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Personally, I’m not brand loyal to any particular OS. There are good things about a lot of different operating systems, and I even have good things to say about ChromeOS. It just depends on what a user needs from an operating system.

Most Windows-only users I am acquainted with seem to want a device that mostly “just works” out of the box, whereas Linux requires a nonzero amount of tinkering for most distributions. I’ve never encountered a machine for sale with Linux pre-installed outside of niche small businesses selling pre-built PCs.

Windows users seem to want to just buy, have, and use a computer, whereas Linux users seem to enjoy problem solving and tinkering for fun. These two groups of people seem as if they’re very fundamentally different in what they want from a machine, so a user who solely uses Windows moving over to Linux never made much sense to me.

Why did you switch, and what was your process like? What made you choose Linux for your primary computing device, rather than macOS for example?

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[-] MrsDoyle@sh.itjust.works 6 points 4 days ago

I'm about to pull the plug on Windows because MS says I need to replace my PC to install Win 11. Nothing wrong with my PC at all, it runs fine. So I've flashed a usb stick, checked the Linux distro will run ok, backed up my data and am ready to go. Just have to get a day free of distraction...

I got my first PC in 1983 I think it was. Second-hand, running MS-DOS. I've done a lot of computing since then, at work as well as home, almost always Windows. I've had Linux on an ancient laptop for a few years, various distros. I like to tinker, so that aspect of Linux doesn't put me off at all.

this post was submitted on 16 Dec 2025
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From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Linux is a family of open source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991 by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically packaged in a Linux distribution (or distro for short).

Distributions include the Linux kernel and supporting system software and libraries, many of which are provided by the GNU Project. Many Linux distributions use the word "Linux" in their name, but the Free Software Foundation uses the name GNU/Linux to emphasize the importance of GNU software, causing some controversy.

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