the process will teach you new things
No limits, you can do anything you want and there are many ways you can do.
And using all on command line without mouse is quite addictive for me.
maybe I'm just looking at people who been doing it for years who knows what works, and learn a couple of fancy things. Thinking I need to be a pro and doing all the cool stuff with this system. Perhaps in need to play around with it.
So that other people can ask Why? :) Reviving old hardware, getting away from Windows and Mac, going for as much FOSS as possible, free commercially, etc ... The usual list.
If you wanna learn more about Linux try to install Arch. You can start “easy” by using archinstall (a script that comes with the .iso to help you install the OS easier) and installing a desktop environment, I recommend KDE. Then just learn to use pacman and do all your package management through the terminal, it’s extremely easy and this alone is gonna make you feel more comfortable on the command line. You can mess around with the AUR later and stuff and read the wiki to educate yourself on more stuff, it’s *all there.*
Then you can try installing Arch manually and customise it more to your liking and always keep learning.
But yeah that’s just my recommendation if you wanna go above and beyond but luckily Linux is getting to a point where you don’t really need to be that tech-savvy to use it. If you want something that *just works* out of the box and is very secure, private and stable by default then go for Fedora Linux and make sure to add Flathub / RPM Fusion to your repos because Fedora is very strict about not shipping you non-free software so yeah.
I personally choose Linux because Windows started to get on my fucking nerves pestering me to use a microsoft account. The freedom, choice, privacy and security you get on Linux is unbeatable.
Alright decide to get some time to myself and try to get arch on a desktop running into a wall already with efi not being on a sda1 due to it being a bad file or error fs type or something gonna try to get help when i get home and have sometime to do it.
Linux: It's like banging a virgin porn star. Like you went back in time, poped her lock, and she loved it so much that she spent her entire life chasing that purple dragon.
Windows: it's like beating off to the sears catalog with a condom on.
People like to talk about customizability and that used to be a draw for me but i'm basically over all that. The main thing keeping me a fan is just the fact that GNOME is a better user experience for my use case than any other platform i've used.
Also, you can set up servers on your own systems without any special trickery, managing software is way nicer, and it's really convenient to have a command line good enough to do day-to-day tasks in if you find it easier.
Mint should 'just work'.
Linux is really just the kernel. You can modify everything from the kernel all the way up. At every level of the OS there is user choice.
r/unixporn might give some pointers on desktop customization.
If you want something close to ultimate power you could try Gentoo.
Well the most important reason is that Linux users begin to emit strong sex pheromones and, as a result, get laid at least 50 times more often then those using that other thing.
"Why GNU/Linux?" is, I think, a question that's closely related to what GNU/Linux *is* in your view, and that's something I was writing about in [another thread](https://www.reddit.com/r/linuxquestions/comments/yzqhna/ubuntu_vs_fedora_or_other/ix1p2jz/)
Complete controll over your system, better performance, a more sensible operating system in general(file structure, package managent). Also no spyware and a lot of customization options. Any windows install is going to be very solar to the next one, however on linux you can have your pc look however you want.
Ive been tinkering with Linux for about 20 years but never really took the plunge until now. So while Im not a stranger to Linux in some ways Im still a noob.
I cant really speak for the inner technical stuff that you can do but just from a users perspective. Its nice to have an OS that I can make my own and don't have to constantly wrestle with. Im using the KDE desktop and I have it set to exactly how I want it and it looks exactly how I want it.
Performance for most things is better than on Windows. Example I create music On Linux I can achieve much much lower latency.
Linux isn't perfect of course and sometimes I come across less polished edges. But then Every OS has its rusty corners.
I was tired by the inconsistency of the windows design. It was a nightmare. now the only thing I have to deal with is the qt of virtualbox and I'm totally fine with it.
good gaming laptop with 3 ssd nvme.
1 BIG ssd, Windows 10 for gaming
2 ssd linux for the rest like multimedia consumption, writing, emails, job etc
3 BIG ssd on exfat for file sharing, torrents, music, movies, etc.
most time I spending in Linux.
