I have used Windows since 1995. I had an Apple Mac in 1997 but I have never used one since. I have been tinkering with Linux and dual booting it/virtual boxes since 2010. The first Linux that I installed for real on metal was Opensuse in 2011.
In October 2019 I left Windows for good and went totally Linux. I went to Ubuntu Studio and am still in it, soon to go to 20.04. This left a lot of expensive software useless because it does not run on Linux and I hate WINE. THat software has cost me money. But I still went all Linux. Why?
Because for all the sunk cost I was gaining two things: time and sanity. Windows used to be fun. When there was the XP search dog wagging his tail and you had nifty power toys. But now it is all pain; Windows 10 is the most atrocious excuse for an OS that I have ever seen. Apple Clarisworks in the 90’s was better. Every day in Windows 10 is a fight. Microsoft want one thing. They want you to log in with a hotmail account. Use Cortana! Your fifth and final chance to put off the update until it happens whether you like it or not; that sounds like a demand from The Godfather.
Then you fight back! You go to Britec’s videos [or someone else’s] on Youtube and you tweak away at the registry and become a skilled registry hacker. Or you grab some third party tool from goodness knows where to do it, like a guy in an alleyway whispering “I’m gonna keep you safe kid”. The game of ping pong begins! Microsoft to serve! It’s a Cortana volley! User defends into the open court! What a winner by Microsoft! They put Cortana where registry keys were greyed out! Next point…
Surely that is the definition of computer user insanity. To be fighting your OS every day to get what you want and need! How much time do people like Britec sink into all that tweaking! That is time that I save in Linux! It was a very, very hard decision. I looked exhaustively in all of 2019 at all options. I looked at any way that I could of still using Windows for my programs. I looked at React OS. I looked at Windows 10 Enterprise. But as a peasant who doesn’t use Volume Licenses I am not worthy of Enterprise 10! In this lifetime I must burn more Karma to be worthy!
Now, I am happy. I know that I made the right choice. I could have put off the inevitable and used my copy of Windows 8.1 . But what was the point? 2023 will soon come around. I have to go to Linux anyway. I cannot see any future for Microsoft in the consumer space. They are headed towards becoming another IBM, Even their Xbox they are trying to wreck by doing stupid things with the card slots. Nadella is a complete idiot. That clown could not run a girlie bar in an army base. Absolutely nothing excites me about their garbage anymore. I got to the stage where Windows was so depressing that I didn’t want to look at my computer.
I still have a renoise license. I had to uninstall it for various reasons. Nothing to do with Renoise itself. Might put it back on after I upgrade to Ubuntu 20.04. I am gone for good. The Microsoft universe is dead to me. I never want to ever see a Windows desktop or program ever again. Apple is dead as well. Pity. They make some nice computers. But their walled garden is a joke. Their quality of engineering has gone downhill; see the Louis Rossman channel on YouTube.
It was a big decision. Because I zonk myself out of many careers. You have to know Windows to work in computer security for instance. But I had to do it. Or just spend hours of wasted time on Windows nonsense.
The general sense of freedom and choice is what made me change long time ago as well.
FOSS software is often developed with no harsh economical Agenda or politics, people just make software they want to use. I do use paid software too, like Renoise.
I am often worried about the fact that FOSS developers probably don’t make a lot of money however, so I do donate here and there but probably not enough.
Of course the “flipside” is that there is more software to choose from, more different distros, window managers etc.
I believe people are afraid of switching because it is perceived as a lot of work, learning, tinkering etc. and it’s true except it’s not that bad and is a joy for many.
I assume the biggest reason for not switching is the eco-system/network effect where they rely on certain applications that don’t exist for Linux.
I switched in 2008 and I feel that gradually more and more worthy replacements for Windows software was developed. At that time Blender was my reason, finally there was a good 3d software.
Next, there was no Photoshop but now there are many good painting-apps.
And I used to have Traktor DJ running in Wine but when I recently re-visited Mixxx I found that it matured so much that I prefer using that now.
But as a freelancer I had to start using Windows for work again, so last year I bought a separate Desktop-Machine for work and got used to Windows 10.
I am curious, you say you had to uninstall Renoise from you Linux machine, why is that?
Tried Linux, it was terrible for audio compared to Windows and OSX and even iOS, the low latency performance has a huge hit in resources in comparison, that is if you can actually get a comparable low latency performance on your hardware, which just works on Windows and OSX and iOS, everything that people moan about on Windows can be turned off in services except for forced updates, not the continual usual updates, but forced updates that will update even if the update service is turned off, it is easy to fix, just don’t connect to the net.
Windows in the user space will be around for a long long long time ad will have more users than Linux ever will in that space, especially for audio usage, so this means there is little to no need for any hardware manufacturers to offer good support for Linux, which in turn means less users which in turn means…the cycle continues, once a year I read a post about this being Linux year for audio production, which of course, it never is.
My entire Linux deal now is Gimp and Renoise on a Chromebook, there is little chance I will be using Linux on my main machines for music or film production any time soon.
When I first installed Ubuntu I used the LVM partition method. But when I rebooted with a kernel update I got a hanging screen. I tried boot repair. But I had to do a total reinstall; did the normal partiton with no LVM and I have had no reboot/hang problems since. All I had done was to install Renoise and a few programs so I lost nothing other than a little time reinstalling. One thing though: I had got some warning in an update that my bootloader was possibly being occupied by a program. So for safety in case it was Renoise I am going to reinstall Renoise when I go to 20.04. Then I will do another backup with time shift.
Yes, I try to donate to opensource projects such as Gimp and Ardour. Either outright donations or buying videos. By the way I found an old magazine once and it has an advert in it for Blender when Blender was still a commercial program, prior to 2004. It gave the cost. I extrapolated roughly from that; now Blender would cost about 1500 dollars making it a mid tier program like Modo or LIght wave. I agree that Blender is awesome and free! I have never got into it!
One thing that I should have mentioned is that there is less CPU wear and tear in Linux. In Windows 7 in 2019 I was for no reason getting at times 100% CPU and slowing down to a crawl. I went to the task manager and sometimes I had no programs open. I don’t think that it was malware or a coin miner. The cynical part of me wonders if it was Microsoft trying to ruin Windows 7 to get people to go to 10.
Ubuntu Studio 20.04 looks exciting. It has a new virtual drum kit.