Last straw for switching to Linux?

jrepperger

For those who mainly use Linux-based OS, what was the last straw for leaving Windows/MacOS?

And for those who are considering switching but haven't yet, what's stopping you?

I'm semi-comfortable using Linux commands and have tested various distros over the years, but whenever I have a dual-booting PC, I generally stop using the Linux partition because I'm more comfortable using Windows. Also, it becomes really tedious to have to Google "how to _____ in [Linux distro]" whenever I try to add in a feature I'm used to having in Windows.


I'm currently using Windows 10 and I'm getting fed up with the unwarranted notifications, forced updates, and I'll never use Office again after they switched to yearly subscriptions. Libre Office does everything I need it to do.

02k-guy

And for those who are considering switching but haven't yet, what's stopping you?

The Windows workspace, the file system, both the commercial and freeware/shareware apps are things I've gotten intimately familiar with.

There are an infinite number of Linux distros - I'm too ignorant to know which is what. What I do know, is that available apps will say "runs on purple grape whizzer .02 nightly build xx.01 or higher", and I don't have the patience for that.

As an example of why I stick with windows: last night I test-installed English, Spanish and German versions of Paint Shop Pro 5.01 - an app released in 1998 and designed for Windows 95 on a 486. Yet today, I can click on PSP5 and it starts and runs just fine on Windows 7, SP1, and x64 architecture.

Not only that, I was somewhat confident that this would in fact happen.

I cannot say that for Linux - hell, the Mac fanbois can't say that for their OS either.

There are good apps - I'm just now using a RAW editor ported to Windows called "Raw Therapee". Odd name, great workspace and feature set.

jrepperger

02k-guy wrote:

And for those who are considering switching but haven't yet, what's stopping you?

The Windows workspace, the file system, both the commercial and freeware/shareware apps are things I've gotten intimately familiar with.

There are an infinite number of Linux distros - I'm too ignorant to know which is what. What I do know, is that available apps will say "runs on purple grape whizzer .02 nightly build xx.01 or higher", and I don't have the patience for that.

As an example of why I stick with windows: last night I test-installed English, Spanish and German versions of Paint Shop Pro 5.01 - an app released in 1998 and designed for Windows 95 on a 486. Yet today, I can click on PSP5 and it starts and runs just fine on Windows 7, SP1, and x64 architecture.

Not only that, I was somewhat confident that this would in fact happen.

I cannot say that for Linux - hell, the Mac fanbois can't say that for their OS either.

There are good apps - I'm just now using a RAW editor ported to Windows called "Raw Therapee". Odd name, great workspace and feature set.

Yeah, that's another reason I can never fully switch over. Sometimes I want things to "just work". I can generally switch over the programs and features I use most often (web browser, music player, and Steam), but if I need to do something specific that I only know how to do in Windows, I won't bother trying to figure out how to do it or try different software in Linux because it's too time-consuming and never sticks with me.

And yeah, the Linux file system is nightmarish to me. I have no idea where to install programs to, where they install to by default when using commands, or how to install/uninstall them without googling over and over again.

birdy

The main reason why I switched to linux was that I was just so tired of using windows 7. Plus I was mostly online and wanted to learn something new. Originally I planed to dual booted my laptop with the dead Pear OS 8. (Based off of Ubuntu 14.04 LTS). But during installation I forgot to set it to a partition(I didn't know what I was doing at the time...) and instead I wiped my Windows 7 off the hard disk leaving me with a nice looking Pear OS. I have to say, I made the right choice to switch. The things I have learned have gave me the confidence to working in the terminal with out a GUI. I have also gained the confidence to explore into more exotic distro's, such as Open Indiana, and Oracle Solaris, and even Centos 7.

jrepperger wrote:

And yeah, the Linux file system is nightmarish to me. I have no idea where to install programs to, where they install to by default when using commands, or how to install/uninstall them without googling over and over again.

Most Linux/Unix distros you don't need to worry about were every thing goes. If you do like: sudo apt-get install beep. The apt-get helps you keep track of where that package was installed to. There for you could do: sudo apt-get purge beeb. You don't need to worry about where it goes unless you are building/installing from the source. Most likely you want to put it in /opt/ directory. Also the file system is different, but it's nothing like zfs, btrfs, or xfs

Bry89

Early this year, I was about to switch to Linux when I was getting fed up with Windows being stupid, from the Win10 free upgrade always showing up on Windows Update every month to the time when Windows Update had major problems, and that a few other things were annoying me also. Now, I decided not to do it and keep Windows 7 for a bit longer, even when I've had this laptop with it for over five years now. I sometimes think to myself when should I switch to Linux but, it's entirely up to me. If I ever grow bored or feel pissed off again, then I will... probably somewhere next year or two.

