Pros: Freedom

Cons: Needs to be creative to use favorite apps which don’t have Linux version.

I use windows at work, I have local admin which removed a lot of friction for a more technical user.

But the difference between my home machines (18 years Linux) and my work machine is friction. Windows makes things hard, it is always a few extra clicks or a stupid reg key change.

E.g. recently wanted my full right click menu back on win11, no nice setting option. Go edit this unnamed registry key, it seemed so janky in a modern os.

I’m a long time Mint user, jumped around a fair few distros but mint works well for me. It is so polished compared to windows, it seems crazy it is the free one.

Linux is how home computing was supposed to be.

Windows is a hot steaming pile, so I won’t get into that. You really should set you bar higher.

Pros: everything except super cutting edge hardware runs painlessly, right out the box. You can get software for pretty much anything, and it will be free. You can keep using super old hardware until it physically dies. No ads, hardly any telemetry or tracking, no AI junk.

Cons: each program looks and acts different, and might be super opionated and janky. But that’s the situation with Windows anyways. No customer support for private end users, and if you dare ask about your problem online, elite users will berate you and get on your case with arcane commands.

Bottom line: if you feel comfortable with a computer and won’t get scared if the icons and menus look different, try it out.

Maybe not my biggest pro, but I was able to customize my UI way more than I ever could on Windows. I made an FFIX theme for my wife and I might make an Earthbound theme for myself whenever I get around to figuring out how to make a customized window style.

I can’t think of a single thing I miss. I use Windows for work and it’s a relief every evening when I can switch to my Linux desktop.

Linux Cons:

• there is always some minor thing that doesn’t work quite right, or it takes a lot of searching to find a fix. However this is true on Windows too
• on a fast moving distro things can randomly break here and there, but usually are fixed fast
• some games and apps won’t work. Usually when they’re trying to do something invasive. Be prepared to find an alternative (or dual boot)
• some hardware doesn’t work because the vendor doesn’t provide drivers and no open source version exists. If they are actively blocking foss versions, they’re a good candidate for the never buy list
• no Copilot (/s)
• if you want things to “just work” and you don’t care about personalizing anything and you don’t care about your privacy, you may happier on Windows or Mac because you can just take it to a shop and have them fix it. There are just more resources for an OS that commands 80% of the desktop market

Linux Pros:

• my computer is mine and I can control everything
• I can customize things much more than on Windows
• I can upgrade when I’m ready and opt out of any shenanigans
• Everything I care about works. I switched to open source for photo editing. There was a learning curve, though
• software development, even with Microsoft tools (!), is just much nicer on Linux. You don’t need WSL when it’s already your OS

Workarounds:

• I choose to not buy unsupported hardware
• I choose to not buy unsupported software and games
• I put vendors hostile to freedom on my never buy list (e.g. Adobe)
• I have access to a Windows PC if I need it. But I have not needed it in the last year or so I’ve been full time on Linux

Not saying going full time Linux was necessarily easy (I gave up Adobe Lightroom and I can’t play some AAA games) but I have no regrets. It was actually easier than I had feared.

It’s like diet and exercise: it’s not easy to change but you’ll feel a lot better in the end.

Being as this is a Linux community, there’s definitely going to be more insight into the pros of Linux from responses here. My professional background is as a systems engineer in Windows from xp, vista, 7, 8, 10, 11 and windows servers 2003-present as well as centOS, RHEL, Ubuntu, Debian, and Kali Linux. I’ve also supported Mac OS X and OS X (currently macOS) server in a more limited capacity and have used laptops of all 3 operating systems.

Windows benefits: I’d say Windows still holds the crown for corporate use. I know this probably isn’t what most care about but integration with intune (microsoft mobile device management) and security features such as bitlocker, tpm integrations, FIDO2 passkey support, and directory managed (Entra ID) policies and controls are much stronger under Windows. Windows generally does a good job with backwards compatibility and gaming.

Linux benefits: free as in beer (usually) and FOSS is pretty huge. For the average user its entirely serviceable for web browsing etc. With recent advancements in Proton id say 95+% of gaming requirements are met. More control and much less bloat. You’re much more in control of your system but it requires a level of technical proficiency to leverage that control. It’s not spying on you. Personally I like Linux permissions system over Windows too for file administration, etc. They tend to have their package management systems be more established too.

Mac benefits: some people enjoy a walled garden. Turn your brain off and go all in on apple products and services. Terrifying to many here but that’s a benefit to some. Because everything is so tightly integrated I notice things tend to break less frequently. Great for the technically illiterate and performance is still really good for those who do need video editing, etc. It’s surprisingly good for power users too with the BSD underpinning. Better privacy than windows imo.

