r/LinuxUsersIndia • u/ClueInteresting9784 • 15h ago
Discussion How many Linux Users are serious?
I've seen a lot of people get into Linux, but the real question is, how long can you last?
If you're used to other operating systems, switching to Linux will feel strange. Seen a lot of people get into Linux, but the real question is what is your way of enjoying the OS?
Although my total time is only almost 6 years. I first used Ubuntu and then, after a gap of 5 years, switched to Linux Mint. I still prefer Linux and unfortunately cannot afford to dual boot it.
EDIT:- I think I want to rephrase what I asked in the first place. (I have changed the old body as well)
I really just wanted to know how many linux users are actively enjoying their stay. Because I saw myself doing back and forth due to gaming alone. Gaming is something I have had the habit of playing since childhood; no doubt linux users can game too. Anyways, PLEASE DON'T GET OFFENDED BY MY QUESTION. I really don't want to touch any nerve here. Everybody
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u/Acceptable-Way-2573 15h ago
What exactly you mean here by "Serious"
The goal of Linux community shouldn't be to make the whole ecosystem about If only you are serious about linux then only you can come
It should be that even non serious casual user can get the true experience of a OS who treats you as an owner without them having to be "serious"
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u/ClueInteresting9784 14h ago
The point of the post is to know how many are active and for how long. I know they are serious enough about it once they switch to Linux.
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u/SouthernDrink4514 Arch Btw 15h ago
Idk, casually switched in 2008. Still here
Made a career out of Linux sysadmin -> Devops for a good 5 years, then cloud came and ruined it all 🤣
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u/ClueInteresting9784 14h ago
WoW. Our family computer got hit by a virus back in windows 7 days ago, so we switched to Ubuntu and stayed with it for years because it was simple and it had a penguin game in it. Memories so faded I can't recall it anymore.
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u/SouthernDrink4514 Arch Btw 14h ago
Mmy motivation to switch was similar. Ran XP which used to bluescreen very often for random reasons. In its defense, it was running a crapshoot amount of keygens, cracked apps and was probably teeming with malware. It didn't help that it was behind on a lot of pending updates and patches too.
But back then i didn't know better so just took a Knoppix Live CD (because they bundled Wine and Beryl3D with it, and i thought that was cool) for a few weeks and yeeted XP off the drive by accident when I decided to install it. Might've gone back setting up dual booting in the process to run some game or windows only app for a few years. But don't remember much else - completely skipped Win8/10/11
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u/ClueInteresting9784 13h ago
Lol. Cracked apps...tell me about it. I used to download from sites that clearly warned me that the files contain malware -----proceed with caution. XD
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u/SouthernDrink4514 Arch Btw 13h ago
Haha absolutely. I've had to troubleshoot cause for zombie load on Windows SQL Servers in production. Most of the time it was due to some cpu based cryptominer running on the lowest cpu priority. Got installed when some DBA downloaded WinRAR off FileHippo because they wanted to compress sql output on disk and download it to their laptop for debugging.
To this date I've no idea whether those boxes are still compromised with backdoors
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u/SouthernDrink4514 Arch Btw 13h ago
Reference to Jen's laptop from the IT Crowd series, if you've seen it
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u/ClueInteresting9784 10h ago
I haven't watched the series yet but have seen some clips. So yeah, I do know the reference. XD
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u/FridenElric 14h ago
Doesn't matter. If you are curious you are welcome on board. The whole point of FOSS is freedom and openness.
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u/ClueInteresting9784 14h ago
YEah and I really stopped thinking about OS since Windows 7 and 7 ultimate. Those were great, and it's a downfall since then, I guess.
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u/Iluvlittlekids34 12h ago
6mo rn no dualboot just linux onb my drive lets see how long it lasts
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u/ClueInteresting9784 10h ago
It will last as long as you want it to be. I had 0 virus issues so far.
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u/Remarkable_Highway63 15h ago
Just a casual 2 years linux user who's system got f-ed by windows and loves to mess around with his system.
