@frank609Sep 8, 2025

My switch to #Linux for home use is now 100% complete!

I have two high-end computers, a desktop and a laptop, purchased in 2017 and 2018, than will not run Windows 11. To replace these two computers with new ones of comparable power would run close to $3000. Between the cost, Windows Recall (which I consider a major privacy risk and potential security risk), and the fact that the subscription prices for both Office 365 and Quicken have doubled over the past few years, I decided to bite the bullet and switch everything to Linux.

I first ran Linux in 2000, and recently had been using it for about a third of my tasks. I installed MX Linux onto an SSD drive with USB adapter and began booting to it on my desktop a month ago. I moved all my finances to GNUCash, all my OneNote files to Zim, and after a few weeks with no issues installed the HD into my desktop. Laptop is dual boot and I was already running Linux the majority of the time on it.

I cancelled my Office 365 and Quicken subscriptions.

Show threadAdventureTense
@frank609 Nice job. Cathartic feeling isn't it?
Sep 8, 2025 at 8:26pmWeb
Show thread@frank609Sep 9, 2025
@adventure_tense Yes. I mean, Microsoft has done good things in the past, and much of my software development career was using Microsoft products such as Visual Basic, ASP.NET, etc. I also used Unix back in the day, so Linux was natural for me as well and I had been using it for some things (home server for example) for many years Earlier this year I was planning to buy new PCs and go with Windows 11, but I kept reading about Windows Recall. The nearly doubling in price for Office 365 and Quicken and the inflating cost of PCs further reinforced my desire to leave Windows. It was not so much a matter of affording it, but the principle of it.
Show threadAdventureTenseSep 9, 2025

@frank609 Sadly, they aren't the same companies we grew up with. The founders and visionaries are all mostly retired/died out. The voting stockholders run them all now. So the tail is wagging the dog.

Instead of innovating to solve their customers problems, they are just working on ways to exploit or suppress their customers to make new revenue streams.

Just a single thought on an otherwise complicated topic. You may or may not agree with it. That's okay too.