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Linux is a family of open source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991 by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically packaged in a Linux distribution (or distro for short).
Distributions include the Linux kernel and supporting system software and libraries, many of which are provided by the GNU Project. Many Linux distributions use the word "Linux" in their name, but the Free Software Foundation uses the name GNU/Linux to emphasize the importance of GNU software, causing some controversy.
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I have used Linux for a good while around the early 2000’s. Good memories.
Fast forward to now. Bought a new laptop with W11. hated it.
(Just imagine a long list of frustrations about W11, because I’m not going to contribute anything new by saying it) -and finally, I want my data to be mine!
And so now I get to annoy my wife about how awesome Linux is. My dad is on the train as well. We both annoy our wives with Linux.
Man I use Windows 11 daily for work and I can't stand how fucking buggy and clunky everything is. It's so bad.
Once in a while I'll boot my Linux desktop and it's just.... Bliss. Other than that I spend a lot of time on my steam deck, love that too.
proooobably should think about putting Bazzite on the gaming PC soon. but my partner is reluctant.
how's online gaming on linux going these days? the issues with anticheat are a bit of a pain.
no story, just a VM i rarely use that i wont bother upgrading to the more resource-heavy iteration because i just rarely need to run crappy software.
I’ve been using Linux and macOS since 2020. I shifted my main PC from Windows 10 back in April of 2020 right as lockdowns were hitting my locale, when I discovered how much Linux gaming had improved. I was curious to see if I could make it work for myself.
At that time, I had been interested in using Linux more frequently than on random old computers that I had lying around, but my opinions on Microsoft’s and Windows’ “quirks” were… less advanced. At that time I was unconcerned about Windows telemetry and advertising, but it also wasn’t as bad then.
It took me about a week to get everything set up and ready to go and to get settled. At first, I didn’t know if it’d end up sticking. Well, it did. I started with Ubuntu, and quickly went after Pop!_OS. I used that for a while, and eventually shifted to Garuda where I still am today.
Windows 10 end of life has almost no impact on me. My mindset has shifted dramatically since I first started using Linux on my main PC. When I used to not be bothered by Windows’ telemetry I find myself strongly off-put by it. Even macOS, which some say isn’t as bad as Windows puts me off and I’d rather not use it. Having had to set up Windows 10 for someone about a year back, I saw how much worse it got. It was insufferable.
Right now, my brother and sister in law still use Windows 10. They don’t see the problem with that. My brother specifically says he’ll just keep using Windows 10, because he “doesn’t have anything important” on it (I mentioned his Steam account has linked payment info). He’s also told me that he’d rather use Windows 11 (which he hates) than give Linux a try, a stance I don’t understand. It’s clear he doesn’t really understand the situation, and he doesn’t realize that Linux is not necessarily the difficult and unfriendly OS he thinks it is.
I’d rather him use Windows 11 than Windows 10, despite how awful I know it to be. At least there’s somewhat lower risk of nasty compromise there. I also know that he does play at least a couple games with anti-cheat that explicitly block Linux, so that introduces some complexity. But, I’m done preaching. I know how it makes me look, and I’ve tried in the past to change his mind but he’s unwilling to do so, so at this point the only way he’s going to learn is for something really bad to happen. Maybe his computer gets hit by ransomeware that took advantage of an unpatched vulnerability. That might be what it takes to finally make him do something.
I hate that it’s like this. I’ve tried to tell him about the risks. He doesn’t understand the full scale of it, and he dismisses me when I try to explain it to him. But at this point, what can I do besides say “I warned you” when something goes wrong?
Only helping those who are interested and are willing to debug things. Otherwise, windows 11 or macos it is
My windows 10 EOL story is boring, I have been running Desktop Linux for 20 years and it just works
This might push me over the edge to trying home linux. I use RHEL at work all the time. I just want to still be able to use Steam and Runescape.
Believe it not, Steam even works on RHEL if you use Flatpak.
But you are probably going to want to go for something a bit more current. Fedora or Bazzite may work for you as they use the same core layout and userland as RHEL. Fedora is the test bed for the ideas that go into CentOS that becomes RHEL.
Or are you just observing and enjoy your peace of mind because you switched already to Linux before?
Yes, that. As far as my circle of friends and acquaintances who are running Win10 are concerned, I've made the effort to advise them to switch to something newer for security reasons. They will probably switch to Windows 11, but that is their concern.
I've been using Linux for about 25 years. I completely stopped using Windows at home more than a decade ago.
I do some volunteer work for an organisation that refurbishes old computers and gives them to people who can't afford one. For the time being we're using Rufus to bypass TPM and other hardware requirements so we can install Windows 11 on everything.
We're willing to install Linux for people who want it, but unfortunately I haven't seen that happen yet. Most of our customers have no idea what an OS is. A lot of people also need Windows for education or work. There's a free course available that teaches how to use a computer and of course that is also Windows-only.
We helped one of our colleagues to install Mint on his old laptop, though.
