Microsoft forced me to switch to Linux • Hacker News Board

Re: Microsoft forced me to switch to Linux

#461

Post by DrBazza » Wed, Jan 28, 2026, 5:39 PM UTC

ryukoposting wrote: post #259

I just started a new job where I'm subjected to Windows 11. They gave me a behemoth of a laptop. 64GB of RAM, absolute screamer of a CPU, big GPU, the whole deal. Windows 11's file browser lags when opening directories with more than 100-ish files. Windows 11's file browser takes a few seconds to open at all. Context menus take a noticeable amount of time to appear. I'm getting used to a new keyboard, so I keep hitti…

> Windows 11's file browser lags when opening directories with more than 100-ish files. Windows 11's file browser takes a few seconds to open at all.

There's a guy that has written their own version of explorer that's so fast in comparison to the built-in, that you'd think they were cheating somehow because of everyone's experience with explorer.

And someone has written an IDE for C++ that opens while Visual Studio is on its splash screen.

And another that has written a debugger with the same performance.

And a video doing the rounds of Word ('97?) on spinning rust opening in just under 2 seconds.

Basically, everything MS is doing is degrading performance. Opportunities for regular devs to go back to performant software, and MS is unlikely to fix theirs in the foreseeable future.

Re: Microsoft forced me to switch to Linux

#462

Post by PlatoIsADisease » Wed, Jan 28, 2026, 5:39 PM UTC

timbit42 wrote: post #207

_fat_santa wrote: post #60

I've been running Ubuntu Linux for a long time now (over a decade, started with 8.04). Linux still has it's fair share of bugs but I'll take having to deal with those over running Windows or MacOS any day. For me the biggest thing is control, with Windows there are some things like updates that you have zero control over. It's the same issue with MacOS, you have more control than Windows but you're still at the whims…

> I've been running Ubuntu Linux for a long time now...Linux still has it's fair share of bugs... > I don't see regular users adopting Linux anytime soon... I can see why you think the second statement is true based on the first statements. When Ubuntu switched their desktop to Gnome, they gave up on being the best Linux desktop distro. I'd recommend you to try Linux Mint.

Let me recommend Fedora to you Timbit.

Debian family is outdated and builds with bugs upon release.

I too was corrupted by Ubuntu's marketing strategy of being popular and using the misleading word 'Stable'.

Re: Microsoft forced me to switch to Linux

#463

Post by mixmastamyk » Wed, Jan 28, 2026, 5:39 PM UTC

kalap_ur wrote: post #444

Well, Linux reached ~5% market share in 2025. Imagine the incremental market share they have. https://www.reddit.com/r/linux/comments/1lpepvq/linux_breaks... My only issue is that i am not a developer, I am heavily reliant on Excel, i know it inside and out and just not sure whether OpenOffice supports excel files. In the past it barely did.

LibreOffice does fine, though you’ll probably be unhappy. What is more important to you? Freedom, privacy, consent, or spreadsheet features?

VMs are an option to partition your life as well.

Re: Microsoft forced me to switch to Linux

#464

Post by maldev » Wed, Jan 28, 2026, 5:40 PM UTC

M4R5H4LL wrote: post #288

Muromec wrote: post #99

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This was me in 2005. I cant believe people say that M$ started to suck in 2025. It always did.

I suspect this is less about when Windows declined and more about individual computing journeys. Early exposure (home, school, work) tends to set a baseline that’s hard to shake.

Microsoft had realyl good engineers and talent. Microsoft internally has gone to shit. They hire an army of H1B's and all the talent has left. Shell of a company on the Windows side that anyone working with them can see. It started a couple years ago, but it's really gone off the deepend and will just get worse. I say this as a windows expert and someone who thinks linux is crap.

