You're absolutely right. Microsoft has systematically killed every reason I have for having their software on my pc. I'm not switching to linux because linux got better (although it certainly has). I'm ditching windows because windows now sucks more than I can bare.
My one thing I feel like I can brag about in tech circles is that I switched to Linux in 1995 (Linux kernel version 1.2.1), and I haven't looked back since. This was even before Windows 95 was released.
It's interesting how the open source model and enshittification have pulled both OSes in opposite directions. I used to look forward to the newest version of Windows because it had cool useful stuff.
I've been occasionally giving Linux a shot since bubuntu 5.04 and it would never stick. I guess many things aligned at some point in 2017-18 when I just gave up on windows and microsoft in general. I've been sticking to my beloved gnome, fighting it to do things it wasn't built to.
And then came 2019 and sway 1.0 got released. It felt like reddit imploded. Decided to finally give this "tiling nonsense" a try. A week or so later it finally clicked and I've not been fighting my system anymore.
Fast forward a few years and I'm now a Gentoo, OpenRC, OpenRC-init and Hyprland nutter :)
I use Linux because the Steam Deck convinced me that gaming on Linux is a thing. Before that i was hesitant to make the jump, even though I've used UNIX before Windows 3 even came out
I use Linux cuz the IT & security folks at work gave us the OK for developers to dual boot.
Switching between the OSs makes windows feel so bad in comparison. Fortunately I basically only boot windows to make sure it stays in good standing with updates and network security. And this isnât some hand crafted lightweight install. I threw Mint on there and itâs worked perfectly since day 1.
One of the biggest reasons I switched was of all the MS telemetry bullshit. That and I donât know if I ever legally paid for a copy of Windows and I was tired of playing the key gen / cracked ISO game.
Iâve used Debian flavors of Linux for servers before so switching to it as my full time desktop OS was not hard. That, and, I donât really use my desktop for stuff that uncommon. Most of the stuff I need I can get out of the box from the software center.
While I did switch to Linux because Windows 3.11 (or more specifically MS Word) sucked, I never found the need to go back, even back then. So there's that.
Great to see the hipsters who switched before it was cool still need help fixing their permissions. Gives hope to the folks, like me, who just want to learn about computers but came to Linux after it was mainstream. Like an idiot.