Linux

I was still using XP when Ubuntu 5.10 was released, and when I saw my audio worked out of the box, I switched :-) I had been using Mandrake Linux (since 1999) but only for servers and other work related stuff.

Like many, it hasn't been a clean "yesterday windows, today linux" thing for me. In 2004, I switched from a Dell Latitude (Windows) to a Mac, but continued to use Windows for work (because it was required), then I switched my most recent Macbook Air to Linux, kept another Mac around running macos, and still use Windows at work (because it's a requirement). I expect I'm going to be Linux-first from now on (so macos's days are numbered around here), but still use Windows at work.

I'm kinda bummed about moving on from macos, but the iOSification is just awful. The OS feels confused and bloated now. I honestly think Apple is due for a pretty serious reset and consolidation of operating systems.

Windows 10, still using it but am browsing distros and aim to switch before August. Most likely candidate for me right now is Pop! OS, but given that they have halted development for it to work on their own DE (by the looks of it at least) I may go for Fedora or regular Ubuntu instead.

XP when I started going main on Linux. Windows 7 was the last version I had installed for games on a dual boot. Linux was always just more fun. I always felt like it was my computer and I wasn't constantly fighting the computer to make it work for me. Going to a tiling window manager was the point of no return though, my workflow changed so much that my productivity outside a tiling window manager plummeted.

Windows 10. My PC doesn't have TPM and I'm not buying new hardware to accommodate Microsoft's nonsense so that's that. Plus I only keep Windows around as a dual-boot option for like 2 things that don't run on Linux anyway, so it'll get phased out eventually.

Windows 11. One day my system just shit itself & I’d heard about Microsoft adding ads into Windows. So I figured if a SteamDeck can run games on Linux, so can my PC. Looked up what version SteamDeck ran, downloaded EndeavourOS since it’s Arch like SteamOS, and have been gaming on Linux since.

I still use Windows for work, but the last version I used on any of my personal computers was XP.

Windows 10. Last time I used Windows at home was in January. I've completely de-googled and was looking to get rid of as much privacy invasion as I could.

So what's your reasoning for the change to the reliable and funni penguin OS?

I sold my laptop and was waiting for a good deal on PC parts. I was using my Steam Deck as my full time PC and had a really good experience. Decided to try Linux full time on the new PC.

Honestly, I've tried Linux many times previously (last was a year prior) and could never get over troubleshooting problems. The online community helped sometimes. Other times they told me go look up how to compile my own drivers and I got stuck. I would say the whole reason I've been able to change permanently has been down to AI. Now when I get stuck, ChatGPT just tells me how to fix a problem in 2 or 3 commands. Once the initial setup was done and I solved the setup problems, I don't have to go back to AI at all anymore.

Windows 2000 was my primary desktop at the time, though I continued to use Windows XP, 7 and 10 both at work and home for various reasons. I still think Windows 2000 was peak Microsoft. Classic shell, minimal app spam, solid gaming performance, etc.

Well, my beard is the right colour... But none.

I had an Acorn BBC B (running Acorn MOS), then an A3000, A5000, RiscPC (all with RISC OS), then I switched to Linux. I have occasionally used DOS and Windows at work, but never as my main home OS. (I write Linux software for work, but do use a windows laptop to connect to my Dev box)

I think it was win 8. I've dual booted excessively until dxvk basically made such a dent in the gaming exclusivity that I just stayed and enthusiastically followed it grow into perfection

Windows 8.1 was my last version before I made the switch. Windows 8 was horrible. The Metro UI broke all my habits from Windows XP from 7 while also making it harder to tweak my system. By the time 8.1 came out, I'd found enough ways around the main annoyances that its improvements were moot, but many issues remained, such as the bloatware bundled with my PC, and frequent slowness and instability.

As for why I switched, I was attracted by the free software ideal, and trying to get away from Windows, and I had watched and read several things that further convinced me it was superior, but I think the ultimate reason was that I had become hyperfixated on Linux. Thankfully, in this case, autism did not steer me wrong. My level of obsession with Linux has declined, but I still enjoy using my computer much more than I ever did or would on Windows.

Just because I daily drive Linux doesn't mean I don't have windows around.

I have used every version of Windows all the way up to 11.

My first attempt at Linux was in the days of Windows 3.1

My first successful conversion over to daily driver was in the XP era

I went Mac for a couple years around the windows 8 time frame.

I change jobs and went back to windows for a a few around win10.

I went back to daily driving Linux and the windows 11 era, but I still have three win 10 boxes and a win 11 box that I use pretty regularly.