Re: Microsoft forced me to switch to Linux

#465

Post by speedylight » Wed, Jan 28, 2026, 5:40 PM UTC

I’ve been using a Mac for a about three years now, but every once in a while I use my old gaming laptop to play some games and every time I am reminded of how insufferable windows has become, using it feels I’m dumpster diving and the dumpster is asking me to sign into my Microsoft account. Apple gets a lot of shit for how they do things, but no one can deny that once you’re properly established in their ecosystem, it’s a phenomenal experience.

Re: Microsoft forced me to switch to Linux

#466

Post by PlatoIsADisease » Wed, Jan 28, 2026, 5:40 PM UTC

kalap_ur wrote: post #444

Well, Linux reached ~5% market share in 2025. Imagine the incremental market share they have. https://www.reddit.com/r/linux/comments/1lpepvq/linux_breaks... My only issue is that i am not a developer, I am heavily reliant on Excel, i know it inside and out and just not sure whether OpenOffice supports excel files. In the past it barely did.

Fedora + Google's Office Suite is the best way.

Don't bother with Libreoffice. Its trash. I'm convinced that Microsoft is deliberately sabotaging the project.

Re: Microsoft forced me to switch to Linux

#467

Post by magicbuzz » Wed, Jan 28, 2026, 5:40 PM UTC

I love the poem at the end

Re: Microsoft forced me to switch to Linux

#468

Post by billfor » Wed, Jan 28, 2026, 5:40 PM UTC

bobsterlobster wrote: post #434

billfor wrote: post #400

Earlier quoted context omitted.

.\setup.exe /product server /auto upgrade /EULA accept /migratedrivers all /ShowOOBE none /Compat IgnoreWarning /Telemetry Disable

Yeah, until microsoft says "Sup there lil buddy? Running an unsupported system? Oof. The next update is gonna really turn it inside-out"

Take backups and disable the updates with group policy. OP just wanted to install Windows 11.

Re: Microsoft forced me to switch to Linux

#469

Post by doodlebugging » Wed, Jan 28, 2026, 5:40 PM UTC

ColinWright wrote: post #3

Still reading the article, but early on it says: "Also, is it weird that I still remember the specs of my first computer, 22 years later?" My first computer was a TRS-80 Model 1, 1.78 Mz Z80 with 16 KB RAM. That was 48 years ago. Is it weird that I remember that?

I still have my Mac 128k with external disk drive and printer. Bought new in Jan 1985 or late Dec 1984. I paid the exorbitant price to upgrade it to 512k during the first year I owned it. I think the RAM needed to be desoldered and new chips soldered in place so it needed to be returned to the store where I bought it.

Shout out to the author of the blog for writing an engaging post that accurately the MS experience. For me, switching is still a work in progress since I am the family troubleshooter and there are lots of things to mess with. It will happen because so far, the ones I have switched have no complaints.

Re: Microsoft forced me to switch to Linux

#470

Post by ahepp » Wed, Jan 28, 2026, 5:41 PM UTC

morserer wrote: post #311

thewebguyd wrote: post #128

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> idk why Arch doesn't invest in whats standard in every other major distro They largely have now, archinstall. It's still text based/TUI but it's pretty simple and intuitive, anyone already familiar with installing a Linux distro (especially any sort of -server variant) will be comfortable with the archinstall script.

Came here to say this. Archinstall rocks. Regarding why Arch doesn't "invest" in a graphical installer, it's worth mentioning that Arch's installation image has a different design philosophy than most installation media. The image is a fully functional arch environment that copies the entirety of its contents to RAM on boot, giving you special installation opportunities such as the ability to install Arch to the same…

I don't believe there are any serious technical obstacles to providing a graphical installer in something like an initramfs environment. Many distros do provide graphical installation mechanisms using PXE, which loads the kernel and installer-initramfs over the network (and is similar in the sense that it won't touch local storage unless you tell it to)

I don't have a way to quickly around to check, but I thought the arch install media used squashfs? In which case I wouldn't have thought it was safe to blow away the backing store.