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. 😆
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
I am very pro Linux but “I like Windows” is valid enough for me. I might ask why but I am not going to act like that reason is invalid.
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.
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).
“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”
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
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.
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.
I don’t ask. I just point at Microsofts shit and ask why they haven’t switched already.
My school requires the installation of office apps like Microsoft access. I can’t get Microsoft office apps to run with wine.
I also can’t get games from Ubisoft connect to run with wine. I usually try lutris but the games always crash. So I have a virtual windows machine for school work and I have to play all of my games on steam.
Sounds like I don’t know how to use wine or wine hates me
I mostly run Linux though.
Microsoft access
I wasn’t aware that thing still existed.
First my problem was fractional UI resizing making everything stutter and only supporting 60hz. I fixed that by going to KDE (Kubuntu).
Now my problem is that my battery doesn’t last for a whole day of lectures - while it does with windows. Also, sleep is ass.
Will still probably fully switch in 2026.
I “tried” Linux but never got it usable. I initially decided to run a vm on virtualbox to experiment. I tried Debian, arch, kali, Ubuntu and all ended up having an input lag of 1-2 seconds. Windows the system was fine. But I found my self unable to do basic tasks it was no bad. I don’t mean I didn’t know a command or unwilling to find a foss software equivalent, I mean it took several tries to get the mouse over the X to close a program due to input lag.
OK I then decided to try a docker container with Linux. It got so messed up if I open docker desktop it displays an error that the container was unable to start, if you close the error to edit settings or create a new container it closes docker desktop, no way to fix it.
I was able to get a wsl command line working but all I found it able to do is add 5 steps to everything due to having to start the command, start wsl, log on, elevate permissions etc.
Okay, but have you tried actually installing it? VMs just have worse performance
That may be my only choice. Was trying to avoid it as I don’t want to lose everything on my computer and dual booting would be difficult as I don’t have a huge hard drive.
You don’t need to install it to try it. Many distros will let you try the os while it is booted off of the usb. Ofc this doesn’t give you all the functionality and you won’t be able to save data. But you will at least see the performance is better.
I’m gonna second the reccomendation to just boot it from a flash drive and try it out. Virtualization takes a ton of performance and on lots of hardware isn’t going to be a nice experience compared to actually running it without virtualization
You don’t have to make the switch, but it’ll give you a much better sense of what you might like, without dealing with lag and input delay :)
What you should have done if you’re unwilling to nuke Windows, which you clearly are, was to swap out your boot drive and install Linux directly. Any drive will do for that purpose. You didn’t try Linux, not really. You used some apps that run it.
They rely on AutoHotkey.
It’s true, Linux doesn’t have anything close to AHK.
I can give you reasons I have for not installing Linux on one of my laptops:
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Intel graphics support, or the absence of it;
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decent touchscreen support (Windows Ink);
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WSL which I use with NixOS, and it does simplify most of my dev needs;
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unfortunately, Adobe apps which I still heavily rely on (I’d wish I had an alternative),
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PowerPoint (again, I’d wish I had an alternative).
If you want to comment: "oh but have you tried Affinity, Pixie, Only Office, Libre Impress, reveal.js, {enter your fav presentation/photo editing tool} – yes I have, and no, unfortunately, it’s not even close. Also, to be clear, I’ve never paid, and never will for the Windows/Adobe products.
(e) PowerPoint (again, I’d wish I had an alternative).
Oh for ducks’ sakes… just make pdf slides, do you really need animation and/or transitions? They are going to be a proufoudly horrible and disconcertingly awkward mind searing experience anyway
i use neither animations nor transitions. but i do extensively use movies (which have a horrible support in Impress), and i use lots of equations (which you can enable using third-party plugins in Impress, but working with them is very difficult).
i’ve been bitten twice when i’ve been traveling on a conference and had to quickly put up slides in Impress, and ended up not being able to do what i wanted because of all of its limitations. i ended up using reveal.js, but that also has its own drawbacks, e.g., the lack of UI, which i can use to quickly fine-tune arrows, text positions etc.
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