I realize this is a Linux community, but I was wondering why you still hate Windows. I mean, I love Linux, but I will not argue that it’s more convenient to the average person in most use cases to use Windows, I recently had to switch back to Windows and I realized how convenient it all was and how I was missing so many things because of my love for Linux. But at this point, Linux is a part of my personality and my self-image and I will not leave it, but I gotta be honest, it’s pretty convenient being on Windows. So, why have you guys chosen to still stay on Linux? Some reasons I can appreciate include

  1. The terrible privacy policies. It sometimes makes you feel like your computer is not owned by you but lent to you by Big Tech.
  2. The community and the spirit of sharing
  3. The joy of “figuring it out” and customizing everything you want to the minutest details
  4. FREEDOM!!! sudo su Kinda ties into the previous points, but still one of the best selling points, the freedom to do whatever you want is liberating. You can run a server on it or you can create a script while knowing you have control over almost every FOSS app there is or just destroy your whole system with one command. Idk, feels good man!

These are the big ones, but one must realize you are sacrificing many things while not using windows too, productivity can be much greater there if you are a normie, it’s really convenient! So yeah! Give me your reasons! Also, how many of you dual boot?

  • schizo@forum.uncomfortable.businessEnglish
    1·
    1 year ago

    Because I don’t sit down at my Linux destop and feel like the product. There’s no ads or suggestions or popups or apps installing themselves or shit copying my files around in ways I didn’t really want or AI bullshit or anything even remotely suggesting I buy more shit, just… whatever the fuck it is I was intending to do.

    The value in not having my computer act like a damn slot machine trying to get me to insert more quarters is, frankly, immense.

  • Peffse@lemmy.world
    1·
    1 year ago

    The “we know better than you” attitude Microsoft has. They’ve very slowly removed more and more power user functionality. Almost every customization has to be hacked in with a group policy or registry edit now, or by outright replacing explorer.exe

      • aksdb@lemmy.world
        0·
        1 year ago

        I still rank OSX higher, simply because it’s at least consistent. Windows is a fucking mess.

          • aksdb@lemmy.world
            1·
            1 year ago

            Although to be fair, WSL fixes that issue to a big degree. Maybe even better than OSX, since you get a real Linux with real userspace. WSL(2) might be the only really cool feature Microsoft added to Windows, that actually brings value for the user.

  • atzanteol@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
    1·
    1 year ago

    I genuinely don’t find Windows easier to use. And troubleshooting Windows problems is a friggin’ nightmare compared to Linux.

    • Telorand@reddthat.com
      0·
      1 year ago

      The Microsoft support forums are pitifully hilarious, too.

      “Hi, I need help with N. I’ve tried X, Y, and, Z.”

      “Hello, sorry to hear that you’re having trouble with N. Have you tried X, Y, or Z?”

      “Yes.”

      “I’m sorry to hear that it’s still not working. Please refer to this thread, and feel free to contact Microsoft Support with any future questions. Have a nice day.”

      “But my problem still isn’t solved. Hello?”

        • bizarroland@fedia.io
          0·
          1 year ago

          And the other one is either use a third party registry cleaner or run this esoteric powershell command as admin.

          And if it doesn’t work, just reinstall your entire computer. Fuck your entire day.

          • Tippon@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
            0·
            1 year ago

            I’ve genuinely seen a post asking for help because DISM wouldn’t run, where the recommended answer was to run DISM 🙈

      • gravitas_deficiency@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
        0·
        1 year ago

        It seems to be populated exclusively by people (or these days LLMs?) who have had MS customer interaction training, but simultaneously have no grasp of reading compression.

  • umami_wasabi@lemmy.ml
    0·
    1 year ago

    I don’t know if I “hate” Windows but more like “I’m done dealing it.” I might come and use it time to time, but only when absolutely necessary, and the mental capacity to remove things I don’t need and make sure its removed.

  • socphoenix@midwest.social
    0·
    1 year ago

    Because every time I’m reminded the underlying OS exists it’s always something negative.

    On windows: Forced restarts and updates that take over 5x as long as my Linux (or FreeBSD build), ui that constantly undoes what I customized, ads and preinstalled malware essentially like candy crush even on builds from Microsoft directly, worse performance with a much higher number of crashes under load on my current box, and no auto login/name any simple customization without screwing around with registry editor to name just the simple things. More advanced problems include no hypervisor built in to the home version, everything is pay to unlock features my Linux install does for free, no zfs software raid for storage safekeeping, most fixes when I do have errors involve googleing cryptic hex codes and being told to run fsck/chdsk as the only solution for often times hours of searching before finally finding the actual answer - not to mention most other fixes being to download a library/binary of the sketchiest sounding website ever that i can’t verify isn’t a virus.

    On linux or even FreeBSD which took a bit to get installed to my liking i may have put work in up front but its like 3 hours at most of my time for 6+ years of stability and proper functioning to avoid all of the above plus no microsoft telemetry etc. I switched when i first tried Vista and even today every time i have to use Microsoft’s horrific excuse for an OS it is heartburn inducing.