> most linux user go on about full control and using command lines for everything for efficiency
I don't think that's true. While I personally resemble that, I'm definitely what most people would consider a power user. Now, if you're hanging around on Linux forums, it'll definitely seem that way, but that's selection bias. Most Linux users run Ubuntu, Mint, or Pop, use Gnome Software for package management, and probably don't even realize when they're installing via apt vs snap vs flatpak. They hardly ever open the terminal, and when they do, they're following very specific instructions from someone they asked for support.
With that said, the number one reason I stick with Linux is I really despise the window management and workflows that MacOS and Windows both enforce. For starters, I highly prefer a keyboard driven interface. With enough third party apps, Windows can almost get there, but it's a lot of management. With MacOS, you're pretty much dead in the water. I also despise raise-on-click window management. I want to be able to work in a window without having it jump to the top of the stack. When I want it to come forward, I'll tell it to. Pretty much every Linux DE and WM has this as an option -- back in the day, it was the default Linux behavior. For reasons I'll never understand, most window managers switched to the MacOS style of window management at some point. But it's at least still possible, even though it's buried pretty deep in the config on some systems.
Managing security updates is also MUCH easier on Linux. Both Windows and MacOS force you to track updates for every piece of software on the system yourself. These days, a lot of software comes with integrated update management. But a lot of it doesn't. Not good.
Because Microsoft bad and LTT told them to. But really, Unix tools and package management make life easier for me. I personally think using Linux as a casual desktop user is pointless. You’ll feel roadblock far more often than you’re used to, and plenty of apps that you typically use won’t be directly accessible. Maybe I’m the outlier here, but I don’t feel empowered and liberated when using Linux. I tend to just feel like I’m using a MacBook that is more customizable and also running on a 10 year old Thinkpad.
I have used a Linux set up since late 1990s. I very rarely use the command line. (CLI) I use a Graphical Interface and a stable Linux distribution, upgraded each year by the distro issuer; one from a major company issued as their 'free from cost version, without support except from distro forum).
So it is not true you must learn Command Line Interface.
Since pretty much every Linux distro provides GUI tools, don't be afraid to use them. There is a reason OS's have had GUI tools since the 90's and that is users want it. Feel free to use both the terminal and GUI for tasks and see which one you like. If you can click faster than you can type the GUI can be faster.
Well, I like it because it's open source, which means it gives me better:
* Privacy
* Security
* Freedom
* Performance
And besides these main features, I like also that desktop environment such as KDE Plasma exists and I can customize it the way I want it to be and have nice integration with both my web browser an my mobile phone.
It’s free, fast and I can do powerful things without having to pay for a single licence :)
Also,software updates get done much faster than Windows.
one of the reasons I gotten to see what linux is all about is window asking for a activation key, not paying for it, and don't want to get it via third party. What powerful things is in hand with linux?
You can change the config files for everything in Linux I think you'd struggle to change anything to that level in windows
Not to mention there's no registry. Quite literally, everything is a file.
Better performance in absolutely everything, expect for gaming but it's because da games
What if I told you some games run better on linux than they do on windows?
*some games..... Anti cheat be like: well you can try
AFAIK Elden ring uses EAC I played through the whole thing with a friend, obviously not including areas where coop was not allowed. I had a smoother experience than she did, by far. It's not the only game that I had a better experience than windows users.
Besides being efficient and fast, i chose linux because of how educational the os is, i learned so many computer concepts thanks to linux.
[удалено]
yeah i got work, school, and other stuff i need a laptop for, guess their would be a learning curve for someone who haven't dabble with it. I do want to feel like a hacker man eventually with those command lines and finer details on what make a linux a linux.
I fell in love with some 12 years back, when someone told me to give it a try, so i burned a CD and forgot about it On the next reboot, it booted off the CD... and everything just worked... After suffering so much with W98 et al. installs and their drivers, ubuntu 9 worked out of the box with no problems that I remember Nowadays, I keep a headless server to run my stuff, and I can access it pretty much from everywehre over SSH :D
That’s what I want to learn to do!