Windows Vista. I absolutely decked it out with free/open source software (LibreOffice, Firefox, Thunderbird, KDE for Windows) before I dual booted Windows and eventually made a more permanent switch. Never looked back.

I did have to use Windows for my old job (Win10 from memory?) but now I have a job where I can use Linux.

Next step is to switch my partner over from Windows 11 (she's already on board with the idea).

Windows 10, but before Windows 11 was even leaked I believe.

Windows 98

Looming back it was probably Windows XP as the last time I used Windows as my main OS. I switched not because Windows was enshittified like it is now, but because the FOSS movement sounded interesting to me. I loaded Ubuntu on an old laptop, and once I got drivers working it covered everything I needed besides gaming. As I became more of a casual player I used Windows less and less until now where I only use it at work. It's been an interesting journey.

Windows 10 when I made the switch last summer. A full year now on EndeavorOS and I'll never go back.

Windows XP, but I was dual booting windows 95 and red hat 5 (not RHEL 5) in the 90s :)

Windows 7 Ultimate for me. I still kept it as a boot option on my main PC until about a year ago because I thought I still needed it for a couple windows apps and games.

I tried Win8 at one point and hated the changes. I also tried Win10 and one of those "forced bloody updates" bricked my machine so I said 'fuck that' for good.

I've dabbled in Linux for 20 years, and run Ubuntu on my living room HTPC for at least a dozen. My main PC runs EndeavourOS now and even gaming has been pretty great.

Windows 98. In the meantime I've also used BSD, though not in a few decades.

Windows XP pre-SP1 at home. For Work I always had to use Windows.

Vista. Tried to make Ubuntu work for a while but that was a shit show back then... Moved over to OS X and I was home - a beautiful UNIX where everything just worked. Stayed there for close to a decade (Lion-Mavericks-El Capitan-High Sierra-Mojave), mostly on non-Apple hardware.

Sadly, the iOS-ization ramped up so I had to rip tons of iCloud related stuff everytime I did a fresh install and then Catalina killed off 32-bit apps and brought other irritants, so I tried Fedora 35 and escaped with close to no issues.

And here I am, on Fedora 40 five years later.

I used 11, but had tried linux when I used 10. I was never really trying to switch, more just distrohopping with windows in the mix, and eventually I just never went back.

I've flirted with Linux for years, all the way back to Fedora Core 6. I still use Windows, so 11 is my most recent version, but it's stripped down using the AME playbook. I use it to play some games with anti-Linux anticheat. I also have a minimal Windows VM on my desktop for playing Destiny 2.

That being said, my primary computers run Arch (custom built desktop) and Fedora (Framework laptop) and I have zero intention of ever using Windows as a primary OS ever again.

I left Win8 to go full time on Linux. For several years before this, I used to host web sites professionally and build them so I was used to Centos and Debian servers but not comfortable enough to be able to manage them deeply. In other words, just enough to make them work, but more complex troubleshooting was not my strong suit.

I later landed a job where their primary systems are Linux based and through that training and learning, I became more comfortable in the CLI and have never looked back.

Windows Vista

I actually switched from OSX Snow Leopard after college. But several years prior, the last version of Windows I used, on the family computer, was XP.

Windows vista. Terrible operating system. I liked the transparent windows and discovered compiz and emerald

Been messing around with Linux ever since

Last Windows I used exclusively was 98. I dual-booted XP at home but gave it up when I realised Linux had everything I need and I never used the Windows partition. Still had to use Windows 7 at work for a few years but since then I've worked in a position where I can bring my own OS.

Since I was personally called out here, Windows 10 was my last home version of Windows, but it was earlier days of 10. For work, however, I manage about 1700 Windows workstations and servers, so I know all those problems still. To be fair, I've been running Linux in some form since before Ubuntu existed. I think it was Debian in 2001 or 2002 that was my first Linux desktop.

Windows 7, but newer versions were already a thing. If I recall correctly, I made the final switch around the time Windows 10 started becoming available to the general public, but I had been dual booting for a while then.

Started with Mint, btw.

XP, to OS X 10.4-10.8, to Linux

Windows 10 before I used Linux full-time, though I did try out Windows 11.

Windows 10. I originally tried Linux out of morbid curiosity and because KDE plasma looked cool... And when windows 11 got announced and later released, I just sorta decided stick with Linux, as by that point I was quite familiar with it...

I haven't seriously used windows for things other than ~~piracy~~ gaming in a long time... I can do everything I wanna do on Linux and my Mac so yeah.

I actually still end up using Windows 11 on occasion because work.

But the last windows I daily drove was 8.1

Prior to that, Linux was "the other OS" and Windows the daily driver. I started using Linux for the first time in the Windows XP era.

