To not much official fanfare on Thursday, the Windows operating system turned 40 years old, marking four decades since Windows 1.0 debuted in the United States on November 20, 1985. Its midlife milestone comes with a crisis, though. Diehard Windows users are switching to Linux for a variety of reasons.
For one, gaming is finally better on Linux machines, which makes the moat Windows dug for itself a little more passable. Add to that the end of support for Windows 10 in October, the growing frustration among power users about Microsoft Recall, and the growing number of polarizing features, and power users are finding plenty of reasons to make the switch to Linux.
It’s unclear if the wave of Windows power users loudly moving to Linux has crested yet, or if this is just the beginning. That said, the past year has seen a flood of articles like this one, scores of posts on Reddit, and YouTube videos documenting and occasionally evangelizing the conversion to Linux.
Nah. The growth of Linux will barely make a dent on Windows user base. Windows is still huge in enterprise settings.
I wonder what must happen to roll out more Linux in the public sector. There is still software required by scientist of various professions that need a tool only available for Windows. Installing a VM is not an option; too complicated for the average user.
And there is Windows software not compatible with Windows 11. Here is a small chance to use wine, but will the setup be practical and installable by the users themselves? I doubt it and it will put more work on the admins.
I hope at least, that Linux maintenance will be smoother despite the need for compatibility for older Windows software in the future.