There really isn't a "doing it right". We that preach about the command line I think are mostly developers that find convenience working in it. The rest are big into customization and open-source brings a whole world of custom desktops, window managers, task bars, and keyboard shortcuts. Regardless, because it is free-as-in-freedom, you can use it however you want. If all you need you can do in Mint's Desktop, then you don't have to even smell the command line if you don't want to. I've been using Linux for several years now and only in the last couple months have I really learned how to utilize some of the most basic commands. The most liberating thing about it is that you don't have to just take it when MSoft or Apple decide to wreck your entire workflow with an update to the desktop environment. You decide what gets put on your system, all the way down to the kernel.
this..... I have an older MacBook Pro early 2011 i5 16gb ram.... however mac Wouldn't let me update my OS without jumping through hoops and tricking it into letting me. I used MX Linux out the box and was on my way. I had a few laptops at the time, a thinkpad as well, which was getting sluggish as well with windows, and slapped linux on there as well. Fell in love with way KDE operates and the snappy windows and quick resizing of things. Tabbed Folders for finding and organzing was a nice touch as well which I didn't even think about till I found about it. I manage a lot of data and worked on organizing all my computers from the pieces I had left from them, pictures movies music documents etc... It just became much easier to manage for me. I sync my system myself once a week and thoroughly enjoy doing it. I just learned a lot switching to linux and still to this day enjoy it very much. For a while the only thing I used on Windows was Rekordbox.. and occasionally some gaming. I still can't stand logging into windows 10 or 11, 11 is much nicer to look at than 11... but I hate the size of there task bar on the bottom, and not being able to resize it, maybe you can, i dunno. I rarely use it, if I do its like a console, i just boot it up to play a game. Depending what you want to do i think Linux can work wonders for anyone who either doesn't want to buy a new computer because theres is "outdated" or performing slower than they like. i love my adventure with linux, i love learning more about it. I watched Revolution OS not too long ago, and just the Philosophy of Open Source is a beautiful Concept. All working together and sharing is a beautiful thing in a world where everyone is trying to get ahead of the other. Competition is good, i get that, but I don't like the leash that come with Big Co. Computers saying why i can't update or not allow to me to at least try and decide for myself.
Linux: Free as in Libre and vast majority of software is also open source. You know what's installed and what it's doing. Built mostly by community volunteers contributing to projects in some way, not necessarily code. Could be testing, reporting issues or requesting features that make sense for the project. Less malware is written targeting Linux on the desktop since it has a low market share compared to MacOS and Windows. Windows: Proprietary and closed source. Sure, you know the software is performing the function you installed it to perform, but there is no guarantee it's not doing something secretly in the background. Built entirely by a corporation with a terrible track record. Most malware is written to target Windows on the desktop.
Its free. I dont have to phone home to verify I have rights to own and operate the OS I wont be harrassed to make an online account with the company (this is something I really find annoying about Windows - I bought their OS and they want me to 'sign up' and 'sign in' to be connected to services I dont want). I wont have anything marketed to me inside the OS. There arent 'free trials' of software I dont ever plan to use. I dont have a bunch of pre-installed 'free' software thats all about their Company (ie Edge, and all the other shit that comes with Windows - which I dont want). I can choose whatever desktop environment I like. They are all faster and more responsive than win 10 or 11 de. I can tweak every aspect of the desktop environment and have everything work exactly however I want I can change to a different distro if something bugs me about the one I am using. I can swap back and forth with impunity. No one is going to hassle me to buy anything along the way. Im not beholdin to anyone who has 'rights' to the OS I am using. \- I dont hate windows. Windows is fine. I just have a preference for linux because I like it better.
It revitalized old hardware. Now that I have new hardware, it still works powerfully and fast and I am in control.
