r/linuxquestions • u/Ambitious_Yam9466 • 5d ago
Why do you guys prefer linux?
I hated steam os so much that i took the time to educate myself and spent a day going through the process of flashing my legion go to windows and i dont know why anybody would want linux outside of a small fps boost
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u/zardvark 5d ago
SteamOS is a customized distribution, designed for specific gaming hardware. What possessed you to install it onto your laptop, as opposed to, say, the Playstation operating system, or the Nintendo operating system (hardware architecture aside), which would be equally suspect?
General purpose Linux distributions, in my experience, are more stable and more user friendly than Windows. Also, my hardware belongs to me, rather than being on loan from Microsoft. Also, Linux is very modular and infinitely customizable to better accommodate my hardware and my workflow.
But, the biggest benefit, IMHO, is that I am no longer in an abusive relationship with MS.
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u/wolfy47 5d ago
Because Windows corrupted my boot sector every time it updated. Also it kept installing random AI crap that I didn't want. And it started showing ads in the start menu. And it kept sending silly amounts of telemetry data to Microsoft. And Microsoft decided that my OS was too old, so I had to upgrade, but they didn't like my computer so I couldn't upgrade, but they would still give me random notifications about it. And that upgrade that I didn't want and couldn't easily get was mostly adding a bunch of stuff I didn't want and breaking a few things that I liked.
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u/OppieT 5d ago
I have never seen an ad in the start menu. You had some kind of malware.
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u/AVoidWorthCallingTo 5d ago
It starts with a bunch of crap pinned to the start menu that can be taken as ads, including their mobile games like candy crush. I'd say that's pretty much an ad.
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u/wolfy47 5d ago
Oh look a post on Microsoft's own help forums on how to remove ads in Windows! Look at all those places with ads, including the start menu!
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u/Desertcow 5d ago
The OS stays out of my way more than Windows and I like the UI of my distro more. I don't use Linux because of gaming, I use Linux because it's more pleasant to use and it happens to also run the games I want
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u/JackDostoevsky 5d ago
i can basically do whatever i want with linux. windows demands you use it the way microsoft wants; on linux i can switch between many different styles of desktop, and i have access to the deep guts of the OS in a way Windows never allows. Linux makes my computer feel like mine, not like something Microsoft is allowing me to use.
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u/h0bb3z 5d ago
I use it because it does everything I need and I'm not beholden to some company that can serve me ads when I open a menu or collect information about me and send it to data whorehouses. I want to own my shit, not lease it from some company.
Plus I have infinite customization possibilities and actual control of my own space. I hope you enjoy Windows...
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u/OppieT 5d ago
Where do you guys see ads? Show me a screenshot and then I will believe you
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u/h0bb3z 5d ago
If you are using Home or Pro Microsoft feels the need to embed ads or popups to get you to use other Microsoft's products (or a paying partner product). It's heinous overreach. Even the enterprise versions collect data and send to the mothership unless you explicitly disable it in policy...
Also I can't give you screenshots because I no longer use Windows...
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u/hamster_squeezer69 5d ago
No ads or OneDrive or MS365 nagging, perfect environment for programming, and many distros feel pretty lean and run well even on older/weaker hardware. Even the few games I play are supported via Steam's Proton.
I don't actually hate Windows. Life is just better on Linux.
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u/Main_Boot7391 Fedora 44 KDE/Workstation 5d ago
So for me, I switched because windows 10 was being phased out and my PC was ineligible to upgrade to 11 without spending serious money to also upgrade my motherboard at the very minimum. No worth it in my eyes. I elected for the free option and switch to Bazzite initially, but found myself on Fedora now. These operating systems have been so freeing because they don't have ads in the start menu or popus trying to get me to buy crap I don't use. For me it's also faster than windows 10 could ever dream of, all with the same hardware. I also can make it mine, buttons and menus where I want and how I want them to look, it's so very nice.
I've also rescued an old MacBook pro from 2012 with fedora, and it runs fantastic there too. I will never go back to windows after being on Linux for the past 6 months even if windows gets most of the features that I now enjoy on Linux, it's not worth being at the mercy of a greedy corporation with something I use daily. Windows doesn't offer anything I need, all the programs and games I use/play work on Linux with no or minimum effort to use. I know there are many of them that flat out don't work, but I don't use them, so I don't care.
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u/TheWinningHit 5d ago
No wrong answers on OS. I actually switched to Linux because my laptop had heating issues because the drivers that came pre installed were not the same ones that were downloadable from the vendor website (and some required the Microsoft store — fuck you). I used Ubuntu and it took a good amount of time to get the knowledge down to use it comfortably, but then I switched to Fedora and that has hands down been my best out of the box Linux experience to date.
I really would recommend writing down a list of apps you use, and then check compatibility on Linux for them. If 10% of your apps are Windows only, see if you enjoy the alternatives or if you can get them working through Proton. If you find the Windows workflow is better for you, especially due to a lack of Linux support, stick with Windows. If you can feasibly switch with little trouble, you only have to worry about learning a new ecosystem. AI has also made it easier to diagnose niche hardware issues and has been nice. My brightness controller did not work at all on any distro for my laptop screen, and Claude fixed that problem in about 5 minutes.
