My first touch of a computer came about ten years ago at the age of 64. I stumbled upon Linux by accident when a relative advised me to try Open Office because I did not relish the idea of investing in the cost of MS Office. My amateurish Googling led me to install what I thought was Open Office but I ended up with a new operating system, Fedora and the loss of all my data.

I survived, got going again and never looked back. I subsequently migrated to Ubuntu and got to know the Gnome environment. When Unity came along I was angry and shattered, but eventually I gave it a full go and now I love it and don't want to use anything else.

Two decades ago I got tired of using an operating system in which the first things they tell you are:

-You have no rights unless we agree to them.
-You have no privacy.
-When we want you to pay us again for the above two privileges we will just slow your machine down so much you go mad. Oh and thank you for your patronage.

In other words I got fed up with being able to use my own computer only to the extent that said use complied with the greedy demands of corporate bastards.

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Completely agree with this post.
In addition, Linux allows me to customize the machine the way I want it. Not how Microsoft/Apple want it.

(1) of the open-minded, learning-hungry, passionately helpful community
(2) of desktop environments which offer opportunities to make me streamline my workflow that Windows and macOS did not (and still do not) offer
(3) it's free

Dear Jeremy, first I want to answer you that my main reason for Linux is to avoid Bill Gates and then the reasons the next guy has given. But there is a special question regarding the mentioned guy to you that I don't know where to post it. His reason was 'Knoppix'. And he is right - I made the same experience some 15 years ago. Now I wanted to install it parallel to my Linux MINT 18. I made a flash boot Knoppix DVD and put it on a stick. Then I restarted the PC and Knoppix showed up BUT it had erased everything without asking any question. That's what Windows is doing if you have another OS on your PC. Here in the little Swedish village is a guy with a small enterprise for serverparts and he could save some 1600 documents for me - but all with numbers - which I have to open one by one to see what is in it and then to save it. This guy has never heard such a thing. Other friends I asked about this strange crash said the same thing. Maybe you have heard something and maybe one should publish a warning. Beg your pardon if I addressed the wrong person. But I have VERY little knowledge about any forums because I'm a peace activist with a big blog, that takes all my energies. Best regards Einar

Originally, because I couldn't afford the MS Windows Tax.

Now I use it, & BSD, because they are much better Operating Systems, that I can use on as many machines as I like without having to pay extra for each machine.

It's more secure - if a security breach is found - it gets sorted out pretty damn quick - unlike some other O/S that tries to keep quiet about them, leaving their paid customers at risk!

Also, because of the community.

Why I use Linux? There's not only one reason.

In short I would say:
1) The philosophy of free shared knowledge.
2) Feeling safe while surfing the Web.
3) Lots of free and useful software.

I started using a IBM computer running DOS around the year 2000 out of necessity. A friend just dumped at my place that old excellent machine. I then only needed it for the word processor, and one day another friend dumped at my place a Macintosh Performa running Mac OS 8.6. I still love to use that old good Mac, but around the year 2007 it became difficult to surf the Web, and a nice guy on eBay sold a PCLinuxOS 2007 CD... In the meantime I had plenty of time to test and use different Windows versions, and I did come to understand that no system will ever give the user everything they need. All have qualities, all have flaws. In daily life now, I'm feeling good with Linux, especially with PCLinuxOS.

Concerning safety, let's still keep in mind that it is possible to configure any Linux distribution in an as unsafe way as with Windows, and Windows can be configured as to get real reasonable safety, even without antivirus... I guess that the main protection of Linux is the extended diversity of distributions, making the job of hackers, and the producing of viruses, probably much more difficult.

I tryed linux about 20 years ago. In those days linux was already a good system, but I didn't have time to make the switch. In 2005 I started the switch, becasue MS-Windows had more and more problems with virusses and trojans. In 2005 most linux distributions were fully capibel for replacing MS-Windows. At work I worded with MS-Windows servers and desktops, but also with Sun-Solaris, Suse Enterprise and later also Redhad. The Linux systems where the servers for mission critical systems. At home I never used MS-Windows again. Now I'm using Fedora, it is complete, up to date and has extensive repositories.

My reasons:

1. Operating system tailored to each computer I have, and how I use it.
2. I have some older machines. Linux keeps them alive.
3. Choice of desktop or no desktop
4. Choice of file manager, or more than one
5. Command line makes some admin tasks easier & faster

Like many people, I learned how to use a computer at work around 1990. That work computer used DOS 5 and had a "giant" 30 MB hard drive. WOW! (Around the same time my wife learned how to use a computer at our local library.) Later our company migrated to Windows, first 95, then 98, then 98 Second Edition, and finally XP. I got my very first e-mail address in 1996 (it was a Juno address). I still look at it every now and again. (I'm retired now.)

We bought our first home computer in 1999 and it had Window 98 installed. For Internet access we used NetZero (remember that one? A dial-up service, at the time it was totally free of charge and there were no limits on the amount of time you could stay connected!) A couple of years later in 2002, we bought two new computers (Acer Extensa 5620-6419) - one for me and one for my wife. These had Windows XP. (We kept the older Windows 98 machine for use when traveling.)