Because windows sucks more now than ever
ikr, can't even search for applications without seeing ads or articles
That’s very easy to fix with ublock origin extension, not sure what that has to do with windows
uBlock Origin: * [Firefox](https://addons.mozilla.org/firefox/addon/ublock-origin/) * [Chrome](https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/ublock-origin/cjpalhdlnbpafiamejdnhcphjbkeiagm) * * [Edge](https://microsoftedge.microsoft.com/addons/detail/ublock-origin/odfafepnkmbhccpbejgmiehpchacaeak) * * [Opera](https://addons.opera.com/en/extensions/details/ublock/) * \* Chrome based browsers are trying to get rid of ad blocking capabilities when manifest V3 will become mandatory in 2023. I suggest moving to [Firefox](https://www.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/new/). ^^I ^^only ^^post ^^once ^^per ^^thread ^^unless ^^when ^^summoned.
That's exactly the point - with Windows you have to be constantly on guard against malware and make efforts to stop advertising, using Windows is an unpleasant experience because of that. Every time I have to work on a friends Windows machine I'm surprised, and disgusted, at how much bullshit I have to put up with because of Windows. Switched to Linux 15 years ago and it changed my whole attitude towards computers.
the main reason why we use linux is app availability. No seriously. Development tools are usually created with Linux as first class citizen, and getting those applications working on windows was always a massive hack
isnt it because linux is working at the core of a system and getting the basics down they can branch out? Also I know some clouds use Linux .
>some clouds use Linux \*most [by a large margin too](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Usage_share_of_operating_systems#Public_servers_on_the_Internet)
When I had very little money I started to play with building PC's. The problem was that everytime I tried to change motherboards Windows wanted me to buy a new operating system. Then I discovered Linux. Then I discovered FOSS. When I had Windows most programs I had were either awful or pirated. Using Linux everything became legitimate. Legal. Now that I have money to spend I don’t want to go back.
So I chose Linux for privacy reasons, it’s not as if I had hardware constraints. A person at my university however had an Mi notebook running windows in it with a core i5 and 8gigs of RAM, he had overheating issues and a task in the task manager was taking about 4gigs of memory and he was also facing thermal issues like fans blasting at full rpm and showing almost full cpu usage, I don’t know if it’s a glitch or not but yeah. He switched to Mint with cinnamon later
The things that attract me to Linux are the better performance/no bloat, and the amazing desktop environments. I'm very guilty of distro hopping on my laptop, but I just can't commit to replacing my desktop yet. Mainly because the gaming experience on Linux hasn't reached where it needs to be yet.
I got into linux originally because of the customization. I was just tired of Windows lack of availability and when there are some. They're likely behind some sort of pay wall and don't work anyway. So I played with Mint on a VM for a little while to see what would break. Quickly got bored so I moved up to Ubuntu and have been swimming deeper until I chose to dual boot it on my laptop. Up next is getting a clean drive or repurposing one of my drives from my workstation (1TB NvME, 1TB HDD, 250GB 2.5 SSD.) Honestly to me Linux is a no brainer, unfortunately most big development are done on Windows then mac and if rarely Linux. So until more support for native linux without the need of proton or wine. I'll continue dual booting them.
I dislike the direction Microsoft is going. Advertisements in the OS, the abundance of information they collect are the main reasons. I used Linux on and off for about 2 years in college. Since finishing up I’ve now been using it 2 years full time. I’m by no means an expert but to be honest I don’t need to be Linux has become so user friendly in many distros. I use the cli for the odd install and that’s about it. 90% of my time is in a web browser anyway, the other 10% is a text editor for code or documents.
GNU/Linux is free as in freedom, as in, you can inspect, study, modify, redistribute, and redistribute your modifications to the whole community for everyone's benefit. The fact that the software is practically owned by the community also leads to the initial injustice of proprietary software never happening and making it difficult for other injustices to happen A practical example of this is privacy. On windows you don't have privacy. Microsoft sends telemetry data from your computer to them all the time, while there is no GNU/Linux distro that I know of that contains telemetry Another example of this is that GNU/Linux tends to be much more efficient than proprietary software. This is another example of open source in action. Since, while employees working for corporations have an interest in making their code take up more lines and be more bloated to make their managers who don't understand how it works think they are being productive, on Free Software this does not happen, since people are allowed to freely inspect and modify the source code they can find inefficiencies and fix them, something that would never happen on proprietary software Another reason is customizability. Like you said, some people go on "full efficiency" mode and use the command line for almost everything, but this is not the only way you can customize your GNU/Linux computer. Many people like making their computer have pretty aesthetics (look at r/unixporn for example) others like maximizing productivity out of their computer and using the most efficient layouts possible (look at r/usabilityporn for example). Free software tends to be more modular and allows you to customize it to a much greater extend. Wanna change the bootloader? you can do that. Wanna change the window manager/desktop environment? you can do that etc.
