I do- but it took me a few years to learn beyond basic use with Ubuntu 10.04 LTS, which is what I currently use.
Keep in mind- Iāve never used anything but windows until about 10 years ago, and had CS majors for roommates a few years in college- and even they didnāt use linux natively. I do now, and again, have for about 10 years.
Itās not that itās extremely hard to use linux- itās really not, at least, ubuntu- but it fundamentally works differently than windows. You have to re-learn how to do the most basic stuff that you took for granted on windows.
Thereās still plenty of stuff I donāt know how to do. And Iāve been learning for 10 years- and no, I canāt write code.
I am going to throw this out there- yes, linux is faaaaar better than windows. I can natively type in Japanese, or any language I choose, very simply. I can do plenty of stuff that I couldnāt in windows. I like that the software is free. That itās more secure. That I never had to (at least practically speaking) waste the hours of time each week I did with windows removing viruses and crap. I spent more time fixing windows than I ever have fixing linux.
There is only ONE reason I find linux difficult for people to use- if you arenāt intrinsically savvy (and Iām not), you need to study your ass off to do anything beyond basic. Prepare to live in online forums, scrawling through wikis of every goddamn thing just to learn how to do the most basic operations. I still have no fucking idea how to compile stuff- although Iām almost certain Iāve done it a few times- but I have no idea how I did it!
Using Linux is held back by the huge learning curve for anything past absolute basics if you only know windows like much of the world. Even going to linux user meetings didnāt help me- people who knew how it all worked never had the fucking time to sit down with me at true length and teach me how to do stuff. I tried, many times. It never happened.
So I am self taught, and Iām not proud of it. I wish someone had taught me.
If you really donāt want to deal with shit like the subject of this post, yes- learn linux. If you have the way to- youāll absolutely never regret it. Unless you game. Or use 3D CAD software like me (still keep windows on another partition just for that UGGH)
The fact that shit like this is automatically turned on- because they fucking can. They are Microsoft. Who are you that canāt use anything else to do anything about it? Speak up, rip them a new asshole, and hold people accountable for once. If people can make money off of you with your data, the shitweasels will. Because they are worthless, spineless shitweasels. And no one cares enough to scream at them.
Someone, please scream back at them. Iām tired of any tech at all ending up like this. Tech no longer makes things just easier- itās easier by default only to collect and misuse your data. The tech itself never even gets easier to use- but tech is supposed to. Thatās how more people learn to use it- it is supposed to become simpler, more user friendly. I just canāt remember one instance of that happening anymore.
What the FUCK were you doing?!
For the simplest things, usually it goes as
cc -o <output_filename> filename.c
with optional -l if libraries have to be included.
For more complex things, usually āmakeā will do the job. Sometimes with ā./configureā in advance. Usually detailed description of the process is in the INSTALL or README file.
Not much. Browsing the web. Yeah, some porn. Normal use, basically.
Windows lets anything on man- it assumes you let it do so, so it never alerts you to it all.
Linux assumes nothing- it makes you authorize things before they go on your computer. It does this in a fundamentally different way of operating than MS stuff. Itās hard to explain. I donāt know that I could beyond that, after 10 years, thatās about as much as I myself understand after countless conversations and use.
In that case, I simply donāt believe you when you say that you wasted āhours of time each weekā. If you donāt like Windows, fair enough, but donāt start spouting lies.
So much this I can count on one hand the number of problems I have had for malware going back to win95. Though there are the people who just donāt go wait should I really run this program? And I have had to clean up that kind of mess as well.
Also linux is not safer anymore these days. There are plenty of threats out there that will pwn your linux laptop just as easily if you are careless with your internet habits.
By tomorrow, the story will be that it steals your first-born child.
And windows came from a very very different computing environment than linux which was a problem.
And for now actually no, not since vista/win7 even an account with administrative rights runs like a sudo account in linux so you donāt have permission make changes until you say yes to the prompt for it.
Also they have been beating up software vendors to make things run in usermode rather than needing elevated permissions all the time.
The real problem is between the chair and keyboard. There are people who are just going to ohh cool smileys and install shit without checking, or just ignoring the warnings cause they want sparkly stuff in their email, or they are still young and just donāt know any better about how it works. They will do it on linux too as long as they know the magic password to elevate their permissions.
And hereās an idea- if people have the technical skill to make something better without fucking it up, why donāt they? Because it benefits them not to.
So, letās assume they instead do indeed have the technical skill to get rid of invasive shit like this, acknowledge that most people will not realize it is there/how to turn it off, and use their technical skill to make something more intuitive and usable, and less exploitative by nature. You know, so it can actually do net good for people and humanity.
But that would require both them having a conscience and giving a fuck. Which they donāt, on either. Not having either, and not enough people noticing or caring helps them make money of of humanity. Which is why this method of business is now default for nearly everything tech related. They know they can get away with it, and make money, so nothing is stopping them except pissed off tech literate customers.
Of which there arenāt enough. So it continues, and grandma gets her wifi password shared with McDonalds, or whatever shit theyāre pulling now.
