This became relevant specially after 2023
The short version is 2 reasons:
- Microsoft requires Windows 11 computers to have special new hardware that not all computers have. Security updates for Windows 10 ends in 3 months. Many people are faced with a choice of buying a new computer, or installing Linux on their current one to save money. Others realize how much Windows 11 sucks shit and switch because Linux is better.
- Gaming on Linux has gotten a lot better recently. For many people, this was the main thing holding them back. Software support in general is better than ever.
You’re in a linux loving, windows hating bubble here on Lemmy. There is no significant number of people migrating from windows to linux according to any metric we have.
Linux is growing according to the data, but at a slow pace https://www.gamingonlinux.com/steam-tracker/#engsplitanchor
https://www.pornhub.com/insights/2024-year-in-review#devices-tech
But according to PornHub… so is Windows
Copilot. Win11 working only on mew hardware. Win10 going out of support. Basic bloated operation with little concern for what users want.
Because Valve showed people that linux is not so bad after all. Might be also that people can ask ChatGPT for help and Microsoft is financing it’s own funeral.
There are a few different factors. I think the biggest is that the lifecycle for windows 10 is ending. Microsoft is pushing the upgrade, but 11 has Recall which is essentially AI spyware. Many folks are trying to push Linux instead of upgrading when support is fully cut off
I switched a year ago, after trying and failing multiple times over the years whenever I gave it a try.
- Linux has massively improved, systemd is a lot cleaner than the mess of disparate shell scripts it displaced. Network Manager is also a lot nicer now than I remember it being when it was first introduced into Red Hat.
- Windows hasn’t, in a lot of ways it was actually regressing. I used to get multiple shell crashes a week with no insight as to why, friends would claim it was just me but then receive an update and start having similar crashes. Also noticeable UI issues that went unfixed for multiple revisions, made it felt cheap.
- MS went all in on AI garbage and was jamming it into everything, kept getting popup notifications and the like to try Copilot, notifications went from being useful to just being an ad delivery mechanism.
- Gaming on Linux massively improved, last time I tried it OpenGL support was a mess. Now OpenGL is very mature, and all the D3D translation stuff uses Vulkan which has been rock solid for me. I’ve found games run better than they did on Windows on the same hardware, and the only game I’ve had an issue with was Destiny 2, which is intentional on the devs behalf (Luckily the game’s boring now)
I find I’m a lot more willing to let issues slide though, like I’ve had some Thunar crashes which I’m cool with since there’s like 4 devs maintaining it, vs. the multi-billion dollar company working on Explorer which I expect better from. Also unsurprisingly the only actual shop-stopper issue I’ve had was with a memory leak in the Nvidia drivers, the actual FLOSS stuff has been great.
Because windows won’t do with old laptops and 3 years is apparently enough to consider a laptop old nowadays.
I can only answer why I dropped Windows. I wasn’t going to pay a company to force AI spyware onto my system, ignore my commands with every update that negated them, or hold my data hostage if I didn’t jump through their endless hoops; all to claim my data as theirs with their end goal being to charge me more money for accessing what is supposed to be mine in the first place!
Pretty much this for me too, only I already switched in 2002. It really wasn’t that hard leaving windows behind, even back then
This. The minute I figure out how to gracefully migrate my VMs off of Hyper-V I’m done with it. My kids’ machines would already be migrated if they weren’t Roblox enjoyers.
There are tools for converting Hyper-V drives to vmdks that everything can read. Then just fire up new kvm instances and load the disk images.
For Roblox, there’s Sober. It works (IIRC) by putting the android version of Roblox in a container and passing the appropriate system calls to the Linux machine. It doesn’t need to worry about issues with Roblox’s Byfron anticheat since Byfron hasn’t been implemented there (yet).
Honest question: can Roblox be played via Steam in a Linux pc?
It does look like Roblox is trying to kill the Linux workarounds, though. But to me that’s a reason to drop Roblox, not Linux.
The fact they keep trying harder and harder to make me switch off a local account is reason enough.
Windows 10 is no longer receiving security updates
Not all machines that ran W10 are capable of running W11
W11 is full of AI integration, always-on data collection, and other no-sell bloatware
Linux is easier to use than ever and free
Windows 10 is no longer receiving security updates
I thought it was until October?
Windows 10 is no longer receiving security updates
W11 is full of AI integration, always-on data collection, and other no-sell bloatware
Windows 10 is the exact same BS, but 10% less in your face AI. Have people really been frog boiled this badly?
Much of that dubious functionality can be turned off in Win10. Not so in AI heavy Win11
Linux is free? I think you need to have a talk with the folks over at IBM about RHEL or the folks over at EQT about SLES
Even the companies behind paid distros tend to release free versions. What they’re really charging for is support.