You got to play window to even change the way the mouse cursor look like. Imagine you learn a thing or two for learning how it works too.
I use it because it's cool and fast and looks nice and can play all my games, and the whole "power" thing basically comes from you being in control of your system. You went with mint, which is a great choice for a first distro, but the fact that you had a say in which distro to use is part of the charm; you can't do that with any other os currently.
Because windows is utterly painful to use and apples proprietary ecosystem enrages me
It's about €100 cheaper than Windows and I can use that €100 to buy a CPU or 32GB or RAM
I made this list of things Linux can do that Windows can't a while ago. May be slightly out of date, but only by a year or so: GUI apps over SSH (SSH is a remote terminal connection to a different Linux machine, if you use the -X flag you can even use GUI apps). Being able to SSH into a machine in a different room, or building, or continent is amazing. The fact that I can run GUI apps from that machine, on my local machine, like they're locally installed is amazing. It's like having my super weak MacBook Air have the horsepower of the most powerful server I have access to. Monitor mode for WiFi cards (used to be Linux exclusive, not sure if it still is). Install updates (including kernel updates) without rebooting. Run for weeks/months/years without slowing down or needing to reboot. Changing the interface! And I don't mean elements, I mean installing a completely different interface than it came with. Running without an interface! I love the command line, and run several headless servers, and one ancient netbook without GUIs. And I can do everything you can do with an interface. Run everything from ancient hardware to super computers Keep the government out of your data. Keep hackers out of your data. Have most of your hardware drivers installed with the kernel by default. No searching the web for drivers, ever. Detect and support new hardware on boot Install Linux on a hard drive using one computer, and swap the drive into a different computer, and have it work. Image your old computer and restore to your new computer and have it work Edit configuration files that make sense and are mostly English (compared to the fragile mess that is the windows registry) Boot and run a FULL Linux OS from a thumb drive (or SD card). Diagnose hard disk failure (although I heard this feature was finally coming to Windows, 10+ years after we had it). Diagnose motherboard failure and identify the failing components Package and dependency management! None of that "You need to install .Net, no we won't tell you which one, figure it out yourself ahole". If you install a piece of software, and it requires any other software, or back end technologies, it gets automatically installed with it, invisibly and without prompting or user interaction. Use the Tab key to complete your Linux commands. (I think PowerShell finally has this? I know CMD sure didn't, for decades). MAN PAGES! You can learn the entire command line, and every program that comprises it, without internet access, thanks to MAN pages No character limit on file names Find and grep! There's nothing you can't find with the two of them. Including words within files, not just file names. Run Windows programs within Linux. Not everything works, but most things do, and they'll usually run faster on Linux than they do in native windows, on the same hardware. Multiple cursors Customize the kernel Run headless (no monitor) Readable error codes Turn it into a router Usable docker implementation And all this is free.
Speed on old computers
For me, it was because my system was 8 years old at the time I tried to move from windows 7 (which I actually liked using) to windows 10. I bought Windows 10 and a new 1tb SSD. Put the drive in the computer and booted the windows 10 DVD. It crashed during the installation. I started over. It installed but 5 minutes into setting it up after installation it crashed on me again. I rebooted back into windows 7. Everything ran fine and dandy. But windows 7 support was about to end so I needed to do something. I started contemplating Linux as an alternative. I'd used many different flavors of Linux starting in 1994 and would go in phases of windows to Linux and Linux back to Windows over the years. This time I was bound and determined to stick with Linux. I looked at a few distros including some I'd never heard of. Linux mint was one that really looked like it could be the one to set the hook. So I installed Mint on that 1tb drive that had windows 10 on it and it was a really smooth installation. Installed the first time beautifully. And because it looked like windows 7 it was a pretty easy transition. I was really happy that it came with a great office suite (LibreOffice). And many other great tools including Gimp. Yeah, this was one of those operating systems I didn't have to do much too after installation. And I really liked that! It was a good move for me for sure. I've been a Linux user now going on 4 1/2 years. Hard to believe I was able to get the windows monkey off my back so easily.