I take offense to that, sir 
none intended.
No- thatās the thing. I LOVED windows- I just didnāt like fixing it all the fucking time!
I didnāt get into linux out of some sort of smug look at me Iām using free software attitude. I was fed up with viri, too poor to buy an update, sick of paying for software constantly, and not being able to do easily some things, like type and name files natively in Japanese. Among other shit. I didnāt get into linux because I felt I wanted to. I did it because I was paranoid of what data the viri were harvesting on me, paranoid of skype listen-ins, and paranoid as fuck in general. Paranoia, being pissed off, tired of fixing shit, poor, and dissatisfied among others were why I forced myself to learn linux, half assed still I say.
I didnāt do it because I wanted to man- I was really losing hours each week to scrubbing the registry, hand deleting shit without virus scanning software, because I didnāt trust free shit, and I was really, really paranoid I had viri. Linux removed much of my paranoia by default. Even if it was ignorance of the existence of linux viri, ignorance for nearly a decade was bliss man.
Thatās my new paranoia. I now know enough after 10 years to know they exist, and probably a lot of that is thanks to the success of android OSes on phones. Among others. I donāt even know how to look for or identify bad stuff on my computer anymore, let alone in linux- and so extreme paranoia and helplessness is how I normally feel when I think about it. So I try not to. Because I donāt want to learn for another 10 years to stop what I can get just now. Tech is too fucking tiresome to learn and safely use for me.
Iām just a reasonably motivated, ridiculously paranoid guy, with persistence and ambiguous hope. I probably have bad shit on here now, but I have no idea what it would look like, how to find it, or how to manage it. I give up. I just donāt have the time to learn anymore. I just need to use a fucking computer already.
I wasnāt lying about anything, and didnāt hate windows because it was just windows.
Because I donāt hate myself.
P.S. I donāt run Windows either and havenāt since I quite working at Microsoft nearly a decade ago.
I am with you in spirit, but I paid for Office because I have clients who need me to adjust PowerPoint files sometimes. They are lovely folks, but not techies. I recently asked someone which version of Windows they use, and they said āMircrosoftā. Anything that looks even a little weird when they get it back means they think I donāt know what Iām doing. So, Office it is. When it was just me and my files for my own use, it was LibreOffice (or, more often .txt files).
Can you tell me where the article was factually incorrect? Or when Microsoft became a benevolent organisation who treated end users with respect?
I will be upgrading my Windows machine, with all this crap turned off. If you want to blame someone for my āparanoiaā, blame Edward Snowdon.
This is sufficiently disconcerting that Iām going to hold off upgrading, though I intended to do it tonight. I mean really, Microsoft? Charging a fucking subscription for simple-ass games? Thatās some pretty trifling bullshit and I donāt want to encourage the bastards to build a pay-as-you-go OS. Fuck those guys.
Thatās actually literally in the article:
Well, here is Microsoftās 12,000-word service agreement. Some of it is probably in English. Weāre pretty sure it says you canāt steal Windows or use Windows to send spam, and also that Microsoft retains the right to take possession of your first-born child if it so chooses.
The key thing though is people are acting as if this is a huge thing, when in fact almost all of these permissions are ones that smartphones have been providing for years with less transparent opt-outs, or simply metrics to improve services like voice and text recognition where itās unfeasible to ever possibly provide a robust service without ongoing accumulation of data. Yes itās bad that Microsoft have defaulted everything to āonā, but theyāre also a company who wants these things and the alternative is never getting any because only people who care about their privacy are going to fiddle with those settings.
So the Edge cake is a lie?
Iād still like to give it a shot to see what itās like, but I donāt want to convert my system to Windows 10 right now. Mozilla has provided a video tutorial on how to change your browser and other defaults in Windows 10. It doesnāt look overwhelmingly difficult, but maybe they left something out.
Good luck to anyone making the switch!
I use all 3 daily.
Iām only meh about my linux desktop and desktop vms.
I love my linux web servers 
and database servers.
I love my android (linux) phone and mini tablet.
My main desktop is a big OSX iMac.
My main tablet is Win10 (was Win8.1) I use this as my laptop and for design (Cintiq Companion 2).
I have an iPad and iPhone for my daughters.
They are all great for the purposes I selected them for, to be honest Iād hate it if I had to stick with one thing or system. Thatās just me thoughā¦whatever works for you. That is the key, if it makes your life easier and works better for you then please use whatever it is that does that.
Windows 10 is great, windows 8.1 was pretty great with a few tweaks.
Microsoft makes a much better tablet (touch/pen) OS then apple, OSX is still my first choice on a desktop though, unfortunately apple doesnāt even make an OSX tablet and OSX is years behind if you enable touch or pen features in the OS. iOS has never really cut it for me and is more of a toy OS then anything else. Great for my girls though, they play games and do social and web stuff.
My personal choices are:
Desktop = OSX
Tablet = Win10
Phone/Phablet = Android (Linux)
Servers = Linux
