I don't have anything groundbreaking to say about this, Windows just sucks and is considered the 'only option' when you dont have thousands of dollars to buy into Apple's ecosystem. I am a pensioner, and my rent takes roughly 60% of that, so I am excluded from this.
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Annoyances and Ethics
I have grown up with Windows 95, 98, ME, XP, Vista, 7, and 10. I felt that 10 removed or obscured a lot of information and settings I was used to having easy access to. In particular having the phone/tablet style 'Settings' coexist with 'Control Panel', which wasn't clearly in the task bar by default anymore. Control Panel has more settings and clear menus to navigate them. 'Settings' had that thing where minimalism in design effects the information you are presented. I don't know if this applies overseas, but where I live about 10-15 years ago, the major supermarkets did this to their layouts. You used to go in an aisle and every single sub-section was labelled with hanging signs like 'Canned vegetables', 'Canned fruit', 'pickled vegetables' or whatever. There would be like 20 signs in each aisle, and it was easy to look from the end and see where a specific thing is. Now they have like 6 signs per aisle and you have to remember to free associate that 'Canned tomatoes' also means all canned fruit and vegetables and canned fish? Or remember that 'Spices' also means breadcrumbs and liquid stock and sometimes oil? It is neurodivergent kryptonite to me, especially as most stores have a unique layout, and change that layout every few years. This is a major pet peeve of mine, and I really dislike it in relation to user interfaces as well. It feels like I am supposed to have an art degree to determine that some abstract shapes are the icon for a word processor or network connection manager.
Anyway, in essence, I at best tolerated Windows 10 for the years I have used it. Then the notifications and the news started about 11. Windows pop ups told me my computer wouldn't work with 11 (that might not be the case anymore) and the solution I found was getting someone to solder a modern TDP onto my motherboard, which I didn't want to do. Then the news of Copilot 'AI' integration really put me off, a invasive data scraper that pulls information from frequent screenshots of your computer so that you can have the option to say "hey computer, what movie was I looking up the other day". Frankly if I forget something, it probably wasn't that important. Also there were issues with Copilot scraping plain text passwords or bank information from these screenshots, and the data was unencrypted 'only while the computer is on'. I'm not an expert on any of this, and details may have changed, but I have absolutely zero interest in data scraping generative 'AI' crap. If someone can't be bothered writing an email, why should I be bothered to read it. It is not new information that these things scrape (steal) the hard work of creatives, and also the general data of anyone that uses their services. From what I have read, there 'is not enough' data currently available to make these things really effective, so they produce 'slop'. This means ANY company with an AI tool is DESPERATE for data, and will scrape absolutely everything they can from you to feed these AI tools in the hopes of improving them. This is one of the things that has encouraged me to move on from as much 'big tech' as I can. All this AI stuff is also well documented for it's extreme power and water consumption, and the catastrophic effects this is and will continue to have on the planet.
Another major ethical concern for me, of continuing to consume from these mega corporations, is their well documented resource theft practices. The essential minerals for our modern tech life are AT BEST extracted from the most exploited peoples on earth, for disgustingly inequitable prices, or just stolen and laundered. Every major tech manufacturer is not only aware of this, but willingly partaking in it. Modern tech promotes this throwaway culture and normalizes obseletion of devices after a few years, creating a constant flow of toxic e-waste across the world, that always disproportionately effects the third world the most. The transition to Windows 11 has created a major global e-waste spike, despite there being more than enough functional second hand electronics floating around for everyone, in this particular case GNU/Linux provides a way for most older computers to continue to be used.