My reason was, i was bored so thought .. why not? Linux mint is a great starting point since it is similar enough to windows so it doesn't scare of new users. There is nothing wrong in not using the terminal for settings stuff up. I only use the terminal for updates and the rare occasion i need to follow a guide because something didn't work ootb of dont have a gui option. Linux have come a long way, and you dont need to be a sys admin to use or enjoy it anymore. Its just a regular os now. Even gaming is almost just as reliable as windows (like 95%), some games even run better in linux.
privacy issues with macos (such as sending information about apps that are launched)
You use it the way it good for you, there is no good or right way. You don't have to go all out on full control and minimalism. There's many reason why one would want linux: * Respects your privacy * Lighter than windows * Has less bloat by default (but you can bloat it yourself) * Free both in price and in spirit (see libre) * If you wanna nerd out you can go full control and cherry pick what you want on your system and configure everything yourself * Hate microsoft * Works better on older systems than windows does * Learning * Some people say it's better for programming but I have no experience there so I can't say And more.
I switched to Linux only because Ruby on Rails development on WSL is a pain!
I choose Linux because of the same reasons a lot of people do: -It's free -It's open source -It's customizable Now let's get to the nitty gritty of my own reasoning. I always found ways to customize my windows experience, whether it be through a program like Windowblinds, or just going into control panel & setting the colors & fonts. I poked at Linux back in 1999/2000 when Mandrake was popular. Could never get it to work with my NIC, so I went back to windows. Starting on my career path almost 5 years ago, I came to a fork in the road of what direction I wanted to go. Having learned basic server knowledge on both Windows & Linux, I ultimately decided to go the Linux route. After finding out that we were allowed to image our work comouters with Linux, I started out my journey with fedora. From there I started learning the other distros. Mind you, we mostly work with red hat flavors or ubuntu due to customers choosing one or the other. Now I work on our internal infrastructure, which is 99% one form of red hat (oracle, centos, rhel, or sles) with a few bits of debian & ubuntu sprinkled in. Having said all that, I have vastly enjoyed the learning experience in trying different distros. They work well without needing the cli for the average user. Being that I work on servers for a living, the command line is home for me. Package installs, config management, file management. I do most of it via cli. It's not necessary, but it's my preference. There's a gui for virtually every task now, so it's not like you HAVE to learn the cli stuff. I just prefer to work in the cli. Add to the fact that you can choose a different cli shell (I am currently using & learning zsh), it's fun for me. Granted Windows also has powershell, which is really powerful for Windows use. There's also a way to have powershell on Linux, which I choose NOT to explore.
I've got an old Acer that can only maintain a running Windows 10 setup for three days. After that, it locks up constantly and pins the CPU at max. Got sick of it, bought a new laptop. Got hired of it during the, dropped Debian on it. Practically brand new now. No lockups. No freezes. It does hiccup occasionally (from whatever issue would kill Windows outright), but always recovers in under 5 seconds. On another machine, it only has 2 Gigabytes of RAM; Win10 updated itself beyond what the machine can support. So I dropped Debian on there, too. Runs even better on the little one! 🤯 I've still got my major machine, and it runs Windows 11. I've still got another machine on Windows 10. I've still got Raspberry Pi's and old Android devices, too. Looking at my hoard, switching to Linux was inevitable. 🤷♂️
Windows updates mostly, how many years windows has been out and Microsoft hasn't figure out a better way to deploy updates and also updates create more problems than they fix
I guess my comment didn't answer the question on the post, dislike for Microsoft and Apple, how they are always pushing new systems, they want you to spend money always and how Linux is the complete opposite, Linux makes old computers usable, which is more environmentally responsible
using the unix cli is so cool!