For the time being we’re using Rufus to bypass TPM and other hardware requirements so we can install Windows 11 on everything.
Heads up, Microsoft has stated that they do not support machines that don't meet requirements and that those machines may stop receiving security updates at any time.
The EoL doesn’t affect me. I use Linux and Mac. My work pc is windows 10 but that’s their problem.
My roommate refuses to move on. I flat out gave him an old surface pro X with win11 and a spacious new SSD. I offered to migrate him to fedora and teach him how to use it. I offered to help him pick out a new pc if he wants. No, he’ll just keep waiting 20 minutes for his old crusty Dell to boot up, then another 10 to load chrome. For updates, he said he’ll just download hacks as people post them online.
All his shit is on its own VLAN now.
Switched to Mint over a year ago from win 10 on my desktop and my wives laptop, we both love it. It was fresh, user friendly and familiar in the same time. To be fair we are pretty much average users without any specialized needs, other than gaming.
Later this year I built a new gaming pc 100% with Linux in mind. I am running Bazzite on it and it works absolutely amazing. Bazzite is currently my favourite distro. Im not a distro hopper or a big tinkerer myself, don't have time for experimenting, so not planning to switch. It just works perfectly.
I hosted an endof10.org event at my local public library. Advertised like crazy, posting flyers around town, posting online, etc. I had over 30 USB installers ready to go with Debian 13. I was worried that I was advertising too much and wouldn't have room for everyone.
Only 2 people showed up, and neither were prepared to go through with an install. In a town with well over 70k people and a major university, I expected more.
Now I'm thinking an event like this would only be viable in a major metropolitan area.
In my circle of friends and family, I only knew of one person who was faced with the Windows 10 dilemma, and he chose to purchase new hardware (granted he's nearly 80 years old).
The crazy thing is that Windows 11 may feel more foreign than Linux Mint would have. It depends what he uses his computer for. My guess is the web and maybe printing.
Yeah nobody in real life really cares about this. Anyone techie enough has already replaced their system and runs Win11, or has already switched to Linux themselves.
Anyone not techie enough doesn't care and will continue using Win10 (or just follow the Windows nagging and buy a new PC from Best Buy).
Yeah....and I think there's also a chunk of the non-techie population who are getting by with just their phones now.
Unfortunately the average person doesn't care about this stuff. Good on you for putting on the time and effort though.
Installed bazzite on my son's gaming laptop, it works perfectly well and he really likes the ricing.
Good for him!
The bazaar on bazzite is really convenient for the non-power user
Transitioned my moms computer to Windows 11, 11 months go. Pretty easy. Her computer was originally for Windows 7 and is still fully supported. Her computer will always be Windows as I'm not local and other people have to be able to support her too. It is also what she knows. I love Linux but it is not for everyone.
Macbook/Linux user here: People (And organisations/governments) who are reasonably skilled with technology will understand that on hardware which can't use windows 11, and is stuck with windows 10 without security updates need an alternative operating system. When institutions switch to linux, they will likely contribute to the opensource project, and overall bring the user base numbers up, which will make more software developers add support for linux.
But while this should happen, it might work in microsoft's favour, (Like when Netflix stopped password sharing) meaning people, who are used to windows will just buy new windows 11 machines, overall increasing microsoft's company value. Microsoft also supports the Israel military during the genocide, and Bill Gates personally supports Trump and had close ties with Epstein, so it would be best if the general public does an accident, or purposeful boycott. Personally I buy secondhand stuff and put linux on it, if you want new stuff either buy a mac, or buy one of those new linux machines from Lenovo?
Microsoft will for sure benefit here.
Many users, especially businesses, will simply upgrade.
Some will pay for the ESU.
Some will sign up for cloud backups.
All these benefit Microsoft.
Some fairly small number will work around Microsoft’s plan by upgrading Windows 11 where they are not supposed to or finding a way to get the updates for free.
Sure, probably the biggest fraction of users will probably do nothing. But they were already doing nothing for Microsoft so nothing changes in this case. Of anything, the load in Microsoft servers goes down a bit.
So ya, Microsoft has little incentive not to charge ahead.
I had already dabbled in Linux on and off years back. I already wanted to switch, but I'm a moron at computer stuff, so Linux was always a bit out of reach. Too much to learn and memorize for the basic things I needed it for. (addendum: We're talking about 25 years ago)
But Win 10 annoyed the piss out of me. Like, to the point of breaking my laptop in a fit of explosive anger. I'm not usually a "throw-the-controller" kind of guy. But that shit got to me.
So around the time Win 11 was first announced, I decided to give Linux yet another shot. And lo and behold, I found Mint. Everything was setup and streamlined exactly for a moron like myself. It was literally easier and more straight forward than Windows.
And with a little bit of reading and copy/pasting commands smarter people than myself have written around the internet, pretty much any problem I've encountered have been solved within a few minutes.
So I recommend Mint to anyone looking for alternatives to Win 11.
