𝕾𝖕𝖎𝖈𝖞 𝕿𝖚𝖓𝖆

There was a promotion around at the time where if you bought a Windows 7 laptop within a certain time frame, you could get $25 off your Windows 8 Pro license, which cost $40 on launch day.

And so on launch day, I paid $15 for my retail copy of Windows 8 Pro and installed it on my new PC.

Everyone shits on Win 8, but I had some shell extension that brought back the Win 7 start menu so I have somewhat fond memories of Win 8. I almost never had to deal with the Metro Start Screen.

My thing is I’ve got years of experience in Linux. I began using Ubuntu in 2012 because my laptop’s hard disk failed, the sticker with my product key had worn away, and I wasn’t paying $100 for another copy of Windows 7.

I’ve only been noncommittal about it this this long because of my Steam library. But with the Steam Deck and Proton being so damn good, and all my games working just as well on Linux as they did in Windows (many times, better), I just stopped using Windows altogether.

So there I was, staring at GNOME Disks for a couple hours. Knowing that like a bad relationship that was doing something for me, but also hurting me, it was best to break things off. And then I nuked that bitch lol

I finally deleted Windows 10 on Sunday. Ubuntu too. Now Debian is my only OS. I realized that every time I log into my Windows partition, it’s got a trillion updates to install because it’d been weeks since I last logged in. So why bother?

If I really need it for something again, I’ll just virtualize.

I’m under no illusion Ubuntu is perfect. But I PAID for my Windows licenses. And if I paid, I don’t want to see ads. I don’t care about Win 8’s penetrative pricing model or the $25 coupon. I don’t care that I paid for my licenses 10+ years ago. Don’t sell me ads on a product I paid for. And Windows serves up ads all the god damned time now. If there’s anything good to be said about Windows 8, it’s that it didn’t take every opportunity to sell me an Office 365 subscription ever second breath I took. I don’t actually remember the last time I saw an ad in Ubuntu, and I’ve been using it to varying degrees since 2011. I think we can at least agree Canonical is better than Microsoft, yeah?

All that said, I’ve had thoughts of switching to plain old Debian, especially now that I’d consider myself much more experienced and comfortable in Linux. But if I were recommending a distro to a new user, I am one million percent telling them Ubuntu or Mint, depending on how they feel about the Windows UI.

Good thing I use Ubuntu for >90% of my computing now.

At the risk of sounding like a dick, I think the word you’re looking for is “empathize.”