Before you disregard my statements

Let me start this blogpost out by just saying that I am a Linux user. I have been daily driving Arch on all my machines for a little over two years now and could never go back to Windows.

However, as I see more and more people try to shill Linux to the unsuspecting person online I've come to realize just how stupid that idea is.

To summarize before I go more in depth with some specific examples I will say this. Linux is not for everybody, it improves on many things but these improvements do not matter to most users. Even if they are able to gain some benefit from these improvements they do not come anywhere near outweighing the extra problems provided by a switch to Linux.

How I see Linux portrayed in recent days

For some reason I see people say that Linux is foolproof now. They say "ohhh just install Linux Mint or Kubuntu" or whatever garbage ""beginner"" distro is popular at the time. It seems like people just think that Linux is "Windows but better". They usually cite some genuine things that are good about Linux like it being open source, more private, and more customizable. I don't know if they've ever talked to a person in real life; but most people do not care about any of those things. You know what people do care about? Their shit working.

Why you shouldn't use Linux

Okay, lets say you're a Windows user. You just use it because it's the default. Your basic "workload" is running games that are popular like COD and Valorant. You run a beefy NVIDIA GPU along with some other fancy gaming parts. You have some peripherals from fancy gaming brands. A very common setup, especially for someone who would be technically savvy enough to even start looking at Linux. You keep hearing that "Ohhh use popOS! the distro will install your drivers and everything just works! It's more private and it runs with less ram!" You go ahead and install this epic Linux and guess what; within five minutes something is broken. You realize that you can't run your favorite games, they have unsupported anti-cheats. You realize that you can't change any lighting on your peripherals or change any of their settings. Something weird starts happening after an update and all the sudden you're dumped into grub recovery mode. You swiftly uninstall and never try it again. This is exactly why you, the average user, should never use Linux.

Most people just want to get from point A to B

Now all of this isn't to say that Linux is bad. It just is not for the average user. The fact that most people shilling Linux can't face is that people just want something functional. A good analogy is vehicles. Most people just want a car that runs, they don't have to spend much money on, and feels nice. However, there are some people who care a lot about what engine is in their car, spend time tuning it, and are willing to sacrifice comforts for performance. This is the same exact situation with Linux vs Windows for the average person. If you are someone who cares about tuning your system and are willing to give up a few things for the improvements Linux is great. But that isn't most people, most people just want something that gets them from point A to B with little fuss, and Windows does that perfectly. Want to play a something? Click install and it just runs. Want to load up a video editor or a DAW? Just install it and it works perfectly.

The good things about Linux

Now all of this is not to say that Linux is completely terrible. I have mostly focused on negatives, but well that was kind of the point of the blog post. However, I would like to take the last bit here to explain the reasons why I am able to daily drive Linux. These things may also seem appealing to you, if you are more of the type to try to "tune your car" as opposed to just driving it. One major thing that appeals to me is my ability to customize absolutely everything and build everything from the ground up. I enjoy sitting around for hours and choosing what software I want and how to configure them best for my use case. The fact that the system is extremely light is also a very big part of it for me. It means that I can push my computer harder as less of it is being used up by just being on. Going back to being able to choose my software and configuring my environment, is tiling window managers. I could never go back to Windows for this one reason alone. The utility of never having to touch my mouse and everything staying organized by default makes using my system so much faster and less painless. Most of the games I play are decades old and don't have invasive anticheats meaning that they pretty much all work with proton. However, there are still issues. Every few days I will run into something that just doesn't quite work right, and it takes me awhile to fix even though I have several years of experience. This is also not even mentioning all of the issues I had with initial setup. It took me months until my environment was put together in such a way that there were not constant issues or minor annoyances. But I find these problems enjoyable to fix, and the things I have to give up to use Linux matter to me far less than the few minor problems.

Cool, so what do I do with the information from this rant?

To conclude, I think Linux is great but it isn't for everybody. No person in their right mind would ever tell someone who needs a family car to get a clapped out Miata with a blown engine, and the same applies for Windows VS Linux. If you are a Linux user who constantly tries to get your friends to use it to no avail, frustrating everyone in the process take this as a chance to reconsider. Not everyone has the same usecase as you, and Linux cannot do things that most people need. If you're a long time Windows user thinking aobut switching to Linux, I think you should still try it. But before you go delete everything sit down and think about what exactly it is you need your computer to do. If those things don't line up with Linux's capabilities don't feel inferior no matter what the sweaty man behind the screen tells you. Computers are tools made to complete tasks, and if your tasks cannot be done with a certain tool there is no reason to use it. However, if you sit down and think that you can make the switch (maybe, you have a similar case to me) I would reccomend going for it. Don't go in expecting a fresh Toyota Corolla right off the factory floor, expect a clapped out Miata. Spend some time with it, sit down and learn what the parts of it do and start tuning it to your liking. Linux is not something that you can just turn on and have "just work" no matter how much people want to convince themselves of that. I think if you go in expecting this sort of challenge it becomes much more enjoyable, and who knows, maybe you can find yourself a new hobby.