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Windows 10 refugees flock to Linux in what devs call their "biggest launch"

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Re: Windows 10 refugees flock to Linux in what devs call their "biggest launch"

#11

Post by CaptainOfCoit »

hshdhdhj4444 wrote: post #8
herbst wrote: post #2

Is anyone here even still using Windows in a professional way?

With WSL2, Windows 11 could easily have been the best Linux distribution on the planet, supporting all Windows apps while also giving you the full power of Linux at your terminal. Unfortunately Microsoft decided to stuff it with user hostile spyware instead.

Eh, no. WSL2 is kind of bad compared to a proper Linux environment, you'll encounter so many tiny cuts that eventually you'll yearn for a proper environment where stuff just works instead of having to fight against the built-in "interoperability" stuff Microsoft has added that just gets in the way and introduces new issues.

Saying this as someone who've used both Linux and Windows as a main OS for decades, and would dump Windows 100% if I could get Ableton to run properly on Linux. I'm still using WSL2 from time to time, but for things I need to be productive with, I prefer my Linux environment 99% of the time.

Re: Windows 10 refugees flock to Linux in what devs call their "biggest launch"

#12

Post by aussieguy1234 »

daveoc64 wrote: post #7
herbst wrote: post #2

Is anyone here even still using Windows in a professional way?

As the Stack Overflow developer survey shows, a majority of developers use Windows: https://survey.stackoverflow.co/2025/technology#1-computer-o... HN is atypical of the world, particularly anything outside of the USA.

I ditched windows and switched to Linux back in the Windows 98 days. Have not looked back since.

Re: Windows 10 refugees flock to Linux in what devs call their "biggest launch"

#13

Post by esperent »

CaptainOfCoit wrote: post #11
hshdhdhj4444 wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

With WSL2, Windows 11 could easily have been the best Linux distribution on the planet, supporting all Windows apps while also giving you the full power of Linux at your terminal. Unfortunately Microsoft decided to stuff it with user hostile spyware instead.

Eh, no. WSL2 is kind of bad compared to a proper Linux environment, you'll encounter so many tiny cuts that eventually you'll yearn for a proper environment where stuff just works instead of having to fight against the built-in "interoperability" stuff Microsoft has added that just gets in the way and introduces new issues. Saying this as someone who've used both Linux and Windows as a main OS for decades, and would…

> WSL2 is kind of bad compared to a proper Linux environment, you'll encounter so many tiny cuts

I used WSL2 for years and never had any issues with it.

Re: Windows 10 refugees flock to Linux in what devs call their "biggest launch"

#14

Post by CaptainOfCoit »

daveoc64 wrote: post #7
herbst wrote: post #2

Is anyone here even still using Windows in a professional way?

As the Stack Overflow developer survey shows, a majority of developers use Windows: https://survey.stackoverflow.co/2025/technology#1-computer-o... HN is atypical of the world, particularly anything outside of the USA.

I agree that HN is atypical of the world, but so is any surveys by Stack Overflow too, it's really heavily Windows and C# biased across the board, so take whatever results they get with a grain of salt.

Re: Windows 10 refugees flock to Linux in what devs call their "biggest launch"

#15

Post by esperent »

rlpb wrote: post #10
esperent wrote: post #4

I'm one of these people. Although it was a several years long plan for me, which involved learning new software (especially 3DS Max to Blender). I finally decided to bite the bullet around 8 weeks ago. Backed up everything, wiped Windows, installed Ubuntu. I wouldn't says it's been smooth sailing. I've had a ton of technical issues which are not all resolved (I still can't get my laptop to wake from sleep, I have to…

> Don't assume your laptop will work. Agreed. Note though that the Ubuntu live installer has a "Try" mode that gives you a nearly normal desktop experience without installing, and is an effective test environment to discover what will work and what won't. Wifi, graphics and suspend are worth trying out this way.

This is good advice and I should have done that. However, most of the issues I had only showed up after some time of using it. For example, a big one was wifi and it was very intermittent and hard to debug. I think it was going into low power mode in some circumstances and my wifi speed would randomly drop to 100kbs or less. Sometimes turning wifi off and on would fix it, sometimes a restart was required. Thankfully I did fix it eventually but I have no idea which of the many things I tried ended up working.

One thing I didn't have major issues with was my Nvidia graphics card, which was a surprise.

Re: Windows 10 refugees flock to Linux in what devs call their "biggest launch"

#16

Post by somewhereoutth »

esperent wrote: post #4

I'm one of these people. Although it was a several years long plan for me, which involved learning new software (especially 3DS Max to Blender). I finally decided to bite the bullet around 8 weeks ago. Backed up everything, wiped Windows, installed Ubuntu. I wouldn't says it's been smooth sailing. I've had a ton of technical issues which are not all resolved (I still can't get my laptop to wake from sleep, I have to…

Wifi never seems to work 'out the box', so be ready to connect to the internet using ethernet to download the latest drivers and thus get wifi to work.

Re: Windows 10 refugees flock to Linux in what devs call their "biggest launch"

#17

Post by BSDobelix »

netsharc wrote: post #9
MeteorMarc wrote: post #6

Lots of "obsolete" Pc's are perfectly able to run W11, only missing the blessings from Redmond.

I wish I could also live in a planet where throwing away perfectly good PCs is fine and there's no looming climate-change-induced destruction...

I wish AI is used to solve real-world problems instead of creating AI slop, thanks OpenAI/Sora.

Re: Windows 10 refugees flock to Linux in what devs call their "biggest launch"

#18

Post by axus »

CaptainOfCoit wrote: post #11
hshdhdhj4444 wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

With WSL2, Windows 11 could easily have been the best Linux distribution on the planet, supporting all Windows apps while also giving you the full power of Linux at your terminal. Unfortunately Microsoft decided to stuff it with user hostile spyware instead.

Eh, no. WSL2 is kind of bad compared to a proper Linux environment, you'll encounter so many tiny cuts that eventually you'll yearn for a proper environment where stuff just works instead of having to fight against the built-in "interoperability" stuff Microsoft has added that just gets in the way and introduces new issues. Saying this as someone who've used both Linux and Windows as a main OS for decades, and would…

I like WSL2 as a polished way to launch VMs in Windows. It's been good for testing out Linux software in an odd environment, but I haven't figured out how to enable SELinux or the systemd firewall on the Red Hat variants.

Re: Windows 10 refugees flock to Linux in what devs call their "biggest launch"

#19

Post by blueflow »

esperent wrote: post #4

I'm one of these people. Although it was a several years long plan for me, which involved learning new software (especially 3DS Max to Blender). I finally decided to bite the bullet around 8 weeks ago. Backed up everything, wiped Windows, installed Ubuntu. I wouldn't says it's been smooth sailing. I've had a ton of technical issues which are not all resolved (I still can't get my laptop to wake from sleep, I have to…

> I still can't get my laptop to wake from sleep, I have to do a hard reset if it sleeps

This is the weakest point of modern Linux - suspend/resuming not working properly on many machines. And the systemd-logind / inhibitor architecture makes it incredibly hard for non-technical users to opt out of suspend.

Re: Windows 10 refugees flock to Linux in what devs call their "biggest launch"

#20

Post by osigurdson »

netsharc wrote: post #9
MeteorMarc wrote: post #6

Lots of "obsolete" Pc's are perfectly able to run W11, only missing the blessings from Redmond.

I wish I could also live in a planet where throwing away perfectly good PCs is fine and there's no looming climate-change-induced destruction...

Usually they get recycled. I wouldn't stress about it.
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