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?
This is really interesting. I started with Mint-Cinnamon since it sounded like it would be ideal for me as I had no desire to switch to Windows 11 and I needed a daily driver OS; I did not like Mint at all and spent too much time trying to make it work with newer hardware. Fedora Workstation has been a great experience for me and it checks all the boxes with minimal troubleshooting. What is about Arch that made you decide to switch? Genuinely curious as I am all-in on Linux now that I know I can do productivity stuff and gaming so easily and I don’t have to give another dime to MS.
I suppose all the “I use Arch” memes made me curious about the hubbub behind it. Fedora is totally competent, works right out of the box and gives no issues in my experience, I truly believe it should be recommended more when folks consider making the switch. Arch has been a learning experience for me, kinda figuring out what the system needs but doesn’t come with. “Oh, I have no firewall, I better install it. No bluetooth? Alright, I’ll add that too.” It’s so hands on and it forces the user to make decisions that the distro usually makes for the user on its own. This is a “for better and for worse” type of thing, but it forces the user to learn more about Linux itself than just handing them a totally functional machine right out of the box. It was intimidating as hell the first couple installs, but now I understand things I didn’t understand before as a result of it.
I understand, this also worked for me. Although I also have to include Debian in this since it’s the my favourite for server related installs