this post was submitted on 16 Jan 2026
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If you really want to freak Microsoft out, switch to Linux. Nothing terrifies them more than the moment you decide to leave.
This weekend. I’ve asked my significant other to check through and backup any files she may need but we’re switching off Microslops ecosystem this coming week. Got it down to Ubuntu or Mint for an ease of use while not jumping in the hole too deep. But we are in agreement at least to turn away.
:: EDIT 17/01/2026 ::
Thanks Everyone. We went with Mint Cinnamon Distro. The hardest part being how to get into the BIOS and turn on the USB boot. Everything that was installed windows wise is now installed mint wise and got the other halfs’ bookmarks up and running in a browser for her (Vivaldi if anyone’s interested). VPNs up and working and so far so good. Didn’t get spammed to death with subscriptions windows which is a major plus.
Mint is good. Avoid Ubuntu; snaps just make your life hard. You don't need to know what those are, and if you avoid Ubuntu you never will need to know.
Damnit I just switched to Ubuntu. That explains why I kept getting lost. What about Debian?
Debian and Mint are both good. The former is aimed at servers and the latter is aimed at desktop use. They are otherwise very similar under the hood.
Anything specific I could help out with?
Hmm, okay. Yeah I was trying to set up an environment to dabble with machine vision and had trouble finding good instructions or guidance for programming env setup. I think in college we used something-Unix but it's been so long I don't really have a frame of reference anymore. So I'm looking for a low-overhead daily driver that's also relatively common or amenable to maker communities
If that makes sense.
Hmmm, now that is not something I'm qualified to answer. Hopefully someone else speaks up.
No worries, it's all part of the experience
If you install Ubuntu already your fine.
Personally I don't want to spend time working on my computer (that's work me), so I use mint. Just about any flavor of Linux can have a basic development env configuration done.
Cool thanks, I'll stick with it! At least until I'm familiar and want to try something new
What did you use before? You might be able to use many of the same things, or find open-source alternatives that work the same.
Well I just dumped windows and MS office. For machine vision I'm only dabbling with openCV, so that's already open source. The switch to libre office has been pretty nice though