The first time I tried to switch to Linux, it was a bad choice of Distro (Puppy, I think Lucid Puppy, where I learned that I would rather use Windows 3.1’s UI than stock XFCE) me incorrectly believing I could just run it from USB all the time so my family could just use Windows (I couldn’t have been older than 14 and the PC was old at the time, we got it in 2005 and it came with XP and struggled with Windows 7, and the storage was low,) and just not making an earnest effort to learn Linux. This was all user error. I tried Mint also, which straight-up didn’t work on my hardware at the time.

The second time I tried to switch, Mint again, about a year or two and a new PC after the first. I think Cinnamon is one of the best UIs ever made, but I also think Windows 10’s is pretty good (to be clear I despised Windows 7’s UI,) and I ran into compatibility issues and ultimately found that, with no strong benefit to web browsing or gaming (this was well before Proton) which were the main things I used my PC for, and still needing a lot of Windows software, just being mostly Windows worked.

Last time I tried to use Linux earlier this year, I didn’t intend to switch fully, but I wanted to switch my music making hobby, that I do with Linux Multimedia Studio, to Linux because some features of LMMS don’t work on the Windows version (I wanted to link multiple channels to a single VST plugin, which is necessary for the VST plugin “Genny” to produce a file that works on a real Sega Genesis.) This feature does work on the Linux version of LMMS, but Genny itself does not (and I did install WINE, some other VSTs did work.)

I’d love to say I’ll switch when Windows 10 EOL hits, Windows 11 has a fucking awful UI and starts to introduce some of the reasons I’ve never seriously considered Mac or iOS (I feel like Windows used to at least respect that my PC is MY PC when Win11 doesn’t,) but I can’t because that last one still sticks in my mind. I keep a Mint partition on my PCs, but it’s pretty much solely for doing things that might get me malware on Windows, or helping fix Windows if I break it.

I use Linux full time now, with the exception of the Adobe suite, which runs in a VM right now and will be changed to a dual boot once I installed a second hard drive. I use GIMP and Inkscape where I can, but i need the big evil Corp software for bigger projects where the Foss software falls short.

If the software runs on Linux natively someday or a Foss alternative is on par, I will gladly make the full switch.

Building WiFi kernel drivers myself where on Windows its a double click, finding a desktop environment that lets you add a 2nd taskbar in the GUI without losing certain important items like the start menu, system clock, or system tray (I always lost something), finding replacements for certain niche Windows programs is frustrating (VoiceMeeter -> PipeWire), or completely absent, as my Oculus Rift and the Adobe Suite (which I need for my job) was unusable, and my Razer, Logitech, TourBox, Xence, and Elsra devices aren’t programmable, missing or bad support for basic features like multiple monitors and HDR, having to manually set AppImages to run as an application and not open like a file (I know it’s a file), but in the end, needing 2 GPU’s to virtualize a Windows machine officially ended my Linux dreams for the near future.

First time I ever seriously used Linux was for work, back when I was a developer. You’d have to pay me to use it again. I like gaming, but I don’t like wasting my time troubleshooting games. Nor do I enjoy debugging random crashes/black screens in random drivers. Sure, it’s fun, but if I’m gonna work for it, someone somewhere better be signing my overtime slip. Cause I get a few hours free per day, and I’d rather not deal with sigsegv anymore if I can help it.

Not to mention sound. My job as dev included using ALSA for some use cases. I don’t know if you ever had the misfortune to need to do that or how it went for you, but if I ever need to touch that shit again I will scalp Torvalds with a goddamn headphone jack.

I installed windows 11 when I bought my last PC. I figured I’d give it a shot, see if it’s as bad as all my dev friends say it is. You know how many drivers I’ve had to fix to make my games work? Zero. You know how many hours I spent debugging weird issues? Also zero.

There’s a reason windows has a price tag. And part of that reason is that it works better than free stuff. I’m a believer in FOSS, but if you’re a craftsman and you can’t hammer a nail without needing to adjust your hammer every few swings, you should find a hammer that’s not made out of silly putty and dreams.

Every few years I try Linux again. At this point I’ve decided that when I can install linux, and use all of my hardware/software without having to open a terminal window, I’ll try it again. Until then, I only use it when I’m paid to.