Free as in freedom. But also free as in cost for most PC use cases. Red Hat and SUSE are mostly selling enterprise services.
Well this ain’t true lmao. Win 11 is almost the same as 10. I have 0 “ai integration” on my PC. I don’t even have cloud files on one drive. And the most “bloatware” are just windows apps like calendar or contacts etc which can just be uninstalled.
Linux is also not easier to use than ever, you still need to Google every day basic functions like installing programs etc and you still have to learn terminal commands. Like cool you feel that way about windows I guess but you’re spreading misinformation
And the most “bloatware” are just windows apps
The Windows 11 Pro edition at my work had an entry for Whatsapp in the start menu after a fresh install…
This “Pro” edition had a popup ad for one of Microsoft’s games pushed as a notification. Literally a popup ad for a game coming from the Professional edition of Windows. Something my company paid extra for.
I have 0 “ai integration” on my PC.
I’m constantly playing wack-a-mole with Copilot. It’s even in Notepad by default…
Yeah, there is a reason my home PCs are all Linux Mint.
The Windows 11 Pro edition at my work had an entry for Whatsapp in the start menu after a fresh install…
That’s just a stub, an “ad”. Whatsapp isn’t installed. You can just right click and delete that shortcut.
I’m constantly playing wack-a-mole with Copilot.
Why do you not want copilot to even exist on your computer?
Idk why you have those issues. I disable copilot. I disable all taskbar add-ons, I disable and remove all notifications on the bottom right corner. I disable one drive. I have received 0 pop up ads for the entirety of windows 11 at home and at my full-time job. My wife’s computer is the same way as mine and she knows way less about to do anything but open steam and play some games.
Needing to go through and disable all the stuff sounds like managing bloat to me, no?
I’m personally angry that we have ads on the default minesweeper and solitaire. Gross
No. These are options you select when first installing windows.
There is no way to install windows fresh, have all of those items disabled, and have all of the bloat uninstalled without creating a custom image.
The problem is that Microsoft doesn’t honor your wishes. There is no button you can click that says, “opt me out of all AI and cloud data features.” You can disable apps, buttons, and tracking today, but there will be new ones out tomorrow. And there may be a period of weeks or months of them sucking your data up before you figure out what they’re tracking and how to shut it down.
Like cool you feel that way about windows I guess but you’re spreading misinformation
The first time you try Linux, you will have to take a little time to learn something that is new and unfamiliar to you. But this was true of the first time you tried Windows too.
The point is that it really isn’t hard to learn, and today it absolutely is easier than ever.
You may have disabled copilot, but it installed and integrated into the Win 11 operating system. It takes 1 update to re-enable it without your consent. If there weren’t precedent, that wouldn’t really be a valid argument, but it wouldn’t be the first time it’s happened.
Linux Mint is easier to use out of the box than any version of Windows. It is 100% usable without typing a single terminal command. If you learn apt-get, it extends functionality and is basically 1 command, which again, is optional.
To install applications it’s as simple as opening Software Manager, selecting the app, and installing. The app store is better than whatever windows has installed by a country mile.
On a fresh install it has a full libre office suite, all of the basic apps like calculator, and many others. If you don’t want that, it can be prevented at installation.
It is inherently more secure, and updates won’t revert settings or install malware like Windows updates.
Major version updates will always support old hardware. There will never be a situation like Windows 11 not supporting older hardware.
The only thing the Windows has over Linux is proprietary apps for a lot of products. For the average and most above average users, that’s irrelevant. There are options for most fields but not all. For most people, life exists in a web browser, and that works better on Linux.
Linux Mint is easier to use out of the box than any version of Windows.
How so? Definitely isn’t if you have an Nvidia GPU.
Actually, it is. Anecdotally, I’ve never had an issue with my Nvidia card playing any games. Nvidia is certainly not as good as AMD, but it’s not as bad as the memes make it seem. In the past year they’ve worked more with Linux developers to provide better drivers. Not perfect, but it’s at least stable.
Installing the Nvidia drivers on Linux isn’t anymore difficult than it is on Windows.
If you haven’t used Linux within the last at couple of two years, then your experience is outdated and not relevant. There have been huge QoL improvements over that time.
you still need to Google every day basic functions like installing programs etc
To be fair, I had to do that when I tried macOS for a while years back. That is just part of learning to use any new operating system. But after a while, once you understand the basics, you will no longer need to use a reference for the basics. Linux is no different in that regard.
you still have to learn terminal commands
The only time I use the terminal is for things that are just simpler to automate via a command line. Things that I would be using a command line to achieve if I were using Windows/macOS. The kinds of things that I do in Termux on Android.
