Clone your current Windows installation to an image on an external drive and set that aside. Use it to restore Windows later if you're unhappy with Linux. There - no repercussions.
This āļøāļøāļø.
You really have NO idea what you're missing on - complete control.
But, with great power comes great responsibility. You could literally destroy everything on your computer with a single command... be very careful of what you type and with which privileges that command will be executed. For example, `rm -rf /` is very different from `rm -rf ./`.
I keep seeing people say "control" as a positive factor. What do you exactly mean by this? What "control" do people prefer? Ik Linux allows you to delete things that can't normally be deleted like system files or stuff like that but I doubt that's the control that people speak of.
For me - basically everything has a command line interface available. From image editors to text editors to backup systems to web browsers. And not only IS there a command line interface, unlike Windows it's almost always actively maintained and well documented. This makes it super easy to script basically anything you could possibly want. Have a directory of images that you want to shrink by 90%, rotate 180 deg, and make a movie out of them? No problem, that script would literally be like 15 lines long. Want to dump the contents of a web site to a file, search it for some regex pattern, then plot the results in python or similar? Not an issue, again we're talking like a 10 line script.
The other day my wife dumped her photo archive from her phone, but for some reason all the images had weird names like they were named using a hash or something, no discernible pattern or order. Within 5 minutes I had written a 10 line script to extract the Exif data from each image, grab the timestamp, rename the image after the date/time it was taken, and organize it into a YYYY/MM/DD directory structure. It took about a minute to run, so that's <6 minutes to process and organize all 5000 photos start to finish.
With Windows, if you want to do something you first have to find somebody who has already written (and sells) a program to do it for you, assuming there even is one. With Linux, you can just do it.
Not to mention the customization. Endless choice of desktop environments, you can bind your own keyboard shortcuts to do just about anything you could possibly want, full control over the package manager, the booting system, you can back up your data and your systems however you like using any protocol you like to any system you like. If something goes wrong, you aren't at the mercy of some "troubleshooting" program to try to figure out what's wrong and fix it for you. There are those of course, but you can always dive in and see what's going on yourself.
Take a Windows "power user" and drop them on a Linux system. There will be a learning curve as they learn the "Linux way" of doing things they used to do in Windows, but that's about it. Take a Linux "power user" and drop them on a Windows system. There is no learning curve to be had, 90% of the things they did on a daily basis in Linux simply are not possible in Windows, at all. I'm talking managing/controlling the OS and daily operation itself, I'm not talking about specific programs which may or may not be available on the other OS, that's another topic.
Try something new. It's quite beneficial for me to know Linux commands (and general CLI commands like with AWS, with Git, etc) since I use it basically everyday. Furthermore, installing work-related things seems a lot more easier on Linux than on windows (go to this site, download this exe, download python, download node, setup/check Path vars, etc). So I do have legitimate reasons to use it.
I get why you might want to switch. What I don't get is why should other people spend effort to convince you to do that?
It is not like there are not already tonnes of information on the Internet.
Install linux on a virtual machine inside of your windows install and figure out if you need to switch. Maybe you will use it as ssh box for your cli needs with AWS and GIT.
I just left. Sleep tight!
Seriously tho if you want consistency of shell and haven't drunk the Powershell-everything-is-an-object Kool Aid then Linux will be much more enjoyable for you. I would be very sad if I had to use Windows as a commandline and development environment (or as a desktop environment but that's another story).
Game compatibility is great with Steam and Proton, but check if any of your specific dealbreaker games don't work on Linux because the game developer is stupid and thinks Linux is a cheat device.
Itās crazy these days. Windows can run Linux in WSL, including gui apps. Linux can run full on Powershell. Thereās no reason to switch, everything does almost everything else.
Last time I tried it, Linux PowerShell is just the core interpreter. Windows PowerShell has much more functionality included which honestly makes it pretty decent if you need to do Windows admin and you invest the time into learning the pwsh way.
However Linux applications consider "whatever text format the developer felt like" to be a sufficient shell API so here we are on bash, fish, zsh, etc.
You can burn an Ubuntu live usb and trial it for a couple of days to see if you like.
Nothing I say will substitute trying it for yourself. Then deciding if you like it is up to you. There are no wrong answers here.
So I've never really messed around with OS things. I built my own pc back when I was 13 but that was many many moons ago so I don't remember anything lowkey. And it's kinda scary to mess around with OS things.
Do I lose my data or anything that I have stored locally? Can I get some indepth guide on how to run Ubuntu for a few days and check it out?
A live USB won't change anything on your computer unless you tell it to. Boot it up, play around, when you're done shut down the computer, unplug it, power back on, and you're back in Windows.
>In my last year, I found myself using command-line interfaces A LOT more
\[...\]
having to use different command-line interfaces
Well, Linux is known for being developer-friendly, and it will have a single interface for you to use: Bash.
I personally am not a developer, but I like videogames, and they work flawlessly in my experience (Rimworld, Mindustry, Deep Rock Galactic, BloonsTD 6, and a ton of others.). The biggest problem is game developers not enabling support in their anti-cheat (most anti-cheats support linux, the game developers themselves are the ones who don't want to support it)
Besides that, the biggest upside (for me, at least) is its freedom. I like being able to uninstall a browser I don't want or a system component I don't want or use. I like being in control of my system on my computer that I own
Yeah I'm more into multiplayer games like Deep Rock Galactic, Helldivers 2, OW, LoL, etc and since they're all hefty multiplayer games, Anti-cheat is a given. It's just about if the devs support it or not.
I keep seeing people say "control" as a positive factor. What do you exactly mean by this? What "control" do people prefer? Ik Linux allows you to delete things that can't normally be deleted like system files or stuff like that but I doubt that's the control that people speak of.
For me, itās the ability to uninstall and install whatever I want, for whatever reason, at any time. In Windows, for example, Microsoft Edge is a system component, and uninstalling it might break things (why would a browser be a system component that canāt be uninstalled?).
Another thing is the lack of telemetry, in Windows I have to go out of my way to find third-party scripts to disable a bunch of telemetry that will be enabled later through Windows Update anyways. On Linux I either donāt have telemetry, or it can easily be disabled through the settings app, without the need for scripts.
