I started using foss software for everything, and one day, I realized that all the software I used was available on Linux, so I figured out I could run a foss os as well, and migrating was just straightforward.
In my case it was because Ubuntu broke on me for whatever reason (and the threat of snap packages looming).
I did not feel like putting anymore effort into getting the computer back to working so I just switched to something not Ubuntuoid at semi random to anything that promised an easy installation.
A year later and it’s still working. I’ll notify you when it breaks so you can tell me “I told you so”.
me too, but i will switch to arch or nix soon. not because it broke, just to have a frash start. after 3+ years i have a shit load of stuff i don’t really need anymore
I think it was world of warcraft. As a kid I had a very bad computer, so windows (Vista I think ?) Gave me something like 15 fps while Linux+Wine gave me 20. It already felt like wizardry that I had better performance while needing a compatibility layer.
I have also some memories of discovering a new land of freedom. When i plugged a CD from the library, Ubuntu’s default music player had a popup “wanna install anti-DRM plugins & make a copy of those tracks?”
I’ve been running Fedora for years. I tried out Arch and OpenSUSE a bit this year just to see if I was missing anything, and went right back to Fedora afterward.
Not as fussy as Arch and better package availability than SUSE (for my needs at least). Also dnf is my favorite package manager despite being relatively slow.
Privacy, Windows 11, and the fact that my system is more stable running Linux. I could count on a BSOD happening once or twice a week due to a driver issue with Windows 10. I still get strange crashes on Linux, but much less often.
I heard about it off and on, but this was the days in dial-up and downloading an ISO to install Linux was too expensive in time and bandwidth . I had discovered at my local Office Depot, a Mandrake Linux box set so I splurged on that and got my first taste of Linux then. I also was able to surf the web and learn how to install it manually, but it didn’t make any sense at all and was too complex. For Mandrake, I didn’t care for it. It wasn’t until later on when I started working with hosting sites, that I got used to Centos and Ubuntu for servers. I even had Mac OSX for a while, which taught my about the directory structure, but I went back to Windows until around 2015ish when I jumped ship and went to Linux fulltime. I worked technical support and the servers were Linux based so I had learned a lot more doing that and got very comfortable with it. I then jumped through different distros to where I am now (Arch). I firmly hold belief though that Arch isn’t the best and no distro is truly the superior one. Instead, whatever Linux distro you use, if it does what you need it to do, then so be it!
To answer the question though, what pushed me toward Linux was really the whole push toward Windows 10 being more loaded down with the pushed tracking and advertisements that comes with the Windows Territory. Plus - I grew to love the command line and it’s sort of my second home now.
I wanted to update my family PC (technically, but I don’t think anyone else apart from me used it). Windows XP licence was too expensive for me as a kid and I found a CD ROM in my library with a FOSS OS advertised on it.
Fast forward to now, and I have been using Linux almost exclusively for 15 years now (some Windows usage needed for work or gaming)
I needed something lighter than windows 7 basic on a cheap network my girlfriend at the time (now wife) bought me when we were in high school. Ended up using Ubuntu 11.10 netbook edition. After spending 5 hours getting my Broadcom wireless card working, I was hooked. Used it until that laptop died and during that time I slowly migrated all of my computers to Linux. Only kept windows on secondary drives or a different partition for the occasional time I need it.
I’ve been using Linux off and on again for the past decade.
The original reason I used Linux was because as a kid I got stuck with whatever old laptop was laying around, so my dad would install Ubuntu to make it usable.
When I built my first computer a couple years ago and started using Windows 10, that’s when Windows stopped working for me. Nothing made me want to switch more than when the major Windows 10 updates broke my software every 6 months.
There’s some small issues with the alt key behaviour in some applications (and workarounds for that), but other than that it works really well for my OS X configured brain.
I’m a primarily Windows systems administrator with about 18 years of Iat field experience.
While I initially played with Linux to get war3 running back in the day of mandrake/mandriva on and off it was only a curiosity.
But during covid with work from home windows became synonymous with work. I couldn’t sit and use my personal pc any more without a alert, a message, an email, a system in my tool stack (MSP employee). I couldn’t relax.
Then I decided to buy a second ssd and I ran just some Linux, I think popOS. I administrate and use Ubuntu servers at work and in labs a lot, so it was familiar enough to get around and wine had improved a lot. New things like lutris showed me that running overwatch and starcraft2 was possible in a wizard.
Next I learned about proton and the upcoming steam deck and the compatibility modes in steam and except for some yakuza games almost my 400 title library was unlocked in Linux.
You know what doesn’t work in Linux? Almost all my systems remote management tools. So now if I boot Linux I’m not working.
I’m not really a Linux advocate. I’m not a Windows advocate. I’m not a mac advocate. Right now I design solutions for companies and while I’m biased I’m tools to tasks minded. The right tool for the job for the workflow, that integrates correctly, and improves productivity and enjoyment of the task.
Linux fits that for my case for personal enjoyment, but can’t possibly fit my use case for my job. It allows me to be disconnected and relaxed. It gave my personal pc meaning again in a covid and sometimes post covid world.
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