Something equivalent to..."I just want to drive the car, not learn about the intricacies of internal combustion".

The same reason everybody gives when dealing with pretty much anything: "I don't want to learn something new".

This is sort of a compilation of things I have heard:

Too many distros to choose from and I tried a couple of the ones that were supposed to be good for new users, but had issues that I found too annoying to ignore. And when I tried to get help online, I got rude responses from Linux users who just seemed to assume that I was a young guy that ought to learn how to code and fix my own problems (I am not young and I will never be a coder) or accused me of wanting to be "spoon fed" the answer (yes I do, and exactly what is wrong with that? When I ask a question in an Apple-related forum people there have no problem just giving me an answer if they have one!). So I turned to AI for answers so that I didn't get all that attitude, and AI is great when it gives you correct answers but very often it just made shit up, and it's hard to tell if it's giving you a correct answer or hallucinating. And even an AI doesn't know everything, not yet anyway.

I live in a rural area and there are no local sources of help that I'm aware of, and definitely no Linux user groups if those are even still a thing now, but even if there are, if they were using a different distribution than whatever I am trying to run they probably couldn't help much.

Oh, and I absolutely hate typing stuff at a command prompt, I may do it occasionally to fix some weird issue (assuming someone else tells me what to type) but all the normal stuff should be doable using a GUI app. My Macintosh hardly ever asks me to type anything at the command line and that is how I like it! I am a computer USER, not a programmer, not a coder, not someone who wants to spend a great deal of time "learning" a new operating system. I want to be able to turn the computer on, read my email, browse the web, watch YouTube videos, type and print the occasional letter, save and view/play my photos and music, etc and not have the operating system get in my way, or force me to try to learn how it works internally.

And the final reason is that only Linux users still seem to think that reading a bunch of documentation is a prerequisite to using a computer, I have yet to see one good video that explains to someone that has never used Linux before how to use it (an "explain like I'm 5 - or 10 - and this is my first ever experience with a desktop computer that happens to be running Linux" type video). It is wonderful that so much random documentation exist but hardly anyone is going to just start reading it as if it were an instruction manual on how to build a garden shed, and even if they tried, anyone that doesn't have a photographic memory will quickly forget everything they've read because so much of it makes no sense at all to anyone who is not already very experienced with Linux. Nor will they remember all the options associated with various Linux commands that are typically shown in such documentation.

Like I said, kind of a compilation of things I have read or heard, and I didn't even get into the gaming stuff because I'm not personally into that and therefore don't really understand the issues there.

They didn't want to constantly rely on me to fix every little thing they break instead of learning how to do it themselves.

No wait, that was my reason for not switching them. 😆

Adobe software, autoCAD, and anticheat are the top 3 reasons I usually hear. While there are alternatives for the first two, people who need these specific tools professionally don't really have the choice.

Anticheat for gaming is a big one too. Personally I didn't even consider switching until I finally quit Destiny 2 for good. If the main game someone plays just doesn't work, they're not gonna switch.

"I really only use the PC for gaming. Mostly, I play Valorant."

There ya go, you're not getting that working under Linux even if you are a master tinker. 🤷‍♂️ He did eventually switch, but not until long after he stopped playing Valorant regularly.

Some reasons are silly, some are incredibly valid. Sometimes it's just "I don't want to" and that's OK too, lol.

I am very pro Linux but “I like Windows” is valid enough for me. I might ask why but I am not going to act like that reason is invalid.

For one of my friends its just cause she has a shitload going on and enough problems to deal with without trying to figure out a new way for her computer to work and whatnot

Plus I think art stuff she uses doesn't support linux and she found krita unsuitable for how she likes to work

They are not ready. They took several years to master Windows to just a minimum of use. They don't have the money to pay for help if problems occur. They don't have someone in their network that can help them. They need a specific app to work flawlessly for either job or hobby. There's a lot of good reasons. But there are getting less of them, while Linux is evolving.

@VoxAliorum accessibility is not as good as others OS. This is really the most legitimate reason I was given.

#a11y #linux #foss #accessibility

First my problem was fractional UI resizing making everything stutter and only supporting 60hz. I fixed that by going to KDE (Kubuntu).

Now my problem is that my battery doesn't last for a whole day of lectures - while it does with windows. Also, sleep is ass.

Will still probably fully switch in 2026.

"It's not compatible with all games"

"VR on Linux is trash"

"I can't play XYZ game because Linux isn't compatible with anticheat"

"Program XYZ doesn't have a Linux version, I don't want to learn a new program"

"Windows bloat never bothered me, I just ignore the AI/advertisements"

"I'm forced to use Windows because of my job"

"Linux is to complicated/troublesome. I just want something that works"

He's a Windows security researcher. I felt dumb.

They use nothing but an iPhone. Not even a tablet. Just the phone.

I can give you my own reason: I don’t have enough energy left besides work and general life to clean up my mess of hoarded data and make the switch. I am reasonably sure that all my hardware would work, about all games I play should work (nothing with crazy anticheats, next to all steam) too. I have two Linux nerds I could contact if needed and I have some prior experience, even though it is about half a life ago.

Edit: Oh and having something that does what I want and not some guessed approximation at home would make me even more intolerant of the shitshow we have at work.

My school requires the installation of office apps like Microsoft access. I can't get Microsoft office apps to run with wine.

I also can't get games from Ubisoft connect to run with wine. I usually try lutris but the games always crash. So I have a virtual windows machine for school work and I have to play all of my games on steam.

Sounds like I don't know how to use wine or wine hates me

I mostly run Linux though.

"The file system layout is dumb. What the fuck is /etc? Also I hate using terminal"

The best reason is the simplest one. People have job where they rely on a piece of software. If you took years to master something like Adobe Photoshop and later switched to linux only for all that to go away and you being forced to use something different like Gimp, you would 100% be pissed off

My silly reason is when it comes down to business the ms office suite works the best out of any office suite.

Sure that is because Microsoft spends more time making it incompatible with any other editors than actually developing decent software but that doesn’t change the fact that I can’t trust people on the other end of the email to perform even one step of troubleshooting if the document doesn’t open for them on the first try.

They rely on AutoHotkey.

It's true, Linux doesn't have anything close to AHK.

I can give you reasons I have for not installing Linux on one of my laptops:

• Intel graphics support, or the absence of it;

• decent touchscreen support (Windows Ink);

• WSL which I use with NixOS, and it does simplify most of my dev needs;

• unfortunately, Adobe apps which I still heavily rely on (I'd wish I had an alternative),

• PowerPoint (again, I'd wish I had an alternative).

If you want to comment: "oh but have you tried Affinity, Pixie, Only Office, Libre Impress, reveal.js, {enter your fav presentation/photo editing tool} -- yes I have, and no, unfortunately, it's not even close. Also, to be clear, I've never paid, and never will for the Windows/Adobe products.

TFT and office, mostly. Libreoffice isn't valid, mostly because Microsoft intentionally breaks their own formats, but yeah.