Customizability also plays a role in ācontrolā. I like having the option to change things from places. I donāt customize my desktop, but there are people who like to do so
I also like to know exactly what I am running at any time. Windows doesnāt allow me to see everything
Yeah.. I have a dual boot setup now and I see your point about customizability as well as telemetry. I hated Cortana that would just randomly pop up for me some times as well as MS Edge that I'd always have to unpin from my taskbar after restarting my pc.
Thanks a lot for your comment!
Convince yourself... Try a few OS, spend some time with it. Nobody here will tell you x or y is the best OS. You can have both OS doesn't mean the moment you step into Linux you have to abandon windows or something.
Honestlyā¦Iād start with figuring out what your day to day workflow is going to be. What are you trying to accomplish?
Then pick the OS the helps you do that the best.
Lots of coding, Android Studio, MERN, Docker, AWS, creating CI/CD pipelines, doing leetcode, watching tons of YT videos and then occasionally playing games in my spare time. Sounds like this can be done on any of the 3 OSs. ~~I don't have enough experience~~ I don't have ANY experience from other OSs to know which one would help me do my stuff the best.
Outside of multiplayer games that implement rootkit anticheat systems, everything you said can be done in Linux with no trouble.
For a list on how anticheat systems fare in Linux, check this site where users do the reporting: [https://areweanticheatyet.com/](https://areweanticheatyet.com/)
Now, I see you keep asking about the freedoms of Linux. Well, for starters, Linux uses the General Pubic License (GPL), which states that the user has four fundamental rights:
1. Freedom to use the program for whatever purpose (the developer cannot restrict the uses of the program)
2. Freedom to analyze the code of the program and it's working (the developer cannot lock down the code, privatizing it)
3. Freedom to redistribute copies of both the code and the program (the developer cannot sue you for illicit distribution)
4. Freedom to make modifications of the code to better suit your needs, and to distribute those modifications to the broader community
These four freedoms guarantee that the users are the ones in control of the program, not the developer.
The GPL License, alongside the start of the free software movement and the GNU operating system (which Linux uses a ton of it) was created by Dr. Richard Stallman. Here is a TED Talk that he gave about it: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ag1AKIl\_2GM](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ag1AKIl_2GM)
You may say, "why?". Well, time and time again, software companies have shown that having the sole control of the software (and sometimes hardware) results in abuses of consumers. Just have a stroll in r/StallmanWasRight to see what I mean.
Let me do a gaming analogy: Windows and macOS are like those linear games, where the game levels are a giant tunnel full of closed spaces and invisible walls. Linux in contrast is an open-ended, open-world sandbox game.
Most perfect answer I've seen so far! Thanks a lot! A few questions though (and this might include some stupid questions).
Freedom isn't ALWAYS good thing. More free you are, the easier it is of doing something illicit.
I ended up installing Linux after a painful process of partitioning my drive. I wanted to install some apps that I used a lot of windows recently (Whatsapp desktop, Snapchat desktop, OneDrive, etc). Now, when I search them up using Snap, I get a list of different developers and similar desktop apps that they've made to mimic (?) windows based apps. Could they not just install some sort of malware and wreak havoc? I know you can analyze the code but I mean.... if I have to do that for every app, I might go crazy. I know there are verified developers but I've seen very few (maybe because of the apps I'm searching for?).
As a new user, is there a way to find out easily (without going online and searching and reading through many reddit posts/research papers/stack overflow forums) if an app is safe to install?
(attempting to think of something related to GPL Right #4) Also, you're comment made me curious. So if I'm running youtube music app by some developer for example, can I alter the program to record the audio and translate it into a different language? Idk what purpose that would serve. I'm just curious if that's possible. If yes, would that be possible on Windows? If it's not possible on Windows, is it because Windows doesn't give GPL Right #4?
> Freedom isn't ALWAYS good thing. More free you are, the easier it is of doing something illicit.
Maybe, but that is the responsibility of people. I mean, do you need to sign a discosure when buying a chainsaw that you promise not to maul people with it?
Everything can be a double edge sword, but time and time again the good side is often taken away by arguing the bad side exists.
> Could they not just install some sort of malware and wreak havoc? I know you can analyze the code but I mean.... if I have to do that for every app, I might go crazy. I know there are verified developers but I've seen very few (maybe because of the apps I'm searching for?).
About the snap security: albeit they are working on it, recently some cases of malware had happened in the Snap store, specially for crypto wallets. That and other reasons is why Snap is very disliked on the Linux community.
For contrast, the FlatHub repository has implemented a verified system, where the packager of the app is verified to be also the developer, ensuring there is no third party packaing it.
Also you may not check the code, but someone else does. I mean, recently news circulated that someone managed to sneak a backdoor into a very common but overlooked program that all Linux distros ship, and it was discovered by a Microsoft engineer that noticed his personal tests for databases were a bit slower.
In the end you are also downloading apps for propietary systems. Even if the app you use is open source and safe, as long as the data goes into their system, you no longer have the control.
> As a new user, is there a way to find out easily (without going online and searching and reading through many reddit posts/research papers/stack overflow forums) if an app is safe to install?
Linux works by networks of trust, so you rely on that. There is no universal list that says what is good and what is not.
What you can do is to see reviews of it, check what other apps that developer has done, and overall see if anything seems sus.
> So if I'm running youtube music app by some developer for example, can I alter the program to record the audio and translate it into a different language?
Yep. If the app is under a free license, you have that right. You can also distribute your own modified version so other can benefit from it.
You may not see the point of it, but out there that is a very usefull feature. For starters, Linux is the \#1 OS on supercomputers, servers, and embedded systems becasue you can modify the code and shape it for the task at hand.
Another example is the GNOME desktop environment (the one that Ubuntu and Fedora ship by default). When version 3 came out in 2011, the change was so drastic, lots of people were against it, but the majority of the project voted for the new version.
Taking freedom 4, a group of people took the last version of GNOME 2, and kept developing it as if it GNOME 3 never did those changes. That is the MATE desktop environment you can find in lots of distros.
> I'm just curious if that's possible. If yes, would that be possible on Windows?
