Windows refugees, why have you changed to Linux?

That is the real No 1 reason.
Linux is an adventure.

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Was getting frustrated with constant updates. Most of time became pretty unusable and laggy with all the background noise.

Straw that broke the camels back was the need to upgrade hardware for the ‘privilege’ to continue the ubuse.

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Hi Richard,
That is what I felt when I last looked at Win10.
I seemed to be control of my computer and firever having to login to some microsoft account to be allowed to do things.

Enjoy your time with linux, there is plenty of choice of distros, and there is help

Regards
Neville

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Oh I will. Tried RedHat a long time ago (with a stack of 3.5 inch floppies :rofl: ) until about the time Fedora came out on CD.

Then life got in the way and got away from it.

Just started back on Linux, running Pop!_OS on a System76 laptop with Ubuntu and Mint in virtual machines (Boxes). Not sure which I like the best, glad I can play with all three at same time. Linux sure has grown up.

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Let us know how you get on sharing host system files with the guest in Boxes.
That has been an issue for me in the past.

I remember the stack of 3.5 in floppies with FreeBSD in the early 1990’s

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There are a few reasons I switched, but the big one was: I needed Linux to do some learning for my career. I want to become a DevOps Engineer and while you can become one by only using Microsoft stuff, you will greatly limit your opportunities. I had used Ubuntu in the past when I was in Grad School, but due to laziness switching computers I had stopped.

So, I dual-booted Ubuntu on my desktop with the plan being that I would still use Windows as my main OS but do my learning on Ubuntu. However, as I got to use Ubuntu more and more, I found I liked how my computer ran. My desktop isn’t new by any means (I built it early 2016), but Ubuntu runs like a dream. Even with how old my computer is, it shouldn’t have any problem running Windows 10. It’s much more powerful than my work laptop for example.

Also, I have found a lot of interest in the philosophical underpinnings of FOSS and the general Linux community. I find the idea that software should be written to respect the user’s rights to be inspiring. I want to work towards that goal. (I am not going to get into my full views here, I am still figuring them out as I learn about it) I am not really someone who is anti-Microsoft, they certainly have done a lot of bad things, but what giant company hasn’t? Still, at best Microsoft has no interest in respecting my rights.

Of course, security is also a nice bonus. Oh, and I have had problems in the past with Windows Update damaging my install of Windows 10 - which is why I like that with Linux I can choose when I want to update, but updating is so easy that I just check everyday for updates.

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Same here, just beginning my second week back on Linux. Trying to make the file transfer thing work using https://itsfoss.com/share-files-gnome-boxes/ as a guide. If you make it work first please share here :thinking:

Bit of a tough nut to crack …

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Got it working on my Ubuntu VM, can drag files from host and drop into Guest and they land in the Download directory. Also shared directory (Public for a test) and two way sharing is slick.

Just need to figure out what I am missing getting the thing to work with my Mint VM

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You got further than I did.
I dont have gnome at moment. Will have another go when I get Debian/Gnome going again.

Essentially, I suppose you could call me an OS agnostic. I like computers. An operating system is simply a way to interact with the hardware to get things done. I’ve never used anything from Apple because their devices were way over priced for what the consumer got, they have their APIs so locked down that no one can develop software for their computers unless they pay for the privilege, and many of their users sounded very superior (stuck on themselves) when they posted anything on the Internet (It was like - I have a mac - that makes me better then you). In contrast, when IBM released the PC, it cost about half the price of an Apple machine, they made their hardware APIs open so other companies could develop components for them, and developers didn’t have to pay for the privilege of creating software.

As time passed, PC usage dwarfed that of macs, Microsoft became the big dog in the PC world, and they lost any bit of integrity they may have started out with. I abandoned Windows for a while, keeping it on my PC only for school (believe it or not, the local community college required Windows). When I heard that Windows 10 was coming and Satya Nadella would be CEO, my hope for Microsoft was renewed. I joined Windows Insiders in January 2015 to help make it as good as I could. I should have known better. Their recent behavior tells me that I want to abandon Windows sooner rather than later. Ultimately I suppose Microsoft has been doing what corporations do - generate maximum profit for minimum cost. Sadly, they seem to have decided that the best/easiest way to do that is by giving away their OS and collecting their user’s data. They even want to give each user an Advertising ID. Who knows if they adhere to our wishes when we say no to that.

Since there are a few Windows only games I like, I may set up a VM with tiny11 (or something similar) to see how that works first. If it doesn’t work well, I’ll have to decide if I want to abandon those games along with Windows, or swallow that bitter pill and keep Windows for those games.

Ernie

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You should investigate Lutris - I’ve previously had some success getting it to run Windows only games, using the proprietary content of the game, but an open source implementation of the game engine…

I have a huge library of games - and - I don’t run ANY WINDOWS anywhere (and I believe it’s now approx 11 years since I last dual booted to play games) - I mostly just play them on Steam, on Ubuntu or Pop!_OS, many of them are Linux native (e.g. Borderlands 2, Cities Skylines), some are Windows only but I run them through SteamPlay (Proton + Wine) - I don’t have to play around with or tweak Wine settings either, Steam does all that for me (and in some cases Lutris too)…

Note: I have to STOP buying games 'cause I hardly ever play them. Sadly the game I’ve probably spent the most time playing is a Windows only game from MICROSOFT! Age of Empires II HD Edition - runs PERFECTLY through Steam and SteamPlay (proton).

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Thank you for the tip about Lutris. I’ll check it out. Unfortunately, the Windows games I enjoy come from the Windows store. They are Mergist Kingdom, Tropical Merge, and particularly Jigsaw Puzzle Frenzy whose author has no plans on porting it to Linux - I asked. I think the two merge games can be found on Google’s Play Store. Another thing I’d like to learn is how to run Android apps on GNU/Linux. So many things I can still learn. I don’t think I’ll ever get bored with my computers!

Ernie

Thank you @nevj! I’ll research the listed emulators, then try one out. Waydroid sounds promising as does Android-x86. I’ll add another reply here when I see how things work out!

Ernie

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