free if you know where to look

are you suggesting a benefit of windows is you can “illegally” get a copy and install it? instead of actually free linux distro?

C'mon man, if you're gonna troll at least put some effort in

Anywhere but lemmy, this wouldn't be unpopular ;)

I don't agree with the opinion, having recently been forced to do shit on Windows 11 and ran into so many issues because of microsoft that it was infuriating. Since Microsoft insists on baking in their bullshit and making it hassle to navigate around, I say that that is also a flaw in windows.

But I used to mostly like windows. Win7 in particular fit my needs as well or better at the time than mu current distro of choice does now.

I will add the caveat that before proton, that was less true because gaming sucked on linux for me before proton happened. But almost everything else was better, so I sucked it up for daily driving and only used win7 for gaming and music management/listening.

Now, I only use my win7 install for musicbee. I mean, I do use it for other things while it's booted up, but I dunno if solitaire is a relevant use for this discussion lol.

I'll also say that, depending on distro, linux can be a pain in the ass to some degree or another, even after the learning curve is handled. Not worse than windows, just in slightly different ways (wifi issues in particular can be a bitch to handle)

'extremely stable and never crashes'

Wow, ragebait much? LOL!

Laughs in Penguin accent 😂🤣🐧

Windows is bloat ware with a corporate coat of paint, older games will require a bit of work to get working so also fits backwards compatibility issues and "extremely stable and never crashes"? BSOD is only a Windows exclusive and Windows doesn't need community support because why would anyone have fun helping a multi billion dollar company, while Linux can be work and a hobby.

Extremely stable and never crashes

I mean, sure... If you just let it sit there doing nothing. 🤷‍♂️

Windows is quite slower than Mint or OpenSUSE. The startup time is slow, like really sloooow. I had to run through hoops to get auto updates disabled. I can't customize powershell as much as I can configure Bash.

it has pretty ui

So great of a ui that I can't change anything beyond colours. I atleast had a windows classic theme till win7.

*golf clap*

An actually unpopular opinion? gasp

I really, really, really love windows. Especially the huge ones in my office that I get to look out of while happily using my Linux computer. Just, love, those, windows!

Using Windows means giving my data for pedophiles to monetiza so no, thanks.

Linux runs all apps for Linux and many apps for windows. Windows doesn't run any Linux apps.

KDE has a beautiful interface that both lets you customize damn near everything and doesn't push ads in the OS.

Linux doesn't need antivirus in the same way Windows does because it's inherently more secure and a smaller attack vector.

Linux is free, and your point about pirating Windows is dumb AF. It's $120 for the base version legally.

Linux runs almost every game that doesn't have kernel level anti cheat malware with proton.

Linux supports more hardware than MS by far. Try running a 10 year old CPU on windows 11. Nvidia isn't ideal on Linux, but it also works and updates are built in with kernel updates. Bonus, you can cherry pick updates if desired.

The Arch wiki is better than anything MS has to offer in regards to documentation and there are forums everywhere for help, with real people, not copilot generated slop. Each major distro, which means you have options, also has well developed forums and support.

As mentioned, Linux also has backwards compatibility, but better.

I run Arch and also never crash, and that's one of the most "unstable" distros out there. Something like Debian makes Windows look like a beta project.

Your arguments sound like they are from someone that's never used Linux, only read aged forum posts, and has to rely on piracy as positive note.

Extra bonuses for Linux is that it's faster by almost every metric, a fraction of the size and resource consumption, actually free, not shoving AI shit into it, truly customizable at every level, and doesn't steal all of your private information.

*everything crashes

If you're talking windows 7 UI, I agree. If you talk about Win 11, the UI is dogshit. KDE on Linux is like Valve right now. It does nothing and wins with whatever pseudo innovation Microslop comes up with.

Backwards compatibility on windows is mid. If you want to run games from windows 95 era, good luck. Meanwhile on Linux, there's full support for win95.

That said Linux native app backwards compatibility actually sucks donkey balls and is unsolved problem noone wants to talk about.

Another totally real account being created just to post this? Got to love fake engagement farming.

The only problems with Linux are no office (way better than libreoffice in my opinion) and I don't know how to do Rufus ISO restriction bypasses.

And no, I'm not paying for wine on linux.

How is this an unpopular opinion when most people use windows?

you got my upvote. I mean maybe in the aughts for the average person but today it beats out osx to me. runs all apps. I mean windows apps. not so great with mac or linux or bsd ones but they do a good job of running windows ones. far better than windows does theirs. I will give you its pretty much cornered the antivirus market. its ui has been better an other versions of others beat it out. I have had much worse times fixing windows issues including hardware. there is certainly a larger group of people talking about them so finding a solution is easier due to volume but what actually has to be done to fix them is usually way more annoying. ill give you its backwards compatiblity is great but less than backwards compatibility of both mac and linux and bsd's. stable and never crashes??? I mean many of its problems can be fixed with a reboot but bsod is a well known term.

I'll also give credit to windows for compatibility. If I compile something on the latest Ubuntu it won't work on a slightly older one. IDK why they seem to hate static linking so much.

I can still compile stuff for XP on Windows.