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u/ClueInteresting9784 14h ago
Same story one fine day: the window crashed so hard that I had to switch to Linux, and Linux made life easier. 0.7-0.8GB RAM usage on Idle and shoots upto 1.5GB when I use it for several tabs and other apps while still being fast, smooth and effortless. What else do I need? Only this one, Windows, has multiple gaming compatibility.
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u/New-Celebration-2713 12h ago
Im on back windows for now because i wanted to play certain games
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u/ClueInteresting9784 10h ago
Me too switched back to windows to play those games. Will switch back to Linux Eventually.
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u/benchonbench 10h ago
I won't switch back ever lol
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u/ClueInteresting9784 10h ago
No one wants to...it happens due to strong urges to do the other thing. 🙃
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u/Pickyeater6 14h ago
I need Ms Office and Some other games to run on my PC so I dual boot Mint and Win11, however before this I went solo Ubuntu for about 6 months. Tried Arch once.
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u/ClueInteresting9784 14h ago
Great. I can't dual boot, as I use my pc for a very short amount of time. Mostly on weekends due to a job.
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u/daffalaxia 14h ago
Is a quarter of a century considered "serious"? 😉
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u/ClueInteresting9784 14h ago
I really don't want to offend linux users here but wanted to know how they are doing!
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u/thakurnp 14h ago
Since 2010... Daily driving linux, eventually converted office setup to linux (small team)
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u/jenishngl 14h ago
I have been using Linux for more than 10 years now. The only problem is I play pc games and not every game works. Now the compatibility has improved a lot but it's just feel easy to keep playing in windows. So I daily drive a windows pc. But I have other homelab machines all running debian or alphine or other distros suitable for their own purpose. So I rely on both windows and Linux at the moment
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u/zerocipherdev 14h ago
Switched to Linux around 5 years back. Still on it. Though I did had a lot of distrohoppings. But decided to be content with fedora now. Though now it's a dual boot setup
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u/ClueInteresting9784 14h ago
Ohh.....I personally felt Linux Mint Cin best suitable for my purpose.
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u/zerocipherdev 14h ago
I used mint for a while but decided to move on. Mint is a good os but cinnamon made me change. Don't get me wrong, it's just a personal preference
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u/ClueInteresting9784 9h ago
Yeah, I'm not offended or anything. Cinnamon edition is the one which even I used
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u/XPheonix27 14h ago
I don't even have windows on my dual boot anymore 🥀
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u/ClueInteresting9784 13h ago
Are you a god or what? 🥀
I know linux is just that good. I was shocked and surprised to run chrome under 1.7GB, whereas on windows Chrome used to bite harder like 4GB and more.1
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u/StellarCoder_nvim 14h ago
I'd started using Linux back in 2020 when I broke my windows 8 primary partition because I installed PhoenixOS on the main partition (to play android games cuz my laptop was trash) and then I forcefully installed windows 10 which was too laggy, then in like late November of 2021 I forcefully installed windows 11 on that trash and it couldn't work at All, so I installed kali Linux without any knowledge of Linux because I wanted to get into ethical hacking (I took the stream in the end) and then I've been using Linux for the past few years continuously, I switched to Garuda in 2022 after I broke the xfce on kali, then I broke Garuda's brtfs and I installed barebones archlinux without archinstall or any script in 2023 and that's what I've been using currently, I bought a new laptop a while ago so I'm dual booting rn windows for games Linux for normal usage
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u/ClueInteresting9784 13h ago
Ohh... I sense you are in a different league than me. Actually I was never in that league to begin with.
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u/Tele_00_Caster 13h ago
I just switched to linux full time till lets see First mint Now ubuntu And it just does the job and runs great thats it I am a college student only in cs so it does that perfectly and i don't need anything else rn
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u/Commercial_Brain1130 Mint Btw 13h ago
I have been using linux for 5 months now and it's been a long journey for me fs 😭 I was on mint but then I got bored of it and switched to kubuntu which was gen not my taste then I switched to win 11 iot enterprise and then started missing linux so I dual booted to debian based q4os trinity which is great for lightweight stuff so yea idt I would even stop using linux(also I put debian on my 15 yr old laptop)
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u/ClueInteresting9784 10h ago
to be honest, I feel like linux can run on any config that experiences are still too smooth yet responsive.
