You don’t have to buy a new pc just to continue using the internet. (Windows 11 forces a PC to have a modern motherboard with TPM, Windows 10 will reach End of Life and the person is fucked when certificates expire) You are not forced to have candy crush automatically installed on your machine. Your search actually can show your files and programs instead of redirecting to bing. Greatly reduced attack surface, since malware can’t go living off the land. Actually faster file transfer over the network. Full telemetry with no possibility to turn it off

The list is a bit random and examples are not that hard to find. Although, almost everything is tuneable and switchable on Windows, which helps it a lot to adapt and reduce pain points mentioned above.

The main actual problem is that it’s a corporation controlled, and they don’t have your interests prioritized.

I’ll try to answer as best I can.

Windows is a proprietary operating system. This means you are unable to view the source code and have to trust Microsoft that it isn’t doing anything malicious. This goes with any proprietary program you purchase or otherwise use. Trusting Microsoft is however a tall order. They have a notoriously terrible track record when in comes to privacy. Telemetry, keyloggers, injecting ads in to the desktop, etc. For someone like me who values privacy and is concerned with commercial creep in to my personal spaces, this is intolerable.

Conversely, any Linux distro is comprised of primarily free software. This means a majority of the operating system has been viewed and audited by many people, and any privacy concerns or exploits will be brought to attention sooner than later. Linux has a fundamentally different design and political philosophy than Windows. Contrary to its name, Windows is the black box you can’t peer into and Linux lays all out to bare. Should you need a program to do something particular to your use-case, and it is free and open source, you may make those modifications with no legal repercussions. Depending on the license, you might even be able to share those modifications with other people so they might benefit as well. It’s essentially the spirit of sharing vs. competition. Linux is a community of people wanting to make great software for others to use. Windows is a commercial product designed to lock you in to a cycle of consumption for the benefit of Microsoft, and Microsoft only. If you willingly give them your data for the sake of your own convenience, they will sell it.

For your use-case, Linux Mint sounds like a great place to start. VS Code is available on Linux, and is super easy to install on Ubuntu/Debian-based distros like Mint. I’m not sure about Vegas, but despite what I wrote previously, there is nothing wrong with using an operating system for a tool you need as long as you accept the conditions that will come with it. YouTube can be viewed on any platform easily, and Steam has come a long way with proton for gaming on Linux. I personally use macOS for audio production because the tools I need are there, but use Linux for the bulk of my computing needs.

Ultimately, which operating system you use is a personal decision. I’m not going to tell you to use something you don’t want or need. I just hope you look in to whether open source software can meet your needs for your use and consider what you are agreeing to when you use commercial operating systems.

I hope this was helpful, and I’m happy to answer any questions you might have!

I don’t think anyone can convince, that’s it’s objectively better, but Linux is better than windows in some key ways, that really speaks to me. In a sentence, a Linux distro feels like you own your computer, while windows is more restrictive. Windows forced updates can kiss my ass. Linux has less malware for it, so harder to get infected.

Let me try to answer your question with a recent experience. I have a old laptop that I use to only watch YouTube. It was running windows 10 just fine but here and there, there would be stutters. Sometimes the laptop would hang at lock screen. When I logged in, there will the same notifications from the same apps informing me stuff like ‘network drive didn’t connect’ or ‘anti virus licence update failed’. I know it’s not sure annoying and can easily be taken care of. But I wanted a breath of fresh air.

So, I decided to install Ubuntu on it (just going for a safe choice). After installing, I realized that I wanted only two features - one to control volume with a four finger gesture with the trackpad and the ability for the laptop to hibernate to conserve battery. After installing Ubuntu, I started searching for these solutions. I found a software called Fusuma which applies setting via a config file (that needs to be manually created and pointed to), needs to started via command line and manually added to startup. A normal user would not want to go through this process. Many would rather go without comforts of touchpad gestures. And because of gnome, I had some troubles getting my volume to work. But when it worked, it worked like a charm. The config file allowed me change everything. What each gesture did - 3/4 Finger sweeps in all directions, send keyboard shortcuts, change volume, change brightness of screen/keyboard backlight. One can even configure swipe gestures when combined with some key press - for example 4 Finger swipe up/down changes volume but if I do that with shift key pressed, it can change brightness or keyboard backlight with alt pressed. This was a totally new concept that I never heard of.

These are Power User Features that usual people usually don’t wanna get into. They get it when the company decides it. With Linux, the possibilities seem endless. You can do what you can imagine with the hardware. But you need to work for it. This is why I could relate very well with the meme. Once you become an expert of one OS, windows and mac would start to seem boring but Linux will keep opening new doors for you. This rabbit hole is deep!

I first installed Linux on a 486 computer back in 1999. Can still remember staring at the screen thinking “Now what the hell do I do? Oh right ‘root’ was the username. Password entered. Now what?” Since then I’ve built many servers running Linux. Some for corporate environments. Antispam solutions. Web servers. Email Systems. File servers. I started using Linux as my primary desktop in 2000 and will never look back.

As for which is better? Windows? Linux? Mac? It really doesn’t matter to most people and there’s not one thats objectively better than another. Most people use Windows because thats what is installed on their PC when they bought it and 99% of the population would have no clue or even think of installing anything different. Once the PC is too old or so full of kludge they usually either get their ‘nephew’ to wipe it clean and start over again or they just buy another PC. Thats the main reason the Linux Desktop will never become mainstream or even start to compete with Windows. Unless somebody makes the kickbacks Microsoft gives to the big manufacturers illegal it won’t change.

Sorry…that was a bit of a tangent there…

The OS is simply a tool. It really depends on what you are trying to do and what you want to accomplish. I’m a geek. I love fiddling with stuff and I find Mac and Windows operating systems irritating as hell and so locked down that I can’t ever be as productive on Windows as I am on Linux. I use a tiling window manager. I’ve created all sorts of customizations that that I use every day. Things I could never do on Windows. Hell, with Windows 11 you can’t even move the freaking taskbar without a registry hack. What is with that?

I also run Linux on several small PCs that I use to host all sorts of home services built on Docker and some machines using XCP-NG to virtualize various OSs.

I still run Windows on one laptop for my consulting gig as its all being run in Microsoft world.

Now there’s also the whole “free” as in free speech aspect of the Linux OS vs the proprietary OS. It is definitely a consideration for me and does make me feel somewhat self righteous in running Linux everywhere I can. I also love not paying the “Microsoft tax”.

Another aspect is the connection to developers and providing feedback into Open Source tools. I’ll never forget when I bought a new Lenovo laptop a few years ago. It had some new Intel wireless NIC in it that wasn’t really fully supported by Linux yet. When I used it the connection would stay up for a few seconds and then drop. I posted something on the kernel mailing list. Within a few hours I had the developer who wrote the code to support the Intel NICs messaging me. We sent several messages back and forth and he got me to test various versions until it worked correctly. Can you ever imagine getting to communicate directly with a Windows developer? Would never happen in a million years.

What I’d recommend is find an old machine. Install an easy to use Linux Distro. Play. Try different things. See what you like. Then nuke it and try another distro. Then do it again. Play with the different software packages. Desktop environments. Get involved in some of the communities on Reddit Lemmy, Discord, etc. See what others are doing its a fascinating world and I love every minute of it. Even when sh*t breaks. I treat it as a learning experience and I learn something new every day.

Tell that to my (SOON TO BE FORMER) windows computer which shat itself after I left it turned off for a week. Decided it didn’t want to load my graphics drivers anymore. Back to Endravour I go, extra work to get games running be damned