Heyho, recently someone asked for the silliest reasons, but as someone who has suggested linux to many people, I often encounter people having valid reasons for staying with Windows or switching back.
The most boring but valid one is “I have to use Windows for work. It is a requirement (of some software I have to use)”. But there are also other answers that fit. My sister for example tried Linux, but while installing software constantly encountered issues that I helped her solve and eventually switched back because she felt like she had less control than over windows. While I am aware that this is fundamentally wrong, it is valid that some amateur users do not want to invest enough time to get over the initial hurdles of relearning how to install software.
What are the best reasons people have given you for not wanting to try Linux?
They didn’t want to constantly rely on me to fix every little thing they break instead of learning how to do it themselves.
No wait, that was my reason for not switching them. 😆
“I really only use the PC for gaming. Mostly, I play Valorant.”
There ya go, you’re not getting that working under Linux even if you are a master tinker. 🤷♂️ He did eventually switch, but not until long after he stopped playing Valorant regularly.
Some reasons are silly, some are incredibly valid. Sometimes it’s just “I don’t want to” and that’s OK too, lol.
For one of my friends its just cause she has a shitload going on and enough problems to deal with without trying to figure out a new way for her computer to work and whatnot
Plus I think art stuff she uses doesn’t support linux and she found krita unsuitable for how she likes to work
Adobe software, autoCAD, and anticheat are the top 3 reasons I usually hear. While there are alternatives for the first two, people who need these specific tools professionally don’t really have the choice.
Anticheat for gaming is a big one too. Personally I didn’t even consider switching until I finally quit Destiny 2 for good. If the main game someone plays just doesn’t work, they’re not gonna switch.
Do you work with CAD programs and if so, do you know a full feature alternative? I grew up with Linux because my father had unix at work before CAD program makers moved to windows and nowadays he has windows because that is where his CAD programs work. He is in retirement already, but very much a creature of habit. So while he has time to learn something new, radically different controls or such wouldn’t work out.
Unfortunately not, just something I hear a lot from folks.
Thank you for taking time to reply anyhow!
Depends what he’s looking for. I think Onshape (browser based CAD) has a free version. Your data is public though unless you go with a paid version.
If he wants a free Linux CAD there is FreeCAD and a few others.
If he is attending a university, as some retirees do to audit courses or enrich life, then Siemens NX (what GM, Stellantis, SpaceX, etc use) have an academic license for around $100 a year. It is now Windows only based, unless you run Linux headless version, but if you use any version NX12 or below there is a GUI LInux version that runs on REL or SUSE (or openSUSE since it shares SUSE binaries)
Are any of those comparable in power to things like AutoCAD?
FreeCAD is a step below the AutoCAD suite. On shape is comparable for mechanical design. Siemens NX is top tier only matched in high end functions by CATIA. NX and CATIA dominate in Automotive, and Aerospace.
Thank you for the detailed answer. Maybe there is a way to find NX like you said, will certainly let him know.
It is very expensive, so ideally join a uni or school program that has acedemic licenses.
Personally I didn’t even consider switching until I finally quit Destiny 2 for good. If the main game someone plays just doesn’t work, they’re not gonna switch.
I’ve been running Linux as my main system for about 30 yers. During that time I’ve had a Windows partition or disk, on and off purely to run steam. Having to wait an extra thirty seconds to run a game was never an issue. And I could still do my stuff in a comfortable environment (once you’ve gotten used to a Unix desktop, you’ll suffer so much in Windows).
He’s a Windows security researcher. I felt dumb.
Couldn’t he still use Linux for his personal system?
He could, but he documents a lot of stuff including artifacts, so it just makes more sense to do all on a single machine. Also plays LoL.
They are not ready. They took several years to master Windows to just a minimum of use. They don’t have the money to pay for help if problems occur. They don’t have someone in their network that can help them. They need a specific app to work flawlessly for either job or hobby. There’s a lot of good reasons. But there are getting less of them, while Linux is evolving.
Something equivalent to…“I just want to drive the car, not learn about the intricacies of internal combustion”.
Funnily enough, driving a manual car is interacting with intricacies of its drive and the internal combustion
“It’s not compatible with all games”
“VR on Linux is trash”
“I can’t play XYZ game because Linux isn’t compatible with anticheat”
“Program XYZ doesn’t have a Linux version, I don’t want to learn a new program”
“Windows bloat never bothered me, I just ignore the AI/advertisements”
“I’m forced to use Windows because of my job”
“Linux is to complicated/troublesome. I just want something that works”
last one is not a good reason
Is it? For most users, windows takes care of absolutely everything and if something lacks, just google, download and done, especially because most software is written for windows. With Defender they even removed need of antivirus for a normal user.
If something lacks on Linux, half the time you need to say hello to console. You also need to learn about software alternatives, because there’s high probability that the default, well known option won’t work.
To both of which most people will say no to from the very start.
Honestly software management on Windows is trash. Oh missing a feature? Go fuck yourself, maybe tweet them, they might listen (lmao). Oh you want to tweak something? You can with this 27 step process and it will revert back in the next update.