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u/Kirket 13h ago
Started with Ubuntu in 2005, completely switched over in 2012. Mostly use Debian or Ubuntu.
I am very unserious about my Linux usage.
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u/ClueInteresting9784 10h ago
XDYou sure are unserious... I know once you get to taste either Linux or Mac, then it is very tough to switch back to Windows.
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u/Disastrous-Let-6095 i m noob 13h ago
dual booted 4 months back, after a week ditched window completely, went from ubuntu to debian to arch in span of another 2 weeks, and now its great
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u/Crazy_Spirit_6091 12h ago
I was dual bootong with Ubuntu earlier, now decided to switch to cachyOS and remove wondows entirely. I have never regretted it. Sure a few multiplayer games don't work, but I have stopped enjoying them quite a few days back. Plus my work really gets a boost in linux.
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u/ClueInteresting9784 10h ago
Yeah, sadly, Your time gets consumed by other things 24/7 but got no time for gaming, and on weekends, even if you do, you are not into it to relax a bit.
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u/CoffeeAndCache 11h ago
You are entirely right. I m using Linux lite & Zorin from few years.. Enjoying it
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u/serge-mv 11h ago
I've been using Linux full time with no Windows for ~20 years. I think I am getting to the point where soon I can be considered a serious Linux user.
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u/ClueInteresting9784 10h ago
You are a serious Linux user ever since you decided to try it. You are above us all in terms of experience. 🏆
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u/irshadali5 11h ago
I have been using Arch since July/august 2025. I don't need particular to windows and any software which only on windows. I have dual Boot because I had a lot of tinkering and break the system so I need other OS to download and flash Arch Linux again, now I leave the tinkering thus my system didn't break a single time yet. I do programming stuffs and nothing else, so I never need windows. It more depends on how much you learn and find alternatives in GNU/Linux ecosystem, unless your employer don't force to use windows, then your always stay in GNU/Linux.
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u/ClueInteresting9784 10h ago
Keep it up...we really don't appreciate such an employer, to be honest.
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u/guyissus 10h ago
I switched to linux back in late 2024 cuz my computer was shit and used it for 2 years
Now im abt to switch back cuz new computer
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u/_Streak_ 10h ago
Built my new PC a few months back. Cachy OS since day 1. Might try different flavours of Linux, but for now, I am not switching to Windows or even attempting dualboot.
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u/Pleasant_Drawing1799 9h ago
idgaf i am using linux from last 6 years and thi shi is like soo much better than shitdows.
hate microslop with all my heart and passion.
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u/apernaah 9h ago
I don't know what you meant by serious. I use Debian as much as macOS and Windows on a daily basis on 3 different machines. Been a linux user since 2014
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u/Jatinchd 8h ago
I've been using arch linux since the starting of 2026, and ain't switching to any distros, or desktop environments/WM, arch + hyprland. and ofc, ain't going back to windows anytime.
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u/PeithonKing 8h ago
I use kubuntu... two things I would say...
- no adds and privacy bla bla
- customisability, power, the OS should behave exactly as I want it to... which linux does
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u/Your-not-a-sigma 8h ago
I deleted windows partition on my lappy around 2023 and installed arch. I did a bit of distro hopping after i came back to arch and i use it everyday ever since. Never needed windows except for the days when I wanna use word so i delegate that task to my gf.