  • GravitySpoiled@lemmy.mlEnglish
    0·
    1 year ago

    Windows, macos, all the same. I want a free device. I love donating to KDE. How could I love giving money to microsoft?

    Microsoft is more difficult for me nowadays because I use it very rarely. I hate that nothing works as expected. I hate that they force everything upon you.

    We are free. We are GNU. We are linux.

    • Telorand@reddthat.com
      0·
      1 year ago

      I don’t like the fact that even if you have a Pro or Enterprise license, some amount of telemetry is still being sent to MS for any number of nebulous reasons.

      At least with bigger names like Fedora et al, they give you the option up front to opt-in, and you can have a reasonable amount of trust that they won’t do it in secret.

  • pelotron@midwest.socialEnglish
    0·
    1 year ago

    I dual boot, but I’ve been dreading booting back into Windows recently because I upgraded my motherboard/CPU and know they are going to make me buy another license. And I understand Windows is more convenient for a lot of people but I am not one of them.

    I can’t think of anything that is more convenient for me on Windows other than that I have to use it to run Studio One to record music from time to time. But “software availability” has nothing to do with the operating system itself; market position does. And a company’s market position rarely drives my purchasing decisions.

    I dislike Windows for all the reasons people here typically state.

    • Tippon@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
      0·
      1 year ago

      I’ve been dreading booting back into Windows recently because I upgraded my motherboard/CPU and know they are going to make me buy another license.

      Windows tends to be better at this these days. If this does happen though, go through the activation process and start the troubleshooter. There’s an option there to transfer the licence from another machine. You should be able to transfer it from the same machine if Windows thinks it’s a new one.

      This assumes that it’s the same version of Windows, but in your case it shouldn’t be changing 👍

    • lordnikon@lemmy.worldEnglish
      0·
      1 year ago

      I will say the only thing more convenient for most people is that it’s preinstalled on the computer they bought at a big box store. If that changed it would make a world of difference.

  • ftbd@feddit.de
    0·
    1 year ago

    It just… lacks features? I couldn’t use ZFS or Btrfs, FDE requires third-party software (veracrypt) and lots of other things that I see as standard system utilities (think ssh, git etc.) are not available on a fresh install. And then you’re supposed to download and install .exe files from the internet? Since microsoft controls what goes in the windows store, that could provide the same experience as your distro’s repositories. But again, most things you want aren’t there, and you can’t even trust the things that are there. For some reason, a billion dollar company cannot curate a software repository of the same quality as the ones maintained by unpaid volunteers in the Linux world.

    So yeah, I think it’s just not there yet. Maybe in a few years windows will be a viable alternative for desktop systems.

    • ReversalHatchery@beehaw.orgEnglish
      0·
      1 year ago

      FDE requires third-party software (veracrypt)

      There’s bitlocker, I think it was added in 7 or Vista. What do you mean?
      But other than that, I would rather use VC too.

      standard system utilities (think ssh, git etc.) are not available on a fresh install

      Hmm, depends. It has a built in openssh client and server, but the “feature” (automatically installing package) is off by default. It can be enabled at install time with the use of the standard windows image modification tools (DISM I think?)

      And then you’re supposed to download and install .exe files from the internet? Since microsoft controls what goes in the windows store

      I think it’s better that Microsoft does not have that much control over software distribution.

      But again, most things you want aren’t there, and you can’t even trust the things that are there.

      Of course you can’t, nobody can tell by looking at the store page if it was modified by anyone, including Microsoft.
      The amazon app store for android explicitely tells that they are adding tracking code to every uploaded app, and to make this possible they replace the digital signature of apps uploaded. Google with the play store does not tell anything like this afaik, but for a few years now it also basically compromised the digital signatures of developers, by requiring the private keys to be mandatorily handed in for continued app updates.
      I don’t trust that these companies that already rely on mass surveillance as a revenue stream, they won’t add tracking code to apps unauthorized by the devs. If not right now, it will happen in the future.

      For some reason, a billion dollar company cannot curate a software repository of the same quality as the ones maintained by unpaid volunteers in the Linux world.

      Besides quality, I think open source distro’s repository and it’s packagers are largely more trustable. They are not motivated financially to modify the packages in unwanted (by the user) ways, and they are transparent.

      So yeah, I think it’s just not there yet. Maybe in a few years windows will be a viable alternative for desktop systems.

      I think they are drifting farther and farther away.
      It was an option. But the shitshow of 11… thanks that’s too much. I’m not installing that for anyone. And 10 is soon end of life…

  • joe@feddit.org
    0·
    1 year ago

    Many government agencies and businesses are too dependent on Windows and other Microsoft products. The dependence on a few huge American corporations is problematic especially for organizations outside the US.

    I don’t hate Windows but I see it as a political problem.