I like Linux better

All the other reasons don't really matter.

• boot from a btrfs snapshot
• run docker without running a second kernel
• boot an older kernel, in case something fails
• run the system completely without a gui, to save video RAM for other tasks
• distro hopping
• use multiple desktop environments
• use your computer without a mouse
• create a directory named CON
• use old hardware painlessly
• have your system not spy on you without extra effort
• create weird stacks of software raid, volume manager, disk encryption and filesystems and then boot from it
• read the kernel developer mailing list and be hyped for new kernel features like bcachefs, which will hopefully come someday

It's not only what you can do, but what it won't do to you.

Using your computer is not wrong. You shouldn't be punished for it.

Using your computer is not an imposition on someone else. You don't owe anyone for the privilege of using it. You have already paid for it. The OS vendor doesn't have a lien on it; they aren't paying you to rent ad space on your desktop.

You bought it, you own it, you can break it if you like but it's not anyone else's place to tell you what you're allowed to do with it.

Your computer is yours -- just yours -- and it shouldn't be spamming you with ads, filling itself up with junk, or telling you "you're not allowed to do that because of the OS vendor's deals with Hollywood".

I'm not anti-commerce or anti-corporate. My preferred browser is plain old Google Chrome (with uBlock Origin). I buy games on Steam. The game I spend the most hours playing on my Linux system is Magic Arena, hardly an anti-commercial choice. But that's my choice. I buy computers from Linux-focused vendors (currently System76) and I expect my computer to be mine, not the vendor's to do with what they like.

Others have already answered your specific points, which are all (sort of) possible on Windows. I would like to present a quick list of things are not possible on Windows, this is split in 3 parts: Truly impossible, Possible but so convoluted it might as well be impossible, and possible but much harder than what it should.

Truly Impossible

• Choose your preferred program for things. Sure you can do it for simple stuff like text or video, but what about my graphical interface backend, my file explorer or my DE.
• Choose your disk format. Again you can use an incredible array of (I think) 3 formats, and while I also only use ext4 on Linux I know BTRFS is there for me if I ever want to switch to a modern filesystem.
• Customise your system. Again people are going to claim that this is possible on Windows via regedit, but it's not on the same level, I can't have a Windows version stripped of controller support or wireless support if I know I'll never plug a controller or a wireless card on the machine.
• Upgrade every single component of your system in one go. Because the way programs are installed on Windows you need to upgrade each one on its own.
• Fix issues with the system, say you found a bug on Linux if you have the expertise you can 100% fix it, on Windows the best you can do is report it and hope for the best.

Almost impossible

• Using a tiling window manager
• Virtual desktops that actually work

Harder than what it should

• Customise Super+ commands
• Prevent auto updates

Soon with Plasma 6 and Wayland, you can let your Desktop crash but still keep all your Windows after the new Desktop spawned. This also means you can replace your KDE desktop with Gnome, XFCE Hyprland and some others whithout needing to logout or close applications.

Additionally you can save current states of the application with Wayland. Shit is getting so interesting right now.

Source: https://m.youtube.com/watch?si=sAlIcn5meSCDKq3K&v=jlDhpFjBWiw

Personally I don't care so much about the things that Linux does better but rather the abusive things it doesn't do. No ads, surveillance, forced updates etc. And it's not that linux happens to not do that stuff. It's that the decentralized nature of free software acts as a preventative measure against those malicious practices. On the other side, your best interests always conflict with those of a multi-billion company, practically guaranteeing that the software doesn't behave as you. So windows are as unlikely to become better in this regard as linux is to become worse.

Also the ability to build things from the ground up. If you want to customize windows you're always trying to replace or override or remove stuff. Good luck figuring out if you have left something in the background adding overhead at best and conflicting with what you actually want to use at worst. This isn't just some hypothetical. For example I've had windows make an HDD-era PC completely unusable because a background telemetry process would 100% the C: drive. It was a nightmarish experience to debug and fix this because even opening the task manager wouldn't work most of the time.

Having gotten the important stuff out of the way, I will add that even for stuff that you technically can do on both platforms, it is worth considering if they are equally likely to foster thriving communities. Sure I can replace the windows shell, but am I really given options of the same quality and longevity as the most popular linux shells? When a proprietary windows component takes an ugly turn is it as likely that someone will develop an alternative if it means they have to build it from the ground up, compared to the linux world where you would start by forking an existing project, eg how people who didn't like gnome 3 forked gnome 2? The situation is nuanced and answers like "there exists a way to do X on Y" or "it is technically possible for someone to solve this" don't fully cover it.

