There are a lot of good arguments on both sides that I think have been covered by others on here, so I won't repeat them, but I would like to do two things: point you to a couple of links that I've found quite interesting on this subject (and I do love listening to opinions on this) and to represent those who maybe aren't having their views expressed here - I'll explain in a moment.
Firstly, there's a really good article on the idea of a Linux platform, and I think it really highlights some of the issues with developing software that targets Linux, and why maybe Linux has had a hard time getting more market share up until now on desktop (and will perhaps continue to do so to a degree until some of these issues are resolved). Sadly this is almost inherent in what Linux is and how it has come about, so I don't think there is a magic bullet (please read the article before commenting "use Flatpak/Snap/whatever"). It can be found here: blogs.gnome.org/tbernard/2019/12/0...
I do also enjoy the series of talks called "Why Linux sucks" (the title is tongue in cheek so don't spam me with hate) highlighting places that Linux could and maybe should fix sooner rather than later, despite it being excellent already in many ways, as you know.
What I would like to do mainly though is to highlight a number of users that aren't here. There's a lot of debate on Windows vs Linux on dev.to, Reddit, and all manner of places but they tend to give a very skewed view of opinion and it becomes a bit of an echo chamber, and I think this is often missed.
The truth is that there are lots of people out there who aren't that bothered which OS they use, and aren't interested in this sort of debate, more importantly. In terms of the devs I know and work with, there are plenty who know about Linux, but don't really care enough to use it regularly. They only use it when they need to, when it's dictated by a project, etc. The typical response to this kind of comment is usually something like "if you don't think it's great you aren't using it correctly" or something similar, but ultimately a lot of people just want to get something done and then move on without a) spending a long time get their OS set up b) having to find an alternative to X software or c) having to get some other hardware such as printers/wifi etc working on their laptop. Most people don't want to look for alternative software when the software they know already does what they want, and don't want to have to spend any time unnecessarily fixing issues that they wouldn't have had if they just used Windows. On one project I was working on recently I got in touch with the support team for the hosting platform that we were using because I thought I'd try using Linux for a change (the work was going to be using Scala and Apache Spark, so it made sense), and the VPN wouldn't connect despite my best efforts. They responded that they hadn't actually had anyone contact them before who was using Linux for development connecting to their environment, so I just used Windows again so that I didn't waste my or the company's time. The reality is that this is a very real situation in a lot of cases, where the developers go to work, do the development, but don't then spend their spare time in forums talking about their operating system (no disrespect to anyone here).
Me? I'm a Linux enthusiast. I love the elegance of the OS compared to Windows, and there are obvious advantages to the "freedom" that Linux allows, but I have an Office 365 subscription (it's good value for what you get) and despite having a dual boot laptop, I just usually end up booting up Windows and getting things done. I just generally find that in a lot of cases it's just quicker, and with kids in tow I have a lot less spare time than I used to and so the spare time that I do have I don't want to waste messing around with my OS. Are things perfect? No. I had an annoying BSOD a couple of weeks ago that was related to WSL2 and Docker, but I was able to contact Microsoft and found out that a patch had recently been released for it, so it's now gone away and I'm back doing things without issue. I keep checking out new Linux distro releases and checking if any of the desktop environments have managed to get to a state of "lightweight but doesn't look like something from the 90s" but none of them quite cut it for me personally. Linux is a great tool, and the obvious choice for servers, containers, and many other things, but for some it just isn't quite there for desktop even now, and so I don't begrudge anyone making the choice NOT to use it.
Hopefully that doesn't sound too negative. I love Linux, but wanted to provide a bit of pragmatic balance and another side to the argument(s). Windows is a bit of a hot mess, but has some very real positive qualities and isn't the awful OS that it is made out to be. If you made it this far... why? It's an OS, go and enjoy the rest of your day :-D
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There are a lot of good arguments on both sides that I think have been covered by others on here, so I won't repeat them, but I would like to do two things: point you to a couple of links that I've found quite interesting on this subject (and I do love listening to opinions on this) and to represent those who maybe aren't having their views expressed here - I'll explain in a moment.
Firstly, there's a really good article on the idea of a Linux platform, and I think it really highlights some of the issues with developing software that targets Linux, and why maybe Linux has had a hard time getting more market share up until now on desktop (and will perhaps continue to do so to a degree until some of these issues are resolved). Sadly this is almost inherent in what Linux is and how it has come about, so I don't think there is a magic bullet (please read the article before commenting "use Flatpak/Snap/whatever"). It can be found here: blogs.gnome.org/tbernard/2019/12/0...
I do also enjoy the series of talks called "Why Linux sucks" (the title is tongue in cheek so don't spam me with hate) highlighting places that Linux could and maybe should fix sooner rather than later, despite it being excellent already in many ways, as you know.
What I would like to do mainly though is to highlight a number of users that aren't here. There's a lot of debate on Windows vs Linux on dev.to, Reddit, and all manner of places but they tend to give a very skewed view of opinion and it becomes a bit of an echo chamber, and I think this is often missed.
The truth is that there are lots of people out there who aren't that bothered which OS they use, and aren't interested in this sort of debate, more importantly. In terms of the devs I know and work with, there are plenty who know about Linux, but don't really care enough to use it regularly. They only use it when they need to, when it's dictated by a project, etc. The typical response to this kind of comment is usually something like "if you don't think it's great you aren't using it correctly" or something similar, but ultimately a lot of people just want to get something done and then move on without a) spending a long time get their OS set up b) having to find an alternative to X software or c) having to get some other hardware such as printers/wifi etc working on their laptop. Most people don't want to look for alternative software when the software they know already does what they want, and don't want to have to spend any time unnecessarily fixing issues that they wouldn't have had if they just used Windows. On one project I was working on recently I got in touch with the support team for the hosting platform that we were using because I thought I'd try using Linux for a change (the work was going to be using Scala and Apache Spark, so it made sense), and the VPN wouldn't connect despite my best efforts. They responded that they hadn't actually had anyone contact them before who was using Linux for development connecting to their environment, so I just used Windows again so that I didn't waste my or the company's time. The reality is that this is a very real situation in a lot of cases, where the developers go to work, do the development, but don't then spend their spare time in forums talking about their operating system (no disrespect to anyone here).
Me? I'm a Linux enthusiast. I love the elegance of the OS compared to Windows, and there are obvious advantages to the "freedom" that Linux allows, but I have an Office 365 subscription (it's good value for what you get) and despite having a dual boot laptop, I just usually end up booting up Windows and getting things done. I just generally find that in a lot of cases it's just quicker, and with kids in tow I have a lot less spare time than I used to and so the spare time that I do have I don't want to waste messing around with my OS. Are things perfect? No. I had an annoying BSOD a couple of weeks ago that was related to WSL2 and Docker, but I was able to contact Microsoft and found out that a patch had recently been released for it, so it's now gone away and I'm back doing things without issue. I keep checking out new Linux distro releases and checking if any of the desktop environments have managed to get to a state of "lightweight but doesn't look like something from the 90s" but none of them quite cut it for me personally. Linux is a great tool, and the obvious choice for servers, containers, and many other things, but for some it just isn't quite there for desktop even now, and so I don't begrudge anyone making the choice NOT to use it.
Hopefully that doesn't sound too negative. I love Linux, but wanted to provide a bit of pragmatic balance and another side to the argument(s). Windows is a bit of a hot mess, but has some very real positive qualities and isn't the awful OS that it is made out to be. If you made it this far... why? It's an OS, go and enjoy the rest of your day :-D