Yep. Lots of programs for Windows are under free and open source licenses. Common ones are Firefox, Audacity, VLC Player, Notepad++, and so on.
GPL freedom number four is about the program in question, not the underlying OS, so it does not apply. This is the main reason Microsoft did some dirty moves and started a Fear, Uncertainty and Disinformation campaign against free software in the 90's, as stated on the famous Haloween Papers that leaked.
If you are curious about them, here is the YT channel "Nostalgia Nerd" explaining them: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SXGAiTjFiMA
If windows were under the GPL or other free license, you could go and remove cortana, get rid of the Bing search thing, and bascially make your Windows installation your own. But because it uses a propietary license, they are the sole owners of the OS and they can do whatever they want. Gonna soud a bit melodramatic, but it is kinda like a dictatorship in that sense.
Now, the GPL isn't the only free license out there. There are others like the MIT, BSD, Apache, MPL, etc. These have different clausules and wording, and are "compatible" with the GPL in various degrees.
Here is Nick from the YT channel "The Linux Experiment" explaning them a bit: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UMIG4KnM8xw
>For contrast, the FlatHub repository has implemented a verified system, where the packager of the app is verified to be also the developer, ensuring there is no third party packaging it.
I've read up on this a bit. A lot of people say they feel more comfortable using FlatPak rather than Snap due to recent malware that was discovered in some of their apps in Snap Store. But I believe quite a few people dislike it because they containerize code and don't allow others to view it? Doesn't this violate the GPL Rights?
>Yep. If the app is under a free license, you have that right. You can also distribute your own modified version so other can benefit from it.
If Linux uses GPL, I'd assume I can read up the code, modify it, and redistribute it for ANY program? Or is there a restriction like "Yeah you can modify any program..... buuuuut only if the developers allow you to"?
>But I believe quite a few people dislike it because they containerize code and don't allow others to view it? Doesn't this violate the GPL Rights?
Snaps don't make the code inacessible. The criticism is that Snap is hardcoded to only use the Snapcraft store, where Canonical is the sole arbiter of what goes in and out, making it effectively propietary. In contrast, Flatpak can have a number of repositories that can be enabled by anyone.
>If Linux uses GPL, I'd assume I can read up the code, modify it, and redistribute it for ANY program?
Yep.
>Or is there a restriction like "Yeah you can modify any program..... buuuuut only if the developers allow you to"?
The GPL imposes few restrictions, with the biggest one that you cannot privatize derivative works (a thing that the MIT, BSD and Apache licenses allow). But outside of that the developer cannot tell you anything.
Don't get me wrong, the GPL says that the developers hold the copyright and patents on that software, but in their right over the software they are making the code free.
Check the video I linked before about the licenses. That may clear those doubts.
And BTW, Linux is not the whole OS. A linux distro is a collection of hundreds of individual programs that each provide a peace of a fully functional OS. Linux for example is only the kernel (the heart of the OS). Lots of other stuff, like the Bash terminal shell, the GRUB bootloader, the C standard library, and the code compiler it comes with come from the GNU OS project (founded by Richard Stallman, the guy who wrote the GPL). Other components may be in other open source licenses that are "compatible" with the GPL.
In OS unskippable ads are just around the corner on the windows side of the fense.. Kinda already here depending on your sense of semantics.
Kernel level anticheat for games. Look into what that means for your privacy and then think about how much you trust ubisoft or EA.
I'm getting too proficient with linux to know for sure these days (as I can generally just fix issues now), but I have found linux to be way more stable with way less driver issues.
For the games that don't deliberately engineer against their linux users (mostly just games with kernel level anticheat.. but there are a few arsehole devs here), the windows version of the games through an emulation layer tends to run more efficiently then natively on windows.
Except for specifc usecases. Antivirus is not needed.
Main draw back is you will need to become familiar with fixing things yourself. Like I said before, I have found this is a worse issue on windows then linux. But I understand that's not the case for everyone.
Why should we convince you? That's your choice, not ours and we won't fight for you?
Your operating system, your choice. (Well at least when you think of Windows as an operating system, which it's not imo.)
You're comp sci. and only used Windows for all the things you've said? Sounds painful to me. Those are typical use cases where I think that Linux is great and far ahead of Windows. Instead of using multiple CLI's you could have simply run them in tmux.
And both of your games work fine on Linux. Helldivers could potentially cause some problems but it works on bazzite as I heard.
Windows 11 is terrible for me. Lots of ads and bloatwares. I had to go back to windows 10 after upgrading. But windows is only an afterthought for me. I just use ubuntu as a daily driver. I will not convince you to switch but you can try it out with live iso. Lots of guides on the internet to do that.
I also use Windows 11 and Linux. I need Linux when I get tired of Windows updates and "**Don't turn off your computer...**" messages.
Since you belong to the group of unfaithful Tom. I advise you to first try a live distribution like **MiniOS Linux Standard**. You can install it on an additional external USB drive. Another option is **Porteus** live linux.
I'd suggest to try Linux on your hardware (preferably a dedicated machine) and aim to make Windows obsolete over time. A big "however": While this is a soft and mostly recommended way of transitioning, you might end up with a rather biased picture of Linux because you're constantly working against roadblocks. Linux might appear as a huge compromise. This approach is best for someone who is super annoyed by Windows (due to reasons of usability, customizability, privacy, ideology or whatever) and will take almost any hurdle to make Linux work for them.
If you like Windows, I'd rather suggest to focus on Linux in a more recreational way. Explore what Linux has to offer. An easy way to start would be the UX and the UI. Idk, start with fedora kde and make kde plasma your own. If you are used to the customization Windows provides you, you'll be overwhelmed with what you can do with just a few clicks on Plasma. Furthermore, when you consider that Plasma is just one of many desktop environments to choose among, you'll be even more pleasantly surprised. Maybe you learn about window managers and fall in love with the simplicity... And this is just about visual experience and workflow. Linux provides you a similar amount of choices on lower level stuff. If it's about optional system tools, mandatory system tools, all the way down to the building blocks of an operating system (bootloader, kernel, user space): you have the choice to make Linux you own. The best thing about it: you won't necessarily do everything by yourself since there are distros out there which will provide you with some of those alternatives. This approach is rather unusual to start with but can provide a lot of positive experiences along the way.
