Why Linux Often Wins Over Windows: Speed, Customization, and Control

Every time my tower PC’s boot menu flashes up those two familiar choices—Windows 11 or (insert latest quirky Linux distribution here)—I know which one I’m picking. The world’s most popular desktop operating system, with its splashy tiles and incessant notifications, gets a sullen side-eye. My mouse always seems magnetized to the Tux-branded “Linux” option. And after years of this digital dichotomy, I’m here to unpack—sometimes lovingly, sometimes exasperatedly—why the penguin wins almost every showdown.

Dual-Booting: A Necessary (and Occasionally Chaotic) Arrangement​

Let’s start with the why behind my dual-booting existence. I’m not just a serial OS flirt; I have obligations! As a tech journalist and troublemaker, I have to keep at least one virtual foot in Microsoft’s garden of widgets, updates, and AI-fueled ambiguity. Testing Windows software is part of my gig, and sometimes when a cryptic Pandora’s box opens under Linux, it’s useful to see if my problem roosts in Redmond as well.
But let’s be clear: I don’t suggest you rush to slap Linux and Windows on a single SSD. That’s like inviting two divorced parents to live in a studio apartment—they’ll survive, but dinner is going to get weird. Dual-booting is safer and saner with two physically separate drives, each OS sequestered to its own digital domain, reducing the odds of GRUB-induced migraines. Yes, this arrangement is a little more costly, but so are aspirin and therapy.

Logging Into Windows: Like Visiting a Crowded Mall​

Every so often, professional duty calls for the Big Switch. So I select Windows 11 at boot. Immediately, my PC is transformed into what I imagine is a dystopian airport lounge. It greets me with a lock screen so carefully curated—from ads to world trivia—it feels like someone’s idea of fun, not mine. The login isn’t a portal to my workspace; it’s an obstacle course. Dig through reminders about Microsoft 365 (no, I don’t want another subscription), swipe away pop-ups from bloatware I didn’t install (I swear, Lenovo, I’ve never even used your photo printer utility), and roll my eyes at a news widget hawking updates about celebrities I couldn’t pick out of a crowd.
The Start menu search box, which should be your digital butler, prefers to offer me Bing search results—news from the web, not files on my disk. The weather app’s best attempt to impress me is genuinely redundant. I have a window. It shows the weather. Miraculous.

The Copilot Conundrum​

Let’s dwell for a hot second on Copilot. Across my taskbar, hiding in the depths of the Start menu, lurking in Edge—all I see is yet another “AI assistant,” desperate to declare my PDFs “summarized” or my todo list “optimized.” The reality? Copilot is about as helpful as a parrot reciting the dictionary. I didn’t ask for it, and while I’m sure somewhere, someone loves this integration, I can’t help but feel my machine’s personality is being hijacked by corporate whim.
Could I turn it all off? Yes, but only if I dedicate a Sunday afternoon to spelunking through hidden settings and registry tweaks. Inevitably, come the next major update or system reset, it’ll all be back—like a persistent ex who still has your Netflix password.

Linux: No Ads, No Subscriptions, Just Me and My Machine​

Contrast that with Linux, where—regardless of distro—nobody assumes I want to rent office software, get news alerts, or chit-chat with chatbots. The start page feels purpose-built for humans who want to use a computer for, well, computing. Gone are the intrusive ads. Gone is the endless parade of “just try this one more Microsoft service.” What remains? A setup that feels like my desk, not a train station billboard.

Speed, Sweet Speed​

Linux doesn’t just look cleaner; it sprints. I’ll concede that part of Windows’ laggy reputation owes to my prolonged absence—like an attention-starved pet, it spends my first 10 minutes back home pestering me with updates. But even after the patching dust settles, it never quite purrs like Linux does.
Linux’s boot sequence is all business. Whatever you tell it to launch? That launches. Nothing more, nothing less. There’s no surprise “we’re updating your driver” or “wait, a new version of Cortana wants to say hi.” Updates in Linux come when I schedule them, not in some background dot-release marathon.
The desktop environments—be it GNOME, KDE Plasma, or some pixel-art marvel—feel responsive. RAM is respected, not hoarded by orphaned .NET updaters or mysterious “background tasks.” The result: I’m working or gaming within seconds.

Gaming on Linux: No Longer a Hardware Joke​

Ah yes, the perennial “but what about gaming?” hand-wringer. A decade ago, Linux was where games went to die, and Steam for Linux was more meme than marketplace. Not anymore. Thanks to Proton (part genius, part magic, arguably the best thing Valve’s done that doesn’t involve hats), most of my library “just works.” The few stragglers—multiplayer blockbusters with draconian anticheat—are dwindling. Case in point: after years of being Windows-exclusive, games like Hell Let Loose have finally crossed over, their developers making anticheat work on Linux. On ProtonDB, that’s a “Gold” rating—one step shy of perfection.
The landscape isn’t perfect. Some titles—particularly those with proprietary launchers, custom DRM, or niche anticheat—still sulk in the Windows basement. But with tools like Lutris and Heroic, the Epic Games Store and GOG collections are no longer off-limits, either. For anything else, a VM or cloud gaming bridges the gap.
Point is, unless you’re a pro gamer angling for tournament glory or deeply embedded with a single AAA title, Linux covers the majority of gaming bases.

