Comment on Microsoft now thirstily injects a poll when you download Google Chrome
hydrospanner@lemmy.world 1 year agoSeeing the horde of Linux evangelists here at Lemmy has been reminding me of seeing a similar push toward it back in the mid 00s.
Back then I tried probably 5 or 6 different Linux variants.
And after trying them all, I went right back to Windows.
Why?
Because I realized that all I wanted was for my OS to disappear, and years of using Windows meant that I wanted something that looked, felt, and acted like Windows. So any version of Linux that might replace it for me was going to have to do that while also adding some positives to the exchange to more-than-cancel-out the awkward differences.
As I said, I tried several, for a few months each, really trying to give them a fair shake.
In the end, I found that whatever one I liked best was the one I liked best because it was the least awkward to use…but even that one was just a worse experience than just using Windows.
So for an average user like me, who really doesn’t have any problem with Windows…why switch?
netchami@sh.itjust.works 1 year ago
Well, because Micro$oft can’t accept that people don’t want to use their garbage browser and desperately does everything like a crazy ex to get you back to use Micro$oft Edge. They also collect all of your data and sell it to whoever pays the most and. On a Windows system, you don’t control the computer, the computer controls you. And they don’t allow you to uninstall any of their spyware, if you uninstall Edge and perform a Windows update, guess what’s gonna be back on your computer. Microsoft Edge is like a virus, it does everything to prevent you from getting rid of it. Edge, Windows or any Microsoft product is just corporate data mining malware.
Linux is the exact opposite of that, it’s a tool meant to empower users to take back their freedom and take back the control over their computers. It allows you to do everything the way you want to, not the way a mega corporation wants you to do it. Data collection practically non-existent, just like corporate influence. You are the one in charge of your computer, you decide what it does, you decide which programs are installed and what services you choose what services you want to use. Linux gives you freedom, whereas Windows gives you ads for Candy Crush in your start menu and a browser that
behaves likeis malware.hydrospanner@lemmy.world 1 year ago
But…I don’t want to use Edge…so I don’t.
I really don’t give a shit about the data they might be collecting on me, since everyone else is too, and I have yet to see any horrible effects of that.
Windows does what I ask it to do, and I don’t feel that it’s forcing me to use it in ways I don’t want to. I primarily use my computer for surfing the Internet, watching YouTube, doing a bit of online shopping, and playing two games. I guess I don’t really see how switching to Linux could make my experience doing that better in any significant way…and certainly not to any degree that might justify educating myself in how to choose, download, install, set up, and use any of the different options.
My last go-round with Linux ended when I realized that I was just trying distro after distro (is that the right term?) basically looking for something that looked, sounded, and smelled like Windows, and eventually I realized that all I was doing was trying a bunch of shit that wasn’t Windows and trying to turn it into Windows. Everything felt like a crappy workaround, tasks that should’ve been simple and intuitive weren’t, and while, yes, Linux did seem to have an android program to anything I wanted to replace, in every case it just seemed like “Discount Store Syndrome”, where everything was the slightly worse knock off version of the real thing, only different for the sake of being “not Windows”.
netchami@sh.itjust.works 1 year ago
To that I can only reply with the following quote: “Arguing that you don’t care about the right to privacy because you have nothing to hide is no different than saying you don’t care about free speech because you have nothing to say.” ― Edward Snowden (the guy who literally risked his life in order to inform the public of the fucked up shit that was and still is going on at the NSA, a real hero)