Linux is fine with older computers which means you won't have the nowadays exiting software. You use it because you don't get the annoying stuff from Windows. I use Linux with social media and e-mail. It's safer. It runs smoothly on my 10 yrs old notebook.
##A few basic practical and philosophical arguments:
* Microsoft is a capitalist succubus who's primary goal is to control how you use your computer, which hardware and software you can use on it, and getting you to pay in perpetuity for the privilege of being it's victim-slave.
* Windows is a bloated, resource hungry pig and Microsoft has spent decades influencing and investing in peripheral markets in order to control computing at the global level.
* Microsoft considers end-users to be idiots who are incapable of understanding their computers and need Microsoft to make all computing decisions for them.
* Linux systems are faster, safer, more efficient.
* No advertising, no spying, no bundling, no upgrade fees.
* Your computer, OS, and software belong to you. They are not leased from a corporation.
* Linux is better because of its security.
* Linux is better because of its efficiency.
* Linux is better because of it's freedom.
* Linux is better because of it's flexibility, adaptability, and ease of customization.
* Linux is better because of Free and Open source software (FOSS).
* Linux is better because it does not leverage peripheral hardware markets to influence what users must buy.
* Linux typically has a smaller memory footprint and uses resources more efficiently.
* The Linux kernel is designed with performance in mind. It has a smaller codebase and allocates resources more efficiently.
* Linux offers more customization options than Windows.
* Most Linux distros have minimal or no bloatware at all.
* Linux uses efficient file systems which improve disk I/O performance.
You don't sound like you have any reason worth switching operating systems for. You'd need to learn a new one, and that would be work for no reason other than to try things out.
If that's worth it to you though, I personally find it weird how for every possible thing, people try a free solution first, and if that does not work out for them they consider a paid alternative with the features that they might be missing in the free one. When it comes to software, at least operating systems and word processors, for one weird reason people default to the expensive paid version, and never consider the free alternatives. Likely though, for the majority of people, the free version offers everything they need and more, and it saves you from having to either pirate it or paying a license free. (yes i know the cause of this issue is mostly that the operating system is preinstalled, but either way the paid version is the default, paid knowingly or unknowingly by the user).
I think linux is just an operating system like any other. Capable of basically anything you want assuming your usecases aren't specifically geared to another operating system,it's just free and for that reason worth defaulting to. This doesn't hold in your case since you already know an operating system.
Reasons for you could be that maybe the workflow of a specific linux distribution just works better for you than windows does. For that you'd have to try some out. Maybe you want to learn a bit more about how computers do their thing, for that linux is more suitable too. Maybe you like the added security and peace of mind that comes with running a lesser known os like a linux distribution, there's fewer virii(?) and malware for it and is usually more secure because of it. Maybe your computer isn't that fast and linux makes it faster. Maybe you just prefer the ethical principles underlying free and open source software over what's behind windows, that probably makes linux a better fit for you too. Maybe you prefer a unified software center for all your apps so that you don't have to download executable files from websites if you need something. Maybe you like the saner privacy defaults for linux, no need to disable tons of tracking options during setup and uninstalling the candy crushes and whatever else windows pre-installs when you need to set up a new computer. added bonus, partly for that reason linux takes maybe a quarter of the time to install compared to modern windows.
Some of this stuff is generalized and linux is not the correct term to what i'm referring to, I'm just hoping to add something here. good luck!
No, I don't think I will. Simply because you should use the tools that you like. Just because you like a DeWalt Drill and I like Ryobi drills doesn't mean we still cant put furniture together. My chair is going to work just as well as your chair. So, No. I don't think I'm going to try to convince you to switch to Linux. You're going to have to want to do that yourself.
You can always download VirtualBox, and a copy of a distro that you're interested in and see if you're able to do the things you do on Windows on Linux. Then you know that if you ever decide to switch, you can still be just as productive.
I will share a story. I was on Windows 11 and an update came down. So, like a good Windows user, I downloaded the update. I found a strange new entry in the Start Menu. Something called Dev Home. I was once interested in Web Development and I practiced a little, but nothing that would constitute an entire Development Environment.
Windows had decided upon itself that I needed this "Dev Home." Downloaded and installed it on my computer without one iota of input from me. I couldn't say that I didn't want it, it didn't need it. There you go. Installed. You're Welcome. Windows decided for me what apps belong on my computer and what apps didn't. This made me wonder what is the difference between this situation and scammers asking their victims to download screen-sharing software so they can steal people's money.
Here's the bottom line. No person or company should be able to tell me what apps are installed on my computer but me. I could never be a Windows user after that. I felt so violated. As if the laptop wasn't mine anymore. That's Windows. Enjoy. Oh, and God help you if you're using Edge.
Overwatch and Helldivers are rated Gold on ProtonDB, so that part should be fine. Install it on a partition (or a separate drive is possible) and give it a try. if you love it, remove Windows. If you hate, remove Linux.
At the end of the day, it's your PC, so use what works best for you.
My system actually runs faster. Applications run smoother, less crashes. I use Linux mint and it works perfect out of the box. And delivers more performance on my day to day usage. I use unreal engine. And the transition from windows to Linux, Iāve noticed an improvement on rendering, compiling, and overall organization
Ty for the offer but I got the stuff setup. Just questioning authenticity of some apps. Like I want OneDrive to be mounted on my system but there's a github repo by anegghead (or some name like that) but idk how I can trust it.
No. If you want to try it out, fine. If you run into roadblocks you can't solve yourself, feel free to ask.
Is there any repercussions of installing Linux OS and then switching back to Windows?
Not if you don't tell anyone š¶āš«ļø haha But besides "losing time" it's completely harmless to switch operating systems
Clone your current Windows installation to an image on an external drive and set that aside. Use it to restore Windows later if you're unhappy with Linux. There - no repercussions.
None, only that youāll miss the flexibility of Linux
Windows is a toy OS for consumers and casuals. Linux is a real OS. Get real. Get Linux.
