rm -rf Windows
On this day, 2025-10-10, I have decided to lean fully into using Linux on my workstations.
As the news cycle has reported, the “brightest” minds at MSFT will be grave-yarding Windows 10, plugging internet login bypasses on Windows 11, and pushing AI slop onto the whole user base. This has been the writings on the walls for some years, but now, it is ultimately enforced. This outrageous mandate obsoletes otherwise perfectly working PCs. Aside from the ecological wastes that MSFT has now created, this enforcement seems like an effort to drive purchases for partner hardware vendors, as well as opening up the valve for vast data collection to train their AI models.
Now, listen, Windows 11 was a good upgrade from Windows 10, barring: the React-based start menu (buggy as hell and a shiny failure in software architecture design), the removal of a host of configuration and customization options, the internet login OOBE, the dog-food of AI crap, the litany of ads content placement, and the stupidification of the UI (e.g. right-click menu).
Windows 11 was a good jump, from my own mileage, with better developer’s tool integrations as first-class citizens of the OS like WSL2, sudo mode, Windows Terminal, device drivers PnP, winget (stolen), and… okay I got no more good things to say about it. Every time I use W11, I feel like I am constantly fighting against the OS rather than having it achieve what needs to be done.
Then, I start to realize, these good jumps in terms of features are definitely not out-weighing the cons I have to deal with. Especially, these features definitely can be implemented in Windows 10. You don’t need to build a whole new OS for these. And especially, these pros are straight-up taken from the Linux ecosystem and are supported day-one on Linux.
So, why not switching to Linux right here, right now. Such switch is not only on the basis of convenience, it is also a way to boycott these attempts of enshittification (success) and squeezing more profits (failure) from the consumers. It is certainly the boycott of a bad culture and bad practice in the industry.
With recent advancements in the userspace on Linux desktop distributions, it is now much easier to set up and configure a Linux installation on any hardware, with drivers support right off the bat. My Thinkpad X1 Carbon (Intel 12th gen.) needs to install drivers after installing Windows, my Framework 13 (Intel 11th gen.) also needs to do that, while both of which work immediately after booting into <Insert Linux distro here>.
Having been using Linux at work out of necessity, I am now completely convinced that Windows escapism is realism.
To add more sugar to the mix, with tools like WinBoat, kvm virtualization, Docker, and etc., if we need to use a special little software that only works on Windows that wine can’t even perform the compatibility layer, we can do that without poisoning the whole machine with {bloat, spy, ad, crap}-wares. Gaming compatibility is also getting a major boost through Steam’s efforts.
So, to wrap it all up, as a former intern at MSFT, a decades-along (2 is plural) Windows user, and someone who has benefitted from the ubiquitousness of Windows PCs, the journey ends right here, right now. A new and multitudiously better horizon opens up with Linux, where the everyone’s needs, instead of corporate’s greeds, are first-class citizen.
And the effort does not end here, as MSFT owns a bunch of tools and software that we rely on for work, development, and entertainment. Let the big corporation receive the downfall of their own greed.
Say it with the words of great Dr. Mallard in Space Force…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2zpCOYkdvTQ
Signed off by: Anh