In my experience, the main cons are overall support from some 3rd party applications. I can’t as easily access some software as I can on Windows, such as a digital certificate software that’s required for my job, for example, which requires me to have Windows on a VM just to upload some files on a specific system. In this case, Wine/Bottles unfortunately does not work.

And, for gaming, sometimes modding is not as simple as it might be on Windows, requiring some extra tinkering to make things run on a same prefix, which is generally not very intuitive.

But the gap is definitely way narrower nowadays. Running games, without mods, is super easy with Steam or Heroic. And software support is also huge nowadays! Even Nvidia driver support is getting much better - I usually have zero issues running (stock) games on CachyOS with Proton.

My Windows usage nowadays is very minimal. And even then, I don’t really support Microsoft anymore… I don’t pay for a Win11 license, I don’t use Windows Office, I don’t use Xbox app, and I definitely don’t use OneDrive. And I also cleaned lots of telemetry and other bullshit with WinUtil.

And regarding the pros: Full control over my device (never again locked by the system to access a path even with admin rights, for example) is the big one.

No telemetry, no ads, no one trying to force me to use software I don’t want, and ZERO dark patterns. No more having intrusive notifications asking me if I want to use software X when I said I didn’t numerous times, while also offering me just “maybe later” as an option. No software being intrusively installed on my system without my consent. No setting options being silently re-enabled without my consent after an update.

And, as a nice extra, Linux distro’s are generally way cleaner and lighter than Windows, with much better performance all around, since they’re not filled with clutter and a bunch of shady processes running in background.

I despise using Windows nowadays. I don’t want to use a product or a service that does not respect me as a consumer.

I have it on my desktop just as a remote server for gaming with Moonlight/Sunshine, and as a VM on my laptop exclusively to digitally sign some documents as I mentioned earlier. Other than that, everything else I do, I do with Linux. I don’t miss Windows at all, and that has been the case for some years now.

Pros: You have the freedom to do almost anything on it

Cons: …including fucking everything up

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For me the Cons are:

• No support to enable Full-Disk Encryption after the System install: This is something baked into Windows Bitlocker. You might say “But you can set it up during installation by just checking th checkbox!”. Yes, you are right. But why can’t I check this checkbox after installation? I know why a lot of people will say “this is not necessary or possible”. In the end the only real reason is “nobody bothered implementing this propperly yet”. But that’s the problem.
• Secure Boot support is still rough arround the edges: I don’t know if LVFS is now able to update the keys for booting shim. But this would help improve the situation. Users should not be bothered with “checking this on their own”. Nobody is talking about “Will my Windows machine be able to boot after this?”. Everyone is just expecting it to work out just fine. Which it proppably will. I would expect it to be the same on Linux.
• Proprietary Software for managing/configuring hardware: I am looking at PC-Peripheral Manufacturers like Logitech, Corsair (Keyboards), etc. Why do I need to use your Software to change Key-Bindings? I know there is VIA/QMK. But not everyone supports it and it is very bothersome to check for everything “Will I be able to use their Software for the product I bought?”. And especially fingerprint readers and IR cameras… Why do they need to be soooo complicated…
• No easy way to synchronize account settings between machines: Say about MacOS what you want…but switching between one machine and another is pretty easy if you are willig to use iCloud. And it is baked into a lot of applications like Safari. There doe snot exist something on Linux that has the same level of integration and is as polished as iCloud.
• NVidia Drivers: Situation has improved. But if you want to still use and old but working Card (1060 for example) on a new Kernel it will get problematic to find the right package to install to get the correct driver. This took my a whole day on OpenSuse Tumbleweed… A lot easier on the AMD side, but they have problems too.
• AMD Hardware acceleration: Whose idea was it to not include the VCE drivers in the open source driver? Shame on you! Why do I need to install the proprietary driver (which will replace the opensource driver) to use this? But then this proprietary driver has its own limitations. So I can’t use my device to the fullest. This situation does not exist on Windows. Are you kidding me?
• Propper systemwide logging for all Apps: Nobody system has this solved. But I would like it so much! It would be so easy when helping people to say “Go to the Logging system, hit clear, do the thing that is broken on your system and send me the logs afterwards”. This could help so much if you are helping multiple people using different systems with different applications. Why no SysLog integration everywhere?

But on the other hand why I am using Linux:

It still best fits my needs. It does what I want when I want. I don’t need to navigate through 3 Menus and multiple selection to store MY FILES on MY SYSTEM. You shall be damned OneDrive! A system update happens when I say so, and no sooner. You can download everything in the background, I am cool with that. But if you dare to restart my system during my workday…then you are part of the problem(s), not the solution!

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.

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

As someone who uses Windows for work and Linux for pleasure: one of the cons of Linux is the lack of integrated ubiquitous file sharing via SMB and UNC paths. 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.

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!

I miss being able to click and drag files from winrar onto the file explorer

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 ;)

Linux’s only objective is to get better.

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