How and why I switched to Linux

Computers are cool and so are you.

Some apps mentioned:

0:00 Intro
0:06 An Injury
0:15 A Little Linux Experience
0:24 A Lack of Fear
0:58 Like Thinking About Linux
1:13 Want Better Privacy & Security
2:18 Annoyance With Big Tech
3:22 You Can Dualboot
3:55 Linux is Accessible in 2024
4:26 A Willingness to Think Differently
4:40 Highly Customisable Out of the Box
4:49 Easy Timeshift Snapshots
5:33 Already a FOSS Fan
5:57 Open Source Drivers
6:31 Linux Software Community
7:03 Pretty Apps
8:15 Time & Patience
8:36 AI Chatbots
9:11 Proprietary Linux Drivers
9:30 Steam
9:48 Various Emulators and Containers
10:00 A Healthy Perspective
10:49 Conclusion

Music by @teknoaxe

[Thoroughmas]

I certainly didn't expect much attention on this video... lovely to hear from the Linux community! I'll definitely be making more Linux-related videos.

(Not immediately though -- my next few videos are about games, music and demons.)

Thanks all for your comments! (I haven't read them all but I will)

[dappermuis]

Lessons learned in my change over:

1. Dual boot on separate drives to avoid something going wrong and loosing both OS. Make sure to disconnect the Windows one before installing on the other drive or you may over write the Windows one.
2. Replace all apps with ones that can run of both OS, before considering changing over. Many trip up here. And why so many give up. Trying to learn and find all new apps and a new OS at the same time is not recommended.
3. Expect and accept things will be very different. This isn't Windows.
4. Be patient with things. Learning takes time.
5. Know there will be hiccups and accept that it may take time to sort. But if like me, in general the issues I had to over come was far less than the issues Windows was giving me in the end. No OS is perfect.
6. Repeat after me - Time shift is your best friend.

[estried]

My mom doesn't know how to use a search engine, but she can use Linux Mint.

[nERVEcenter]

Going on 12 years of Linux use, 7 years exclusive having gotten rid of Windows. The vast majority of my games work fine, and I stopped distro hopping for Mint; it does what I want and need without any siren songs of customization. I no longer think a lot about my computers, and it's envigorating. I just do things, and the system says "Yes!".

[CDMS_pt]

Wait for Linux Mint 22 with Pipewire as a default, maybe will solve some sound problems.

[Bertilfly]

I switched to Mint after not wanting to upgrade to Win 11. I never even upgraded from Win 7 to 10. I just ran an unsupported Windows 7 for ten years. Linux Mint runs my ten year-old Dell like a dream. I had upgraded the graphics card (AMD....not Nvidia) and RAM a few years ago and I was worried about not being able to run my Steam games on Linux, but after watching a few videos I gained the courage to dual boot. Then when I found out how easy that was, I found FOSS programs to do what little else I did and made the switch completely. Now I'm having fun just seeing what else I can play around with (themes, icons, applets, etc.) to make it my own. I'm no expert by any means so I heartily encourage anyone to make the switch now. I'm glad I did.

[PixelShade]

To be honest, I just switched from Da Vinci Resolved to kdenlive. I was also surprised of how incredibly efficient kdenlive was as you can create proxy clips. (smaller renditions of the real clips as previews when scrubbing your video project) this will even make slower laptops being able to quickly video edit 4K files. it's really just in the export phase you can tell you're on a slower computer.

[eggghead]

ok timeshift is an absolute gamechanger - thanks for putting me on

[georgepetrakis]

After so many years of windows dominance, every single one desktop user is somehow "locked" to windows eco system either because of specific software or specific hardware. Power users do need to value more their privacy and security + the ability to own and control the OS (away from mega corporations) in order to make the switch and learn new apps. I made that switch years ago and I am a happy 95% Linux mint user. I still got a windows partition around because some of my work related stuff are based on windows only apps (this is not my fault, as the organization I am working for is very narrow minded). Once you make the switch you GOT TO HAVE the mentality to buy hardware that works also on Linux and NOT buy windows-only hardware. This is the only way for hardware manufacturers to get the message.

[samsungtech]

WPS : Office suite
SMplayer/Celluloid : Media player
Flatpak : AppStore
Cinnamon : Desktop Environment
Nemo : File Manager
qpdfview : PDF viewer,
now Firefox can edit pdf files
...
Just like home

[TynnuDev]

Phenomenal video! Especially love the "snap out of it" part regarding fiddling with settings.

[raistraw]

I switched a year ago still not regretting it.

[ericb]

You certainly don't need to go back to Windows. You have the dual boot for both. Switch to Windows only when you need it. Over time, you will need Windows less and less. The only thing I now use window for is Adobe.

[rennmaxbeta]

Excellent video. I have just installed and dual-booted Mint myself for similar reasons, so this is a perfect summary for my situation. You have a great speaking voice and presentation style too

[FritzVanZyl]

Wow, I wasn't expecting this video to be so good. You are very articulate, easy to listen to, have a calm demeanor, have a great way of summarising things and leave some golden nuggets for us to digest as we spend some time together. Well done!

[redflameken]

If you're switching back to windows make sure to gather up your "dotfiles"

These are the configuration files for some programs on linux usually found in .config or your home directory. Their names often start with a . Thus, dotfiles.

Although gathering your dotfiles is usually done on a minimal system like an arch system that only uses a window manager.

After you gather your dotfiles, store them somewhere, preferably github, and when you go back to Linux, you can mostly pick up where you left off.

[intotheshred]

Why are you using OpenOffice? Libre Office is its spiritual successor as a direct fork of the project that took all the developers with it.

[i-love-space]

I found an alternative to dual booting from a hard disk. I simply shrunk my Windows partition down to a smaller size, then I manually partitioned an installation of Kubuntu using the remaining space, with one extra wrinkle. I put /boot on a usb and set my laptop to boot from it first if it is plugged in. The only part of Linux that is on the boot USB was /boot and /etc.
/usr, /home, swap, /var, and /tmp were all on separate partitions on the rest of the HD. It works great, and if I want my old Windows 7 back, I simply shutdown, remove the boot USB, and windows boots normally with no risk of corrupting the Windows boot track trying to create a dual boot HD.
Since /boot and /etc do not get modified greatly during normal operation, except during security updates or software installations, I think my USB should last a long time. But for safety, I clone the USB every time I do major software updates or installations. That way, if the USB ever dies, I have a duplicate ready to restart my machine.
This might work ok on newer machines, but I have only tried it on my old Windows 7 laptop from 2012. I still love Windows 7. Couldn't bear to part with it....

[catherinepoloynis]

Thanks for sharing your experience, it was educational and validating of my own thoughts.

[codingman]

Welcome to linux community bro, i thought you are making dedicated videos on linux but glad to see how people are moving towards linux and embracing it's features