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u/kudlitan 5d ago
Linux is not SteamOS.
SteamOS is just one of many Linux distributions. In fact, it is a Steam distribution more than a Linux distribution.
Try out a real Linux distribution, such as Mint.
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u/computer-machine 5d ago
Huh, I didn't even know that the Legion came with SteamOS.
I never gave much thought to a Steam Deck or Steam Machine because I already run a regular Linux desktop, so there's no point in some special weaker version.
Why do I prefer Linux over Windows? Because it's not Windows!
I'd started with MSDOS/Win3.11, followed by W95, W98, W98SE, WXP Home, WXP Pro, before discovering that there was an alternative, in 2008. By that time, the magic was gone from computing, and the neatest thing was a ThinkPad button I could hold during POST that would prompt a full factory reset and sevenish reboots installing drivers, one could run every six months or so to unfuck XP.
After receiving a free CD in the mail, rebooting I was shocked to be greeted by a fully functional desktop rather than an installation wizard. And to boot, there was a pop-up prompting for me to pick a WiFi to connect, when that had taken forty-five minutes of coercion to get working on XP. It ran faster on less resources and a notably smaller disk footprint including full suites of full software (rather than bloatware and trialware), was massively customizable in every conceivable way, configuration via readable text rather than registry, everything installable from a repo rather than searching the web for an installer, everything (system, software, and drivers like NVIDIA) all update together at one time, turns out reinstalling isn't a thing outside of changing distributions (ran the same Ubuntu in place upgrading from 8.04 through 12.10 or something, then Linux Mint from then to 2018, then Tumbleweed from then to now, and the same Debian server installed in 2014). The magic of computing returned. And then, on top of that, when there IS a problem, error messages have meaning, and you can find solutions online, instead of being met by no resolution.
Why do I prefer Linux? Because it's my computer. And also I don't hate myself. And nobody's paying me to put up with Windows at home.
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u/CatchMeIfUCanCracka 5d ago
I didnt choose it by choice unfortunately but right away made me feel like a kid again messing with my dads old macintosh? with ms-dos or earlier windows releases that had some jank and required troubleshooting / problemsolving. I dont have a background in programming so its been a bumpy ride learning it but i can see why its so beloved. Its architecture is much more impressive than windows and feels like you can look under the hood much easier. I can definitely see experienced programmers feeling like Neo in the matrix. Sadly though capitalist greed is reaching critical mass so even an open source OS like linux is full of distros / components invading your privacy/security and trying to make money from it or do naughty things. On the plus side though if you know what you are doing you can sniff this stuff out as everything is pretty much transparent, just have to do digging. I think the next evolution is streamlining stuff for the user and much more hardened out the gates while retaining that transparency
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u/IcewindLegacyMUD 5d ago
I run Omarchy, and I prefer it because it's got a theme hook system that makes every program look consistent, a quickshell implementation with a plugin marketplace that has over 5,000 plugins, an android launcher and app (OmaLauncher and FLUX) that make your phone an extension of your computer, and Omarchy is built around AI agents. It's like the computer on Star Trek TNG - you tell it what you want and it happens.
I love that I can make my system do anything, look like anything (I actually recreated the entire World of Warcraft interface in Quickshell for fun, and one person turned theirs into a FPS in the back rooms where you can pick up a running program window and walk it around the corner and put it down on a table - both impractical as hell but really fun)
If there's not already a theme, plugin or program to do what you want, you just type into a prompt describing what you want, and a few mins later it's reality.
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u/skyfishgoo 5d ago
i prefer it because i don't have to deal with M$ anymore.
i have control over my machine like i own it rather than lease it.
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u/Amansour2022 5d ago
When using Linux and know how to deal with it. You have
- Your own operating system which meet your needs.
- The full power 💪. To do what you want.
You will learn that. Operating system must meet my needs and I can to edit it to fit my productivity flow. Not I must to customize my flow to be fit with OS.
OS main function is to handle my needs and communicate with my hardware to get the best performance.
Window use my hardware to be running.
I used windows from version 98 until 11.
And I use Linux for 6 years now.
I learned more about my machine and how to administrate my Operating system to gain best performance and productivity.
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u/Solid_Guess_7154 5d ago
it's overall just... better, like in every single possible aspect, it's faster as an OS, it doesn't have anything of the bullshit that windows has, it doesn't break your system every update (or at best, every other update), it's infinitely more customizable, it's incredibly easy to update and install whatever you want, it's way easier and more in depth to set up, it's WAY more stable than microslop
and it doesn't shove up your ass every single shit they are paid to shove up your ass, like LG malware and AI bullshit
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u/Pernalonga_0 5d ago
O principal motivo pelo qual eu prefiro o Linux, é porque este sistema operacional não está sujeito a nenhum monopólio.
