Me, coder, student, cant afford mid range PCs, interested in learning computers, gamer, not professional. What about you guys?
A complete and total lack of bullshit.
If something is wrong, there’s a concrete reason, no matter how deep the cause and you can always dig far down enough to catch and deal with it.
I’ve been using it since 2013-2014. It was for the love of computing first and foremost, then it extended into concerns over Windows 10 telemetry, then it became more and more viable, and here we are.
Originally because fuck windows 10
Since then it’s the sheer joy of it all. It’s just fucking cool that a bunch of people just get together and make something that benefits everyone, with dozens of forks that allow for freedom of choice.
I didn’t choose Linux, Linux chose me…when windows got unbearably enshittified.
Although admittedly I’d been using Linux for years beforehand, just not for gaming.
- I have the radical idea that when I own something, I should actually own it.
- I’m a software engineer, both professionally and hobby. Developing on a non Unix platform is bullshit
- HaikuOS is 20 years too late
- What is the alternative? Windows is user hostile ad infested crap, MacOS is a prettier flavor of user hostile ad infested crap. The BSDs have their place, but a daily desktop or laptop isn’t really it.
- Copyleft FOSS or GTFO
- I don’t do a massive amount of customization, but the things I do I want to have. I know that will be the case with Linux. Who the fuck knows with closed source software
- When I find a bug, missing feature, or something just isn’t right I can fix it, file a bug, or just talk to the actual human beings who wrote it. Good luck with any of that in non-FOSS unless you are spending $$$ on a corporate account.
Ah, well, it is less shit than alternatives
Windows: too much ads, AI, telemetry, and just nonsense bullshit in general. MS is a malicious company and this is malicious software.
MacOS: too much Apple bloatware. It mostly stays out of the way but the fact that I can’t uninstall it makes me very angry. Also the vast majority of software requires a connected Apple account. The bigger problem is the overpriced and intentionally irreparable, unupgradable and disposable hardware which is inseperable from the software.
Linux: mostly just stays out of my way, requires no account for anything. You know, the way operating systems used to work.
powershell sucks. RegEdit sucks. Start menu sucks. Can’t use Niri. Slow. Can’t use it while updating. Inverted backslashes for paths are horrible. The only useful feature is WSL, and if you get rid of all other bullshits, you get Linux.
It’s open source and not owned by an evil corporation. It doesn’t have ads. It doesn’t mine my data and sell it to the highest bidder. It doesn’t have AI shoved in every nook and cranny. It’s much lighter to run. I can easily run it on a 10 year old laptop.
I think I can handle the ads part, but the ‘lighter’ part, thats a good one.
Ads are bloat aswell.
Serious question: Why can you handle the ads? I’m serious. Why do you accept that something you have purchased, something you own, should be pushing ads at you? Broadcast services makes some sense, they have to make money somewhere. But something you bought? Why?
So people won’t shout at me online.
WHY ARE PEOPLE SHOUTING AT YOU?!!
Because I have self-respect.
I’m over twenty years deep. I had a friend who was always my go-to for technical problems with my windows laptop. He ended up becoming a technical support guy for windows shops. anyways, he mentioned Linux one day as I was babbling about file sharing during the Napster days. I went down the rabbit hole from there. I’ve been called a systems administrator, server administrator, systems engineer, DevOps engineer, etc as job titles. it clicked in my head how or why it worked and it felt liberating. I’m the grumpy guy scowling trying to figure out how your windows or Mac operating systems work like how normal people are trying to figure out how mine works.
Windows decided my perfectly functional PC couldn’t run 11, and Linux Mint has no issues running. I’m not getting rid of a perfectly good computer just because Microsoft wants me to. My husband has to use Windows for work and it seems like a huge pain in the ass. I’m not into fiddling with computers, and Linux is at the point now where it feels no more complicated than Windows (and often significantly less complicated).
I got a new PC and was really upset at the idea of putting windows on it. The ad lack of ownership of my own hardware, I couldn’t do it, and so I installed Linux (again), but this time, it stuck.
I have a better understanding of what’s under the hood. I lost the plot with Windows somewhere around Windows 2000. Apple got a pass for a while because OS X is founded on UNIX roots, but even it feels a bit more opaque these days. I was also raised on UNIX (Solaris) systems at Uni back in the 90s as Linux emerged out of Helsinki, and I took it for a spin. Over time, Windows and Mac just fell away. Typing this from my M1 MBP on Asahi.
I started running foss apps and loving how small and efficient they were in comparison to what I was used to. At one poit I realized that everything I was using could be used on linux, so I migrated and never went back!
