while you’re probably looking for some very tangible reasons in a bullet list of how its better, there’s really one foundational reason and everything else is a distant second.

Linux (mint or otherwise) is your OS that you use on your hardware. Period. It’s not going to tell you how to use it, what is allowed, what is right, or anything of that nature. It’s yours. Have at it.

I’m another vote for mint. Coming from a windows environment its very similar in feel. Get use to how Linux works then you can always change to another distro if you want.

Also FYI, many distros can be loaded from a USB stick to test out. If you like it, you install. If you don’t, you move on to another. Mint does this, so you can test it without commiting to it, and just get a feel for the UI.

Honestly, it’s about learning how Linux works. Its a different mentality than Windows (or Mac). Learn the file structure, file permissions, how things update, etc. Nothing is crazy (and it’s better in so many ways) but you don’t really learn that stuff until you start using it.

I’ll be the black sheep and say I actually quite like using windows at work. Not really enjoyment per say, but the software suites and accessibility is different in the business world, which is primarily built around Microsoft. Not that you can’t do most of it with Linux and that Linux would do some things better, but I don’t really have an issue with most of it.

Would I choose it for my home use? Definitely not. But I’d think that fitting a Linux cog in a Microsoft machine would create more negatives than positives. This is all subjective of course, and depending on you job, company, industry this could wildly not apply.

Don’t get me wrong, I hate Microsoft. But their ecosystem isn’t all bad.

I mean, technically Defender is a pretty decent antivirus. Nothing wrong with that. Hopefully they use more than antivirus to keep you safe though. I think most decent EDR/XDR support Linux.

It’s my opinion that most people think of all the technology as it were 15 years ago. Apple was innovative, Google wasn’t evil, Windows worked well, and Linux was not as accessible as it is today.

I had two bouts with Linux in the distant past, and neither time did I think Linux was anything worth pursuing. Not that it was bad, I just didn’t see a benefit over the alternatives. In fact the alternatives had all the benefits in my mind.

When I switched a year ago, I was blown away how far it had come as far as being accessible. Now I can’t imagine using Windows as my primary OS ever again.

Windows troubleshooting is always SFC and DISM as the new “have you tries turning it off and on again” default first recommended step lol.

Yeah, I always bring this up because it’s what I dealt with. Mind you, it was amplified because I set up a media server right away and got seriously confused.

What? Permissions don’t get inherited? OK fine, so how do you set permissions? This site says 755 and this site says drwxr-xr-x. Can’t I just get a straight answer?

It’s a fundamental functioning difference between the OS’s that not a lot of people talk about when talking about switching.

Even my Windows machine that is set up with an admin/user structure (as God intended) doesn’t give me any fuss with file access.

I find that one of the biggest differences is the file ownership/group design, and the non admin user. Sure, it might not come up in a straightforward manner, but it will.

Why do I need to put in a password all the time? How come I can’t just move this file to another drive?

This might be too “advanced” for what you’re looking for, but I think even basic usage comes across this.

I switched to Linux about a year ago. I was a windows power user and now I’m a Linux noob, but couldn’t be happier.

I hate to say it, but there’s still reasoning to have Windows. I use a VM with ameliorated windows running for the few things I can’t get away from.

For others, I tell them my story. Most people I talk to won’t or can’t make the switch, which I’m respectful of. To those that would benefit, I recommend at the minimum O&O Shutup but highly recommend ameliorated. This has been more welcomed.

People won’t care until they have a reason to care. I’ll still be around when they do.

Oh, good to know. I had no idea this was a thing.

Its pretty straightforward. You just need to have secureboot disabled in bios so a third party driver can load.

Welcome to the club. I switched about a year ago and its been fine.

Mind you, I was a windows power user and I Linux I’m just a below average minimalist user, but its been fine. Also mind you, I run a windows VM for some stuff I’m still tethered to (virt-manager is your friend if this is the case). But I have 3 machines in my house that are all Mint boxes and its smooth sailing.

There are some things I wish were different, but you need to choose your battles. Like I don’t want any kernel based anticheat on my system so those kinds of games I play on console if available, or don’t play at all.

As far as advice, part of what I like about Mint is their forum. Yes, you can always search and find answers but with so many variances between distros having a forum tailored to your specific OS is a nice perk. You will find a lot of answers there.

Hot tip: read up on file permissions, users and groups. Permissions aren’t inherited like they are in windows so that’s a mental adjustment you need to make.

You’ll probably pick up on the file structure fairly quickly. Though I didn’t unhide the hidden folders in my home directory because I needed to (I forger why but it came up)

And honestly, I’ve used an AI tool to help walk me through getting some stuff to work (somehow I broke my Samba sharing) so that’s always a resource to help guide you and troubleshoot.

I would also recommend Mint with Windows as a VM over dual booting. I find the workflow is better to not leave Linux but rather load the VM for the windows needs. This is especially with nonaggressive apps like modifying PDFs. If you were going to produce music or edit videos dual boot might be a better option.

I wouldn’t recommend WinBoat for you yet. Its too new, and while I like what I’ve tested I want to see it in a year or two after it’s fleshed out. At the end of the day you’re running Windows in a VM anyways, so its pretty much the same thing.

FYI, I found the setting. There’s actually a slider for “image size” that allows you to set it at whatever % you want… Even better!

Thanks, I’m subbed to the community and asking. I’m loving summit so far I’m already uninstalling thunder.

Liking it so far. Is there a way to make the feed images big thumbnails like on thunder? I was looking around and didn’t see a setting for that. That’s really the only thing I’m not liking so far, everything else seems like an improvement.

Thanks for recommending Summit. I’ve been using Thunder and its OK, but initial looks at Summit and it seems much smoother an experience.

Good for you. I switched about a year ago and its been smooth sailing. I guarantee you’re going to like it.

Look at the update settings, you can set auto updates, purging old kernels no longer used, etc. (My partition kept filling up because old kernels were not being deleted)

Also should mention, set up Timeshift which backs up your system settings. That was you can roll back if anything ever goes wrong. (I’ve only needed this when I was experimenting and flew too close to the sun)

I’ve used only office and it’s still not Excel. Like the prior commenter said, even excel online isn’t as good as desktop excel. I actually run a VM for just a few apps, excel being one of them.

I’m not sure I can answer that in detail. Also, “safe” is kind of vague so I’m not sure what your threat model is.

But I will say that I would 100% be running it as my home windows if I wasn’t using Linux. Do I think it’s the equivalent? No. Do I think there’s a possibility of Microsoft turning things back on with updates? Yes. But its far easier than running O&O and a bunch of power shell scripts to try to remove bloat and telemetry hoping you got everything. I have no complaints.