It was Windows 10 for me but it was not my first attempt.

The first time I failed to install linux was when I was a teenager in 2003. I don't remember which Windows version I had then, maybe 98, but I was hating it with a burning passion which hasn't improved with the next versions. It seems every new Windows version was specifically made to piss me off even more and make the experience of using my computer worse. I tried installing linux as soon as my parents bought a new computer and gave me the old one, chose Red Hat (not RHEL) because it had an installation guide that was marginally more understandable than what I found concerning debian, but it was still pretty lacking and I failed :(

Then last year I finally tried again after accidentally letting through a Windows 10 update ("accidentally" because I had a firewall blocking everything, especially Windows services). That was the update with fucking EdgeView, which broke all my work flow by breaking the CTRL+Arrow keys+Space to select multiple files and requiring to release and re-press the CTRL key each time. This came six months after I had to wipe my entire drive and reinstall Windows after getting infected, probably by cryptomining malware, by running a random exe from github to remove the Edge browser, which I only did out of desperation after all the other solutions to remove it failed (command line, powershell, registry, etc). To be fair to the malware though, it did remove Edge, and I can respect malware developers with professional ethics. I'm much less mad at the malware than I am at Windows for stressing me so much to resort to running randoms exes. Besides, there were so many times where random exes from the internet saved my sanity from Windows induced breakdowns...

As for the why :

• I don't want my OS deciding how I should use my computer.
• I don't want it to serve me piss and tell me that I should like it.
• I don't want it deciding what configuration I should be allowed to do, what needs to be hidden to make it as inconvenient as possible to change, and what it won't let me do at all unless I try third party apps to basically hack my system.
• I don't want it to stress me so much with the lack of control, transparency and understanding that I am often left in a burnout state, too mentally exhausted to attempt to change anything with my setup, all from the strain of constantly having to find very convoluted hacks for simple things while having no clue as to how or why anything works or doesn't work.
• I don't want it to prevent me from doing what I want to do. Even if what I want to do is incredibly stupid, let me do it and learn why it is stupid.
• I want to be able to actually understand how it works, at least somewhat.
• I don't want pre-installed apps, if I want something I am perfectly capable of installing it myself thank you very much.
• I don't want to have to spend 1-2 weeks debloating at each new reinstall.
• I don't want updates running automatically and installing random stuff, reactivating features I had disabled or resetting stuff I had configured, all without ever telling me what it's doing. I don't want to get so stressed by updates that I set my firewall to block the updater, and security be damned.
• I want to be able to choose how I interact with my computer and not be forced into one way decided for me.
• GIMME BACK MS-DOS ! Or any non graphical session. I don't care if I can do the same thing more easily and efficiently in a GUI, I want the option not to use one if only because it makes me happy. When I was a child and I thought computers were like magic, my parents showed me the magic spells to type in the DOS to run games from floppy disks or to launch Windows 3.11 and I felt like a computer wizard. I even read the MS-DOS manual that came with the computer, in secret because I wasn't supposed to actually use the DOS except to launch games or Windows, but it was just too fascinating to resist. Then Windows 95 came along and since then I've felt like a child being constantly condescended to.
• I don't want it to be a RAM blackhole.
• I don't want it to collect information on me.
• I don't want it to require an internet connection or an account that is not local.
• I don't want it to be controlled by a corporation.
• I want to be able to play video games (that's mostly what kept me from trying again to install linux for 20 years).

Since switching to linux and distro-hopping a lot I have added the following, which I hadn't even know were even possible before :

• I don't want anything at all preinstalled or preconfigured. Just give me a tty and let me waste my time building my system from there and learn how it works, maybe I'm crazy but it's fun (yes I ended up on arch btw).
• If I ever again have to use a desktop cluttered with shortcuts or a start menu I'm going to scream. I used to Windows+R most of my apps because I can't take the time wasted by endlessly clicking everywhere, but even that was a pain (rofi is great, rofi is awesome, rofi is god)
• I'm NEVER going back to floating windows. You'll take my tiler from my cold dead hands.

Definitely not going back =D

I moved to Linux full time about a year after windows 10 released

I “switched to Linux” from Windows 2000 but I have also had machines running with Windows and macOS during that time. My last work computer was Windows 11 ( but I hardly used it ).

Hard to really put into words what kept me in Linux. At times, it has required work and knowledge Windows would not have demanded of me. At the same time, Linux has been largely free of “nonsense”. It just always felt like home.

[ Edit: thinking about I more. I have used Linux since 1992 and honestly moved from primarily OS/2 to mostly Linux. I really liked Windows 2000 though and used it well into the XP era. ]