Linux has surpassed 5% desktop market share in the US (5.03% in June 2025), per StatCounter, driven by privacy concerns, rising costs of Windows/macOS, and user-friendly distros like Ubuntu. Community celebrates amid gaming and enterprise boosts, though challenges like software gaps persist; analysts eye 7% by 2027.
I’m just bitching, but I had to put windows on one of my machines for the first time in just over 10 years (since I was a kid) and I absolutely fucking hate it. slow ass, bloated, clunky ass OS. garbage software.
Linux Mint runs so fast on my laptop that was struggling to boot Windows 11.
Also, no driver issues yet! Whew.E: I spoke too soon, the wifi turns off for reasons.
Use the IoT LTSC version and install it using Rufus. Zero bloat, very fast, no clunk.
Is IOT LTCS version legally available for consumers? Or only for businesses?
I bought a cd key for like £4 from one of those dubious cd key sites. It worked flawlessly. I don’t know how legal that is exactly (the internet isn’t exactly clear on how those sites obtain keys), but tbh it’s good enough for me and has no risk of malware. I figure Microsoft could easily block such keys if they wanted and they haven’t.
Just a tip: If you installed Pro or better you can use Group Policies (gpedit.msc) to strip the OS bloat down slightly more than the Home versions. Education and Enterprise also have the telemetry spyware completely removed. But they have a few extra things you’ll probably never use and you’ll want to disable (like their terrible Remote Desktop stuff, Work Folders, etc.)
(I dual boot for gaming. So I know the pain.)
im sure most of yall know but it was new to me that you can use some terminal commands while installing to activate pro edition and ms office pro and other stuff fairly easily https://github.com/massgravel/Microsoft-Activation-Scripts
MAS <3
Bonus: If you use the new TSForge method, it’s a permanent hardware registration. Meaning you’ll never have to activate Windows again, just connect to the internet and it’ll do it’s thing when it calls home.
It also has ESU support for Windows 10, so you can register for the extended security updates after it reaches EOL completely free.
as soon as I’m done taking the cysa+ exam I’m going back to arch. I can not stand this. but thank you for the info! I’ll dig around and see what more I can do to make it a bit more bearable.
Oh, in that case, I assume they have you running Pro or Enterprise? If so, ignore what I said about disabling the Remote Desktop and Work Folder stuff. Work Folders especially though, they’re a complete pain (or were) and used pretty frequently. So you’ll probably be working with them a bit.
nah I don’t think so. like literally as soon as I get done with the exam, it’s so over for windows.