I’ve lived in Windows land my whole life, and every so often, I catch myself wondering if I should finally try Linux. But then, without fail, I remember why I haven’t taken the plunge.
6
The Terminal Worship Problem
I do not think Linux is bad. My bane is, well, the Linux scene—the culture and the way it’s presented to people like me who are considering jumping over to it. If you really want people to move to Linux, maybe stop leading with “you can do everything in the terminal!” That sounds fine enough, but also… why would I want to?
Buttons have spoiled me. I click; stuff happens. That’s my relationship with computers. Meanwhile, a lot of Linux talk online essentially says, “Just paste this command into your terminal, and you’re good to go.” From the sidelines, it feels that if you’re not comfortable typing mysterious strings of text into a black box, you’re already disqualified. No one says this outright (well, actually, some do), but it’s often implied.
However, I now understand that there are good modern-day Linux distributions (like Linux Mint, Zorin OS, and elementary OS) that are super user-friendly. You get system apps with full graphical interfaces, the same way you do on macOS or Windows. In fact, you could avoid the terminal entirely and still get through all your day-to-day work and system maintenance without breaking a sweat.
But that’s not the version of Linux that gets talked about the most. The loudest voices still treat the terminal like a sacred rite of passage, and if you skip it, you’re apparently missing the “real” Linux experience.
5
I Don’t Want to Be a Sysadmin
I don’t want to be my own IT department. I’m not trying to earn a merit badge in package management. Most people, including me, just want to open their browser, install apps, listen to music, do work, and watch videos.
Now, I know that Linux can do all that just fine—and, maybe in many cases, more efficiently than Windows. But from the outside looking in, the on-ramp still looks like step one: learn an entirely new way of installing software.
With Linux, there’s often this perception that you have to pick from five different installation methods, learn which package format your distro uses, and maybe even consult a community thread from a decade ago to fix a missing dependency. Whether that perception is accurate almost doesn’t matter, because that’s the vibe I get.
4
The Elitist Attitude Turns Me Off
Allow me to sound a little harsh here, but some Linux users have the worst case of tech smugness I’ve ever seen. I’ll be browsing a forum where some newcomer says, “Hey, is there a way to install this without the terminal?” and the top comment will be some variation of “If you can’t use the terminal, maybe Linux isn’t for you.”
That’s not encouragement; that’s gatekeeping. And it works! It successfully keeps people like me at the gate. To be fair, plenty of Linux communities are welcoming and patient. I’ve seen Ubuntu, Mint, and Pop!_OS users go above and beyond to help total beginners. But there’s always that loud minority who act like you’re not a real Linux user unless you start with Arch and compile your kernel from scratch while balancing on one leg.
3
Time Is a Big Factor
Even if Linux were the friendliest, most welcoming operating system on the planet, there’s still the fact that switching takes time.
I’ve spent my whole life learning Windows—where the settings are, how to install programs, how to fix small problems, and much more. I can navigate it half-asleep. Switching to Linux would mean relearning everything from scratch. And while I’m sure that knowledge would be useful, I’ve got better ways to spend my time right now.
Yes, Linux might save me time in the long run. Yes, I might actually enjoy learning it. But when you’re comfortable in your current workflow, time investment sounds less like a fun challenge and more like a weekend project that ends up eating six weekends.
2
Linux Doesn’t Always Have Official Software Support
Another issue that makes me hesitate is that the software I use isn’t officially available for Linux. Admittedly, there are alternatives, and I know Linux people often say that you can run the Windows version through Wine, or an open-source equivalent is better. But I’m sorry; I don’t want a “kind of works if you tinker with it” solution. I want the actual, official app, supported by the people who make it, with updates that don’t break everything.
To be fair, this is slowly changing. Big names like Steam, Blender, and even some Adobe competitors run beautifully on Linux now. But for every success story, there are still a handful of programs where you’re digging through GitHub issues at midnight because a minor update borked the installer.
1
So I’ll Still Be Watching From the Sidelines
So here I am, still on the Windows side of the fence. I watch the Linux crowd from afar like someone admiring a cool club they’ll never join—not because they can’t, but because the entry process is so unnecessarily intimidating.
I see the beautiful desktop setups, the endless customization, and the speed. I believe all the stories about how stable and secure it is. And I genuinely think it’s amazing that people can have that level of control over their systems.
But I also see the unspoken assumption that you should want to learn the “proper” way to use it. And for me, that’s not the kind of relationship I want with my computer.
Maybe one day, Linux will be pitched in a way that says I should click through a few buttons and I’m done; where there are no initiation rituals, no cryptic commands, and absolutely no side-eye if I decide I won’t even glance at the terminal.
When that day comes, I’ll probably be first in line. Until then, I’ll keep watching, admiring, and double-clicking my way through life.