I can declare the complete state of my systems in a config file that I store on sourcehut with git and pull down to have a fully configured system on new hardware whenever I want it.

I can use tiling window managers.

I can work with native containers easily.

I can run an operating system that is designed to be the most useful tool it can be, not the most profitable product it can be.

Not be spied on by microsoft

Open a link in any browser i like. Say "no" to updates. Have a main menu that doesn't look like a kiosk at the mall. Have my habits on my computer kept to myself. Install applications from outside an application store. Not need an antivirus software.

Be the only user that can run code as root.

Microsoft and their "trusted partners" do not deserve closer access to my hardware than I have.

Use a system that's not a personalized ad billboard

Docker! I have never experienced a more unpleasant software than Docker for Windows.

Haha it's very easy now: I have an os with no adds.

I am the one telling the os when it updates or not and when it reboots or not.

I have a working terminal so I don't need dozens of shady softwares to do basic stuff like transferring a file on a local network.

And the biggest ones: I can disable my firewall and no defender will erase files from my computer without my consent.

Video games work surprisingly well today. Recent ones at least.

Update the OS and all installed applications using a single command.

Have an actual sane developer experience? There is a reason why almost every developer that uses Windows actually uses WSL.

Connect a printer and have it just work.

It's easier to run C/C++ compiler (GCC) on GNU/Linux

Feel Free and secure with privacy

Most if not all of these seem very easily done on windows. You can create scripts as you like and set up environment variables like vlc. Control of updates I’m not so sure about, I haven’t messed with it I just let it auto update.

Modify the software.

1. adjust the drift speed of a thinkpad trackpoint
2. stream audio from one computer to another one (or a phone) with ease (thanks pulseaudio)

I can actually use my computer on Linux!

Install software updates when you want, and not lose half the day while they install.

• Have a really good keyboard-driven desktop environment.
• Many good options for tiling desktop environments.
• Extremely good logging, enabling you to diagnose most problems.
• package manager-first approach: I don't want to manage package installations, routine updates, and dependency resolution myself. Package managers do the work for me
• extreme customizability: I choose which kernel features are turned on or off, and compile them. For example, I can compile in PS4 controller drivers
• first class support for the terminal and terminal-driven workflow
• Enhanced security system: being able to sandbox apps easily, for example.
• Enhanced transparency into the system: can easily get into the weeds of seeing why my Internet is not working.

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Use only the amount of CPU power I need, and have my stuff be top priority, rather than picking up the dregs when Windows indexing and updates and other services have a little bit of CPU to spare.

unlink

Specifically the operation of removing a file from a path without requiring the file to be unused. Open references to the file can still exist by processes.

FYI you can use LibreOffice with a ribbon-like toolbar or better yet experimental contextual groups.

Sanely use multiple workspaces.

I can use my computer without it installing software I don't want (like when Windows installs candy crush) and without it advertising to me.

1. sudo dd if=never_gonna_give_you_up.mp3 of=/dev/sda

2. Say "It's a UNIX system! I know this."

3. Make your capslock LED blink along with network activity using a built-in kernel driver

4. Fix bugs yourself

Use my system without GUI.

Pass-through hardware in Docker.

Find my hosts file without googling where it is.

Not update if I don’t want to

In a nutshell:

• Have (real) user control.

If by adobe you just mean photoshop, that works fine on linux, or you can get the version of GIMP with the photoshop menus. Wider adobe, that's a vm.

MS Word, I reckon Libre's fine but YMMV, there's office 365 anyway.

Games as noted are mostly there.

Many torrented apps : If you mean the *arrs etc, they go fine, better even (more contained, safer) in docker

Android apps: We've had Waydroid for a while now.

Hopefully that puts the FOMO to rest...

2. MS word (yeah, I don't like Libre and most of Libre Suit) it's not as good as MS suite, of c, but it's really bad.

Have you tried onlyoffice? Its interface is closer to ms office and an online version can even be self hosted and integrated with nextcloud or seefile.

It has apps for Linux and Android

https://www.onlyoffice.com/

Edit:

Here is the link to the standalone desktop app (not the online version): https://www.onlyoffice.com/desktop.aspx

And here is the link to the supported OSes for the desktop app (incl download links): https://www.onlyoffice.com/download-desktop.aspx

Finally, here is the link to the github repo of the desktop app: https://github.com/ONLYOFFICE/DesktopEditors

Possibly dumb question, but... can Windows pipe things? Like, can I pipe a grep to a text file, or send stdout to a text? Or, like, tee a command onto the end of a config? I don't use this a lot in Linux, but I have never done in Windows and literally don't know if it can be.

I found something I couldn't easily do on Linux...