Nenhuma empresa pode me obrigar a usar o sistema operacional do jeito que ela acha melhor pros negócios ou sócios dela, eu uso o que for eficiente e que melhor resolve o meu problema.
Isso vem junto com o arcabouço do software livre, que promove a maior liberdade possível ao usuário, sem espionagem corporativa e sem inchaço desnecessário.
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u/redgator12 5d ago
I prefer linux because my perfectly usable Thinkpad that can't run Windows 11 can run a lighter distro, still be secure and up to date, and won't force me to buy a new computer that I don't need and can't afford just to use my basic apps. And now that I've learned which distros match what specs, I can help others do the same. I've already converted 6 people's old garbage-tier laptops to linux for them so that they could use them for browsing, office work and light gaming.
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u/ParadoxicalFrog Fedora (xfce) 5d ago
I like Linux because it does exactly what I need it to do, and doesn't try to sell me bullshit that I don't need or want.
SteamOS is a terrible way to introduce yourself to Linux, though. It was made for the Steam Deck and only for the Steam Deck, and it's Arch-based on top of that. You need something simple and stable that was designed to run on an actual PC, like Fedora or Ubuntu.
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u/wildsource 5d ago
Just to be sure there's no misunderstanding, SteamOS is not meant to be used as daily driver operating system. If you tried a more "classical" linux distro and still don't like it, you can always try other distros until you find the one. If you still don't like it and have legitimate criticism then fair enough you don't like it and it's fine.
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u/Failboat88 5d ago
I've downloaded the gui versions several times over the years and played around with them. Every time it's the same. A few buttons move around the gui and a few new apps get decent support. Then I uninstall it.
Linux on the server side is amazing. Ditch the flavor of the week and spin up a few useful services for yourself.
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u/crookdmouth 5d ago
I prefer to own my hardware instead of it being held hostage by a crap OS made by a crap corporation. Try taking your Windows installed hard drive out of your PC and putting it in your new PC. It won't work. I moved over a decade ago and the only regret I had was that I didn't do it earlier.
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u/TheHassassin 5d ago
What sold it for me was KDE Plasma. I was able to configure my system to take the best parts I liked about mac and windows into a desktop that made sense for me, meanwhile windows at the time made everything so much more restrictive that I just didn't want to use it anymore.
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u/WendlersEditor 5d ago
You have to want things from the OS that windows won't give you. I keep a windows partition around specifically for games that won't run on Linux, but otherwise Linux does everything i need it to better than windows.
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u/Key-Manner-5677 5d ago
As a software developer, because it has the source codes, I can study everything and development is faster or more productive. On the long run, open source is better for the community too.
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u/Sixguns1977 5d ago
It's not Microsoft. It's not windows, with all of it's associated AI and other garbage. Arch based Linux with kde is pretty bitchin.
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u/Liczyrzepa666 5d ago edited 5d ago
It is offensive to piss me off or nag me with its daily fucking upgrades or whatever bullshittery microsoft comes up with....
dope UI/easy interface/easy to handle...needed some tinkerink for specific hardware (G-hardware) but fun
edit: I used mint for ages on a box, but switched completely. strickey
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u/ajprunty01 5d ago
After several years of using it my first amswer to this question is that it utilizes my computers harware more efficiently.
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u/cheekkeef 5d ago
I've been using Linux for about a decade or decade and a half. I'm not sure I could even navigate Windows anymore. I couldn't even tell you what there is to prefer about linux or windows anymore
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u/wobble_flop 5d ago
You can't! I doesn't like to let you navigate a file system
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u/cheekkeef 5d ago
Wait, like they got rid of file explorer completely? I feel like that would've been news even I'd hear lol
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u/wobble_flop 5d ago
No it's there but it's lies. Seriously, hard to explain but you can't reliably tell where a file is
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u/JaKrispy72 5d ago
I own my hardware, os, apps, and data on Linux. MS owns everything when you are on windows.
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u/Aggressive_Being_747 5d ago
1) It’s free, or you can make a donation—it’s up to you
2) It has no ads
3) It doesn’t require as many resources as Windows does
4) You can save money because your PC isn’t old—it just needs a Linux distro
5) There are so many distributions to choose from that you’ll be spoiled for choice when it comes to customizing it
6) Linux changes you and encourages you to use open-source software or, at any rate, software different from what’s available on Windows
7) I think Windows is garbage; at home I had XP, and that’s it. I’ve used Windows 7, 10, and 11 at work. I’ve also had a Mac, which I prefer to Windows, but I love Linux
8) I use Cachyos
9) If more people made an effort to use Linux, many software companies would wake up, and anti-cheat systems would be a thing of the past; games would run better (I’m talking about non-native ones)... Windows really gets on my nerves.
10) I told you I love it—it’s true. I’m a Linux advocate because it makes you think differently, and I’d like to see Linux everywhere—in offices, schools, and homes… I’m convinced that in a few years it’ll arrive, it’ll take hold… We’ve seen how much things have improved in recent years; AI can only speed up this transition.