I remember in early 2024 when I switched to Mint I got some mild pushback from acquaintances, saying in so many words that I was overreacting to Windows getting shittier and that “you can just strip all that bullshit out/you can make a local account/etc.” (while at the same time telling me “linux is too hard/painful because of all the stuff you have to do to make it work right/doesn’t have xyz program”).
I have been getting ever more smug and feeling more vindicated about this decision every day for the past two years.
It’s like complaining about requiring the command line but willing to mess with regedit, group policies or even powershell to just get Windows to a temporarily usable state (before an update overrides your settings).
That was the breaking point for me, actually, back in February 2024; when I realized I was going to have to tard-wrangle my operating system to get it to behave right no matter which OS I used, I’d rather use the one that’s free, doesn’t include spyware I have to rip out, and won’t re-fuck itself after an update. Like, yeah, the terminal is still a pain in the ass for me on rare occasions I have to use it, but it’s no bigger a pain than any of that stuff on Windows; nor is it inherently any scarier than Command Prompt or PowerShell like some seem to think; and unlike Windows things actually stay fixed instead of some corporation going “ah-ah-ah, you can’t do that, let me just fuck that right back up for you.”
Like, I was prepared for the same kind of fight with Linux I’d had with Windows because the fight didn’t seem all that different by that point; that Mint ended up just working most of the time was an unexpected delight.
I have been getting ever more smug and feeling more vindicated about this decision every day for the past two years.
This is so true. I’m at about twenty years since I switched and Microsoft has done nothing but validate my decision over and over and over since then. I sincerely feel bad for people who still use Windows.
I remember in early 2024 when I switched to Mint I got some mild pushback from acquaintances, saying in so many words that I was overreacting to Windows getting shittier and that “you can just strip all that bullshit out/you can make a local account/etc.” (while at the same time telling me “linux is too hard/painful because of all the stuff you have to do to make it work right/doesn’t have xyz program”).
I have been getting ever more smug and feeling more vindicated about this decision every day for the past two years.
It’s like complaining about requiring the command line but willing to mess with regedit, group policies or even powershell to just get Windows to a temporarily usable state (before an update overrides your settings).
That was the breaking point for me, actually, back in February 2024; when I realized I was going to have to tard-wrangle my operating system to get it to behave right no matter which OS I used, I’d rather use the one that’s free, doesn’t include spyware I have to rip out, and won’t re-fuck itself after an update. Like, yeah, the terminal is still a pain in the ass for me on rare occasions I have to use it, but it’s no bigger a pain than any of that stuff on Windows; nor is it inherently any scarier than Command Prompt or PowerShell like some seem to think; and unlike Windows things actually stay fixed instead of some corporation going “ah-ah-ah, you can’t do that, let me just fuck that right back up for you.”
Like, I was prepared for the same kind of fight with Linux I’d had with Windows because the fight didn’t seem all that different by that point; that Mint ended up just working most of the time was an unexpected delight.
This is so true. I’m at about twenty years since I switched and Microsoft has done nothing but validate my decision over and over and over since then. I sincerely feel bad for people who still use Windows.