I wanted to create a Shortcut to a GUI application directly on my Desktop on Linux (Ubuntu 22.04), and after fucking with Gnome extensions and googling multiple terms, I thought I was going insane. There is seriously no easy, standard, or simple way of doing that.

On Windows or macOS you can just click & drag to make a shortcut to a file, and then put the shortcut on your Desktop. Done.

On Gnome you have to manually create a .desktop file, fill it with the parameters to run the application (usually by opening a different .desktop file and copying & pasting the contents), ensure you also have Gnome configured to even allow desktop icons, and then copy the .desktop file to the Desktop.

The Gnome experience was the most-rigid, least user-friendly or user-customizable interface.

I guess the problem is that I shouldn't be using Gnome. I liked how simple & clean it is by default, but I hate how inflexible it is.

Make posts and comments about how much better it is to spend a ton of effort.

Desktop customization; I am using KDE Plasma, and I have two panels: one on the right, which has a "task manager", and the top panel which has an app-launcher, pager, clock, cpu load, and the system tray. I don't know if you can even have two panels in Windows.

Modularity: Switch whatever component with whatever you see fit. You can switch out the desktop environment you're using, switch out the sound server, the init system, the bootloader, etc.

You can update flatpaks using a bash script, you can even make a command to update system packages and flatpaks, by just adding alias update="sudo pacman -Syu && flatpak update" to your ~/.bashrc file.

ssh (out of the box)

It's simple answer, my Linux (Arch Linux) is my OS with my choice what of app I have, faster, privacy (very important), just my, not from Windows or Apple, it's my choice what I will delete, install, use, how look my desktop... And my comp is ten years old and working like new.

Compiz Fusion wiggly windows/cube

Program easily and efficiently. Not having to wait 5 minutes for a window to come. Fast boot/reboot times (less than 10 minutes). Native support for many things without having to install them. Installing is usually as easy as running an apt-get command. Not having to kill update processes because they take 100% of your disk bandwidth and starve all your other apps.

Windows feels like an ugly and sloggy system with a ton of duck tapes. Only reason I use it on my gaming laptop is for games.

Linux on the other hand just works. Nothing fancy, but it's just what someone who wants efficiency needs.

Set one mouse to left handed and another to right handed.

Manage multiple windows efficiently.

Alt + click to move and resize the windows exactly the way I want. Also, throwing windows into specific virtual desktops is smooth, efficient, fast and you can use keyboard shortcuts to jump straight to the point.

If someone knows a way to do this on my windows work computer, please please please tell me. Sluggish window management under Windows is driving me nuts.

Install quickly and without license hoopjumping.

I think an important thing to talk about here is that Linux is not Windows. Which I know is an obvious statement, but I'll elaborate.

Most deskop/laptop users use Windows. Most deskop/laptop software is for Windows. The way that most people know how to navigate an OS is Windows-centric. Windows does what most people expect a computer to do. A lot of what your focus seems to be on is if Linux can do what Windows can. And while the answer is often yes, I don't really think it's the right question.

Do you want to use Linux? If so, use it. One of things you'll have to accept with that is that you'll lose access to some of those Windows specific pieces of software. Sure, there's wine and steam/proton and you might be able to get any given thing running. But it's not a guarantee you will be able to, or that it will continue to run. If you're really beholden to Windows software, you should probably stick with Windows. If you're willing to explore FOSS alternatives to the software you're accustomed to, even if it may not work the way you expect it to, stick around. And you should, because Linux is awesome!

Upgrade without reformatting. Update without restarting.

Use the command line to do everything instead of using mouse clicks for everything. It's so annoying how much mousing you have to do on Windows even for stuff only admins/programmers would touch.

Enjoy my workflow.

It may sound glib, but I REALLY mean it.

1. You can start applications from windows command line. Depending on the program you might need to provide the full path to the executable though. Eg: Start chrome.exe
2. Windows has a (preinstalled in Window 11, optional in Windows 10) software called WinGet that will update all recognized applications via command line. Covers stuff from Windows Store, and most popular software installers. Basically acts as a Windows package manager.
3. batch files, software like autohotkey... automation can definitely be done in Windows too.
4. You mean shortcuts?
5. Pretty certain you can defer updates until the time suits, but Windows is definitely more forceful in pushing updates than Linux. There are ways of turning off updates too, but probably not without third party software or digging in regedit blindly.
6. Rainmeter could provide something similar.
7. Do you mean Command Prompt, or Windows Terminal? Terminal is actually pretty nice, and very customizable, both in terms of theme and functionality.

I run Arch Linux (btw) and have a very neglected Windows 11 partition.

