I use Linux for the fun of it! I have been dabbling in it since 1999. I have tested many flavors but presently I am running Fedora, Ubuntu and Lubuntu on various machines. I keep using it because I believe in using hardware as long as possible. When Windows support ends I continue on with Linux. And I am finding that over the years I am relying less on Windows and more on Linux as I get weened of the Windows software and more on to all that Linux has to offer. Another reason for Linux is that I like to tinker...which I find very much a part of Linux. And one final reason is the price. IT'S FREE! I am not a man of much capital so it works very well in that regard. People give me older computers that they feel have reach their usefulness. I throw on Linux and re-purpose them to be used for many more years.

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I am using Linux (Mint) on 2 older notebooks. One is an underpowered netbook which came with Windows 7 Basic. It wouldn't even play a youtube video. Now it's a great little machine which I have in the guest room for visitors who need to get online with a bigger screen for whatever reason. The other is a 4 year old Acer whose hard drive developed a bad sector. I decided to put in a new SSD and put Linux on as it's OS. I have not regretted either change. Sometimes when something doesn't work quite like I expect, i can usually find the help I need on the forums somewhere. I am very grateful to the Linux Community.

Basically, Linux lets me feel that I am in control of my computer and that it is not being used against me by some foreign corporation. Things aren't happening in the background that I don't know about and my data isn't being siphoned off to some server somewhere.

I am very concerned about the loss of privacy as a whole on the internet. I recognise that compromises have to be made between privacy and convenience. I may be fooling myself but I think Linux gives me at least the possibility of some measure of privacy.

It's also the reason I only use Firefox to browse the net (with adblocking and NoScript, of course). I HATE ads with a burning passion, probably more than most people. I'd turn off javascript completely if I could.

Just talking about it makes my blood pressure rise. I think it's horrible what's happened to the internet. Some days it makes me want to go back to BBSes and gopher.

I turn on Firefox Reader mode for most websites almost immediately just to get rid of all the crap they have floating around the page.

I am really concerned about the effect the internet is having on my mind. Days pass in a kind of mindless fog of information overload. I look up and see the sun has gone down. Where did the day go? Why can't I think clearly any more?

I've been using computers since the 8-bit days. Yes, Virginia, since C/PM days. I've seen so much and I retain so little. The waves of change that have crashed over my consciousness, burnt out my mind trying to retain it all, keep coming, not giving me time to adapt. I can't absorb it all.

I shudder for the generations to come. They will be born into something that really is a world wide web, a trap set up to enslave their minds, bombard them with images, confuse their reality. I think in the future monasteries will come back into vogue as people struggle to understand their lives, trying to regain some level of control over their thoughts.

So, yeah, Linux. Down with corporate control! Like Smaug sleeping on all the gold, poisoning all wealth with greed and gluttony.

And while I'm on this rant, the free things left are Slackware and OpenBSD. And I'm not too sure about Slackware but Theo's a madman I can trust

I'm a bit concerned about the recent bloating of the kernel but I can always re-compile it to be 'generic' if I want. And that's the good about it, I can re-compile the whole fecking thing if I want. I can rip it all apart and make it my own. All it takes, is time.

I've done the Windows thing, spend 10 years managing a Windows network and bloody SQL Server databases (poverty, nuh). Been there, done that. Ain't nobody going to make me do it again. Windows (well, and Mac) is the ultimate expression of corporate exploitation there is. Absolute contempt for people. Sheer inhumanity.

Time is the one thing we cannot buy and Windows wastes time. Ultimately, it steals time, which is the worst thing. It steals time when it takes fucking ages to load. What the feck is it doing when you click on Explorer and it takes FOREVER to bring up the screen? Are my files on Mars?

Man, give me a terminal windows and 'ls'. We're done. Explorer? Is it exploring the outer rings of Saturn?

I don't have time for that shit. I'm getting old. I've spent 35 years sitting in front of computer screens. I don't have any more time to waste on Windows.

