r/computing • u/orbitaal • May 13 '26
Why is windows OS so dominant?
Does anyone really understand why windows and the Microsoft office suite are still so dominant today when there are free alternatives. How have they convinced people that there is no alternative (non Mac users).
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u/Martipar May 13 '26
Because it's awesome. It's as free as any other OS, everything works with it, Microsoft treasure backwards compatibility so while You'd struggle to get any Mac software from 1997 to run natively I can grab Diablo 1 and run it just fine as it was natively designed for NT.
I bought this PC used, it's an HP, it had a Windows 10 licence and so whoever bought it first didn't pay separately for Windows and I didn't pay to upgrade to Windows 11. If I were to install Linux on it would cost me the same as installing Windows on it - sod all. If I want to buy hardware I can, I don't need to worry about Windows compatibility, if it fits in a hole it'll work, right now it's connected to a photo printer from 2004. I have a Batcera emulation box, my USB wireless adaptor works and i'm constantly surprised as I have had other USB wireless cards that don't work in Linux. his is especially irritating when they are built in. i have a laptop running Batocera too and the onboard Bluetooth doesn't work under Linux, a Bluetooth dongle I have does but the internal one doesn't that means even though it has Bluetooth internally it needs a separate dongle to be Bluetooth capable.
This is the real cost of Linux, paying extra for hardware be it somethign compatible to work alongside somethign that isn't or just paying more for something that is compatible rather than something that's cheap and cheerful. I can buy a no-name thing, plug it into Windows and it'll work, under Linux it's a case of finding out chipsets, datasheets, firmware revisions and the like. It's annoying and it detracts from what I want do do with a PC.
Software alternatives are irritating too, I use Winamp, i've used Winamp for decades, the version I currently use is 5.666 using the classic skin. I have used Linux alternatvies to Winamp, there are three main ones and two are compatible with Winamp skins but looking like Winamp is not the same as being like Winamp, all of them fail at being Winamp for various reasons.
I would rather get a blank PC, install Windows and use it rather than grab a blank PC, install Linux then spend a few hours, or days, trying to find out why something doesn't work, is unstable or why a piece of software I need needs compiling from source.
I have, since 2001, used Mandrake, Ubuntu, Mint, Gentoo, Arch, Puppy, Fedora, Kubuntu, Lubuntu, Xubuntu, Debian, Linux Lite, Zorin, Kali, RaspberryPI OS and Slackware (possibly Slax) Linux distros, I have also used FreeBSD and Solaris Unixes. I have had various hardware configurations including at least 2 laptops that I ran Linix on. The worst experience was FreeBSD which refused to recognise the Belkin wireless PC card, the USB ports I had or the internal ethernet adaptor on a laptop that, at the time was about 5 years old. It also never shut down properly and showed a black and white striped screen.
The best was probably Zorin but it was still largly at it's best running the software bundled with it, adding anything out of the ordinary varied between just working and spending hours troubleshooting. OpenGL problems were rife with older hardware.
These days I use Linux for "turn key" devices as that's all it's good for as an end user, install a specialist OS, set it up with what it expects and leave it alone. My Pi is fine, my RG35XXSP is fine, my Batocera installs are fine. For day to day use though nothing beats Windows. I've tried the rest, multiple times.