I have a command set up in linux using ddcutil that allows me to tell my second monitor to swap source from HDMI (Chromecast) to DisplayPort (PC) and back as desired. No clue how I'd do that in Windows.

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Pulseaudio's networked audio devices are sick, and similarly getting your computer's headphones/mic on your phone by just connecting your phone to your computer over bluetooth is fantastic.

The paradigm of computing pushed by Linux is just plain better. Package managers, FOSS, variety of software, terminals, contribuiting, etc... these exist in Windows/Mac but idk its like they are side stuff, not the main focus.

If you wanna MS Office replacement, you can check out Only office, it looks nice, and also supports Linux iirc

Start/update your computer in seconds.

You can be root on GNU/Linux, you cannot on Windows or any other nasty proprietary OS.

Hold the meta key and click+drag to move applications around

this varies depending on Desktop Environment

But holy crap do I accidentally select text or drag files randomly around when intending to move a window (on windows)

edit: in case I wasn't clear of when my issues arise

Nothing. Also everything.

You can probably do most of not all of the things I do on Linux on a regular basis on windows just as well. But at this point I feel like I have a reverse "Windows is the default" effect going on since for me Linux has been and is the default for over 10 years.

When I start work in the morning I turn on my Linux laptop to ssh into some Linux servers (and RDP to the occasional windows servers/desktops).

After work I play games on my Linux handheld or do some work on my Linux desktop. Maybe move some files on my Linux Nas.

Like I said I could probably do all of this on windows. It would be a major change and in would have to relearn some things in addition to figuring out how to do some stuff on windows that I just never do. But at this point why even bother. There are a lot of ideological reasons to move to Linux there might be some technical reasons on either side but I just don't have any pull to use windows unless I need to (some special program/firmware updater whatever) for which I do have an install hanging around, which I boot once in 6months or so

@Subject6051 download and install at no cost, customize/change DE or not use one at all and opt for a simple window manager, use a packet manager to download and install applications

• On sway I have this setup that lets me run two instances of any lan-only game in a couch co-op side by side configuration, each window getting its own mouse and keyboard or gamepad.
• Setting up a keybind to do an arbitrary thing is so easy on sway that I'll set one up just for one task I'm working on then delete it later.
• Put a task bar on the left, the right, the top, half of the screen, the middle of the screen? Whatever, go wild.
• BTRFS with Timeshift leveraging BTRFS's COW system to give me essentially free backups that I can boot into? Saved my tailfeathers a few times.

insert uninstall bootloader meme

5. Not update my system

You can't do that on Windows, the updates are forced on you.

Flatpaks can be updated via shell scripts with something like flatpak update -y - what trouble are you having?

As for things that Linux can do that Windows can't the list is literally endless. I think the biggest one for me is that the system does what I tell it to do. I'm not begging my computer to do things, I am commanding it. I don't want my OS to think for itself and second-guess me, and I don't want my computer to tell me "no". Also, being able to use a filesystem made within the last 30 years could be considered useful depending on if you value your data. ZRAM is another neat trick that seems obvious in hindsight. Linux has all the cool experimental technology first, and it takes a long time to end up on Windows, if ever.

You can install Cygwin in windows and do everything you list but if you don’t NEED windows for something why use it?

what's the price of windows these days?

I use a single gpu that I detach from my host and reattach in a vm when I start the vm (and vice versa). I don’t think windows will enjoy a sudden lack of gpu.

I started using Linux for some Radio Astronomy project. The tools were made with Linux in mind. Running said tools would have needed cygWin. WSL did not exist at the time, but that would still be using Linux.

Customise the displayed clock. I have 3 monitors, a taskbar on each, and at least one clock on each. From left to right my clocks show:

Unix time (1695110535)
Full datetime (2023-09-19T17:32:15 +0930)
12 hour time (5:32)
Abbreviated datetime (Tuesday, 2023-09-19, 17:32).

If I wanted to, I could display the datetime as YYYY-hh-MM, ss:DD:mm. I'm fairly sure this is not possible on windows.

2. MS word (yeah, I don't like Libre and most of Libre Suit) it's not as good as MS suite, of c, but it's really bad.

Lol, I wrote my resume in Libre Office and got an interview immediately and later hired. What's so bad about it?

2. Bash scripts which updates my system (not completely, snaps and flatpaks seem to be immune to this). I am pretty sure you can't do this on Windows.

Can't you just add a line in the script

flatpak update

I have absolutely no idea what anything you listed is, other than updating the OS and other programs 🤷‍♂️

Re 5: Waydroid is a thing, although last I tried it was far from perfect.