An acquaintance had mentioned that there was another operating system other than Windows or Mac but I didn't think about it too much until about 2007 when curiosity got the better of me. I found that I could order a Ubuntu 7.04 disc for free so I did so. But once I received it, I didn't do anything with it.

In 2005 I had ordered a new computer for myself but retained my older Windows XP machine which still worked. (That newer computer also had Windows XP but it had much more memory and was much faster.)

So in late 2007 or early 2008, I installed Ubuntu to my older Windows XP machine.

I didn't like it. I didn't understand it and I didn't know what to do with it so I 'wiped' the computer and reinstalled Windows XP.

When Ubuntu 8.04 was introduced, even though I had had a bad experience with Linux, I ordered a disc.

Later in 2008 my wife's computer died and she needed a new one. By that time Windows Vista had come out and we had heard some bad things about it but we both thought, 'How bad could it really be?" so we bought a new computer with Windows Vista installed.

At that time we had three (3) printers; one was less than a year old and the other two were about a year old.

NONE of them would work with Windows Vista. Plus there were other anomalies about Vista (I cannot remember what they were) that she detested.

So we decided to order Windows XP discs from Amazon. This was on a Friday. In the mean time, I asked her if she would like for me to install Ubuntu 8.04 to her computer temporarily, She said, "Sure" so I did so. (I 'wiped' Vista off the computer completely.)

The following Wednesday the XP disc arrived and I asked her if she wanted me to install it that day.

She replied, "Not on your life! This Linux is just GREAT! You've got to try it!"

I returned the unopened Windows disc to Amazon, I installed Ubuntu 8.04 to my newer computer, and we've never looked back. (Our three printers were all recognized immediately by Ubuntu.)

We have purchased quite a number of computers over subsequent years and all were either converted to one of the GNU/Linux distributions or came originally with Linux pre-installed.

My wife now uses Manjaro Linux on her computer and I use GeckoLinux (openSUSE) on mine. I also use MX Linux on older computers and I'm going to try it soon on a newer one (MX Linux is a really good Debian-based distribution; in addition to being very easy and straightforward to use, it even comes with a complete owner's manual which can be printed if you want to do so - I did.)

We do own one Windows computer (Windows 10) because I need a Windows computer to update our Garmin GPSes. I have not found a reliable way to use the Garmin Express updating program within any GNU/Linux distribution.

But that's the ONLY thing for which I use Windows.

We have tried quite a number of GNU/Linux distributions and the ones we like best are Manjaro, GeckoLinux, and MX Linux.

We have also helped some friends migrate away from Windows.

By the way, I must mention that one of those now 15-year-old(!) 2002 Acer Extensa computers is STILL in use in our house, running the antiX-16 operating system (a nice little GNU/Linux OS which is ideal for REALLY old computers). "Slower than molasses," this Acer is useful for playing Internet Radio stations. With an early Intel Pentium processor and 512 MB of RAM, there isn't much else for which it can be used but at least we didn't have to throw it out! I hate discarding anything which still has some capability and is in perfect physical shape. (And using this has negated any need for buying an "Internet Radio!" I have a nice pair of computer speakers attached to it and I could even attach it to and play music through my stereo system if I so desired.)

Linux has come to the rescue for these older but still functional computers.

Of course the fact that most of the OSes are free of charge as are the thousands of wonderful programs available is really icing on the cake - as is the security, stability, and speed of the systems which, in the computer world, is matchless, at least in my opinion.

I apologize for the length of this post but I hope that some people may have found it to be interesting.

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I use Linux because I am a long time Unix fan. Was using Unix at a Berkeley source licenced site at the University of Toronto way back in 1984 or so. I used Unix in one form or another in all my jobs since. Now of course, basically no one uses Unix proper anymore, it's Linux now, which is just fine by me!

I love the simple design philosophy of *nix - I find using a command line interface to be very efficient for tons of tasks I do - and DOS sucks, so I never adopted it for my own use. I was *very* grateful when Linux first hit the scene.

Why use Open source? The question might be better asked "Why not?" Of which there is no good answer. Furthermore, if you like something - use it - if not don't.

Cheers!
J

For pretty much any computing need. Web use, word processing, media server, for work, for home use. all of the above.

Linux let me tailor my PC so it operate exactly as I see fit.

There are many desktop environments available.

Linux can run on a lot of hardware, old or new, including ARMS like RaspberryPI, and others.

Almost never bomb in the middle of a work session.

Linux has a hell of a long list of tools for the system, the network and others.

There are distributions of Linux specially assembled for specific activities, like music, genetics, astronomy, physics, chemistry, young children, radio amateur, medicine, multimedia, etc.

When I get a update notification, the whole of the software is potentially updated.

I don't know if the question is not properly formulated or I need to revisit my english. I understand the reasons (it's free, open, etc) are not the tasks you can do with it (listen music, video, etc).

Probably I need some more English classes, hehe.

Anyway, I use Linux because is open and free.

1. I have a computer to do a job, the OS doesn't matter, it's the application
2. security