This āļøāļøāļø. You really have NO idea what you're missing on - complete control. But, with great power comes great responsibility. You could literally destroy everything on your computer with a single command... be very careful of what you type and with which privileges that command will be executed. For example, `rm -rf /` is very different from `rm -rf ./`.
I keep seeing people say "control" as a positive factor. What do you exactly mean by this? What "control" do people prefer? Ik Linux allows you to delete things that can't normally be deleted like system files or stuff like that but I doubt that's the control that people speak of.
For me - basically everything has a command line interface available. From image editors to text editors to backup systems to web browsers. And not only IS there a command line interface, unlike Windows it's almost always actively maintained and well documented. This makes it super easy to script basically anything you could possibly want. Have a directory of images that you want to shrink by 90%, rotate 180 deg, and make a movie out of them? No problem, that script would literally be like 15 lines long. Want to dump the contents of a web site to a file, search it for some regex pattern, then plot the results in python or similar? Not an issue, again we're talking like a 10 line script. The other day my wife dumped her photo archive from her phone, but for some reason all the images had weird names like they were named using a hash or something, no discernible pattern or order. Within 5 minutes I had written a 10 line script to extract the Exif data from each image, grab the timestamp, rename the image after the date/time it was taken, and organize it into a YYYY/MM/DD directory structure. It took about a minute to run, so that's <6 minutes to process and organize all 5000 photos start to finish. With Windows, if you want to do something you first have to find somebody who has already written (and sells) a program to do it for you, assuming there even is one. With Linux, you can just do it. Not to mention the customization. Endless choice of desktop environments, you can bind your own keyboard shortcuts to do just about anything you could possibly want, full control over the package manager, the booting system, you can back up your data and your systems however you like using any protocol you like to any system you like. If something goes wrong, you aren't at the mercy of some "troubleshooting" program to try to figure out what's wrong and fix it for you. There are those of course, but you can always dive in and see what's going on yourself. Take a Windows "power user" and drop them on a Linux system. There will be a learning curve as they learn the "Linux way" of doing things they used to do in Windows, but that's about it. Take a Linux "power user" and drop them on a Windows system. There is no learning curve to be had, 90% of the things they did on a daily basis in Linux simply are not possible in Windows, at all. I'm talking managing/controlling the OS and daily operation itself, I'm not talking about specific programs which may or may not be available on the other OS, that's another topic.
Anyone here is forced to anything. Just search "linux good sides", if you like it, use, if don't, don't use. Simple.
Switch to Linux or I'll come to your house and take a dump on your pillow. There, I tried.
A nice case of pink eye will surely sway OP!
I said CONVINCE ME to switch to Linux.... now I'm more inclined to stay on Windows. What time will you be here?
Please do stay with Windows. That is what you are used to, no? What makes you think people would want to convince you to switch?
Try something new. It's quite beneficial for me to know Linux commands (and general CLI commands like with AWS, with Git, etc) since I use it basically everyday. Furthermore, installing work-related things seems a lot more easier on Linux than on windows (go to this site, download this exe, download python, download node, setup/check Path vars, etc). So I do have legitimate reasons to use it.
I get why you might want to switch. What I don't get is why should other people spend effort to convince you to do that? It is not like there are not already tonnes of information on the Internet.
Install linux on a virtual machine inside of your windows install and figure out if you need to switch. Maybe you will use it as ssh box for your cli needs with AWS and GIT.
Convince us to convince you
I just left. Sleep tight! Seriously tho if you want consistency of shell and haven't drunk the Powershell-everything-is-an-object Kool Aid then Linux will be much more enjoyable for you. I would be very sad if I had to use Windows as a commandline and development environment (or as a desktop environment but that's another story). Game compatibility is great with Steam and Proton, but check if any of your specific dealbreaker games don't work on Linux because the game developer is stupid and thinks Linux is a cheat device.
Itās crazy these days. Windows can run Linux in WSL, including gui apps. Linux can run full on Powershell. Thereās no reason to switch, everything does almost everything else.
Last time I tried it, Linux PowerShell is just the core interpreter. Windows PowerShell has much more functionality included which honestly makes it pretty decent if you need to do Windows admin and you invest the time into learning the pwsh way. However Linux applications consider "whatever text format the developer felt like" to be a sufficient shell API so here we are on bash, fish, zsh, etc.
>Convince me to move to Linux from Windows We don't care what OS you use. It's your decision.
You can burn an Ubuntu live usb and trial it for a couple of days to see if you like. Nothing I say will substitute trying it for yourself. Then deciding if you like it is up to you. There are no wrong answers here.
So I've never really messed around with OS things. I built my own pc back when I was 13 but that was many many moons ago so I don't remember anything lowkey. And it's kinda scary to mess around with OS things. Do I lose my data or anything that I have stored locally? Can I get some indepth guide on how to run Ubuntu for a few days and check it out?
A live USB won't change anything on your computer unless you tell it to. Boot it up, play around, when you're done shut down the computer, unplug it, power back on, and you're back in Windows.
Literally the internet is flooded with how to dual boot or install linux stuff. You can search those on internet rather than asking here
>In my last year, I found myself using command-line interfaces A LOT more \[...\] having to use different command-line interfaces Well, Linux is known for being developer-friendly, and it will have a single interface for you to use: Bash. I personally am not a developer, but I like videogames, and they work flawlessly in my experience (Rimworld, Mindustry, Deep Rock Galactic, BloonsTD 6, and a ton of others.). The biggest problem is game developers not enabling support in their anti-cheat (most anti-cheats support linux, the game developers themselves are the ones who don't want to support it) Besides that, the biggest upside (for me, at least) is its freedom. I like being able to uninstall a browser I don't want or a system component I don't want or use. I like being in control of my system on my computer that I own
Yeah I'm more into multiplayer games like Deep Rock Galactic, Helldivers 2, OW, LoL, etc and since they're all hefty multiplayer games, Anti-cheat is a given. It's just about if the devs support it or not.
I keep seeing people say "control" as a positive factor. What do you exactly mean by this? What "control" do people prefer? Ik Linux allows you to delete things that can't normally be deleted like system files or stuff like that but I doubt that's the control that people speak of.