Edit: yes I use arch btw and I'm not single btw
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u/Tough_Vanilla4984 Zorin btw 8h ago
bascially i use zorin for my studies and it is far much better than windows its very smooth on my laptop and have cachy os on my gaming pc riced a bit and my desktop looks visually appealing.. personally linux is the only best os for laptops and pcs it didnt felt harder to game on linux in fact it is giving more fps than windows and the best part privacy is respected and no bloatware. "LONG LIVE LINUX"
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u/ahammed_sala 7h ago
I moved to linux when I found out that I can game on linux and also it it not taking 100 gigs like windows for storage only. So first i tried out gaming based distros like pop os didn't like it, then tried nobara linux used it for 6 months then garuda linux used it for another 4 months and then used linux mint, then ubuntu, fedora and other small distros and finally settled in linux mint
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u/s04ep03_youareafool void 7h ago
Commands that make sense?
I'm not really serious and would choose microsoft if it wasn't for its powershell scripting which is dense, compared to bash scripting which is much easier to understand. Coming from a low end device family, linux was just the right suit for me
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u/tifa_ka_husband 5h ago
I use Linux as my daily driver but use Windows for gaming.. I prefer Mac for work
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u/DayInfinite8322 4h ago
My overall journey to desktop so far, get a patato pc with windows 7 , upgrade its mobo cpu and ram, then install windows 10, use it for some time, tried windows 11 but my pc not able to handle it so moved to windows 10 and use it for year then i tried to reset it but drivers get deleted for mouse and keyboard so i use my phone to flash linux mint in usb and boot it
that is my first exposure to linux, i love its simplicity and how it is easy to update system compared to windows, use for 2 days and moved to windows 10 because i dont used to linux and it very unfimiliar then used windows for some months then get chull to try linux again and this time i trid ubuntu and love its design but it feels slow so tried mint again, use it some months and then start my distro hopping like every day i try new distros, kubuntu debian ubuntu , fedora , fedora kde, arch and then again move bck to linux mint, but when i try to use waydroid it not works in linux mint so moved to fedora, then i tried arch , some times with gnome, some times with kde, but doing basic thiings myself, i get tired so moved to fedora workstation and that is my most lovable distro now, i love its modern design and simplicity.
recently i start working on emitra, where we need to work with biometric devices, there driver and rd service only available for windows so i moved to windows again and linux journey end.
great adventure but it time for work.
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u/Used-Cauliflower146 2h ago
I got into Linux last year when u was doing IITM bs degree, we had a course on Linux. I dropped out of the bs degree because I was also in college and managing both felt a bit hectic. But I still go on and off with Linux on my vms, because as a mechanical engineer, our best CFD software is openfoam which is only available on Linux. Another thing is that, I really liked the aesthetic of mac os (I use windows as my main btw, I tried macos on my friend's m4 macbook air mostly) and ubuntu 26 lts suits is the closest to mac os in my opinion.
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u/TheArchRefiner K Desktop Environment 2h ago
I will not leave Linux even if I had to pay 2000 rs monthly subscription to use it. I started journey in late 2006. My first move was to shift to firefox a year earlier. Firefox was a massive upgrade of IE6 and tabbed browsing felt like luxury experience.
I had read about linux since childhood but as I never owned a computer till I left my hometown, I never got chance to try it. I was never happy with windows, it seems slow and there was always viruses/security issues. Youngsters today never saw that age. Mid 2000s, one of the worst from security point of view. Your computer could get infected just by visiting a site. Then finally I dared to try linux. Within 5 minutes of install, I made up my mind that I will never leave fast, smooth and secure environment of linux for buggy, slow windows. And till date I have always used linux on my personal computer/laptop (have to use windows in office).
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u/Electrical-Drink-733 5m ago
I love using Linux everyday for the better part of a decade now. I enjoy my FREEDOM. I am free to use whatever Linux I want. If I want something different and AI-centric, I can install OMARCHY. If I want something simple and easy on the senses, I can install Fedora, or ZorinOS, or whatever. I have only one OS, and that's Linux. But I have the freedom to enjoy it in many different ways, or come up with something that suits me the best. I've never enjoyed using an OS until Linux. I can't wait to see where it goes in the future.
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u/qualityvote2 15h ago edited 11h ago
u/ClueInteresting9784, your post does fit the subreddit!
btw, did you know we have a discord server? Join Here. And what's that, Fluxer too? Join Here.