My Initial Experience
I can't really remember where I first read about Linux Mint, but you will see it lauded whenever you search for beginner friendly distros. I had watched videos and read articles, and was keen to give it a go. I managed to find a cheap second hand dell optiplex micro on marketplace which had Windows 11 installed, I decided to get it to see what 11 was like, and to test out Linux without screwing my main computer. I really tried with Windows 11, went through and deleted all the bloat programs and tried to familiarize myself with it. It felt like everything I hated about 10 was multiplied, I hated the way it looked and felt to control, and gave up on it after a day. I came across a video from 'ExplainingComputers' about 'dual drive dual booting' Windows and Linux on the same computer, so I got a few really cheap second hand SSDs from ebay. Gave dual booting a test on the optiplex to become familiar with the process, and then immediately did the same on my main computer. Mint is very easy to use and understand as a former Windows user, their Cinnamon desktop feels like a windows 10 or 7 style that I am very familiar with. I started using it as my daily driver for a few weeks, only swapping back when I needed specific files, or a program. Windows would immediately slow down and take forever to apply updates because of my absence causing them to build up. The whole system felt sluggish even when not updating, I think the direct comparison I had from dual booting had like cognitively reframed how I think it should run. That was a very reassuring feeling that I had made the right choice, and grew my dislike for Windows overall. After like two or three months I just gave up and wiped Windows completely, decided to stick with Mint, and GNU/Linux in general, indefinitely!
Laptop Troubleshooting
After this I decided to do the same for the older laptops we had in the house. Took my partner's HP pavillion from Windows 8 to Mint, tried out Linux Mint Debian Edition (LMDE) 32-bit on my very old Toshiba Satellite then settled on antiX 32-bit. My biggest problem was my main laptop, the Asus Vivobook, I started with MX Linux which was good, but there was some catastrophic crash issue. I couldn't load other distros on it, and it would not boot properly, but eventually I tried antiX which installed and ran fine, saving the laptop! I have had antiX on that laptop for a number of months working well, it still would not allow any other distros to install though, which I wanted to do for testing. Eventually I decided to sit down and work out what the problems were, apparently some laptops can be a bit problematic when installing non Windows operating systems. It turns out there were two issues which eventually had simple enough solutions. 1st: The live booting ISOs had a different name for the boot file than my laptop was expecting. Even when I went in the BIOS and pointed it directly at the boot file it did not work, I had to rename the file to what it wanted, then it would boot. 2nd: The issue that caused the crash of MX Linux initially, and any attempt to install other distros, was something with reading the PCIE bus creating a bunch of errors that would fill up the limited memory that held those errors. I barely understand it, but I found I just had to add a parameter to the live ISO when booting, telling it to turn off active-state power management (pcie_aspm=off I think?) It was applied to the kernel automatically when the system was installed, but that is not always the case, some people have to manually add it after. Anyway, that was a relief and I got Debian installed on this laptop so I could test out some stuff
Settling In
I immediately started proselytizing GNU/Linux to everyone I knew, to me it was like I had just become aware of this better alternate path that nobody around me knew about. I have since tempered that compulsion, most people don't care and that's fine. Some people like to humour you, or themselves with a "Hmm I have been interested in Linux" or "Oh I've heard about that", which no shade on wanting to appear interesting/interested for whatever reason, but if people want to switch to Linux, they will. My enthusiasm has not waned, while I understand it is just an operating system family, it is also freedom from big tech and inclusion in a niche like-minded community. This is what has drawn me specifically to community distros like Linux Mint, antiX and Debian. When Mint 22.1 released, I decided to do a fresh install with Xfce instead of Cinnamon. I now absolutely adore this setup, especially Xfce, it is very customizable. Also it presents you with a lot of clear informationm like if you hover over a button or icon, a dialogue box will tell you what it is and exactly what it does with decent detail. The same applies to the panel menu, I was struggling sometimes trying to work out what some apps did in Cinnamon, based on an abstract icon and name. It's the total antithesis of what I was complaining about at the start of this post with regards to minimalism. I find it very intuitive, and it is also known for using less system resources because it is 'less flashy', which I appreciate. I am now starting to acclimiate more with base Debian & derivatives since learning of Canonical (Ubuntu devs) plans to ditch 'coretuils' for 'uutils'. It does not seem like there's a real utility or efficiency reason to do this, and it could cause issues with a lot of apps built to expect coreutils. But I barely understand that shit, I just like Debian's 'social contract', and feel I can better trust their decisions as they are not profit driven.
Anyway, that's it my "SWITCHED TO LINUX™, GONE WRONG? 3AM *emotional*" post. Looking forward to the 'Year of the Linux desktop' (when market share increases a whole 1%), and awaiting my cat ear headphones and 'programming socks' in the mail. <3