Linux, at least, takes the same amount of time to do whatever it does on my computer every single time. Every single time. No strange slowdowns. No 'it was working yesterday. WTF isn't it working now!?' It just works.

And that's just the basics. Linux is so full of possibilities. I've built a supercomputer cluster just for fun, that booted off PXE, just for a demo. I've done multiboots, PXE boots, USB boots, floppy boots, network boots, all kind of weird boots. I've built networks, VPNs, PBXes, virtual machines, remote installs, software for phones using gcc on chipsets I didn't even know. Weird shit that woulda been impossible to do on anything else. Multiheaded machines, headless machines.

It's been a techie garden of delights. So much stuff to try out. Not much good at electronics, but I can build a serial cable with a soldering iron (burnt my fingers a lot). Learned and forgotten so much about serial modems back in the day. uucp and cu before TCP/IP came out.

Linux has so much good shit. Some warts too. I don't play computer games. Never had, never will. The system always was the game for me.

I believe Stallman was right. He's an asshole but he's right. Theo's an asshole but he's right too. And Linus can be an asshole but he's right too. Bill Gates is just an asshole.

Life's too short. That's why I use Linux.

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I got a job in 1999 with a big multinational corporation using a computer, and at the time barely knew enough about computers to even power the thing on. Seriously. Our OS at the time was Windows NT 4.0, which was soon upgraded to Windows 2000 and then XP. A friend at work, who had grown up using computers, built me a computer for my use here at home and put XP on it, which I used for years and liked well enough, except for the audio software; I became really interested in downloading music files in various lossless compression formats. I never liked Windows Media Player and just never got the hang of it. Plus, I didn't like the fact that Windows didn't come with much of any additional software at all and anything else you might want, you had to pay for, and usually it wasn't cheap. Apple was a whole 'nother thing and even worse. Apple wanted to control your software AND your hardware, and nothiing was free. In fact, everything was, and still is, insanely expensive. Then one day this same friend who built the computer handed me a CD and told me to "take this home and boot it up". It was a Knoppix disk. When I got home and tried it out, I just couldn't believe that it was possible to have so much on a single CD, and for free! It just couldn't be true...utterly impossible! But there it was --- I was looking at it and using it. So, in short, I was sold on Linux from then on, and experimented with many distros, reading books on Linux, hooking up several computers in a separate room that served as my "computer lab". I used Ubuntu Dapper Drake and Fedora Core (4 or 5...I can't remember) and many many others. I became enthralled with the idea of very small OSes and finally have settled on Tahrpup64 as my main OS, but still use half a dozen others in a multiboot setup. And still have Windows 7 installed on all my laptops---it came pre-installed on them and I just left it, just in case I ever HAD to have a Windows OS for anything (a couple of devices, like a blood glucose monitor I have, only use Windows or Macs).
The other day I was invited to use a computer in someone else's office---Windows 7 and Internet Explorer---and I had such a hard time, I found it difficult to believe a computer could be so unfriendly! Anyway, I can't imagine ever returning to the days of Windows, and absolutely refuse to participate in the Apple world. I love Linux, it does what I want, the way I want to do it, for next to nothing in price, and that's all I need!

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I use Linux because it is fast, safe, and reliable. With contributors from all over the world, it has become, perhaps, the most advanced and innovative software available. And, here is the icing on the red-velvet cake; It is free!

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1. I can understand how Linux works. I hate having to use systems I don't understand.
2. It's safe on the Internet. I used to be terrified of picking up a virus. Now I'm not scared any more.
3. It runs nice and fast on the kind of second-hand hardware that I can afford.
4. Bloat is optional in Linux. You can always find distros/desktops/applications that are less bloated than the standard alternatives.
5. No forced updates, no lock-outs. I'm in charge.
6. Wonderful documentation! I've learned such a lot since I started using Linux.
7. Command line is so quick and elegant (and very familiar from when I used DCL on a VAX at work). I use it exclusively for file management; I find it much easier than using a graphical file manager.
8. I like the open source philosophy. For me, it belongs to the "soft left" of co-ops, credit unions and volunteering, which I grew up with and which also chimes with my Christian faith.
9. When Linux goes wrong, you can fix it.
10. I like helping people and the Linux community has given me opportunities to do so.

