I use windows because the fire code mandates it, and cause having sunlight in rooms is nice. Also I can see the weather and when the mail arrives.

Unfortunately with the way you asked, and especially with asking on Lemmy, you'll get a lot of tech saavy people, and FOSS enthusiasts. You'll also get a handful of people here who can't help but talk down to anyone who dares to say that Windows isn't just the fucking worst.

I'm primarily Windows, with an Ubuntu VM for working with obscure FOSS utilities (like I had to use someone's college project to recover data off a USB HDD where the enclosure broke, and it turned out the manufacturer used whole disk encryption so you couldn't just shuck it and go, but it was thankfully trivial with the key stored in a specific sector) and to work with github projects that only provide build instructions for Linux.

I run a personally customized and debloated install of Windows 10 Pro on my desktop, and Windows 10 Ameliorated (someone else's debloat setup I cribbed a decent amount from) on a laptop that is mostly used as a remote endpoint for the desktop through sunlight/moonlight (whatever the open source version of nVidia streaming is). The debloating took maybe 4 hours (6 if you include the time to figure out how to stream updates and drivers into the install media) and I've had no issues with any of the shit people complain about. I'm in control of my own updates (although you can't delay them indefinitely, you can push them back multiple weeks and prevent auto-restarts), no onedrive, stripped out telemetry shit and blocked through host file and DNS in case any was missed or added later. No updates have reset any settings I've set, despite the common insistence that everyone says they do.

But I also have almost a decade in supporting Windows, from intro IT help desk to many years as a sysadmin and IT infrastructure "engineer". I know what levers Microsoft has built for businesses to use to kill the bullshit, anf I cry at just how ridiculously bad a shit ton of Windows advice online is.

As far as Linux goes, I'm no stranger to it, and have been poking around with it since Knoppix was one of the only options (if not the only) for live-boot. I'm the go to guy on my team for the few Linux based appliances we run that don't belong to the network team. I want it to be a competitive alternative for corporatized software.

But I bounced off it in the mid-late 00's as I got tired of how much tinkering it took. By the time I was interested in checking it out again, I was working in IT, and nothing drains you of energy to tinker with computers at home like doing it eight hours a day for work. I wanted my stuff at home to just work, to the point that I even was mostly gaming on console.

I'm out of my burnout now, built a new desktop when I got my sysadmin/infra position, and built up a homelab of VMs to try (and fail to) speedrun studying for the MCSE before MS stopped offering it, since I work in a primarily Windows environment.

Whenever I finally get some free time, I plan to sit down and document customizing Win11 to not suck for the sake of all the people online that insist it simply isn't possible at all... and to set aside a dedicated drive to try out some more modern Linux distros again.

But I'll be honest, most Linux troubleshooting stuff still seems to be pretty finicky and still a tradeoff compared to the amount of stuff that "just works" on Windows (nVidia GPUs, HDR, VRR for a few examples). Definitely far better than it used to be, but still not to the point where the OS just gets out of your way. Windows still seems to be able to get to that point more easily.

I hope to proven wrong in my opinions about the current state of things.

I stopped using Windows on my own machines many years ago. It was probably about the time when the games I was playing ran well enough, so dual booting was just taking up space I could use.

The AI nonsense would need to personally disrupt my user experience on a daily basis.

I've already made up my mind about switching due to the AI nonsense that has already happened, but I've been putting off actually doing anything about it.

Every tool for it's job.

I have 4 windows boxes 5 linux boxes and 3 macs in the house.

I will not force the children off Roblox I will not buy the children macs. I will not put forth monumental effort for a substandard experience just to get rid of windows.

If roblox gives in to linux with a native app or wine, (or they age out of roblox) I'll give it a test run with the kids assuming they don't have another game that requires the same.

I cannot eradicate the last Windows box for work because there are closed things I must occasionally deal with. That said it's use is around once a week.

I will eventually eradicate my security camera VM, but I need a lot of time to work on frigate.

