The Year of Linux?

Or, Windows Very Public & Embarrassing Implosion

I’ve been a Windows user since I was a kid in the 90s. Our very first family computer was a DOS based machine that used 5.5" floppies, but the one I remember best was our Gateway machine that came with Windows 95.

I spent more hours on that PC than I could ever hope to count. The web seemed like magic, and I would dive into the source code of cool sites and rip them apart to rebuild on my Geocities or Angelfire sites. My grandpa would tinker with radios when he was growing up, but I grew up tinkering with websites.

I dunno why the box was cow spotted, but I love it.

That’s all to say I’ve been in Microsoft’s ecosystem for 30 years. I’ve seen them release nine different OS versions, fumble the Zune and Xbox brands, and completely fall on their face with Windows Phone.

But 2025 might be the worst year I’ve ever seen from them.

They shoved Copilot into every corner of their operating system, including Notepad of all places. Their announcement of Windows Recall was so poorly received they decided to hold off on releasing it (for now). And they’ve made it impossible to setup Windows 11 without using OneDrive and linking a Microsoft Online account… so, while it may not be the year of Linux, it’s definitely been the year of Microsoft blowing their own feet off; then reloading and shooting their shins just for good measure.

So, I finally jumped ship.

This weekend I set aside time to move my important files to Proton Drive, nuke my Windows install, and setup Bazzite with the GNOME desktop environment. And I couldn’t be happier! The setup was fast and easy and Bazzite comes with pretty much everything I needed in terms of extensions and drivers. I was back on Steam playing my Windows games via Proton & Vulkan in no time, and they look and run even better than before.

But that’s just the tip of the iceberg! There is a lot of awesome stuff coming to the Linux world right now / soon and I wanted to highlight some of it for anyone interested in joining us in the ex-MSFT world…

• There’s a new “app store” called Bazaar that is really nice looking, super easy to use, and helps you get things setup without touching Terminal. That may sound antithetical to the Linux world you’re used to, but if you’re gonna be shelter for Windows refugees, it’s pretty essential to give them other ways to get Flatpak programs installed. And this is a pretty dang good one.

• System76 is finally getting their new “Cosmic” desktop environment out of Alpha and into a stable Beta! The big change is it’s built on a modern programming language (Rust) and sets Linux up to have a super speedy, future-proofed desktop environment for the long-term. You can try it out on their own Pop!OS or grab a Fedora spin that includes it. I put both on live USB sticks and had a blast playing around with them this week.

• NVIDIA has finally looked in Linux’s direction and started to get with the program (at least in terms of some recent drivers). It’s not gonna solve the gap between them and AMD overnight, but to have the biggest GPU-maker finally give Linux some attention instead of leaving it up to the community is a big big deal.

• And, you can’t talk about Linux without mentioning how much work Steam has put into making the platform a viable gaming destination. Their own SteamOS is powering the Deck and upcoming Machines + Frames, but their work on Proton means every distro benefits from what they’re doing. And it’s not just Steam, but other game launchers like Heroic and Lutris too… that means Epic Games, Prime Gaming, GOG, and anything you want to install from elsewhere will just work.

Steam Frame, Deck, Machine, and Controller.

None of this is breaking news or all that original, but I wanted to write something up because Microsoft expects us to just deal with their shitty behavior and allow them to make our computers worse year after year… and we don’t have to take it. Linux is (finally) ready for the spotlight, it’s ready for gamers, and it even works well on handhelds like the ROG Ally.

And if you’re worried about missing all the other services, you can move your files to Proton Drive, Nextcloud, or Dropbox instead of accepting that OneDrive is along for the ride no matter what. You can use Libre Office instead of the bloated and AI-ridden Microsoft 365. Thunderbird is a better email client than Outlook could ever hope to be. And for creatives, there’s Inkscape, GNU IMP, and PhotoPea if you want to get out of Adobe’s death grip.

So load up a USB stick with a live boot of a distro you’re interested in, restart your computer, and see how you like it. And if you’re not happy, download the next one and keep trying until you’re happy.

We’ve got options. Don’t let them convince you otherwise.