Microsoft forced me to switch to Linux • Hacker News Board

Re: Microsoft forced me to switch to Linux

#571

Post by dole » Wed, Jan 28, 2026, 6:40 PM UTC

n4bz0r wrote: post #540

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…

> If my computer goes to sleep, WSL becomes unresponsive. I have to save all my stuff and reboot to continue working. Try wsl --shutdown. Works for me when WSL hangs for no apparent reason. I've also noticed that, in my case, these hangs are somehow tied to Docker for Windows. Couldn't figure what triggers them so far, though. I just restart DFW and kill WSL when that happens.

Restarting the vmcompute service sometimes helps. Doing so completely blue/blackscreened my machine this morning so it just makes me more confident in WSL's low level hooks.

Re: Microsoft forced me to switch to Linux

#572

Post by andai » Wed, Jan 28, 2026, 6:40 PM UTC

>No more waiting for the Start menu to decide it wants to open. No more File Explorer hanging when you need it the most.

I ran XP in a VM on Windows 10.

The start menu opens instantly. After one video frame.

Windows explorer opens instantly. One video frame.

If they had literally done nothing for 20 years, it would be like 50x faster now.

Re: Microsoft forced me to switch to Linux

#573

Post by mcswell » Wed, Jan 28, 2026, 6:40 PM UTC

I switched from Windows (11) to Linux (Xubuntu) back in November, mostly because of all the AI stuff I didn't trust. While Linux is working ok for me, I can see why people complain about its not being user-friendly, particularly if you're not a Real Programmer. I've had to go to forums too many times to figure out why this or that doesn't work. The latest is the fact that 'apt update' has stopped working today for Vivaldi--it worked ok yesterday, but I have not been able to get it working after spending an hour or more. (If you're interested, there's a thread here: https://forum.vivaldi.net/topic/115133/public-key-is-not-ava....)

Also the fact that some apps update via 'apt', some by 'snap', and if you don't watch out some might update by 'flatpack'. While I think snap is updating automatically, it's hard to tell; some mornings I wake my PC up and only hours later do I discover that there's an update pop-up hidden behind other windows.

Oh, and every day I get a 'system problem' popup that asks if I want to submit a report, but won't tell me what the alleged problem was. I thought only Microsoft did that sort of thing?

I'm also not happy about the malware protection. Apparently the only anti-virus still available is ClamAV (and Kapersky, but for reasons I won't go into I don't trust that). But the gui for ClamAV has not been supported for several years, and running it from the command line is not so straightforward, never mind keeping it updated. (And don't tell me that Linux doesn't need antivirus protection. That's just whistling past the graveyard, particularly if you sometimes log in on public WiFi networks.)

I guess there are distros that are better about some of these things, but life is too short to try all of them, and hope that some bug (like the Vivaldi update thing) doesn't show up months later.

So yes, I'm using Linux, and I'm not planning to go back to Windows. But Linux sure could work better.

Re: Microsoft forced me to switch to Linux

#574

Post by anon291 » Wed, Jan 28, 2026, 6:41 PM UTC

pier25 wrote: post #116

> You had unsaved work? Too bad, it's gone, get bent. This has happened to me a couple of times. I put the PC to sleep and the next morning I discover it has decided to close everything to install an update. Not using Windows ever again to do any work. Say what you will about Apple but at least they don't do crap like this.

Correct. Windows is not a serious operating system. It really never has been. I've been on desktop linux for decades now. Linux is a serious operating system. Nothing happens without you asking it too. My linux computers are never turned off, since they day I turn them on, except for the occasional kernel upgrade. Otherwise, all upgrades are live. Even most kernel upgrades can be avoided if you use one of the modern patch frameworks

Re: Microsoft forced me to switch to Linux

#575

Post by senko » Wed, Jan 28, 2026, 6:41 PM UTC

levkk wrote: post #92

senko wrote: post #41

Arch is great. However, I would never recommend Arch (or an Arch derivative) to a first-comer to Linux. Ease in gently, with Ubuntu or Fedora. Get familiar. Then go crazy.