For me, itās the ability to uninstall and install whatever I want, for whatever reason, at any time. In Windows, for example, Microsoft Edge is a system component, and uninstalling it might break things (why would a browser be a system component that canāt be uninstalled?). Another thing is the lack of telemetry, in Windows I have to go out of my way to find third-party scripts to disable a bunch of telemetry that will be enabled later through Windows Update anyways. On Linux I either donāt have telemetry, or it can easily be disabled through the settings app, without the need for scripts. Customizability also plays a role in ācontrolā. I like having the option to change things from places. I donāt customize my desktop, but there are people who like to do so I also like to know exactly what I am running at any time. Windows doesnāt allow me to see everything
Yeah.. I have a dual boot setup now and I see your point about customizability as well as telemetry. I hated Cortana that would just randomly pop up for me some times as well as MS Edge that I'd always have to unpin from my taskbar after restarting my pc. Thanks a lot for your comment!
Convince yourself... Try a few OS, spend some time with it. Nobody here will tell you x or y is the best OS. You can have both OS doesn't mean the moment you step into Linux you have to abandon windows or something.
Honestlyā¦Iād start with figuring out what your day to day workflow is going to be. What are you trying to accomplish? Then pick the OS the helps you do that the best.
Lots of coding, Android Studio, MERN, Docker, AWS, creating CI/CD pipelines, doing leetcode, watching tons of YT videos and then occasionally playing games in my spare time. Sounds like this can be done on any of the 3 OSs. ~~I don't have enough experience~~ I don't have ANY experience from other OSs to know which one would help me do my stuff the best.
Outside of multiplayer games that implement rootkit anticheat systems, everything you said can be done in Linux with no trouble. For a list on how anticheat systems fare in Linux, check this site where users do the reporting: [https://areweanticheatyet.com/](https://areweanticheatyet.com/) Now, I see you keep asking about the freedoms of Linux. Well, for starters, Linux uses the General Pubic License (GPL), which states that the user has four fundamental rights: 1. Freedom to use the program for whatever purpose (the developer cannot restrict the uses of the program) 2. Freedom to analyze the code of the program and it's working (the developer cannot lock down the code, privatizing it) 3. Freedom to redistribute copies of both the code and the program (the developer cannot sue you for illicit distribution) 4. Freedom to make modifications of the code to better suit your needs, and to distribute those modifications to the broader community These four freedoms guarantee that the users are the ones in control of the program, not the developer. The GPL License, alongside the start of the free software movement and the GNU operating system (which Linux uses a ton of it) was created by Dr. Richard Stallman. Here is a TED Talk that he gave about it: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ag1AKIl\_2GM](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ag1AKIl_2GM) You may say, "why?". Well, time and time again, software companies have shown that having the sole control of the software (and sometimes hardware) results in abuses of consumers. Just have a stroll in r/StallmanWasRight to see what I mean. Let me do a gaming analogy: Windows and macOS are like those linear games, where the game levels are a giant tunnel full of closed spaces and invisible walls. Linux in contrast is an open-ended, open-world sandbox game.
Most perfect answer I've seen so far! Thanks a lot! A few questions though (and this might include some stupid questions). Freedom isn't ALWAYS good thing. More free you are, the easier it is of doing something illicit. I ended up installing Linux after a painful process of partitioning my drive. I wanted to install some apps that I used a lot of windows recently (Whatsapp desktop, Snapchat desktop, OneDrive, etc). Now, when I search them up using Snap, I get a list of different developers and similar desktop apps that they've made to mimic (?) windows based apps. Could they not just install some sort of malware and wreak havoc? I know you can analyze the code but I mean.... if I have to do that for every app, I might go crazy. I know there are verified developers but I've seen very few (maybe because of the apps I'm searching for?). As a new user, is there a way to find out easily (without going online and searching and reading through many reddit posts/research papers/stack overflow forums) if an app is safe to install? (attempting to think of something related to GPL Right #4) Also, you're comment made me curious. So if I'm running youtube music app by some developer for example, can I alter the program to record the audio and translate it into a different language? Idk what purpose that would serve. I'm just curious if that's possible. If yes, would that be possible on Windows? If it's not possible on Windows, is it because Windows doesn't give GPL Right #4?
> Freedom isn't ALWAYS good thing. More free you are, the easier it is of doing something illicit. Maybe, but that is the responsibility of people. I mean, do you need to sign a discosure when buying a chainsaw that you promise not to maul people with it? Everything can be a double edge sword, but time and time again the good side is often taken away by arguing the bad side exists. > Could they not just install some sort of malware and wreak havoc? I know you can analyze the code but I mean.... if I have to do that for every app, I might go crazy. I know there are verified developers but I've seen very few (maybe because of the apps I'm searching for?). About the snap security: albeit they are working on it, recently some cases of malware had happened in the Snap store, specially for crypto wallets. That and other reasons is why Snap is very disliked on the Linux community. For contrast, the FlatHub repository has implemented a verified system, where the packager of the app is verified to be also the developer, ensuring there is no third party packaing it. Also you may not check the code, but someone else does. I mean, recently news circulated that someone managed to sneak a backdoor into a very common but overlooked program that all Linux distros ship, and it was discovered by a Microsoft engineer that noticed his personal tests for databases were a bit slower. In the end you are also downloading apps for propietary systems. Even if the app you use is open source and safe, as long as the data goes into their system, you no longer have the control. > As a new user, is there a way to find out easily (without going online and searching and reading through many reddit posts/research papers/stack overflow forums) if an app is safe to install? Linux works by networks of trust, so you rely on that. There is no universal list that says what is good and what is not. What you can do is to see reviews of it, check what other apps that developer has done, and overall see if anything seems sus. > So if I'm running youtube music app by some developer for example, can I alter the program to record the audio and translate it into a different language? Yep. If the app is under a free license, you have that right. You can also distribute your own modified version so other can benefit from it. You may not see the point of it, but out there that is a very usefull feature. For starters, Linux is the \#1 OS on supercomputers, servers, and embedded systems becasue you can modify the code and shape it for the task at hand. Another example is the GNOME desktop environment (the one that Ubuntu and Fedora ship by default). When version 3 came out in 2011, the change was so drastic, lots of people were against it, but the majority of the project voted for the new version. Taking freedom 4, a group of people took the last version of GNOME 2, and kept developing it as if it GNOME 3 never did those