Linux

My biggest pain points with Linux have mostly been audio related. Audio is serviceable for general users but whenever it comes to either professional audio work or high end consumer audiophile stuff, Mac and Windows unfortunately blow Linux out of the fucking water at this point in time.

Pros: OS doesn't spy on you, better privacy, freedom, the OS will not tell you what you have to do. Just do whatever you want to do, change whatever you want to change.

Cons: Maybe gaming support, this is what I see people complaining. I don't game myself, so can't say much here. After using Linux for 20+ years, I personally don't have any cons. The OS works perfectly fine for both professional and personal life.

My main gripe with linux is still game and other software support.

Other than that everything I can think of is so much better than windows for me.

Unlike windows or mac with their expensive licenses , once installed, Linux is yours

Pros: it doesn't do anything you don't make it do.

Cons: it doesn't do anything you don't make it do.

Pro: It just works and does what its told. Cons: I am concerned that long term viability of open source software in an AI and profit driven via job cuts world.

Miss from windows? Absolutely nothing. It just pisses me off. I have to manage Azure, Windows Server, Deployments, and other microsoft crap. It always just sucks.

Pros it's not windows.

Cons its Linux.

You will curse it and praise it in the same breath for the rest of your life.

Depends what you do on Windows. As someone who never really got into gaming and who loved programming it was the obvious choice.

Windows singularly fails in some of the most basic operations you could want from an OS. It makes me so angry the way it takes so long to copy a bunch of files, for example. Or if it won't delete some files because one 'is still in use' but it won't tell me which one or which program is using it! Why? Its infuriating.

Linux has none of these issues. And with a enough time, native ports of some of the games I used to play became available. I would never go back to Windows now.

Windows has better accessability features than linux does. Itsn ot talked about much but ive been in meetings with people with disabilities, survivors of accidents, etc... and Windows is the only real option. If you are blind there are standard programs that they use.

Its the one area i think linux could use real work. A couple of places ive put in pull requests to help out from time to time.

Otherwise linux is generally better ;)

Linux Pros - I don't even notice anymore after decades of use. I think it's great. I guess i could say that it's nice that it won't try very hard to protect you from yourself.

Linux's Cons - CAD software still sucks which means i'm never going into a career based on design, engineering, or 3d printing. Also, I guess I could say it won't try very hard to protect you from yourself.

So, there is some aggravation (not really a con) in terms of package management systems.

You have MANY options not limited to your standard repo tools like yum, pacman, apt, etc. You also have 3rd party ones like flatpak and snap. You could also throw in the AppImage format to that. Arch has the AUR on top of that which usually means you're running paru or yay. And then you have things like brew and crates which you might run into.

Working in any of these is straightforward, the problem comes from having to manage them all independently of one another at the same time. Pacman will update standard repo, but not AUR. Paru will update standard repo and AUR, but that doesn't help with flatpak/snap. Then docker/pods/lxc are in their own little world while you get those handled.

In the end, the more complex you build a system the more complex it is to manage, but it still is an aggravation. I'd still take it over the one-size fits all approach Microsoft has, though.

Pro: it's GLOSS - Gratis Libre OSS.

Con: it's run terribly. The Linux foundation could be doing a much better job. 1-2% of its funding go into the linux kernel.

Pros:

• Trustable.
• Free.
• The user is in control.
• has many UI.

Cons:

• Still has a bad error message style. I blame GNOME for this. If GNOME follow macOS's error message style, we won't have this problem.
• Still has an annoying app installation way. This is why I use AppImage.

I am sorry if my English is bad.

Linux's only objective is to get better.

Any commercial OS has the sole objective to make money for its owner.

Linux is how home computing was supposed to be.

If you have bleeding edge hardware then Linux driver support is usually a pain in the ass. On windows there’s one, maybe 2 Windows versions. And manufacturers typically make drivers for windows first.

Got older hardware? It’s probably gonna work great on Linux.

Pros :

• Reliable, I have nothing to fix and no unusual behaviors or settings on Cachyos. If I set something up the setting won't change on its own.
• Private, no telemetry. No NVIDIA service sending all the apps I launch to HQ.
• No forced software. I can choose to remove most components I dont like and replace them.
• Gaming works as well or better than Windows once its setup.
• I can revert to a previous image of my system right at boot. Very reassuring to know it's easy to revert to a previous state/version of my system.
• More lightweight system, I use way less RAM on idle than on Windows. That's more RAM to use for actual useful stuff like gaming.
• it's free. Doesn't require an account to use.
• it's secure. Much less risk running a linux system than windows. You are a harder target and also a less attractive one for hackers.

Cons :

• I can't play games with kernel level anticheats.
• I sometimes have to spend 10mn when installing a new game to set it up on proton.
• You are still expected by most people to handle their proprietary files coming from Microslop. You have to be able to sign PDF files and return office files.
• HDR support is not really good for games and it often is difficult to have working.