Software Parity: The Gap Is Smaller Than You Think​

Of course, one of Windows’ enduring strong suits is its library breadth. Want to run the latest, most obscure piece of desktop software? Odds are, it only exists on Windows. That’s irrefutably true for some professional domains—3D animation, music production, and traditional graphic design often require Adobe, Autodesk, Avid, or other industry titans who don’t port to Linux.
Me? My needs are, let’s say, humbler. Office tasks are a breeze—LibreOffice covers my manuscripts and spreadsheets, Okular wrangles all my PDFs, and the combination of GIMP and Gwenview ticks every image-editing box I care about. I won’t pretend GIMP is Photoshop’s equal or that LibreOffice never mangles an especially baroque PowerPoint, but for 95% of human beings, the differences are rounding errors.
Wine exists for the stubborn remainder: older Windows software, quirky games, and end-of-life apps. Yes, it’s a rabbit hole at times (and yes, you’ll consult more GitHub issues than you’d prefer), but it’s another arrow in Linux’s quiver.

Customization and Control: A Geek’s Paradise​

Here’s where Linux pulls ahead for power users and tinkerers. Customization isn’t a feature you pay for; it’s a baseline. Windows offers themes, sure, but Linux makes “your computer, your rules” the central ethos. Taskbars go where you want, window managers can channel the ‘90s or 2090, and automation is a few shell scripts away. Tired of a traditional desktop? Try tiling. Curious about something that looks like the Starship Enterprise’s console? There’s probably a distro for that.
Control extends to privacy. Where Windows gently (or not-so-gently) nudges telemetry and wants your online ID at every turn, Linux lets you pick your battles. Anonymous usage stats? Opt-in. Integration with account services? Optional. Bloat? Only if you install it.

Updates: Yours to Command​

Windows users know the ritual: you sit down for a “quick project,” and within five minutes you’re held hostage by forced updates. Linux, meanwhile, updates when I say so. Want rolling releases? Get your bleeding edge on with Arch or openSUSE Tumbleweed. Prefer stability? LTS releases cater to your inner risk-averse accountant. Security patches land promptly. If something breaks, the software’s maintainers, not a faceless megacorp, usually fix it—and sometimes with community help.

Hardware Support: The (Former) Achilles’ Heel​

A decade ago, suggesting Linux to laptop owners was like recommending a blimp as a daily commuter: theoretically viable, practically laughable. Drivers lacked polish. Wi-Fi, graphics, printers—all were dicey. But today? Linux hardware support is genuinely impressive. AMD and Intel drivers are first-class citizens. NVIDIA is finally warming up to open-source, even if it’s begrudgingly. Plug-and-play peripherals? Increasingly plug-and-play. Is it perfect? Not quite. Sometimes you still need to fiddle, especially with bleeding-edge hardware, but the “weekend lost in a terminal” narrative is fading.

Why Not Just Use a Mac?​

Let’s address the apple in the room. MacOS is slick, secure, and—if you love the aesthetic and tolerate the walled garden—makes for a formidable desktop. But where MacOS is elegant, it’s also stifling. Customization is limited to what Apple deems beautiful. Gaming is an afterthought. The entry price for modern Apple hardware could finance four Linux-friendly laptops (or a really gnarly server rack).

The Joy of Discovery​

There’s a particular thrill to using Linux that has yet to evaporate, no matter how many years I spend in its ecosystem. Every distro—yes, even the ones that self-destruct more often than not—offers a new perspective. Whether it’s minimalist Arch, user-friendly Ubuntu, nostalgic MATE, or hyper-modern Fedora, each one feels like a test kitchen. The documentation is often passionate, sometimes bewildering, and always honest. You are not just a consumer of an OS but a semi-active participant in its evolution.

Community Is (Usually) Good for Your Soul​

Can we talk about the Linux community? Sure, sometimes forums devolve into esoteric flamewars over choice of init system or text editor. But for every hostile comment thread, there are five Redditors, Discord groups, or Mastodon accounts genuinely eager to help. Where Microsoft’s support is faceless and labyrinthine, Linux’s is peer-driven and earnest.
Documentation? Endless. Tutorials? Explode on YouTube. Forums? Busy as ever. If you’re lost, someone’s probably already gotten lost in the same forest and mapped an escape route.

What’s Left for Windows?​

Am I saying you should dump Windows off your hard drive forever? Absolutely not. Some workflows, apps, and games simply run best (or only) in that environment. If you edit in Adobe-land, compose in Pro Tools, or wrangle spreadsheets for a living, Windows is hard to abandon. It’s the lingua franca of desktop computing, and some industries treat it as law.
But should you try Linux—even just for curiosity’s sake? If you’re tired of feeling like a guest in your own digital home, Linux makes you the landlord. If you value speed, privacy, and customization, the penguin’s waiting with open wings.

Closing Reboot: The Choice Is Yours​

Dual-booting is messy, imperfect, and—yes—occasionally infuriating. But it’s also liberating. My years of picking Linux almost every time have only sharpened that appreciation. I'd rather troubleshoot GRUB than navigate the morass of subscriptions, forced updates, and digital handholding that characterizes Windows 11.
For every person who installs Linux, there’s a unique revelation that the computer can be—once again—a personal computer. Your files, your rules, your rhythm. For me, that's the real joy. For you? Boot up, and see for yourself.

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Source: How-To Geek Why I Dual-Boot But Choose Linux Over Windows Almost Every Time