Only time I use command for windows is when I have to format a drive that doesn’t show up in disk management. On Linux I had to use terminal so much. And not to mention the god awful support for gpus. My latest headache was only one display of two would work and the other would be back unless I did a mirror, or turn down my refresh rate to 60 (both are 180hz) Oh it made me so mad lol. I give Linux an honest try at least once a year but this year it just completely fucked up a separate hard drive that has windows. Idk what happened but I put bazzite on an isolated 1tb drive, and it completely deleted my windows boot loader. I had no choice but to reformat, lost everything. Not a huge deal to some but as a music producer it was a huge huge loss. (Now I am going to just run off external drives for thet)
You absolutely didn’t have to format your windows drive to fix the missing bootloader issue. That’s like burning down your house because you lost your keys.
I tried for 3 days to fix it lol. Nothing worked. Even windows recovery didn’t do anything
Not to mention doesn’t play nicely with GPUs made by the overwhelming market leader, nvidia.
Uh, he right though. If you think you have to use terminal and google for everything in Linux… that’s just nonsense. Lol
I made the change a couple years ago and Linux runs circles around Windows now and is pretty easy to use.
If you’re happy with windows, use it. I’m not going to waste any brain cycles arguing against someone else’s computer preference. But quit with the terminal and hard to use shit with Linux. That shit is about a decade outdated. I can’t even think of the last time I have needed to use terminal.
Linux Mint is exactly as easy to use as Windows, if not easier. In Windows you also needed to google every day basic functions, but I guess for you personally that was so long ago that you don’t remember. On Windows you also need to use the terminal for some things, like removing some of their bloatware (xbox bullshit, for example).
There are some specific points I kind of agree with you about, but I don’t agree with your general sentiment. Linux is easier to use than ever.
In Windows you also needed to google every day basic functions
You do? Like what?
On Windows you also need to use the terminal for some things, like removing some of their bloatware (xbox bullshit, for example).
Or you can just leave it and not use it, disable it, or delete it from the add or remove apps settings menu.
Why does something simply being there but not used bother you guys so much? I don’t get it - especially when it’s so easy to disable them through the menus they give you.
Linux and Windows are probably just equally as difficult to use to the average user. Might as well go Linux with less obnoxious features like copilot and recall. My dad was a Windows user for many many years, but he still knew zilch about how to solve problems in Windows. The average user would need to google anyway, no matter which OS.
And with the right distro (Linux Mint for example) you would have zero interactions with the terminal. Everything’s done via the GUI, just like Windows.
I’ve had to interact with weird things in Windows lately which I had to google up like ‘open the run programs and type in srvcmngmt.msc’ or whatever that was again. Something that apparently couldn’t have been done via the GUI. Great job!
For the record I am still mainly a Windows user.
This is not happening in the wider world, not on any appreciable scale. Here comes lemmy:
“NOAW! People ARE switching in DROVES!”
LOL, the vast majority of people can’t spell Linux.
Some people are switching and the Linux user base is growing at a reasonable pace though
https://www.gamingonlinux.com/steam-tracker/#engsplitanchor
https://www.pornhub.com/insights/2024-year-in-review#devices-tech
Source?
I don’t know, just noticed that the Linux userbase is growing significantly
Where? Here? This is a Linux echo chamber (not that it’s bad).
That’s just the steam deck. That doesn’t really count as “people switching to linux”.
Is that an avg of 1% growth over 7 years?
According to Steam: in the last 3 years there has been 150% growth in Linux users
And according to Pornhub, in 2024 there was a 41% growth in Linux users.
According to Steam: in the last 3 years there has been 150% growth in Linux users
Steam deck.
And according to Pornhub, in 2024 there was a 41% growth in Linux users.
Steam deck.
It’s good regardless of which device is driving this, but I don’t think people are watching that much porn on the steam deck
recently switched from macos to arch linux and ive never been so happy with an OS
For me it’s because it seems evident that Microsoft wants Windows to be saas and here’s the thing: I don’t like Windows that much. For over 20 years now, I’ve preferred Linux for server stuff and Mac for daily driver stuff, I’ve only tolerated Windows, mainly for gaming.
Since Windows 7 died (I skipped 8 altogether and reluctantly have been dealing with 10 with lots of hacks to keep it locked down), I have only been barely tolerating it - and games were the sole reason.
Well, Proton has now obliterated that, conveniently right as Microsoft has decided that what people REALLY need is for them to be 100% shit. I refuse to install 11. So I’m out.
The user experience. The Windows user experience just gets worse and worse while Linux gets better and better.