I can give my historical experience. Early 2025, I saw horrific articles on Copilot and decided to switch early. I had a bad distro hopping experience. First tried Linux Mint, might have been a slightly old install, but even my wifi didn’t work. Tried a later install, and it was much better, but game performance wasn’t great. Hitman WOA didn’t even load levels. Helldivers 2 had an annoying white border (I eventually fixed this a year later using an odd hack)

I then tried Bazzite. I didn’t quite like the layout, but it functioned. I had a hard time installing apps; it tried to simplify this with various virtualization/containerized solutions, but it meant so many tutorials for basic native-Linux apps didn’t work.

When W10 EOL came around, I tried another distro well touted: CachyOS. It was very smooth. I learned it’s Arch, same as the Steam Deck, and does have some “technical complexities” which I felt I wanted to avoid, but I guess in the end it’s been nothing I’m not a little used to from my work as a programmer. It mostly uses okay UIs for system settings, and some programs require you to use another package installer rather than their default “Octopi”. Some of my early issues came from installing Flatpaks rather than Arch User Repository items.

Games have been fantastic. Rarely when something uses video I need ProtonGE, which is an easy toggle; I should probably just make it default. Helldivers 2 and Division 2 seem to run better than on Windows.

The biggest decider has been: Changing to Linux was NOT annoyance free. There was transition, there was fiddly configuration, and I replaced some apps I use. A key thing is, Windows was quickly moving away from being annoyance free - stuffing Copilot and OneDrive ads into EVERYTHING. So, even accepting a few Linux struggles ended up being an overall lesser frustration.

I drew the line at "Ads in the start menu," and fully switched when a game that I've played on and off for ~15 years started working on Linux. I've been using Linux for most of my life, but I uninstalled Windows for the last time about 4 years ago

Microsoft drew the line. They wanted me to buy a new computer for their new OS. Not happening.

Windows 10 stops working for my purposes (gaming, browsing internet, office docs, some other windows exclusive programs).

I was building myself a new computer from scratch and I had a friend whose laptop I would borrow on occasion that had win 11 on it.

Knowing how bad win11 was and knowing I'd have to pay yet another $100+ to be graced with the garbage on my system, I decided to partition an old laptop and play around on mint for a minute. The rest, they say, is history.

Why anyone is OK with Microsoft's key logging of everything including passwords is beyond me.

Any of these things comes to mind:

• Not respecting my configuration.
• Updates taking hours and then having to boot safe mode to repair after said update.
• Having to constantly fight spyware.
• The feeling that my computer is not my own.
• Stupid design decisions.
• Feeling like an unpaid tester for an anti-consumer company.

If it does not work on linux, I don't buy it. I'm sick of Microsoft. They feel like abusers.

I drew the line when my Windows box told me I couldn’t do something even with admin. Kid, you work for ME, not the other way around.

Always preferred Linux over Windows, but I had issues with games on it. I just decided that I wouldn’t play any games that didn’t work. That was a couple of years ago now, and things have only improved since.

My fiance, who is not a technical person, even decided she wanted her new PC to run Linux unprompted, which is a hell of a win for Linux and for me in not having to support a Windows box in the house.

When they forced me to go to Windows 11, even though my computer, technically could’ve ran windows 11, it was just missing a certain component on the motherboard so wouldn’t install. I told them to piss off, and I switched over to Linux. (Mint Linux)

My red line is easy. No windows on my computers. That rule stands since before my first kid was born, and she is by now finishing university...

I drew the line at Windows 10. It was bad enough. 11 was a bridge too far. I basically quit 4 months ago and wiped my last Windows machine today. I just made a post about it!

For anyone on the fence, do it!

I probably wouldn't have a giant picture window in front of the toilet.

I haven’t made the switch off of Windows, but I have started dabbling in Linux. I am ok with tech, better than the average person, but I don’t know anything about programming or coding or any of it. I have a Raspberry Pi, some other electronic stuff, and a book that is project based teaching of python. I’ve spent the last month or so reading up on self hosting, Linux, and other open source stuff.

My biggest hesitation is World of Warcraft. It’s the only game I play, it’s the only game I’ve ever really played, and I don’t want to lose access to that. I have started looking into how wow is run on Linux. But I’m not ready to fully switch yet.

I've no reason whatsoever to run Windows, even in a VM.

At least not on my main hardware.