What I miss? When using Linux and mac i miss the windows familiarity since it was my first OS. But IMO vanilla Debian is a very enjoyable daily driver. I just occasionally break something that takes me an hour to fix. When using windows I get frustrated by how it hamstrings everything and tries to half ass some features (looking at you settings app). Search breaks all the time. More hanging. Performance dips that make no sense. Windows is easily the least stable in my experience. When using macs I feel the end user experience is quite fun. Snappy. More intuitive. But sometimes I want to do something advanced and itll get in its way reminding me that im a power user and it was seemingly not built with that in mind. A bit too glossy, if that makes sense.

Sorry for the messy formatting. Sending from my phone.

Linux’s only objective is to get better.

Any commercial OS has the sole objective to make money for its owner.

Pro: You own your computer.

Con: You own your computer (and you have to work on maintaining it).

I’m mostly joking. Generally if you have a problem with Linux, you can get help on it. The myth that there are more Windows users, so therefore it’s easier to get help with Windows is problematic for a few reasons. One, the number of Windows users who are actually passionate about it are comparable to the number of passionate Linux users, or Mac users. I’m not sure which one leads the others in power users who are happy to help, but I feel like it’s Linux. Nobody has Linux because of the computer they bought (or, almost nobody). Windows and Mac have a lot of users who just use the computer they bought with the software that came with it. Virtually no one has Linux who didn’t choose it, and they chose it for reason that are important to them, and it’s in their best interests to help you learn it, too.

The other myth is the command line. Windows, Mac, and Linux all have a command line/terminal. It’s not needed on any of them, but on all of them, there are a couple things you can do that are not easy to do in the GUI.

Honestly if you have Windows, get a live distro and run it. You can run it inside Windows. The performance won’t be the same as running it on bare metal, but you can see how it handles your hardware. For most distros you shouldn’t have a problem.

(Disclosure: I’m a happy Mac user. I’ve used Linux off and on (mostly off though) for over 20 years. My favourites have been Red Hat (when it was a home OS; it’s called Fedora now) and Ubuntu. I prefer the GNOME interface. I’m comfortable with the command line. I understand that macOS is UNIX, and I also understand that it’s not and why it’s not.)

There are no cons

After working with it for a bit the only con I have at this point is my drafting program isn’t supported so I run it within a virtual machine on a second monitor. It’s hard to even tell it’s running in a vm but it’s kind of annoying. So far drafting and robust PDF editors have been the only weak area. That’s not even Linux though, it’s a lack of support from software vendors.

Pros :

• Reliable, I have nothing to fix and no unusual behaviors or settings on Cachyos. If I set something up the setting won’t change on its own.
• Private, no telemetry. No NVIDIA service sending all the apps I launch to HQ.
• No forced software. I can choose to remove most components I dont like and replace them.
• Gaming works as well or better than Windows once its setup.
• I can revert to a previous image of my system right at boot. Very reassuring to know it’s easy to revert to a previous state/version of my system.
• More lightweight system, I use way less RAM on idle than on Windows. That’s more RAM to use for actual useful stuff like gaming.
• it’s free. Doesn’t require an account to use.
• it’s secure. Much less risk running a linux system than windows. You are a harder target and also a less attractive one for hackers.

Cons :

• I can’t play games with kernel level anticheats.
• I sometimes have to spend 10mn when installing a new game to set it up on proton.
• You are still expected by most people to handle their proprietary files coming from Microslop. You have to be able to sign PDF files and return office files.
• HDR support is not really good for games and it often is difficult to have working.

Overall, having switched 4 months ago, I have no regrets and honestly it was a great upgrade for me. Beside the money lost on a game like BF6 I’m very happy to be on linux.

I was really annoyed by my W10 setup anyway. I constantly had settings that would change on their own. I often had bad days where you feel the system struggling even though nothing changed. It was very frustrating. Linux solved that. I dont have bad days on my system. It runs exactly as I left it when it was shutdown. And this expected stability is very comfortable for users.

Highly recommend the switch to cachyos for all Windows gamers. And even for non-gamers it’s a very functional and reliable operating system.

Pros

I get to own my system. I get to do what I want, if something is not to my liking there’s likely a way to make it work like how I want.

Cons

I have to own my system. If something breaks I have to fix it, if something doesn’t work I need to figure it out.

and what if any do you miss from windows?

Expect things to work. Linux is a minority of users, any manufacturer or dev HAS to make their products work for Windows, so much so that Windows users don’t even consider the possibility that something is not made for Windows.

A pro is that is not Windows 11

PRO: Customizable and reproducible setups.

CON: The Arch community. All those “RTFM” asshats. There’s even a spot in the Arch wiki for that acronym because it’s so heavily used. “This acronym is an invitation to self-care, not an insult.” Gaslighting motherfuckers.

What I miss?: Nothing off the top my head. All my games work, coding is easy (Python/R), browsers do a lot of heavy lifting in terms of compatibility.