Those of you who still use windows for one reason or more, where do you draw the line about the shitty things microsoft is doing? By drawing the line I mean using some other operating system no matter how bothersome it might be.
Not judging or anything, i’m just curious where the general mindset is about it.
Already drawn. Recently switched to linux on my work laptop. And I work with my supporting M365.
As a mechanical engineer, I have bad news for y’all…
When I can reliably get Game Pass to run on Linux, or if Game Pass becomes not worth it.
Hmm, i might have written my question slightly wrong, since i wanted to know what would the the proverbial last straw microsoft does to make someone switch away from windows, while they currently dont plan on switching 😅
But these are good answers too.
I drew the line at “Ads in the start menu,” and fully switched when a game that I’ve played on and off for ~15 years started working on Linux. I’ve been using Linux for most of my life, but I uninstalled Windows for the last time about 4 years ago
I haven’t made the switch off of Windows, but I have started dabbling in Linux. I am ok with tech, better than the average person, but I don’t know anything about programming or coding or any of it. I have a Raspberry Pi, some other electronic stuff, and a book that is project based teaching of python. I’ve spent the last month or so reading up on self hosting, Linux, and other open source stuff.
My biggest hesitation is World of Warcraft. It’s the only game I play, it’s the only game I’ve ever really played, and I don’t want to lose access to that. I have started looking into how wow is run on Linux. But I’m not ready to fully switch yet.
You can play WoW on Linux, though there may be a few extra hoops to jump through when installing the BattleNet client. Hell, there was even a test case where someone got it running on their SteamDeck as a proof of concept.
It runs in Wine or Lutris, which acts as a compatibility layer. The compatibility layer doesn’t emulate Windows directly. It just translates the Windows-specific stuff into something that Linux can use, and vice-versa. That’s why lots of games can actually run better on Linux, because you’re running a Windows native program without fully emulating Windows. So you don’t have all of the Windows bloat that tends to bog down gaming PCs.
I just can’t get my steam to run with lutris.
Oh I know, I’ve been looking into it recently. I remember days when gaming was the sole reason for not switching to Linux, but I’m also aware that it’s improved a lot since then.
I’m sure I can get it working, but I don’t feel comfortable switching completely until I’ve played with Linux a bit, which is exactly what I’ve started doing. I’ve started backing up documents and files onto separate hard drives so I can prepare to switch, I’m just not quite ready yet.
I’ve played it on Linux by installing Battle.net through Lutris. There are guides specifically about how to do it.
Yeah, I’ve started reading the guides on how to install it. Wow is the one thing that has really given me pause, the only thing really. But Windows is getting so frustrating that I am actually making myself comfortable with Linux so I can switch.
Do you have any guides specific you would recommend?
the line is when I can do everything I need to do in a better operating system. why would it be anything else
im using Arch btw
My gaming desktop is only running Windows out of inertia at this point. Windows 10 LTSC specifically; I’m just waiting on the security updates to stop. Everything else in my house is already running something better.
I can give my historical experience. Early 2025, I saw horrific articles on Copilot and decided to switch early. I had a bad distro hopping experience. First tried Linux Mint, might have been a slightly old install, but even my wifi didn’t work. Tried a later install, and it was much better, but game performance wasn’t great. Hitman WOA didn’t even load levels. Helldivers 2 had an annoying white border (I eventually fixed this a year later using an odd hack)
I then tried Bazzite. I didn’t quite like the layout, but it functioned. I had a hard time installing apps; it tried to simplify this with various virtualization/containerized solutions, but it meant so many tutorials for basic native-Linux apps didn’t work.
When W10 EOL came around, I tried another distro well touted: CachyOS. It was very smooth. I learned it’s Arch, same as the Steam Deck, and does have some “technical complexities” which I felt I wanted to avoid, but I guess in the end it’s been nothing I’m not a little used to from my work as a programmer. It mostly uses okay UIs for system settings, and some programs require you to use another package installer rather than their default “Octopi”. Some of my early issues came from installing Flatpaks rather than Arch User Repository items.