Ok so Arch apparently has an install script that does everything[0]. I tried it the other day and it's pretty flawless, albeit terminal-based so not for everyone I guess. Pacman is _amazing_. Apt broke dependencies for me every few months & a major version Ubuntu upgrade was always a reformat. Plus, obviously, the Arch wiki is something else. I would go as far as to say you'll have an overall better Linux experience…

Possibly. If the installer happy path fails (which has happened to me), Arch is "here's root shell, figure it out", Ubuntu is slightly more user-friendly :)

I will say Arch wiki is amazing, even if you're not using it. I'm on Debian nowadays and still often refer it for random obscure hardware setup details.

Re: Microsoft forced me to switch to Linux

#576

Post by nothrows » Wed, Jan 28, 2026, 6:41 PM UTC

My wife was complaining about her Windows 11 laptop crashing. I tried everything and even did fresh installs. Still crashing (and honestly pretty slow). I gave up on Windows and installed Ubuntu and Chromium for her. She can instagram, facebook, save her memes, and its all fast. No crashes. She's a happy camper now. I think a lot of (even) non technical people would like Linux a lot more than they realize if they gave it a shot.

Re: Microsoft forced me to switch to Linux

#577

Post by esaym » Wed, Jan 28, 2026, 6:42 PM UTC

Muromec wrote: post #99

giancarlostoro wrote: post #68

This was me in 2022 or 2023. I have posted on HN about my shift a few times. I gave up with Windows 10 because you needed Windows Pro in order to make an "offline" account, I spent $2000+ for a gaming rig, and I couldn't add new users, one program told me to use the other program which brought me back to the original program... I had to go out of my way, buy a license just to make it work. I just went and installed L…

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

>This was me in 2005.

Ha, same. Windows XP for me had a horrible habit of booting into a blue screen randomly after updating video card drivers (happened with both ATI and Nvidia). Trying to do a repair install wouldn't work. The only option was a full reinstall.

Installation from the disk took an hour. Then (if you were going about this the legal way) you'd have to call the microsoft number to register your install, but be on hold for another 30 minutes. Then it was multiple hours of install your favorite video player, reboot. Install video codecs, reboot. Install firefox, reboot. Apply all of your registry tweaks, reboot. Install all your games from CD-ROM, more rebooting. And multiple hours of that.

I moved to linux back in 2006 or so and never looked back. Documented part of the journey here https://net153.net/ubuntu_vs_debian.html

Re: Microsoft forced me to switch to Linux

#578

Post by asveikau » Wed, Jan 28, 2026, 6:42 PM UTC

> my first computer was a Windows 98 machine, with an Athlon XP 1900+ (Palomino core)

Off topic, anyone else think Windows 98 is too old for this machine? At a similar era I built an athlon t-bird 1.0GHz, I was mostly using Linux by then but if I did Windows then it would have been Win2k, maybe by the time of Athlon "XP", Windows XP would have been a thing too.

Re: Microsoft forced me to switch to Linux

#579

Post by deathsentience » Wed, Jan 28, 2026, 6:42 PM UTC

jama211 wrote: post #491

sedatk wrote: post #382

My story is simpler. Microsoft dropped the support for Windows 10 and gave me no upgrade path to Windows 11 because my CPU was 5 years too old apparently. So I installed Fedora on that machine, I learned the process, I went through the hurdles. It wasn’t seamless. But, Fedora never said “I can’t”. When it was over, it was fine. Only if Microsoft had just let me install Windows 11 and suffer whatever the perf problem…

You can bypass the warning really easily, I googled it the moment I saw it and it was very easy. A keyboard shortcut to open the command window during the install and one cheeky command.

A future update may restrict access to your windows or break its ability to get further updates. It’s a matter of time. They just haven’t gotten around to it.

And if you’re thinking you’ll just Google another solution then you might as well spend that time googling efforts for Linux. Windows shouldn’t require constant hacking or tinkering to function.

Re: Microsoft forced me to switch to Linux

#580

Post by abetaha » Wed, Jan 28, 2026, 6:43 PM UTC

It is quiet sad to see Windows deteriorate that much over the years because of the decreased investment and lack of care and craftsmanship for the quality of the software being pushed out.

Thankfully unless you're running a few specific applications that only run on Windows, you can use any other operating system. It will do the job, with much less frustrations.