I don’t know why so many companies decide to use Windows these days when there’s Unix/Linux But it seems like a lot of companies still choose to use Windows over anything else. It runs like crap, and the latest version, Windows 11, is shockingly bad. There are so many frustrating things that come standard with Windows 11 that have no place in a business context. For example, Microsoft shopping. This comes loaded on your Windows 11 browser, edge. I couldn’t find a way to turn it off, so it’s just there. Why in the world would I need that on my work computer? Also, Microsoft start news or MSN is heavily embedded into the edge browser. Lots of trackers and personalization features which again, should not be included in a business computer. It tracks every website I go to, recommends ads and personalizations to me, I can’t download any other browser because this is the standard one that comes on the computer
The operating system itself is also incredibly frustrating. There’s a context menu when you right click things that you cannot get rid of because your company sets policy, and now you have to have a stupid show more options menu every time you click something, so try and imagine a few hundred to a few thousand clicks a day having to navigate with that, very frustrating. Also, Windows start menu search. You can disable it on a personal PC but on a business computer without admin rights, You can’t disable the start menu web search. So it searches the web anytime you type anything in and makes it extremely difficult to find your files… Everything requires a workaround. Turning off copilot, turning off context menu, turning off web search, turning off user account control which is not possible on business PC but on personal PC it is, still really frustrating though. Turning off copilot, turning off Cortana, getting rid of the search box on your taskbar.
Like, I don’t know why any serious company would use Windows with this in mind
Linux hasn’t been that way for a few decades now. You can definitely get that “terminal exclusive” experience if you want, but it has been made so much easier in the last 20 years with most distros being as easy to use as Windows with a mouse + keyboard UI experience being the way you can do just about anything. The only times I’ve absolutely needed to use a terminal were for very special circumstances like a specific setting I wanted or back in the day when I needed to update an app, but even that is now taken care of in the UI with various distros using app marketplaces.
The true most complicated part has been the setup, but even that has been made more user friendly in the last 7 years. Though I have yet to see anyone make it as easy as Microsoft does to get a ISO of Windows onto a USB with one application, so I will give Microsoft that as the upper hand. Though this wouldn’t even be an issue if consumers had Linux ready machines in stores like you can for Windows and macOS.
Guarantee, if you put a Windows theme on a Linux distro or just use something like Zorin OS and give it to someone with little to no tech savviness, they will think it is Windows and use it in the same way and may not ever truly notice. And with websites now (past 5-10 years) detecting your OS, even going to websites to download a specific app will sometimes default to the Linux option. Microsoft Windows having an app store is what macOS and Linux have been doing for even longer.
The availability of apps/applications that users are used to using is the second biggest challenge most average users would face, but there are tons of alternatives to choose from in most cases, with some being better (better UI choices, little to no tracking, longer update support) and/or free.