The anticheat for a game I liked to play with my wife didn’t work on Linux and playing in a VM barely worked due to the game’s outdated spaghetti code. It was more important to me at the time because the game was how I met her and at the time we weren’t dating yet, she was just a friend I was crushing on big time, enough to reinstall windows for her.

We don’t even really play it anymore, so maybe I’ll switch back to Linux. I still got mint installed on dual boot, just never thought about starting it up until now. I always did like how a couple of terminal commands could fix like, 99% of issues whereas windows says “Noooo… You have to reinstall me for the 20,000th time! It’s the only way!”

I suppose I can technically answer this. I do use Linux full-time now and have for several years, but prior to that I had a few false starts where I’d switch back to Windows. Usually it was because I’d encounter some technical issue I just didn’t know how to fix besides reinstalling the whole OS, or a graphics driver issue. For example, at one point when I had an NVIDIA graphics card only the newest drivers from NVIDIA’s website supported it but the ‘stable’ drivers in Ubuntu’s repo didn’t, so I had to manually install the drivers. Except then whenever the kernel was updated by Ubuntu (basically every week) my display stopped working and I’d have to switch into a TTY and manually reinstall the drivers.

Now I know how I’d fix that (setup some rule to reinstall the drivers whenever the kernel updates, which I believe is now the default anyway), or use a PPA containing the latest NVIDIA drivers, or use AMD instead - but really any kind of problem that requires the user to both diagnose and fix the issue prevents non-technical people from adopting it.

I used Linux Mint for several years on a dual-boot laptop. I rarely found myself booting Windows. While there was a learning curve, Mint was fairly accessible out of the box and was generally a delight to use. Until it wasn’t. At some point, the drivers for my video card updated, and just flat broke everything. And I can’t really use a computer on which I can’t see the desktop. I waited. And waited. A fix for the driver may have eventually come, but after awhile, booting into Windows just became my default, until eventually I just wiped the Linux partition to recover the storage space.

It was fun while it lasted, and I may choose one day to give it another go for the fourth time. This wasn’t the first time I’ve had something like this happen. First time was with Fedora, and the second was Ubuntu. Each time, I had the same “it worked until it didn’t” experience, and each time it stopped working was usually some kind of broken driver making my hardware incompatible.

Huh, who pinned this retarded comment

Linux desktops are horrible. I like linux servers a lot, I have several running in my homelab.

I kept spending insane amounts of time trying to make simple things work, that should work without me having to make them do so.

Basically photoshop and games. I was dual booting and when I switched computer it wasn’t worth reinstalling because I spent most of my time in windows. This was a long time ago.

Now that windows is moving into subscription basis I keep thinking I should try getting into linux again but I don’t have the time to fiddle around making stuff work.

A few apps I needed didn’t work on Linux without a hassle and a lot of games I play with friends only run on Windows. I also found a lot of things were kind of a hassle on Linux, especially screen scaling. Fractional screen scaling straight up barely works and everything on my laptop screen was usually tiny.

I would totally go back when the experience is a bit nicer, I’m pretty frustrated with Windows. I think the Linux desktop experience isn’t totally ready imo.

I tried adopt Linux as main OS but some incompatibilities happen when gaming, working or video streaming. I still use MXlinux and LinuxMint in old machines, Basic applications.

Reading a lot of these comments I think people are under the wrong impression of the current state of Linux. I think you’ll have a better experience with a bleeding edge distro like Arch or Fedora.

A lot of your productivity apps are on Linux, a higher percentage of your games work than you think, and you could see a performance boost over windows. Plus there are multiple app alternatives that are even better.

I ditched Windows three years ago. 99% of my 450 Steam library works (yes AAA games) thanks to Valve with Proton. What doesn’t? Call of Duty, because of invasive kernel level anti-cheat and I’m good with that.

Steam, Zoom, Slack, Teams, Spotify, Plex, Jellyfin, Discord are all on Linux.

Edit: Also there is no “look/UI” to Linux. It’s your DE, and you’re free to choose one, or a Window Manager. Gnome, KDE, Cinnamon, XFCE, i3, Awesome, Openbox, XMonad, Sway, Hyprland.