Overall, having switched 4 months ago, I have no regrets and honestly it was a great upgrade for me. Beside the money lost on a game like BF6 I'm very happy to be on linux.

I was really annoyed by my W10 setup anyway. I constantly had settings that would change on their own. I often had bad days where you feel the system struggling even though nothing changed. It was very frustrating. Linux solved that. I dont have bad days on my system. It runs exactly as I left it when it was shutdown. And this expected stability is very comfortable for users.

Highly recommend the switch to cachyos for all Windows gamers. And even for non-gamers it's a very functional and reliable operating system.

I use windows at work, I have local admin which removed a lot of friction for a more technical user.

But the difference between my home machines (18 years Linux) and my work machine is friction. Windows makes things hard, it is always a few extra clicks or a stupid reg key change.

E.g. recently wanted my full right click menu back on win11, no nice setting option. Go edit this unnamed registry key, it seemed so janky in a modern os.

I'm a long time Mint user, jumped around a fair few distros but mint works well for me. It is so polished compared to windows, it seems crazy it is the free one.

A pro is that is not Windows 11

Pro: You own your computer.

Con: You own your computer (and you have to work on maintaining it).

I'm mostly joking. Generally if you have a problem with Linux, you can get help on it. The myth that there are more Windows users, so therefore it's easier to get help with Windows is problematic for a few reasons. One, the number of Windows users who are actually passionate about it are comparable to the number of passionate Linux users, or Mac users. I'm not sure which one leads the others in power users who are happy to help, but I feel like it's Linux. Nobody has Linux because of the computer they bought (or, almost nobody). Windows and Mac have a lot of users who just use the computer they bought with the software that came with it. Virtually no one has Linux who didn't choose it, and they chose it for reason that are important to them, and it's in their best interests to help you learn it, too.

The other myth is the command line. Windows, Mac, and Linux all have a command line/terminal. It's not needed on any of them, but on all of them, there are a couple things you can do that are not easy to do in the GUI.

Honestly if you have Windows, get a live distro and run it. You can run it inside Windows. The performance won't be the same as running it on bare metal, but you can see how it handles your hardware. For most distros you shouldn't have a problem.

(Disclosure: I'm a happy Mac user. I've used Linux off and on (mostly off though) for over 20 years. My favourites have been Red Hat (when it was a home OS; it's called Fedora now) and Ubuntu. I prefer the GNOME interface. I'm comfortable with the command line. I understand that macOS is UNIX, and I also understand that it's not and why it's not.)

I can't think of a single thing I miss. I use Windows for work and it's a relief every evening when I can switch to my Linux desktop.

Linux Cons:

• there is always some minor thing that doesn't work quite right, or it takes a lot of searching to find a fix. However this is true on Windows too
• on a fast moving distro things can randomly break here and there, but usually are fixed fast
• some games and apps won't work. Usually when they're trying to do something invasive. Be prepared to find an alternative (or dual boot)
• some hardware doesn't work because the vendor doesn't provide drivers and no open source version exists. If they are actively blocking foss versions, they're a good candidate for the never buy list
• no Copilot (/s)
• if you want things to "just work" and you don't care about personalizing anything and you don't care about your privacy, you may happier on Windows or Mac because you can just take it to a shop and have them fix it. There are just more resources for an OS that commands 80% of the desktop market

Linux Pros:

• my computer is mine and I can control everything
• I can customize things much more than on Windows
• I can upgrade when I'm ready and opt out of any shenanigans
• Everything I care about works. I switched to open source for photo editing. There was a learning curve, though
• software development, even with Microsoft tools (!), is just much nicer on Linux. You don't need WSL when it's already your OS

Workarounds:

• I choose to not buy unsupported hardware
• I choose to not buy unsupported software and games
• I put vendors hostile to freedom on my never buy list (e.g. Adobe)
• I have access to a Windows PC if I need it. But I have not needed it in the last year or so I've been full time on Linux

Not saying going full time Linux was necessarily easy (I gave up Adobe Lightroom and I can't play some AAA games) but I have no regrets. It was actually easier than I had feared.

It's like diet and exercise: it's not easy to change but you'll feel a lot better in the end.

Pros: Freedom

Cons: Needs to be creative to use favorite apps which don’t have Linux version.

Windows is a hot steaming pile, so I won’t get into that. You really should set you bar higher.

Pros: everything except super cutting edge hardware runs painlessly, right out the box. You can get software for pretty much anything, and it will be free. You can keep using super old hardware until it physically dies. No ads, hardly any telemetry or tracking, no AI junk.

Cons: each program looks and acts different, and might be super opionated and janky. But that’s the situation with Windows anyways. No customer support for private end users, and if you dare ask about your problem online, elite users will berate you and get on your case with arcane commands.

Bottom line: if you feel comfortable with a computer and won’t get scared if the icons and menus look different, try it out.

My favorite pro is league of legends support.

No enshittification. You can trust it to get better in the long run.

cons: you won't be able to play games anymore

pros: you won't be able to play games anymore and your brain will heal.