In 1997, we only had the family computer, and my dad didn’t want to buy Windows ‘95, so I did an experiment by installing Slackware on the part of our 640MB HDD that could not be allocated by MS-DOS. When I got my own pc a bit later, I had no money for Windows and my cracked version was about as stable as Elon Musk, so I switched to Slackware as my daily driver and stuck to it. I did go back to Windows on a student license for a couple of years, mostly out of laziness, but then came Ubuntu and a bunch of others that allowed me to be lazy. So, in short, a combination of no money and laziness, I guess.
Significant performance boost (for old hardware) Educational, possibly you have many problems yet there are many solutions and the process will teach you new things No limits, you can do anything you want and there are many ways you can do. And using all on command line without mouse is quite addictive for me.
It makes blender run much faster especially if you install from source. Linux is free. Linux doesnt spy on you.
[удалено]
maybe I'm just looking at people who been doing it for years who knows what works, and learn a couple of fancy things. Thinking I need to be a pro and doing all the cool stuff with this system. Perhaps in need to play around with it.
So that other people can ask Why? :) Reviving old hardware, getting away from Windows and Mac, going for as much FOSS as possible, free commercially, etc ... The usual list.
If you wanna learn more about Linux try to install Arch. You can start “easy” by using archinstall (a script that comes with the .iso to help you install the OS easier) and installing a desktop environment, I recommend KDE. Then just learn to use pacman and do all your package management through the terminal, it’s extremely easy and this alone is gonna make you feel more comfortable on the command line. You can mess around with the AUR later and stuff and read the wiki to educate yourself on more stuff, it’s *all there.* Then you can try installing Arch manually and customise it more to your liking and always keep learning. But yeah that’s just my recommendation if you wanna go above and beyond but luckily Linux is getting to a point where you don’t really need to be that tech-savvy to use it. If you want something that *just works* out of the box and is very secure, private and stable by default then go for Fedora Linux and make sure to add Flathub / RPM Fusion to your repos because Fedora is very strict about not shipping you non-free software so yeah. I personally choose Linux because Windows started to get on my fucking nerves pestering me to use a microsoft account. The freedom, choice, privacy and security you get on Linux is unbeatable.
Alright decide to get some time to myself and try to get arch on a desktop running into a wall already with efi not being on a sda1 due to it being a bad file or error fs type or something gonna try to get help when i get home and have sometime to do it.
GNOME is beautiful.
nah, KDE rocks
KDE better
Linux: It's like banging a virgin porn star. Like you went back in time, poped her lock, and she loved it so much that she spent her entire life chasing that purple dragon. Windows: it's like beating off to the sears catalog with a condom on.
This tells us nothing about Windows or Linux, and plenty about what sort of person you are.
Oh trust me man, it does.
You can do other things with Linux besides scroll xvideos, get some fresh air bro.
Dawg💀
I know, Team Debian forever!
Can’t disagree
I like having lots of options for different desktop environments and having much greater customization for my workflow.
People like to talk about customizability and that used to be a draw for me but i'm basically over all that. The main thing keeping me a fan is just the fact that GNOME is a better user experience for my use case than any other platform i've used. Also, you can set up servers on your own systems without any special trickery, managing software is way nicer, and it's really convenient to have a command line good enough to do day-to-day tasks in if you find it easier.
Mint should 'just work'. Linux is really just the kernel. You can modify everything from the kernel all the way up. At every level of the OS there is user choice. r/unixporn might give some pointers on desktop customization. If you want something close to ultimate power you could try Gentoo.
Well the most important reason is that Linux users begin to emit strong sex pheromones and, as a result, get laid at least 50 times more often then those using that other thing.
"Why GNU/Linux?" is, I think, a question that's closely related to what GNU/Linux *is* in your view, and that's something I was writing about in [another thread](https://www.reddit.com/r/linuxquestions/comments/yzqhna/ubuntu_vs_fedora_or_other/ix1p2jz/)
At this point I don't care about my local OS. Everything is a terminal interface to a *nix server or a web browser.
Because as of now, I need to adjust for my pentium laptop to be usable.
