I ran Manjaro Linux as my daily driver a few years ago but slowly phased it out for Windows for some reason, and I’m finally back using Linux (currently Linux Mint). I gotta say, I don’t know why I ever switched back to Windows. There’s just so much freedom Linux gives you right off the bat that Windows is just plain stubborn about. The final straw for me was a couple weeks ago when Microsoft added a Copilot (Bing AI) Shortcut to my Windows 11 taskbar. They’d already added ads to my start menu and preinstalled a bunch of garbage that should be opt-in, not opt-out, so I was just fed up with it at that point. Plus, Linux is so much more customizable. Been running Mint for about a week and a half now, and honestly, I don’t think I’ll be using Windows much anymore.
I switched from ubuntu to osx, and then from osx to Windows when they added wsl as that seemed as close to Linux as I needed.
Eventually, windowses windowsness wore me down, too. I don’t much care about the freedom of linux, I don’t want to tweak and customise things. I just want an os that is focused on being an environment for me to run my Web browser and run my tools.
Just get out of the way and let me do my nonsense
this is basically why i ditched android and switched to iphones.
at the end of the day i need my phone to be a phone more than i need complete control over everything.
same with the PC OS. i like Linux, i like Windows, under some circumstances i even like MacOS. at the end of the day it really doesn’t matter what OS i’m using, so long as the software i need to run, runs.
I mean having control over everything also means you have control to not exercise control. Android as a phone OS, depending on what the phone manufacturer has changed, has pretty sane defaults. I can’t say I’ve ever seen the need to switch to iPhones. My Android phone works excellently as a phone.
You should take some time to look at fsf.org and gnu.org and read up is what Free Software is. It is literally the most important set of principles in the history of computing.
Without these principles, your Linux system would not exist.
It’s well worth your time.
Yhat sounds like youre looking for an OS in long term support mode. Not a good idea to use consumer OS for that purpose, as new features would always be added to retail operating systems.
Where would you recommend a complete Linux noob start after having used Windows his entire life?
I’m in your boat: I want an OS that works (more or less) and will let me browse, listen to music and occasionally fire up a game or two without forcing new money grabbing crap down my throat.
I enjoy troubleshooting strange issues now and then, but if it’s a daily occurrence I’m not interested.
Thank you in advance!
just grab Ubuntu or Linux Mint, and ignore everyone who seems mad about things.
Linux Mint is based on Ubuntu, but it’ll feel more at home for a windows user. Ubuntu is a good base because they include drivers that make hardware work, but aren’t open source. a lot of linux os’s don’t do that and it just makes life harder.
Aside from that, if you have a Nvidia gpu it’s going to be a pain and there’s not a lot you can do about it, nvidia sucks on linux. If you want to install an app, use https://flathub.org/ - it’ll make life easier in the long run to just install things from there.
I’d say Debian has closed the gap, now that Bookworm and onwards include nonfree firmware by default
While Nvidia isn’t as great on Linux as other cards. It generally works. It’s pretty much fine on Xorg, slowly getting there with Wayland. At least using Nvidia with Hyprland which wlroots based Wayland compositor worked for most cases.
this is the part where it doesn’t work well and you are doing all these hoops to try and get something usable ;) what you consider “pretty much fine”, “getting there”, “worked for most cases” is all annoying and broken for others
compared to intel and amd, nvidia on linux is awful and full of roadblocks - i’ll always recommend people stay away if they are going to use linux unless they are comfortable with all the pain
Cheers!
I’ll dual boot Mint then.
But you should care, Linux is for those that care.
No, it isn’t. it’s a kernel for people to use, and the surrounding ecosystem is still just something for people to use.
You enjoy the niche of ultra freedom, good for you. Have fun. Don’t say that other people have to enjoy what you enjoy.
Even the license disagrees with you.
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You should take some time to look at fsf.org and gnu.org and read up is what Free Software is. It is literally the most important set of principles in the history of computing.
Without these principles, your Linux system would not exist.
It’s well worth your time.
Hi, I’ve been around linux and free software since likely before you were born, Theres a good chance that if you use gui software on linux today you are using some of the code I’ve written.
Please don’t lecture people like this, it’s offputting and insulting.
Sadly most Linux users today seem totally clueless as to what the Free Software Movement is. They just see it as another OS. This point of view will see Linux eventually become as full of proprietary junk as the other OS’. Or even proprietary itself.
I’ll stop now, but this is a free speech platform. People are free to ignore me. No one is forcing them to read this.
Lastly, thank you for all your hard work on the code. Appreciate it. 👍