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History!
I will explain.
Well, I started with CPM way back, and had source code for many part of it and my choice of compilers and assemblers. I graduated to MPM-II and then to CPM-86 before DOS came around. I was used to having pretty complete control of everything the machine could do.

When MSDOS came around, I was not terribly impressed, but I could make it do everything I wanted. What DID impress me was the huge field of software that became available, and how FAST! Very soon I could make it jump through hoops nicely, and it kept getting better. I started running a BBS on DOS, then discovered Desqview and ran multiple nodes (heavily modified WWIV BBS, then MAXIMUS BBS when I discovered FIDONET). Again, I now had the multitasking I had lived about MPM-II years before and could run multiple BBS nodes. Others around me were using IBM OS/2 for the same purpose, and it was even better in some ways.

Windows came about, and I had to support it at work, but could not IMAGINE why anyone would want a RODENT on their DESK! It was less efficient and heavily graphic, not very secure, and hid far more of the parts than did DOS. Worse, it quickly made itself incompatible with OS/2 and Desqview solutions, so I kep running DOS at home.

Roll forward, NT4 is out and COHERENT has started offering UNIX on PC desktops for under $100! I was supporting SYS-v and HP-UX at work in addition to Windows, and this looked like GOLD for the PC world! Control again, and efficiency, WOW! I was hooked for about six months. Then it vanished. The developers got hold of Linux, watched how fast it redeveloped features in weeks that they had slaved for MONTHS to provide, and decided to get out while they were ahead. I had no source for Linux, so was lost.

I continued supporting HP-UX, AIX, Novell, Windows, and (believe it or not, still in use in some industries) CPM and DOS. Then, in 1997, a coworker dropped a book and disk on me: Red Hat Linux version 4.2! In a few days, I had Linux based print servers in critical places to support the Windows, AIX, and MainFrame printing in the plant. Hooked but good, and never looked back.

The last 8 years I have supported RHEL and Windows mixed environments with a smattering of other distributions for special purposes. I am unemployed and looking now, but at home I run Linux laptops and a server. I do not run Windows at home for the same reason I did not back in my BBS days. Windows gives you less control, poor performance, poor security, and a poor return on investment. Linux is free, powerful, fast, and you can modify it yourself to do almost anything the hardware will support.

Power and control. Right now Linux and BSD are the best answer for my needs.

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I began with windows 95 and thought XP had put Windows into the world class arena and then they blew it completely put garbage on the market with Vista. Looking for a decent OS, I discovered Ubuntu "06 and have been running Linux ever since. In all my video and graphics work from that point, I have lost not a single image or fram ore and with Windows crashes I fully expected the machine to crash at any moment or to run out of resources, forcing a reboot. Ubuntu has made my life mellow. Being 72, I no longer build my units, my wife and daughter buy for me, now. I run every machine on windoze for at least an hour before I wipe the Harddrive and install the latest stable version of Ubuntu, I don't need the trouble windoze brings.

Amen brother! I disliked Windows 7, and I have never used, and refuse to use, Windows 8, 10, ++.

XP was the peak of usability. Windows 7 added nothing except making things more difficult to find. Windows 7 is a perfect example of "change for the sake of change because we are desperate to do something to con the sheep out of their money".

I wish I had a dollar for ever time Windows crashed and took some of my work with it. I would have retired a long time ago.

If I had a million dollars for every time Linux crashed and took my work with it I would have ... zero. nada. goose egg. I can't remember the last time I saw Linux crash.

I'm not that much younger than you, and like you I've seen stuff that kids today can't imagine. I've seen Windows hit the peak of stability and perfection, and I've seen it go down the toilet.

Windows is the Problem.
Linux is the Solution.

Linux. It just works.
Windows. I wish it would just work.