The biggest thing for me is being able to upgrade both my system and all my software (Flatpaks + dnf/apt packages) with the click of a button in GNOME Software. Chocolatey and winget are fine, but short of enterprise tools I've yet to get nearly as painless an experience for keeping everything up-to-date.

I suggest looking glass

okay basically so many things sooo much better, first of all i can change any part of software of the os for any other one i like. I can fix my installation no matter how broken it is as long as the filse system is still intact.

you can do anything without ever using a desktop environment

You cant install windows without internet anymore. I just saw that yesterday for the first time, win 11 pro instalation didnt let me go further without ethernet cable connected

I like Linux for a lot of reasons, but the reason I was dualbooting the most was more packages for AI and the like just worked on it and I was programming.

The reason I deleted my windows partition though was I had a faulty drive that on windows ment I would crash all the time, but my Linux boot just worked for like another year on the failing disk with no issue. When I got a new drive I just installed Linux and didn't bother getting Windows again.

I have to Linux for work sometimes and the biggest pet peeve for me is that the app search bar is always slow or broken. Like it is so good on KDE, I default to superkey, search app, enter compared to opening any lists of menus.

I don't know what you mean with Adobe. It's a company not an application. Adobe Reader sucks and I don't need Adobe Pro, because I am able to use LaTeX.

Why I need a real distribution instead of a naked operating system like Windows is that it comes with ten thousands of preconfigured packages.

Then the system is transparent. I know what it does and can analyze it easily. When something doesn't work, I am able to find the cause. This is essential for me.

I don't need any shady antinvirus that hooks into the kernel, making the computer overall insecure. I generally trust the OpenSource community more than I trust Microsoft.

I also don't like ads on my system, except I subscribed to them. I pay for software and give devs money to keep projects running. But I don't want to see unrelated ads.

With Linux you can save money by going 1 tier lower on the CPU (AKA buy a Ryzen 3 instead of a Ryzen 5, and so on) than you would go on Windows, at the same performance.

And of course, you can invest that money on other components or other stuff in general. 💵

I've been an on and off Linux user for a long time, but my main OS used to be Windows. I recently switched to Linux (Arch btw) and I love it.

For my use cases, here is what I like about windows:

• Office 365
• Gaming
• Onedrive
• Just works
• touch screen and touch pad
• Hardware support
• Autohotkey (can live without)
• Software compatibility
• VR
• Parsec

Here is what I like about Linux

• Dynamic tiling window managers.
• Customization, I can have my notifications on the top right, the way I like them.
• Smooth as fuck: very fast!
• Very clever solutions (looking into NixOS currently for example)
• Terminal: fun to use and it's fast!
• Much more control over my system.

The things I dislike about windows are mainly that it's stupid slow compared to Linux and the growing presence of telemetry and ads (though I wasn't that affected). Also, I can't replace windows default shortcuts or some functionalities.

What I dislike about Linux is that there is always something that doesn't work properly. I currently have issues with DPMS. My laptop has trouble with the behavior if the touchpad, sometimes the gestures work, sometimes they don't, it depends on its mood I guess. I tried Wayland, but with a nvidia card it has a lot of issues, I had to go back to X which sucks since I really prefer the way wayland works. I'm quite technical, but sometimes the solutions don't really work.

I read a few things in this thread that I disagree with though, namely:

• You can launch apps from PowerShell (terminal)
• You can have package managers, I used scoop, choco and winget. Every app that I use can be installed and updated with those, from PowerShell.
• Pretty sure you can update your system from PowerShell, then you probably can make a script to update everything.
• You can disable auto-updates and auto-reboot in Windows. I never had my computer reboot on me and it stays open 24/7. What I liked is auto-update, but no auto-reboot. I chose when to reboot, only had a notification which was disabled when I was playing a game.
• There are options for launchers, the windows menu or powertoy run.
• You can create shortcuts (similar to .desktop) and you can also make a bat script instead of a bash script.

A lot of comments are about a knowledge deficit, not a capability deficit from Windows.

Plug in every USB i find on the ground without fear.

I like linux for development but for just using the pc for entertainment... windows is just better.

Linux and mac are wonderful for software development. I use a mac with linux VM at work

My understanding is that the Windows terminal sucks? I don't know why, it just looks bad.

Your understanding is wrong. I've tried 8 different terminals on mac, arch and kubuntu, and I miss Windows Terminal every day. It looks good and the config is a pleasure. I don't expect Linux to look pretty, but MacOS had fucking awful font rendering and it's supposed to be this upmarket OS for moneyed pricks in black turtlenecks. Was everyone in unixland busy doing drugs while Microsoft was implementing anti-aliasing? Is clear legible type for losers?