I’m asking what big motivational factors contributed to you into going Linux full-time. I don’t count minor inconveniences like ‘oh, stutter lag in a game on windows’ because that really could be anything in any system. I’m talking, something Windows or Microsoft has done that was so big, that made you go “fuck this, I will go Linux” and so you did.
For me, I have a mountain of reasons by this point to go to Linux. It’s just piling. Recently, Windows freaked out because I changed audio devices from my USB headset from the on-board sound. It freaked out so bad, it forced me to restart because I wasn’t getting sound in my headset. I did the switch because I was streaming a movie with a friend over Discord through Screen Share and I had to switch to on-board audio for that to work.
I switched back and Windows threw a fit over it. It also throws a fit when I try right-clicking in the Windows Explorer panel on the left where all the devices and folders are listed for reasons I don’t even know to this day but it’s been a thing for a while now.
Anytime Windows throws a toddler-tantrum fit over the tiniest things, it just makes me think of going to Linux sometimes. But it’s not enough.
Windows is just thankful that currently, the only thing truly holding me back from converting is compatibility. I’m not talking with games, I’m not talking with some programs that are already supported between Windows and Linux. I’m just concerned about running everything I run on Windows and for it to run fully on a Linux distro, preferably Ubuntu.
Also I’d like to ask - what WILL it take for you to go to Linux full-time?
I was tired of Microsofts monopolistic shenanigans. So when Ubuntu 5.10 came out in 2005, and was extremely well done, it was time to switch to Linux. Because Linux was finally polished and functional enough to actually be at least as good as Windows.
Admittedly there were a period of dual booting for games. But that isn’t necessary today, as we now have thousands of games that work on Steam.
You can say that what it took for me, was for Linux to become good enough to use as a daily driver. I’d say today it’s a no-brainer.
When Gnome 2 was discontinued, it was a major pain in the ass though, KDE was buggy and Gnome shell was hell (IMO). So I can’t say I never looked back, because I did install Windows 7 in frustration. But that was a very short adventure, because Windows is simply so horrible when you get used to Linux. The idiocy of Windows is momentous, and the jumping through hoops fighting Microsoft stupid security features, that won’t even allow you a simple thing as changing your default text editor, becomes insanely tiresome and frustrating very quickly.
So it was back to Linux faster than you can say oops (almost).
Now the desktop has become less relevant to me, because I do almost everything through hotkeys. So I rarely navigate the desktop, so as long as I have a decent file manager, I’m 90% OK just having that.
We started with Linux around the same time, and I remember how awesome Gnome 2 was on Warty Warthog or whatever old release. At the time, the Windows Start menu was a convoluted mess of folders, uninstallers, readme files, etc. Gnome listed my programs more or less in alphabetical order with one icon each in logical categories. It was so simple, I explored every crevice of it and remember thinking “is this it?”. It was and I soon learned that it was not just simpler, but more powerful and user friendly in various ways. I have moved to KDE since then, but it is absolutely the enshitification of Windows that pushed me here.
Out of curiosity, what do you consider a decent file manager? Dolphin is my favorite currently because I almost always have two panes open, but I’ve been looking for something even better since I also spend a lot of time working with files.
Dolphin is AFAIK by far the best file manager on Linux. And it is more than decent.
By decent I just mean ability to do basic stuff, like open terminal in current directory, create symbolic links, having detailed list view as default, open root instance, easy switching between 1 and 2 panels, tabs for quick navigation between multiple directories. Easy access to removable drives.
But I think almost all file managers for Linux have all that now. I’m currently using Thunar because I’m using XFCE, but I recently configured a laptop with KDE for a friend, and I must admit, I’m strongly considering going back to KDE. It was just such a pleasant experience to work with, my only gripe is that I can’t make shortcuts on the numeric keypad, and I use that for window tiling.
It’s such a weird omission in KDE/QT, that it doesn’t recognize the numpad properly? If they have fixed that, I’ll go back to KDE instantly.
I hear you on the tiling. I wish my window arrangement on KDE was more keyboard based. As it is, I end up dragging and resizing across multiple monitors and workspaces.
Yes, it’s such a weird thing QT doesn’t support numerical keyboard?