For years, between programmers and users, The fight between Linux and Windows has almost been a national sportwith some news from time to time talking about how the creator of X messes with Linux or the expert Y puts Windows as the worst operating system in the world.
The truth is that they have little to do with each other. Linux is for those who want total control, to tinker with every detail and customize everything. Windows, on the other hand, is the comfortable option, with more games, more support and, of course, fewer headaches for the basic user.
The point here is what happens when someone who spent eight years on Linux decides to switch to Windows. That’s just what happened with a developer who told his experience in a Reddit thread. With years of use in different distributions such as Ubuntu, Arch, Fedora and even NixOS, and accustomed to working with Python, Rust and Neovim, I planned to return to Windows as something temporary. However, he was surprised.
«I recently returned to Windows 11 after spending the last 8 years as an (almost) full-time Linux user, and I have been very impressed with how much progress has been made. the operating system,» he says. He admits that he misses some Linux tools, such as the Dolphin file manager or the Konsole terminal, but the practical differences made him stay.
One of the reasons that most pushed him to all this change was video games. As he comments, and although Proton has improved a lot, your experience with mods and anti-cheat systems It made his life impossible.
«I just wanted to download the game, put in some mods and play without fighting through layers of compatibility,» he explains. Besides, virtual reality recognizes that it works better on Windows.
Another big problem is the eternal transition between Wayland and X11 on Linuxwhich caused errors every now and then with streaming on Discord. «I had issues with green or black tint on the screen, small audio dropouts, and more,» he explains, frustrated by technical complications that, on Windows, simply don’t exist.
And those were not just the obstacles in the way, as it also mentions black screens after suspension, specialized software that did not work well, and errors with filesystems like Btrfs. This, added to the wear and tear of the years, led him to try Windows 11.
Two important discoveries in Windows 11 that gave you a pleasant surprise
Comment that what really The experience changed two things.: Scoop and WSL2 package manager.
«I tried winget and I hated it, it seemed like a clunky script that leaves garbage everywhere,» he explains. But Scoop said, «is the real package manager. Install portable apps in a single clean directory and organize everything neatly. From Neovim, Git, Python, to Rust, everything is installed with a simple command. It just works, no fuss.»
The second surprise was WSL2, Windows Subsystem for Linuxgiving you a real Linux kernel inside Windows, without any desktop complications or bugs. Although he used it little, he comments that he really appreciated being able to run tools like adb or Linux scripts when he needed them. «I barely use it because Scoop already has a native version for almost everything,» he adds.
«After cleaning Windows a bit to remove bloatware with ReviOS Playbook, I installed Scoop, set up my games and software, and the fiddling went from frustrating to fun«, he states.
With all this, his reflection after taking the step is quite clear. «Linux forced me to spend more time fixing problems what enjoying. With Windows, after the initial setup, I went on to customize to my heart’s content, install mods, and optimize workflows.»
Although it is true that he recognizes that every operating system has its flawsseems to have a favorite now: «To be clear, I think I’m just a pragmatist. I don’t hate Linux. I still think the Windows file system sucks, and that debugging issues there is more complicated than on Linux with its tools like dmesg or journalctl.»
But in the end he chose «the tool that generates the least friction for me to do my work and play.» The fact that it is so easy to run everything without fighting with the system has made him stay on Windows 11 for his daily life.