Honestly, there is something to experience on a given OS, but every time I’m stuck doing stuff on Windows I get slapped in the face with how fucking tedious it is do anything simple. Like to be update to date for games takes seriously 3 different installers, two of which you have to research and find yourself (game store and drivers app). That’s what it is good at…
Hey, what you descibe is a power user. And that’s valid, but power users also don’t tend to have problems with linux, and they ain’t anywhere close to majority of computer users. Also, to even download a game nowadays you need to have store installed so that’s crossed out, and then game drivers are installed by the store so (or added to cd installer in ye olde times) so wtf you on about.
But again. You are power user. Linux is, IMO, better than Windows for power users because you can do whatever with it. Windows is, however, better for granny, weird office lady and that quite dense kid who, while wanting to use computers, cannot be bothered to learn anything more than where the web browser icon sits.
Drivers are for the hardware. Its a separate app on Windows I think AMD adrenaline and whatever Nvidia does is their driver manager otherwise it’s another web hunt like most apps on Windows.
The biggest advantage for those groups was decades of ads and being the default. Trust me work IT for decades none of those groups are good with Windows, its arguably worse for them
I can give you my own reason: I don’t have enough energy left besides work and general life to clean up my mess of hoarded data and make the switch. I am reasonably sure that all my hardware would work, about all games I play should work (nothing with crazy anticheats, next to all steam) too. I have two Linux nerds I could contact if needed and I have some prior experience, even though it is about half a life ago.
Edit: Oh and having something that does what I want and not some guessed approximation at home would make me even more intolerant of the shitshow we have at work.
My silly reason is when it comes down to business the ms office suite works the best out of any office suite.
Sure that is because Microsoft spends more time making it incompatible with any other editors than actually developing decent software but that doesn’t change the fact that I can’t trust people on the other end of the email to perform even one step of troubleshooting if the document doesn’t open for them on the first try.
The same reason everybody gives when dealing with pretty much anything: “I don’t want to learn something new”.
I use Mint for my streaming laptop and it works fine - great, even.
My main PC is still on Windows because from what I understand FL Studio needs WINE to run, and I could never get WINE to work on the streaming laptop. That plus 10 years of files and shit that I don’t know if they will work or whatever if I did switch over. Pretty sure most or all of my Steam games would work fine, it’s just too many unknowns for everything else. I’d be happy to be proven wrong but it’s too big of a hassle for now.
TL;DR: Basically gaming compatibility and additional complications, on top of all what is new due to Linux.
I have a brother trying to convince him to use Linux over Windows (or at least dual boot). I could make him use Manjaro (back then when I was using Manjaro myself) on a laptop. That was his first experience and he is a gamer who likes multiplayer games. So the experience was a bit mixed. Later I borrowed him my Steam Deck for 2 weeks and it was a torture to myself, as it was the launch period of the hardware. And then I convinced him to buy Steam Deck instead a laptop.
He still loves the Steam Deck and uses it here and there, especially on vacation. But as lot of primary multiplayer games he play do not work on Linux and because of complications with some non Steam games and lot of applications he had, such as Discord, he went back to Windows on his new PC. Some complications arised because of the Steam Deck and its limitations, but that did not change the fact how games he plays are not working.
But he admits that SteamOS is the better operating system. And he understands why it is what it is, but as said, that does not change the fact he cannot play some of his favorite games on Linux. But that is not all. You have to understand that newcomers who experience LInux for the first time, and switched reluctant without research, don’t know what Wayland is, don’t know differences between desktop environments and has to deal with compatibility layers on top of all other new Linux stuff for them.
Why your sister felt she has less control is just a feeling, because she know less, therefore can control less. It makes sense from her perspective, so I would not say its entirely wrong.
Btw, not that it’s gonna change him or whatever, but discord works pretty well now, as well as on windows. You can share screen no problem Wayland/X11, audio is smooth and it basically works.
I did an update or something and it corrupted the bootloading for Fedora Silverblue. Had to just reinstall everything. Also was a time when the update url or something was broken and I couldn’t update. That remains the biggest issue. But it might not be an issue for a professionally maintained distro like Ubuntu that has a company backing it. I feel like it’s safe to recommend Ubuntu but not any other distros.
And it’s definitely true that the average user has more control on Windows. You can download installers and random zip files with executables and they’ll just work. Linux has such a messed up model for executables and libraries that they usually have to be recompiled for every Linux distro unless you use flatpak.
But I think it’s mostly the learning curve of getting used to how linux desktops work and their idiosyncrasies that makes it hard for people. And tons of bad advice online telling you to run commands.
Linux actually has lots of GUI apps that can help fix issues and do things in Linux but people keep offering outdated advice about using command line tools and editing brittle config files.
And some things are distro-specific.
If you want stable Linux immutable base fedora silverblue is not good option. Wait for bluefin-LTS or OpenSUSE’s Aeon which is long support stable base Without frequent breakages you mentioned.
I don’t ask. I just point at Microsofts shit and ask why they haven’t switched already.
You don’t ask, you ask?