Games have been fantastic. Rarely when something uses video I need ProtonGE, which is an easy toggle; I should probably just make it default. Helldivers 2 and Division 2 seem to run better than on Windows.
The biggest decider has been: Changing to Linux was NOT annoyance free. There was transition, there was fiddly configuration, and I replaced some apps I use. A key thing is, Windows was quickly moving away from being annoyance free - stuffing Copilot and OneDrive ads into EVERYTHING. So, even accepting a few Linux struggles ended up being an overall lesser frustration.
At first I expected cachy to be just arch with calamares and kde but when I checked they even have their own kernel version. Very sophisticated.
I use Windows 11 as a desktop OS, mostly because it came preinstalled on the laptop, a bunch of apps run on it (Affinity, some photography stuff, Clip Studio Paint, and FL Studio mostly - and I’m aware Davinci Resolve has a linux port but installing it looked like a pain and a half), and for early part of its existence, I thought Windows 11 used to be kinda good actually. …Bunch of really silly stuff on Microsoft’s part has happened since, though, and it has made me very grumpy toward them and I think they’re really busy - what do the kid say these days? - losing the plot.
I already dialed back my Xbox subscription (guys, you don’t hike a price by over 100€ a year when the price was already damn high!), and already dialed back my Office subscription (yeah I don’t need Copilot, thanks) and will probably cancel it altogether next time the bill is due. …oh and my game purchases have mostly gone to Steam lately.
I use Linux (Debian variants) almost everywhere else, currently on a junk desktop PC (Debian/KDE) and Raspberry Pi 4, mostly for development stuff. I don’t think there’d be a huge pain in the neck in moving to Linux again, especially since I already use a lot of open source apps (and I’ve generally preferred software with sensible purchase terms, etc), but it’s not a huge pressing issue right now.
I use windows because the fire code mandates it, and cause having sunlight in rooms is nice. Also I can see the weather and when the mail arrives.
My dog’s use Windows to spot their dreaded enemy, the squirrel.
We will never be able to repay them for this vigilance
I’ve never seen an EMR that runs on Linux and if I did I’d have to find an employer willing to run it.
Eight-axis Milling Rig?
I have a PC running Windows 11 Professional that I use exclusively for gaming. It works fine for that and it doesn’t annoy me with OneDrive or Copilot etc.
I’m open to switching to Linux on that machine if Windows starts to annoy me, but as it stands Windows runs all my games without issues and I can’t be arsed messing with things that aren’t broken.
I wouldn’t dream of running Windows on a computer used for anything other than gaming though. Currently I use a Mac as a daily driver, but I’ve also used Linux in the past. The main reason for using macOS is that I spend too much time messing with computers at work to want to do it in my free time too. The Apple ecosystem makes it easy to have everything integrated without much effort. I’m aware it’s probably an unpopular opinion around here.
I’d estimate about a month or two adjustment period of being involved in computer focus depending on what you need to setup.
It can shorten down to weeks if it’s just a basic setup.
After that you’re just booting up and using just like you would with windows or Mac.
Just occasionally gotta open a shell and type dnf update && upgrade to run an update. That’s about the extent of it if you’re going super basic.
I have no more excuses, the line has already been crossed. I was getting ready to move over to Linux last year, but this is the real year. I had to move houses and it cost a bit more energy then expected. I now expect to give my final good-byes to proprietary PC operating systems this feb/march.
I use a streamdeck combined with soundpad software as a soundboard on W10/11, and that functionality is not 1-1 on Linux. Whatevs. I’ll have to do without some options I had on windows. I’ll get there.
My red line is when the user experience becomes worse for me on Windows than on Linux. Not saying that Linux is bad, it’s definitely not, but it seems to use a completely different paradigm from Windows which is much less aligned with what I want out of an OS than Windows is. So fundamentally my user experience on Windows is better, the enshittification is just adding trade offs until they eventually outweight having to go with a paradigm I don’t agree with. And that point hasn’t been reached yet. Though we’re definitely getting close.
I wish there was an actual alternative that was just an opensource Windows without enshittification. I’d switch to that immediately if it existed. But with Linux, Windows will have to do some more enshittifying to get me there.