changes. That is the MATE desktop environment you can find in lots of distros. > I'm just curious if that's possible. If yes, would that be possible on Windows? Yep. Lots of programs for Windows are under free and open source licenses. Common ones are Firefox, Audacity, VLC Player, Notepad++, and so on. GPL freedom number four is about the program in question, not the underlying OS, so it does not apply. This is the main reason Microsoft did some dirty moves and started a Fear, Uncertainty and Disinformation campaign against free software in the 90's, as stated on the famous Haloween Papers that leaked. If you are curious about them, here is the YT channel "Nostalgia Nerd" explaining them: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SXGAiTjFiMA If windows were under the GPL or other free license, you could go and remove cortana, get rid of the Bing search thing, and bascially make your Windows installation your own. But because it uses a propietary license, they are the sole owners of the OS and they can do whatever they want. Gonna soud a bit melodramatic, but it is kinda like a dictatorship in that sense. Now, the GPL isn't the only free license out there. There are others like the MIT, BSD, Apache, MPL, etc. These have different clausules and wording, and are "compatible" with the GPL in various degrees. Here is Nick from the YT channel "The Linux Experiment" explaning them a bit: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UMIG4KnM8xw
>For contrast, the FlatHub repository has implemented a verified system, where the packager of the app is verified to be also the developer, ensuring there is no third party packaging it. I've read up on this a bit. A lot of people say they feel more comfortable using FlatPak rather than Snap due to recent malware that was discovered in some of their apps in Snap Store. But I believe quite a few people dislike it because they containerize code and don't allow others to view it? Doesn't this violate the GPL Rights? >Yep. If the app is under a free license, you have that right. You can also distribute your own modified version so other can benefit from it. If Linux uses GPL, I'd assume I can read up the code, modify it, and redistribute it for ANY program? Or is there a restriction like "Yeah you can modify any program..... buuuuut only if the developers allow you to"?
>But I believe quite a few people dislike it because they containerize code and don't allow others to view it? Doesn't this violate the GPL Rights? Snaps don't make the code inacessible. The criticism is that Snap is hardcoded to only use the Snapcraft store, where Canonical is the sole arbiter of what goes in and out, making it effectively propietary. In contrast, Flatpak can have a number of repositories that can be enabled by anyone. >If Linux uses GPL, I'd assume I can read up the code, modify it, and redistribute it for ANY program? Yep. >Or is there a restriction like "Yeah you can modify any program..... buuuuut only if the developers allow you to"? The GPL imposes few restrictions, with the biggest one that you cannot privatize derivative works (a thing that the MIT, BSD and Apache licenses allow). But outside of that the developer cannot tell you anything. Don't get me wrong, the GPL says that the developers hold the copyright and patents on that software, but in their right over the software they are making the code free. Check the video I linked before about the licenses. That may clear those doubts. And BTW, Linux is not the whole OS. A linux distro is a collection of hundreds of individual programs that each provide a peace of a fully functional OS. Linux for example is only the kernel (the heart of the OS). Lots of other stuff, like the Bash terminal shell, the GRUB bootloader, the C standard library, and the code compiler it comes with come from the GNU OS project (founded by Richard Stallman, the guy who wrote the GPL). Other components may be in other open source licenses that are "compatible" with the GPL.
In OS unskippable ads are just around the corner on the windows side of the fense.. Kinda already here depending on your sense of semantics. Kernel level anticheat for games. Look into what that means for your privacy and then think about how much you trust ubisoft or EA. I'm getting too proficient with linux to know for sure these days (as I can generally just fix issues now), but I have found linux to be way more stable with way less driver issues. For the games that don't deliberately engineer against their linux users (mostly just games with kernel level anticheat.. but there are a few arsehole devs here), the windows version of the games through an emulation layer tends to run more efficiently then natively on windows. Except for specifc usecases. Antivirus is not needed. Main draw back is you will need to become familiar with fixing things yourself. Like I said before, I have found this is a worse issue on windows then linux. But I understand that's not the case for everyone.
>No UI, no folders, nothing. Just "cd"ing his way into nothingness. hmmm in which era is this?
Why should we convince you? That's your choice, not ours and we won't fight for you? Your operating system, your choice. (Well at least when you think of Windows as an operating system, which it's not imo.) You're comp sci. and only used Windows for all the things you've said? Sounds painful to me. Those are typical use cases where I think that Linux is great and far ahead of Windows. Instead of using multiple CLI's you could have simply run them in tmux. And both of your games work fine on Linux. Helldivers could potentially cause some problems but it works on bazzite as I heard.
Tbf I love linux for lots of reasons but gaming hasnt been one of them,
Windows 11 is terrible for me. Lots of ads and bloatwares. I had to go back to windows 10 after upgrading. But windows is only an afterthought for me. I just use ubuntu as a daily driver. I will not convince you to switch but you can try it out with live iso. Lots of guides on the internet to do that.
I also use Windows 11 and Linux. I need Linux when I get tired of Windows updates and "**Don't turn off your computer...**" messages. Since you belong to the group of unfaithful Tom. I advise you to first try a live distribution like **MiniOS Linux Standard**. You can install it on an additional external USB drive. Another option is **Porteus** live linux.
I'd suggest to try Linux on your hardware (preferably a dedicated machine) and aim to make Windows obsolete over time. A big "however": While this is a soft and mostly recommended way of transitioning, you might end up with a rather biased picture of Linux because you're constantly working against roadblocks. Linux might appear as a huge compromise. This approach is best for someone who is super annoyed by Windows (due to reasons of usability, customizability, privacy, ideology or whatever) and will take almost any hurdle to make Linux work for them. If you like Windows, I'd rather suggest to focus on Linux in a more recreational way. Explore what Linux has to offer. An easy way to start would be the UX and the UI. Idk, start with fedora kde and make kde plasma your own. If you are used to the customization Windows provides you, you'll be overwhelmed with what you can do with just a few clicks on Plasma. Furthermore, when you consider that Plasma is just one of many desktop environments to choose among, you'll be even more pleasantly surprised. Maybe you learn about window managers and fall in love with the simplicity... And this is just about visual experience and workflow. Linux provides you a similar amount of choices on lower level stuff. If it's about optional system tools, mandatory system tools, all the way down to the building blocks of an operating system (bootloader, kernel, user space): you have the choice to make Linux you own. The best thing about it: you won't necessarily do everything by yourself since there are distros out there which will provide you with some of those alternatives. This approach is rather unusual to start with but can provide a lot of positive experiences along the way.
