Quick glance on my installed programs, and I count 7 apps I heavily use in windows 11 with no linux version, nor a clear equivalent that could replace them without extensive hacks that may or may not work and be a total waste of my time.

Also a funny thing: I installed Debian with KDE and then GNOME last year on another PC, and guess what? KDE & GNOME came bloated with a bunch of apps, games, office suite, code editor and other shit.

I thought the whole shtick of Linux/FOSS was that it didn't make any default choices for you. That's what I always read here when people cry about windows bloat.

The same cleanup & customization did for windows 11 I had to do to Debian KDE and then GNOME.

Point is: it's not that easy and being and insufferable jerk about it its not gonna solve it. Let people use what they want.

I had an ipod that was filled with "pirated" (ripped) audio files, never owned a single itunes purchased song, and have used Windows on many computers that didnt have OneDrive setup and never experienced either of those.

Do you have some sources for those cause I'd be interested to read about them.

This rings a little hollow to me. Most of the people I know that understand Linux can quickly summarize why they might not use it as their daily driver (eg staying on macOS for graphics/video or staying on Windows for desktop Word/Excel). If you can’t summarize that quickly, it really makes me wonder if you really understand it. I’m not trying to No True Scotsman my way around it; I really don’t understand.

You can’t say they’re not. The even have a Chief Sustainability Officer! /s

Switch to Linux, today. It's always been the better option, but for the last decade it's been the easier option as well. Installing Linux is a walk in the park whereas windows is a Hilarious clown show from hell with no end.

That reminds me that now in the office we're dealing with windows machines where the network card just stops working, drivers are suddenly gone. Don't ask, it's windows, it's Microsoft abd this is just considered normal. If a Linux machine has a bug it's "oh my god Linux sucks sooo hard, it's impossible to get it to work!" but this Microsoft bullshit just gets handwaved away with "well computers are complicated, let's just reinstall this"

Yes, there is still a limited set of specialty hardware that may not have drivers available for Linux, but the vast majority of people can easily run Linux and have a much MUCH better experience than windows, and that is ignoring the spyware, the adware, the ads, the plain security nightmare of having a windows machine....

Switch to Linux, it's easy, it's beautiful, it's fun. Come to Linux, come to the dark side, we have cookies

People keep saying Bazzite now for distro. But as a relatively new linux user (since last summer) I've managed to make things work with Linux Mint, arch and Fedora no hassle.

Heroic launcher (GOG, Epic) or Steam will handle proton&wine for you. Just need to check a check-box in the game's config on whether you want to run native or proton.

It's better now but twenty years ago some Linux distros were so insecure out of the box that you could be fully owned if you logged into the wrong network.

Even still, I don't see most distros leverage the security capabilities that running Linux enables. Linux runs the server side of the internet, being a niche os isn't the security silver bullet it once was.

Fucking Christ, you have choices people. If windows won’t meet your needs anymore, USE SOMETHING ELSE! Why do these people pretend there are no alternatives to windows?!

Which Distro would you recommend for a relative newcomer? My PC was once “high-end” but is already a bit older (2016/17?). Still quite powerful, I guess.

Pretty sure this guy didn’t use Linux twenty years ago. Outside of very basic computing, Linux wasn’t very useful.

That reminds me that now in the office we’re dealing with windows machines where the network card just stops working, drivers are suddenly gone. Don’t ask, it’s windows, it’s Microsoft abd this is just considered normal. If a Linux machine has a bug it’s “oh my god Linux sucks sooo hard, it’s impossible to get it to work!” but this Microsoft bullshit just gets handwaved away with “well computers are complicated, let’s just reinstall this”

Ah, yes, that. I switched in 2011 and the first impressions were about how flawless everything is compared to Windows.

the plain security nightmare of having a windows machine…

Eh, about that - Linux really isn't immune to that. Just right now Windows is still by far the more profitable target.

Switch to Linux, today. It's always been the better option, but for the last decade it's been the easier option as well. Installing Linux is a walk in the park whereas windows is a Hilarious clown show from hell with no end.

That reminds me that now in the office we're dealing with windows machines where the network card just stops working, drivers are suddenly gone. Don't ask, it's windows, it's Microsoft abd this is just considered normal. If a Linux machine has a bug it's "oh my god Linux sucks sooo hard, it's impossible to get it to work!" but this Microsoft bullshit just gets handwaved away with "well computers are complicated, let's just reinstall this"

Yes, there is still a limited set of specialty hardware that may not have drivers available for Linux, but the vast majority of people can easily run Linux and have a much MUCH better experience than windows, and that is ignoring the spyware, the adware, the ads, the plain security nightmare of having a windows machine....

Switch to Linux, it's easy, it's beautiful, it's fun. Come to Linux, come to the dark side, we have cookies

Switch to Linux, today. It's always been the better option, but for the last decade it's been the easier option as well. Installing Linux is a walk in the park whereas windows is a Hilarious clown show from hell with no end.

That reminds me that now in the office we're dealing with windows machines where the network card just stops working, drivers are suddenly gone. Don't ask, it's windows, it's Microsoft abd this is just considered normal. If a Linux machine has a bug it's "oh my god Linux sucks sooo hard, it's impossible to get it to work!" but this Microsoft bullshit just gets handwaved away with "well computers are complicated, let's just reinstall this"

Yes, there is still a limited set of specialty hardware that may not have drivers available for Linux, but the vast majority of people can easily run Linux and have a much MUCH better experience than windows, and that is ignoring the spyware, the adware, the ads, the plain security nightmare of having a windows machine....

Switch to Linux, it's easy, it's beautiful, it's fun. Come to Linux, come to the dark side, we have cookies

Quick glance on my installed programs, and I count 7 apps I heavily use in windows 11 with no linux version, nor a clear equivalent that could replace them without extensive hacks that may or may not work and be a total waste of my time.

Also a funny thing: I installed Debian with KDE and then GNOME last year on another PC, and guess what? KDE & GNOME came bloated with a bunch of apps, games, office suite, code editor and other shit.

I thought the whole shtick of Linux/FOSS was that it didn't make any default choices for you. That's what I always read here when people cry about windows bloat.

The same cleanup & customization did for windows 11 I had to do to Debian KDE and then GNOME.

Point is: it's not that easy and being and insufferable jerk about it its not gonna solve it. Let people use what they want.

OK, thanks for the information, that sounds really interesting. I was playing Doom Eternal and Metro Exodus some time ago, but I made a bread and didn‘t pick it up anymore due to a lack of time. Many years ago I was also trying a bit of Linux on a Netbook (small notebook). By then it was really a different world than Windows.

However, I am not sure how easy that is to manage with getting the right Linux distribution, then Wine, then Proton and then getting all tricks and tweaks right… - I am not a tech expert, so leaving a system that works out of the box is a bit of a hurdle for me.

What would be the best Linux „Distro“ (I guess that‘s how it is called) to start with? I would prefer if I would not have to deal with command line stuff…

I currently have a modded iPod mini with 128Gb of music, around 1Gb of which was bought from iTunes.

It works perfectly fine. Remarkably so, in fact. Damn things 20 years old, I can plug it into my M2 Macbook and sync music like always.

I had an ipod that was filled with "pirated" (ripped) audio files, never owned a single itunes purchased song, and have used Windows on many computers that didnt have OneDrive setup and never experienced either of those.

Do you have some sources for those cause I'd be interested to read about them.