And as for the distro I may use, it may be Ubuntu or Ubuntu MATE. Or Linux Mint, whichever's better.

jrepperger

birdy wrote:

Most Linux/Unix distros you don't need to worry about were every thing goes. If you do like: sudo apt-get install beep. The apt-get helps you keep track of where that package was installed to. There for you could do: sudo apt-get purge beeb. You don't need to worry about where it goes unless you are building/installing from the source. Most likely you want to put it in /opt/ directory. Also the file system is different, but it's nothing like zfs, btrfs, or xfs

That helps a lot, but at the same time, not knowing where it goes or how the files work is worrying lol

Bry89 wrote:

Early this year, I was about to switch to Linux when I was getting fed up with Windows being stupid, from the Win10 free upgrade always showing up on Windows Update every month to the time when Windows Update had major problems, and that a few other things were annoying me also. Now, I decided not to do it and keep Windows 7 for a bit longer, even when I've had this laptop with it for over five years now. I sometimes think to myself when should I switch to Linux but, it's entirely up to me. If I ever grow bored or feel pissed off again, then I will... probably somewhere next year or two.

And as for the distro I may use, it may be Ubuntu or Ubuntu MATE. Or Linux Mint, whichever's better.

Lubuntu is actually really nice. It's simple, no crazy animations or anything; it reminds me of Windows 2000. I prefer it over regular Ubuntu because of that. Linux Mint is great too though. Maybe I'll check out Ubuntu MATE. I might just do a fresh install on a separate hard drive to try it out in my desktop.

thinkpadman

I somewhat concur with the comments with staying with Windows, although with Office I pay $15 via work so don't need to worry about subscriptions for that.

I've installed Debian 8 as a Hyper-V virtual machine though I haven't figured out how to RDP to access it remotely. When I look for help it's often for a different version and/or distribution so it doesn't necessarily work the same.
I wouldn't mind using Linux more on secondary PCs and VMs to avoid licensing and product activations.

Dopefish

Basically, for me, Windows 10. The privacy issues and the forced updates felt like a smack upside the face to me. I really want my OS to get out of my way and not micromanage everything to death.

I use Fedora on my ThinkPad as well as Debian on my Raspberry Pi 2. The only Windows system I have in my house is my gaming PC, which is staying with Windows 8.1 until support is no longer offered by Microsoft. Then after that, I'll likely slap Solus Linux on it since it feels the best tuned for gaming.

02k-guy

thinkpadman wrote:

I somewhat concur with the comments with staying with Windows, although with Office I pay $15 via work so don't need to worry about subscriptions for that.

I've installed Debian 8 as a Hyper-V virtual machine though I haven't figured out how to RDP to access it remotely. When I look for help it's often for a different version and/or distribution so it doesn't necessarily work the same.
I wouldn't mind using Linux more on secondary PCs and VMs to avoid licensing and product activations.

Hey, I just visited your blog - the one in your sig.
Very nice purchase of that Microsoft Value Pack. I honestly don't recall it on the shelf "back in the day".

https://socket3.wordpress.com/2016/11/2 ... indows-95/

I don't know why, but I am a real sucker for those "everything but the kitchen sink packages", because I really work with the same few apps day in and day out. I just did the eBay thing myself - bought Microsoft Office 2000 Premium full retail box - and in my case it was like someone had just pulled the shrinkwrap off.

sl1fka

I've not switched to Linux JUST yet. Windows 10 almost pulled the last straw, with all of it's privacy issues. However, the one thing that's stopping me is that virtual machines simply aren't good enough, and I still want to keep Windows around for the times that I need it, like for gaming and for old software that's only on Windows.

Dopefish

sl1fka wrote:

I've not switched to Linux JUST yet. Windows 10 almost pulled the last straw, with all of it's privacy issues. However, the one thing that's stopping me is that virtual machines simply aren't good enough, and I still want to keep Windows around for the times that I need it, like for gaming and for old software that's only on Windows.

In that case, you might want to consider a KVM setup with VGA passthrough. I've done this before, dedicating my Intel iGPU to the host OS (in this case Ubuntu or Mint) and my Nvidia card to the guest Windows 10 OS. Gaming performance is at virtually native levels with a hair of overhead.

https://forums.linuxmint.com/viewtopic.php?t=212692

There's a bit of work that must be done to set it up, but it's totally worth it.

Bry89

Seems that a handful of people are too afraid to switch away from Windows, for the reasons above. For me, I wouldn't mind because, I don't really depend on much Windows-based stuff now, such as the fact that I hardly use Paint now. I prefer a nice change, but only if that change is worth it (i.e. choosing the right distro and package manager with it) At least it would be better than burning a hole in your pocket with Macs, even though I liked these from my college years. At least some distros live up to macOS' legacy as well as WinXP/2000.