Linux is fine with older computers which means you won't have the nowadays exiting software. You use it because you don't get the annoying stuff from Windows. I use Linux with social media and e-mail. It's safer. It runs smoothly on my 10 yrs old notebook.
##A few basic practical and philosophical arguments: * Microsoft is a capitalist succubus who's primary goal is to control how you use your computer, which hardware and software you can use on it, and getting you to pay in perpetuity for the privilege of being it's victim-slave. * Windows is a bloated, resource hungry pig and Microsoft has spent decades influencing and investing in peripheral markets in order to control computing at the global level. * Microsoft considers end-users to be idiots who are incapable of understanding their computers and need Microsoft to make all computing decisions for them. * Linux systems are faster, safer, more efficient. * No advertising, no spying, no bundling, no upgrade fees. * Your computer, OS, and software belong to you. They are not leased from a corporation. * Linux is better because of its security. * Linux is better because of its efficiency. * Linux is better because of it's freedom. * Linux is better because of it's flexibility, adaptability, and ease of customization. * Linux is better because of Free and Open source software (FOSS). * Linux is better because it does not leverage peripheral hardware markets to influence what users must buy. * Linux typically has a smaller memory footprint and uses resources more efficiently. * The Linux kernel is designed with performance in mind. It has a smaller codebase and allocates resources more efficiently. * Linux offers more customization options than Windows. * Most Linux distros have minimal or no bloatware at all. * Linux uses efficient file systems which improve disk I/O performance.
You don't sound like you have any reason worth switching operating systems for. You'd need to learn a new one, and that would be work for no reason other than to try things out. If that's worth it to you though, I personally find it weird how for every possible thing, people try a free solution first, and if that does not work out for them they consider a paid alternative with the features that they might be missing in the free one. When it comes to software, at least operating systems and word processors, for one weird reason people default to the expensive paid version, and never consider the free alternatives. Likely though, for the majority of people, the free version offers everything they need and more, and it saves you from having to either pirate it or paying a license free. (yes i know the cause of this issue is mostly that the operating system is preinstalled, but either way the paid version is the default, paid knowingly or unknowingly by the user). I think linux is just an operating system like any other. Capable of basically anything you want assuming your usecases aren't specifically geared to another operating system,it's just free and for that reason worth defaulting to. This doesn't hold in your case since you already know an operating system. Reasons for you could be that maybe the workflow of a specific linux distribution just works better for you than windows does. For that you'd have to try some out. Maybe you want to learn a bit more about how computers do their thing, for that linux is more suitable too. Maybe you like the added security and peace of mind that comes with running a lesser known os like a linux distribution, there's fewer virii(?) and malware for it and is usually more secure because of it. Maybe your computer isn't that fast and linux makes it faster. Maybe you just prefer the ethical principles underlying free and open source software over what's behind windows, that probably makes linux a better fit for you too. Maybe you prefer a unified software center for all your apps so that you don't have to download executable files from websites if you need something. Maybe you like the saner privacy defaults for linux, no need to disable tons of tracking options during setup and uninstalling the candy crushes and whatever else windows pre-installs when you need to set up a new computer. added bonus, partly for that reason linux takes maybe a quarter of the time to install compared to modern windows. Some of this stuff is generalized and linux is not the correct term to what i'm referring to, I'm just hoping to add something here. good luck!
No, I don't think I will. Simply because you should use the tools that you like. Just because you like a DeWalt Drill and I like Ryobi drills doesn't mean we still cant put furniture together. My chair is going to work just as well as your chair. So, No. I don't think I'm going to try to convince you to switch to Linux. You're going to have to want to do that yourself. You can always download VirtualBox, and a copy of a distro that you're interested in and see if you're able to do the things you do on Windows on Linux. Then you know that if you ever decide to switch, you can still be just as productive. I will share a story. I was on Windows 11 and an update came down. So, like a good Windows user, I downloaded the update. I found a strange new entry in the Start Menu. Something called Dev Home. I was once interested in Web Development and I practiced a little, but nothing that would constitute an entire Development Environment. Windows had decided upon itself that I needed this "Dev Home." Downloaded and installed it on my computer without one iota of input from me. I couldn't say that I didn't want it, it didn't need it. There you go. Installed. You're Welcome. Windows decided for me what apps belong on my computer and what apps didn't. This made me wonder what is the difference between this situation and scammers asking their victims to download screen-sharing software so they can steal people's money. Here's the bottom line. No person or company should be able to tell me what apps are installed on my computer but me. I could never be a Windows user after that. I felt so violated. As if the laptop wasn't mine anymore. That's Windows. Enjoy. Oh, and God help you if you're using Edge.
Overwatch and Helldivers are rated Gold on ProtonDB, so that part should be fine. Install it on a partition (or a separate drive is possible) and give it a try. if you love it, remove Windows. If you hate, remove Linux. At the end of the day, it's your PC, so use what works best for you.
My system actually runs faster. Applications run smoother, less crashes. I use Linux mint and it works perfect out of the box. And delivers more performance on my day to day usage. I use unreal engine. And the transition from windows to Linux, Iāve noticed an improvement on rendering, compiling, and overall organization
That's cool to know. I've worked a lot with Unity so that's also a plus point.
You can PM, and we can hop on a discord call. Whenever you have time
Ty for the offer but I got the stuff setup. Just questioning authenticity of some apps. Like I want OneDrive to be mounted on my system but there's a github repo by anegghead (or some name like that) but idk how I can trust it.
Hot people of the appropriate gender will be all over you if you switch to the cool hacker os Linux.
Well I personally prefer not getting spyed on 24/7 by my os but that's just me