It has been good to me.
And a big Thank You to all the glorious nerds that take the time to not on only make this, but also take the time to help us hapless dummies fix the small problems we encounter in the process of switching.
I used windows 10 on my gaming PC for many years. I "upgraded" to 11, and it felt bad. The UI/ux was tolerable, but between the AI features and everything requiring a Microsoft account, it got on my nerves quickly.
I literally just wanted to upgrade the firmware on my Xbox one controller (so it'd work in Linux..) and that forced a login. At that point I logged in, upgraded my controller, formatted as ext4, and now I rarely look back.
Every once in a while a game will crash or not be playable on Linux, but I'd trade that for being in control of the hardware I've spent thousands on over the years.
Very happy with bazzite on my htpc and a kde based distro on my main computer. I pop over to my MacBook for casual computing, but for the real stuff I'll never use windows again (barring being forced by future employers)
I moved to mint about a year ago since my hardware is too old to run 11. I'm glad I made the switch and wish I had done it sooner. I'm never going back 😁
installed fedora cinnamon on my grandparent's laptop a few days ago and got a friend turned from 10 to mint. been using mint on my gaming rig, server and media PCs for over two years. also wife requested mint on her laptop, so no windblows devices left in the house then
My grandfather asked me about Linux, but unfortunately, he’s still using Photoshop for now.
Get him to check out Krita. It has Photoshop style binds but they're missing a few things gs you'll have to set... But depending on what he does with Photoshop and how adaptable he is, it could be a viable solution.
Mostly, he uses Photoshop for printing, though, and I don’t know if Krita has as powerful a printing dialog.
That I'm not sure... I've never used it to print.
I switched to Linux about a year ago. I was a windows power user and now I'm a Linux noob, but couldn't be happier.
I hate to say it, but there's still reasoning to have Windows. I use a VM with ameliorated windows running for the few things I can't get away from.
For others, I tell them my story. Most people I talk to won't or can't make the switch, which I'm respectful of. To those that would benefit, I recommend at the minimum O&O Shutup but highly recommend ameliorated. This has been more welcomed.
People won't care until they have a reason to care. I'll still be around when they do.
but there’s still reasoning to have Windows
For sure. There's a lot of software that's built for Windows only. I have some Garmin aviation software that only works on Windows or Mac. It's pretty shit software, but I have to use it, and since I can do windows in a VM, that's what I use. Similarly, there's another bit of software I use all the time that's only built for iPad. So I have an iPad for that app. There's not always a choice.
I've finally swapped over my main personal (gaming) PC 6+ months ago. Should've probably done that a lot sooner, but lazy. I knew I wouldn't upgrade my Win 10 to 11, and didn't wanna wait until the last minute, but have fallback options and time to distro hop if needed.
I'm not new to Linux at all, as most servers I'm running (personally or in my job) are Linux based. Debian, usually, cause servers. But I haven't used a Linux desktop in well over 20 years.
My choice fell on CachyOS, as I wanted something pre-configured for performance/gaming/wine, but kinda dislike fedora (rules out Bazzite, Nobara, and actual fedora). Also in the running was PikaOS, but I tried CachyOS first and stuck with it. I had no experience with Arch, but what a brilliant base that turns out to be for me. Love the rolling up-to-date-ness and AUR accessibility. I'm used to having to contort myself to get a more current version of software, possibly compiling from source and screwing with dependencies, but everything is literally just there and up to date. Critically, all games basically just worked. Everything just worked. EXcept all mail programs suck to an unexpected degree, but that is literally my only complaint.
I do use the EoL of win 10 as an opportunity to get people to move over or at least try it out. Depending on their use case, I usually still recommend Mint for non-technical people, mostly because searching for help from a Windows convertee likely finds appropriate solutions. The more technical ones get personalized recommendations, depending on context. For example I do have a colleague who spends half his day complaining about anything Microsoft, but still uses Windows at home, but that is mostly because of a single piece of software (and so far I haven't been able to get that to run, but haven't tried very hard yet either).
EXcept all mail programs suck to an unexpected degree, but that is literally my only complaint.
What's wrong with Thunderbird/Betterbird?
Moved family mostly to Zorin. I stay with Tumbleweed.
Keeping Windows on dual boot for some edge cases. For the app or two that doesn't run with Linux I keep Windows in a virtual machine (which sadly I need once or twice a day).
95% of my daily business runs on Linux.
Now I wish my phone would do that too.
Never had Win10 in the first place. I did upgrade from 7 to 11 using the same product key. I would gladly run Linux but have yet to understand why no Debian live media would ever boot on my main laptop
Probably secure boot, if you deactivate it in the BIOS it should work, maybe
I got my new laptop back in April, had a Windows 11 preinstalled (I wish it wasn't the case, it would've been cheaper but it's very rare to find OS-less PCs in my country)
Anyway, I prepared a Fedora installation before the laptop got home, booted Windows once to make sure everything (regarding hardware) works, and the rest is history.