I get the feeling that Lemmy has a relatively higher concentration of Linux users. I’m preparing to move over to Linux when I build my new computer. I already put Linux Mint Cinnamon edition on one of my old laptops and I like it quite a bit. I figure that since I’ve been wanting to switch over for years, I should just do it. The games were the thing holding me back, and Proton seems to have taken care of that(I don’t really play multiplayer games that require anticheat… I’m a singleplayer kind of girl).
For me, anyway, I want to switch because Windows has been creeping me out with its telemetry. Windows 11 looks lousy, and I’d have to jump through some hoops to get my old hardware on 11, anyway.
Here is a hot take: I recommend staying with Windows 10.
I’ve been a FreeBSD porter, I’ve used Linux and BSD as primary desktop environments but gave up on Linux as a desktop and I don’t regret it. I used Mac for a while as well but never liked how it laid things out. It wasn’t intuitive.
The problem with Linux is twofold.
One, it’s not at all user-friendly. People will argue it’s gotten a lot better but there is a multitude of issues with Linux from drivers and new tech like Wayland causing problems. To the point where the last time I tried to install Fedora, it bricked before it even got to the live CD desktop because Nvidia, KDE, and Wayland are just broken for some reason, and people accept it. Even simple things in Fedora Gnome like changing my mouse movement to not have acceleration and control the mouse speed did not work via the settings GUI and I had to do some arcane commands from decades ago to get it to work. People call this user-friendly or say “Well you’re just holding Linux wrong.” I said exactly this on Reddit a few months back and got a response “What did you do to your Linux install that the mouse settings stopped working, I’ve never fucked up an install that bad!” which is exactly my next point.
Two, the Linux community is frankly, not ready for mass adoption. Linux is built from its users for its users and it turns out the average Linux user is frankly, a jerk who only thinks about their workflow and themselves. If you come to them with a problematic workflow they will blame the workflow instead of the tools that restrict the workflow. This is exactly what stops mainstream adoption. This is even the root issue of the above. People who try Linux don’t report bugs. While most people don’t report bugs, when people report bugs to open-source projects it’s met with pushback. You have to try hard to prove it’s actually a bug in the first place and you aren’t just “holding it wrong.” The entire Linux community and its mentality needs a huge overhaul and there are small pockets of Linux distros who have gotten better at this but overall the community on average is still the type to suggest “rm -rf /” to fix your drivers.
So Linux probably isn’t for you. I have the exact same desire to move away from Windows. I’ve simply just kept to Windows 10 and used the Windows 10 Debloater to remove the telemetry.
You raise a good point about the Linux community itself. A lot of the people I’ve seen have tended to be gatekeepy chuds. My girlfriend switched ahead of me, and she says she’s having difficulty finding Linux YouTubers that aren’t right-wing douches. I really hope Beehaw ends up with a vibrant Linux community… the be(e) nice ethos would cut out a lot of the worst issues with the Linux community.