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[God's lonely asperger]

You will be if you need to use the superior proprietary Windows-based software (like editing software, multi-monitor software, media software, and anything with nice, clean GUIs), or if you want to play video games. OSS sucks, even LibreOffice is ass compared to Office. Linux is fine if all you do is code or browse the web, it is in fact in some cases perfectly suitable for casual use. Depends on your needs. You could always just dualboot, though.

Works on my machine. Especially vidya james. Linux gaming has come a long way. Check the proton database.
Also never had a problem with libreoffice, and I used it back on windows even. Proprietary software is goyed.

 

[Thefinalepic]

You will be if you need to use the superior proprietary Windows-based software (like editing, multi-monitor config, media, and anything with nice, clean GUIs), or if you want to play video games. Even cross platform software is usually a massive headache to setup on Linux since it's not standardized. OSS sucks, even LibreOffice is ass compared to Office. Linux is fine if all you do is code or browse the web, it is in fact in some cases perfectly suitable for casual use. Depends on your needs. You could always just dualboot, though.

Editing? Davinci Resolve is on linux and is industry standard.
Multi monitor config? Never had any issues.
Media? All codecs and more exist.
Nice clean GUIs? When was the last time you used linux? 2002?

The only benefit windows has today is gaming and gaming is continually getting better on Linux to the point I think that point will be moot in about 1-2 years. The Valve Steamdeck was a huge push in this direction.

 

[Batman]

Editing? Davinci Resolve is on linux and is industry standard.
Multi monitor config? Never had any issues.
Media? All codecs and more exist.
Nice clean GUIs? When was the last time you used linux? 2002?

The only benefit windows has today is gaming and gaming is continually getting better on Linux to the point I think that point will be moot in about 1-2 years. The Valve Steamdeck was a huge push in this direction.

No Videopad or Adobe Premier which is what I use, and no Photoshop. But I do hear Davinci Resolve is great and if that's on Linux, good.

I use display fusion, and wallpaper engine, neither of which are on linux. And for media I specifically meant Kodi, which I use for my library of movies and shows. I tried to install it on Mint and a couple others, but it didn't work. Have had many problems with other specific software too, like F.lux which I could not get to work no matter how much I tried.

Gaming isn't really a problem if you dualboot - Windows for gaming, Linux for everything else. Maybe I could try a different distro or just use Ubuntu since that probably has the most support.

 

[Thefinalepic]

No Videopad or Adobe Premier which is what I use, and no Photoshop. But I do hear Davinci Resolve is great and if that's on Linux, good.

I use display fusion, and wallpaper engine, neither of which are on linux. And for media I specifically meant Kodi, which I use for my library of movies and shows. I tried to install it on Mint and a couple others, but it didn't work. Have had many problems with other specific software too, like F.lux which I could not get to work no matter how much I tried.

Gaming isn't really a problem if you dualboot - Windows for gaming, Linux for everything else. Maybe I could try a different distro or just use Ubuntu since that probably has the most support.

If you want to use a polished linux distro out of the box with the latest and greatest, use Fedora. Those softwares you mentioned have native linux clones, redshift specifically for f.lux, the various DEs and WMs can do anything the display software can do, etc.

When moving to linux, I knew I would be using free and opensource alternatives, and made the concessions, and life has never been better - no lock in, I can use them anywhere and on anything from a toaster to supercomputer. There is a mental shift associated with using Linux, I agree that if you don't want to give up Windows software, you'll end up on Windows, but the same can be said about Mac, too.

 

[Batman]

If you want to use a polished linux distro out of the box with the latest and greatest, use Fedora. Those softwares you mentioned have native linux clones, redshift specifically for f.lux, the various DEs and WMs can do anything the display software can do, etc.

When moving to linux, I knew I would be using free and opensource alternatives, and made the concessions, and life has never been better - no lock in, I can use them anywhere and on anything from a toaster to supercomputer. There is a mental shift associated with using Linux, I agree that if you don't want to give up Windows software, you'll end up on Windows, but the same can be said about Mac, too.

Good to know, I think if anything this gives me good reason to at least dualboot again and try Fedora. One other piece of software that has been an absolute game changer is "Search Everything" from Void Tools, especially with the taskbar plugin that replaces Windows god-awful search. While open source, it obviously doesn't apply to Linux which uses different directory architecture, but the crazy thing is that it's still far more efficient than Linux native search, because it's just that good. I'm too spoiled and accustomed to all this niche software.

 

[Thefinalepic]

Good to know, I think if anything this gives me good reason to at least dualboot again and try Fedora. One other piece of software that has been an absolute game changer is "Search Everything" from Void Tools, especially with the taskbar plugin that replaces Windows god-awful search. While open source, it obviously doesn't apply to Linux which uses different directory architecture, but the crazy thing is that it's still far more efficient than Linux native search, because it's just that good. I'm too spoiled and accustomed to all this niche software.

Look into rofi/dmenu and the various plugins that are associated with it. You can search for files/programs, but also execute tons of commands from inside.

 

[Valentine]

Good to know, I think if anything this gives me good reason to at least dualboot again and try Fedora. One other piece of software that has been an absolute game changer is "Search Everything" from Void Tools, especially with the taskbar plugin that replaces Windows god-awful search. While open source, it obviously doesn't apply to Linux which uses different directory architecture, but the crazy thing is that it's still far more efficient than Linux native search, because it's just that good. I'm too spoiled and accustomed to all this niche software.

Not sure why you're comparing a 3rd-party software with Linux native search, just use the Linux 3rd-party software equivalent. AlternativeTo is a great site for finding alternative software for each platform, looks like there's multiple alternatives to Everything listed for Linux. Almost always there's an alternative available on Linux, even if it's not listed on that site. Or you can just use Wine to run a Windows program, as is the case for enabling >90% of Windows videogames to run on Linux.

 

[Batman]

Not sure why you're comparing a 3rd-party software with Linux native search, just use the Linux 3rd-party software equivalent. AlternativeTo is a great site for finding alternative software for each platform, looks like there's multiple alternatives to Everything listed for Linux. Almost always there's an alternative available on Linux, even if it's not listed on that site. Or you can just use Wine to run a Windows program, as is the case for enabling >90% of Windows videogames to run on Linux.

I haven't used Linux now in like 6 years, so I think I'm unaware how much improvements it's had especially on the software side. Getting a bit topic anyway, so I'll concede I'm being a boomer.

 

[Rax Moscow]

Free VPNs are even more likely to be honeypots. How else would they make their money? "If the something is free, you're the product".

They are mostly set up by sysops and linux nerds around the world for free exchange... the "free software" types, the people who code linux software for free, they run these services.

It's not something I would use regularly and expect it to be completely trustworthy, but the point is they are anonymous; you have thousands of people using the same credentials to log in, whereas with a paid service, you have to trust them to keep your account details private or anonymous, and not to log, but of course any log with your credentials will always be you.

Some things that don't really have a cost, can be free without you being the product. I have a free (no ad) email account through a telnet service that is through essentially a BBS that later became a type of internet provider. Does it cost a fraction of a cent for storage space ? I suppose kinda, but its really a sunk cost--the machine is already there and a sysop giving me an account on there costs them no incremental price.

The idea is the same as "bugmenot" where people use the same logins for sites that require registration--because thousands or millions are using the login, it cannot be attributed to any one person. Same concept with an open vpn (indeed openvpn.net).