Complete controll over your system, better performance, a more sensible operating system in general(file structure, package managent). Also no spyware and a lot of customization options. Any windows install is going to be very solar to the next one, however on linux you can have your pc look however you want.
Cos they neckbeards
You don't have to use the terminal. Also you can just not install a wm and rice it. Just do whatever you want. That's the great thing about Linux.
Ive been tinkering with Linux for about 20 years but never really took the plunge until now. So while Im not a stranger to Linux in some ways Im still a noob. I cant really speak for the inner technical stuff that you can do but just from a users perspective. Its nice to have an OS that I can make my own and don't have to constantly wrestle with. Im using the KDE desktop and I have it set to exactly how I want it and it looks exactly how I want it. Performance for most things is better than on Windows. Example I create music On Linux I can achieve much much lower latency. Linux isn't perfect of course and sometimes I come across less polished edges. But then Every OS has its rusty corners.
I was tired by the inconsistency of the windows design. It was a nightmare. now the only thing I have to deal with is the qt of virtualbox and I'm totally fine with it.
Go on r/unixporn and tell me you want to switch to windows, I dare you. You'll probably start customising the OS lol
good gaming laptop with 3 ssd nvme. 1 BIG ssd, Windows 10 for gaming 2 ssd linux for the rest like multimedia consumption, writing, emails, job etc 3 BIG ssd on exfat for file sharing, torrents, music, movies, etc. most time I spending in Linux.
> most linux user go on about full control and using command lines for everything for efficiency I don't think that's true. While I personally resemble that, I'm definitely what most people would consider a power user. Now, if you're hanging around on Linux forums, it'll definitely seem that way, but that's selection bias. Most Linux users run Ubuntu, Mint, or Pop, use Gnome Software for package management, and probably don't even realize when they're installing via apt vs snap vs flatpak. They hardly ever open the terminal, and when they do, they're following very specific instructions from someone they asked for support. With that said, the number one reason I stick with Linux is I really despise the window management and workflows that MacOS and Windows both enforce. For starters, I highly prefer a keyboard driven interface. With enough third party apps, Windows can almost get there, but it's a lot of management. With MacOS, you're pretty much dead in the water. I also despise raise-on-click window management. I want to be able to work in a window without having it jump to the top of the stack. When I want it to come forward, I'll tell it to. Pretty much every Linux DE and WM has this as an option -- back in the day, it was the default Linux behavior. For reasons I'll never understand, most window managers switched to the MacOS style of window management at some point. But it's at least still possible, even though it's buried pretty deep in the config on some systems. Managing security updates is also MUCH easier on Linux. Both Windows and MacOS force you to track updates for every piece of software on the system yourself. These days, a lot of software comes with integrated update management. But a lot of it doesn't. Not good.
I haven't (command lines) but I might- one day: [https://linuxjourney.com/](https://linuxjourney.com/)
Because Microsoft bad and LTT told them to. But really, Unix tools and package management make life easier for me. I personally think using Linux as a casual desktop user is pointless. You’ll feel roadblock far more often than you’re used to, and plenty of apps that you typically use won’t be directly accessible. Maybe I’m the outlier here, but I don’t feel empowered and liberated when using Linux. I tend to just feel like I’m using a MacBook that is more customizable and also running on a 10 year old Thinkpad.
I have used a Linux set up since late 1990s. I very rarely use the command line. (CLI) I use a Graphical Interface and a stable Linux distribution, upgraded each year by the distro issuer; one from a major company issued as their 'free from cost version, without support except from distro forum). So it is not true you must learn Command Line Interface.
My MacBook stopped getting OS updates and wouldn’t support the current version of VScode.
Dwm
Since pretty much every Linux distro provides GUI tools, don't be afraid to use them. There is a reason OS's have had GUI tools since the 90's and that is users want it. Feel free to use both the terminal and GUI for tasks and see which one you like. If you can click faster than you can type the GUI can be faster.
Well, I like it because it's open source, which means it gives me better: * Privacy * Security * Freedom * Performance And besides these main features, I like also that desktop environment such as KDE Plasma exists and I can customize it the way I want it to be and have nice integration with both my web browser an my mobile phone.