this post was submitted on 19 Feb 2026
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Linux
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Linux is a family of open source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991 by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically packaged in a Linux distribution (or distro for short).
Distributions include the Linux kernel and supporting system software and libraries, many of which are provided by the GNU Project. Many Linux distributions use the word "Linux" in their name, but the Free Software Foundation uses the name GNU/Linux to emphasize the importance of GNU software, causing some controversy.
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Linux in its modern form is a day to learn and a lifetime to master, which is a huge step up from where it was a bit more than a decade ago. Even then, it's still miles better than windows. Microsoft would copyright a hammer and nails if it could.
For Microslop to make something that doesn't blow, they'd need to make a fan. (I've heard "doesn't suck - vacuum cleaner" a zillion times, I hope mine's more original.) (They really would make a fan that doesn't blow and a vacuum cleaner that doesn't suck, because nothing Microslop makes ever works.)
Linux may suck some of the time, but Winblows... well, blows, all the time.
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😂 Yours is certainly more original!
That's the thing about Linux: If you learn windows thoroughly you've set yourself up to be a corporate slave, but if you learn Linux you liberate yourself and others.
Indeed. There's a stereotype that commies use Linux for a reason. (Which causes a lot of trouble in the broad political tent that the FOSS world inherently is, but your average not that technical anti-communist nut job doesn't know about it. My dad would question my brother three times about his potential interest in this stuff before he'd think to ask the Stalinist who obviously only has a little stuffed penguin on her purse zipper because they don't make teddy bears that size.) I'd like to say I got into it initially as a political protest action, or that I was fed up with Winblows and its privacy and security issues, and those things are true, I even got distro recommendations from a commie site a lot like this place, in a political community rather than a technology one, but honestly, I'd gotten hyperfixated on Linux and I had to mess around with a few distros myself to satiate it, and if you've known a few neurodivergent people, you know that some kinds of hyperfixations just get worse when you try to just ignore it and do nothing about it.
And then the mystery and hyperfixation was gone, but I still like Linux better than Winblows. It's just a better choice for me. It's an opsec decision that costs me nothing and a political protest against corporate monopoly that I enjoy and doesn't feel like Complicated Party Work or something out of Lenin's pamphlets, it's just making a choice I'd prefer anyway. Sometimes I really like the "it's about FREEDOM!" attitude that comes from the commies and the right-libertarians who use it equally, sometimes that feels like you people are all ten years old in a bad way, but I get it and it's neat. Plus, I get a genuinely more pleasant computer experience out of it. More personal benefit than I get out of most things I do for political reasons or nebulous "freedom".
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Omg that sounds adorable! 😍🐧
I think the freedom aspect is about framing. Rightists often speak in terms of 'freedom of' (as some vague general principle), whereas leftists often speak in terms of 'freedom/liberation from'. Technologists of all stripes often speak in terms of 'freedom to', so in that way Linux is a bit of a 'freedom Rorschach' 😂. Personally I prefer if rightists stick to their windows hidey-hole but I'll gladly take their labor for Linux 😈.
For my part Win 10's EOL and attempted force to 11 was a bit of a "straw that broke the camel's back" moment, as I'd mostly used Linux for experiments and learning before that but hadn't realized how user friendly it got. In a weird way I'm grateful to Microsoft for forcing my hand to full-time Linux because my learning ramped up significantly and now I don't feel likely to ever return to windows 🙃, and can also wholeheartedly recommend Linux to everyone! 😄
It is. It's really cute. I have to admit, a little fluffy thing to pet and squish that's always on hand does serve a good sensory purpose. I initially just got it because I wanted a bigger and easier to grab zipper pull and penguins are cute and iykyk, but it's actually useful, not just cute and a community in-joke.
Yeah, that does track. Honestly, that's just any broad community centered around a thing that respects user freedom more than other available options, you're gonna get the far left and the far right involved. You just see it more with Linux because there's so many people involved that the politically extreme groups seem larger. But that's the price of freedom and liberation. If we can use a thing like that, then there's also going to be annoying right-libertarians who use it for political reasons.
For me, I had never used or even heard of Linux before the combined political pressure, hyperfixation sparked when I found out it was a thing, and just general dissatisfaction with Windows after so many consecutive duds and stinkers, made me try it just to say I'd used it once, and then I just didn't see a reason to stop using it.
And tbh if Windows 10 had been good, not just less bad than 8, and if 11 hadn't been a third stinker in a row, maybe I wouldn't have been so willing to try something new. So I guess I also have Microslop to thank for this.