Me, coder, student, cant afford mid range PCs, interested in learning computers, gamer, not professional. What about you guys?
It’s free, it doesn’t track everything you do, it doesn’t restrict your options in terms of how you use it, it runs well on underpowered machines.
Every alternative is worse.
Grew up with programming, Windows, and Visual Studio. That was fine, back then. After Microsoft released Windows 8 I knew this was so stupid and would only get stupider, that I said my next computer will have Linux. Never looked back. It’s not as good as Windows 7 unless you have really specific needs. It’s miles better than Windows 11.
It’s open source and not owned by an evil corporation. It doesn’t have ads. It doesn’t mine my data and sell it to the highest bidder. It doesn’t have AI shoved in every nook and cranny. It’s much lighter to run. I can easily run it on a 10 year old laptop.
I think I can handle the ads part, but the ‘lighter’ part, thats a good one.
Serious question: Why can you handle the ads? I’m serious. Why do you accept that something you have purchased, something you own, should be pushing ads at you? Broadcast services makes some sense, they have to make money somewhere. But something you bought? Why?
not op but people generally get desensitized to ads because they are everywhere.
corporations then sneak it in for an extra buck because they can.
Not just about delivering ads but also to track your browsing history across different sites and devices. This is why their installing flock camera alprs to capture your device signal and correlate it with things like Bluetooth headphones, smart watch, even your tire pressure monitoring system. Basically anything with RF signals.
Its called ELSAG Signal Trace and their everywhere now for use by law enforcement.
Ads are bloat aswell.
It’s not light if it has ads.
- I have the radical idea that when I own something, I should actually own it.
- I’m a software engineer, both professionally and hobby. Developing on a non Unix platform is bullshit
- HaikuOS is 20 years too late
- What is the alternative? Windows is user hostile ad infested crap, MacOS is a prettier flavor of user hostile ad infested crap. The BSDs have their place, but a daily desktop or laptop isn’t really it.
- Copyleft FOSS or GTFO
- I don’t do a massive amount of customization, but the things I do I want to have. I know that will be the case with Linux. Who the fuck knows with closed source software
- When I find a bug, missing feature, or something just isn’t right I can fix it, file a bug, or just talk to the actual human beings who wrote it. Good luck with any of that in non-FOSS unless you are spending $$$ on a corporate account.
A complete and total lack of bullshit.
If something is wrong, there’s a concrete reason, no matter how deep the cause and you can always dig far down enough to catch and deal with it.
this had been an unexpected benefit to me when I first jumped ship from Windows. Linux may be daunting to troubleshoot as a newbie, but as you learn to navigate the system’s ins and outs, it really becomes apparent how user friendlier the deeper than surface level troubleshooting is compared to Windows. you still have to build that knowledge though, no way around it.
Originally because fuck windows 10
Since then it’s the sheer joy of it all. It’s just fucking cool that a bunch of people just get together and make something that benefits everyone, with dozens of forks that allow for freedom of choice.
powershell sucks. RegEdit sucks. Start menu sucks. Can’t use Niri. Slow. Can’t use it while updating. Inverted backslashes for paths are horrible. The only useful feature is WSL, and if you get rid of all other bullshits, you get Linux.
I want to use open-source software, developed from people for people. I don’t want corporates to exploit my data and take away my freedom.
Windows decided my perfectly functional PC couldn’t run 11, and Linux Mint has no issues running. I’m not getting rid of a perfectly good computer just because Microsoft wants me to. My husband has to use Windows for work and it seems like a huge pain in the ass. I’m not into fiddling with computers, and Linux is at the point now where it feels no more complicated than Windows (and often significantly less complicated).
IT worker, close to 50 years old, only ever could afford low-mid range tech, gamer. Been using windows for over 30 years and linux for 8. Linux works better than windows and it allowed me to improve my tech skills beyond a desktop machine.
My values
I got a new PC and was really upset at the idea of putting windows on it. The ad lack of ownership of my own hardware, I couldn’t do it, and so I installed Linux (again), but this time, it stuck.
Ah, well, it is less shit than alternatives
Windows: too much ads, AI, telemetry, and just nonsense bullshit in general. MS is a malicious company and this is malicious software.
MacOS: too much Apple bloatware. It mostly stays out of the way but the fact that I can’t uninstall it makes me very angry. Also the vast majority of software requires a connected Apple account. The bigger problem is the overpriced and intentionally irreparable, unupgradable and disposable hardware which is inseperable from the software.
Linux: mostly just stays out of my way, requires no account for anything. You know, the way operating systems used to work.
I subscribe to the philosophy that information should be free, and that computing should be a collaborative effort, driven by community. The world is better when we all work together to improve it.
These days, I’m less gung-ho about the technical merits of free software; I just prefer using systems that feel like they’re trying to work for me rather than exploit me.
Cus fuck microsoft/windows, thats why.
