Personally, I’m not brand loyal to any particular OS. There are good things about a lot of different operating systems, and I even have good things to say about ChromeOS. It just depends on what a user needs from an operating system.
Most Windows-only users I am acquainted with seem to want a device that mostly “just works” out of the box, whereas Linux requires a nonzero amount of tinkering for most distributions. I’ve never encountered a machine for sale with Linux pre-installed outside of niche small businesses selling pre-built PCs.
Windows users seem to want to just buy, have, and use a computer, whereas Linux users seem to enjoy problem solving and tinkering for fun. These two groups of people seem as if they’re very fundamentally different in what they want from a machine, so a user who solely uses Windows moving over to Linux never made much sense to me.
Why did you switch, and what was your process like? What made you choose Linux for your primary computing device, rather than macOS for example?
I’ve (mostly) moved over from macOS.
Generally I actually prefer macOS to Linux (I’ve settled on Kububtu mostly), but I’ve become increasingly dissatisfied with Apple over the past few years. The cost of their services and products creeping, being able to see business decisions that falsely cripple cheaper devices, and general all round shittiness that I no longer wish to be a part of.
I had a series of iPhones from a 3GS in 2009 up to a 13 mini, but grew tired of having to jump through hoops to make iOS do what I wanted from it - a feeling exacerbated by using iPadOS on my iPad mini. So last February I grabbed a Pixel 9 and put Graphene on it. hell of a learning curve, but one that showed me that there were better, more equitable ways to achieve what the interconnected Apple ecosystem can do. It might not be as polished, but it’s significantly cheaper, and uses equipment that won’t be rendered obsolete and unable to be upgraded or used in some way.
Then Tim Apple pulled that stunt giving Trump the big gold trophy and I knew that Apple was no longer a company that shared the least of my values. Not that I really believed that before, they’re a multi-trillion dollar company, after all, but of the available options they seemed the least shitty. But not any more.
So now I only use macOS on my M2 Air. When that eventually falls apart I’ll replace it with something I can put Linux on.
Tim Cook sucking up to Trump was a huge letdown for me, too. One would think he’d be against a homophobic fascist as a world leader considering the fact that he’s openly gay, but whatever. Kind of going against his own interests, in many ways, making himself look bad in the eyes of his shareholders and customers…
I still think they make a solid product regardless of anything else, kind of like how the Tesla Powerwall is a really good powerwall but their cars are shit.
Can’t beat a Linux server though, that’s always been true.