I started using linux (slowly at first) in 2008 (Wow ... 9 years ago already ... ;-) ..) after having been a DOS / Windows user for 25 years. Linux is now my system of choice - here are a few reasons why:

- I consider myself a PC hardware and operating system enthusiast. I have always liked spending some of my free time learning about these subjects, troubleshooting problems related to these areas and learning how to solve them myself, and helping others with their issues.

- I appreciate the fact that software in the linux world (OSes, applications ..) is legitimately free for personal use. I admit to having been a bit of a hacker in the past with respect to acquiring Windows based software ... unconventionally. Not proud of that fact, but "back in the day", software was priced out of this world in some cases and well ... anyway. Since I've been a linux user, I am much more comfortable using software legitimately.

- I prefer having as much control as possible over the configuration of my operating systems. My above-mentioned interest in PC hardware has involved, amongst other things, finding new ways to use old hardware that under Windows, would be essentially useless. Up until 8 months ago, for example, I still had several 1998-era Pentium II laptops (so 19 year-old machines ...) performing useful services in the household. This is much more feasible using linux, since it is possible to choose an appropriate distribution for the task and install and configure only exactly what I need and want, as opposed to ending up with a potentially bloated configuration that negatively affects capacity, performance and stability for very little added benefit.

- I appreciate that linux is as of yet very secure from malware attempts.

- I have found linux to be comparatively much more stable with respect to Windows.

- I enjoy the fact that using linux everyday has required that I learn new skills along the way. The distribution I use currently (Arch) has been a joy to use, much for this reason.

- Similarly to the point I made above concerning old hardware, on contemporary hardware, the performance of an optimally-configured linux system (which, yes, I can >>> do ! <<< ) is phenomenal in comparison with, say Windows 10. And although Win 10 is a pretty stable version of Windows which I don't mind using when required (either dual-booting or in VMs), my linux systems are more reliable.

... that's enough to start with :-)

Cheers !

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Used Linux since Dapper Drake in '06; 93 year old Mom used Linux, Ubuntu & the Linux Mint for 10 years - Mom, "Nothing ever goes wrong!" Mom was always right.

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Is very fast and I don't have problems under internet.

I use Linux because it is more stable than Windows, more secure than Windows and when comparing all of the packages that install with Open SuSUE or Ubuntu to Windows, the initial installation size is about 1/4th the size on disk as Windows and you get a whole lot more than Microsoft provides. Additionally, there's the fact that there is very good open source/free software with world-wide support but even the for-fee software has a better deal when it comes to paid support than what Microsoft and Microsoft partners have to offer. I can install an Open SuSE Linux box in about 10 minutes with every update that comes in the default repositories (no additional software) in about 10 minutes. Subsequent updates, including the additional software I've added can typically be updated in under a minute. With Windows the initial installation takes over 30 minutes and more than one reboot. Additional updates occur at a snails pace comparatively. Because my clients mostly use Windows I also use Windows on a daily basis so I do a daily comparison between Linux and Windows. Since starting with Linux in about 2008 my opinion of Linux has improved.

From scanning through several posts, it looks like a lot of people like the control they get over software with Linux and lots of people still like the terminal. Not disparaging those people but there are more people on this planet that will use a graphical UI over the terminal. I am mixed because a graphical UI makes it possible to see several configuration options in one screen, for instance, but in the type of work I do working in the terminal is inevitable. There is a saying that you can attract more bees with honey than you can with vinegar. If those in the Linux world that want to attract new Linux users want success they will need to think of the terminal as vinegar and a graphical UI as honey.

I used Xenix back in the 1980s and UNIX was the OS of choice for many of my jobs; HPUX, Solaris, IBM Linux, even Netapps' weird lobotomized version. I used Redhat for a while, then switched to OpenSUSE Linux. Every time my wife cusses at her Windows machine, be it a system glitch or when it downloads thousands of updates, I know I've made the correct choice. There are always minor differences between open source software and the original, but rarely any kind of a problem.

I use Linux simply because it works for me! No payments or hidden surprises, full control over the computer, it's compatible and just RIGHT. Linux has been my choice of OS since its inception. Love it

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