no cons. i kinda miss winxp but that’s just because it’s trained into my muscle memory at this point. kde/xfce seems much more winxp-ish than win11 to me also.

Pros:

• I never have to worry that my OS is working for someone else by design.
• Never surprised by ads.
• Never surprised by updates that move/remove something in the UI.
• Never have to be worried about some new feature that windows is forcing everyone to use that accesses all my data and might go rogue and delete it all or upload it somewhere.
• BTRFS feels decades ahead of NTFS
• package manager makes it easy to try new programs
• I can try multiple desktop environments
• I can write scripts to customize my experience

Cons:

• Occasionally there is a program that only officially supports windows and I have to figure out how to get it working in proton or a VM. This happens much less now than 10y ago.
• A game might say it works on Linux, but I hit some issue that my friends on windows aren’t hitting, and have to determine if I’m just unlucky or if it’s something to do with proton/Linux.
• there are still some remaining kinks being ironed out with the x11 to Wayland migration.
• sometimes there’s a bug in a package and I have to downgrade it. But that’s not really even an option in windows.

All in all, there is nothing from windows I would say I “miss”. And it feels refreshing to know I’m out of the line of fire of msft.

As someone who uses Windows for work and Linux for pleasure: SMB, UNC paths, and ubiquitous network sharing. Being able to “cd \\server\c$” and expect that to work with 99% of programs made in the last two decades, is pretty great.

“Hardcode a few pre-selected paths and their credentials in /etc/fstab” just doesn’t cut it. Neither does autofs.

Just pros, no one cons! Freedom is most important for me.

I don’t miss a single thing from Windows

Windows? lol no.

The only thing I miss is GarageBand on Mac. It’s always been my fave DAW. I haven’t found a decent substitute.

Tips:

• You will, at some point, fuck something up. Resist the urge to type in whatever console command comes from a Stack Overflow problem that’s similar, though not exact, to your issue.
• Keep a log of changes you make so you can identify what change may have made things worse or not done what you wanted.
• Have a data backup off the machine of anything you can’t bare to lose. Keep it for at least a year in case you lose the original data.
• Be patient with yourself and expect to feel like a noob at computers again.
• Don’t try to make your DE like Windows, embrace the changes and discover better or new ways to set up your desktop.
• Again, be patient and take your time. It’s like riding a bike for the first time.
• Ask Linux communities for help if you have a good, positive source of helpful individuals.
• Have fun!

The pros are that it cannot be used as leverage against your interests by the vendor, and it’s basically UNIX. But I mean, by that criteria, one should run BSD.

Pros: OS doesn’t spy on you, better privacy, freedom, the OS will not tell you what you have to do. Just do whatever you want to do, change whatever you want to change.

Cons: Maybe gaming support, this is what I see people complaining. I don’t game myself, so can’t say much here. After using Linux for 20+ years, I personally don’t have any cons. The OS works perfectly fine for both professional and personal life.

Unlike windows or mac with their expensive licenses , once installed, Linux is yours

Pros: it doesn’t do anything you don’t make it do.

Cons: it doesn’t do anything you don’t make it do.

Windows has better accessability features than linux does. Itsn ot talked about much but ive been in meetings with people with disabilities, survivors of accidents, etc… and Windows is the only real option. If you are blind there are standard programs that they use.

Its the one area i think linux could use real work. A couple of places ive put in pull requests to help out from time to time.

Otherwise linux is generally better ;)

My main gripe with linux is still game and other software support.

Other than that everything I can think of is so much better than windows for me.

Pros it’s not windows.

Cons its Linux.

You will curse it and praise it in the same breath for the rest of your life.

My biggest pain points with Linux have mostly been audio related. Audio is serviceable for general users but whenever it comes to either professional audio work or high end consumer audiophile stuff, Mac and Windows unfortunately blow Linux out of the fucking water at this point in time.