[Manchunian]

I've often wondered this: how many of you have taken the decision to take Windwos off your computer and single boot in Linux? I don't mean, how many of you have got rid of Windows altogether: perhaps you, like me, have a second computer where you have a dual-boot. I mean, how many of you wiped Windows off your 'main' computer and why did you do this? I'm asking this because it would be nice to be able to throw a statistic at the newbies that come out with things like "Linux is crap" or "Why is Linux so complicated" etc. We were all new to Linux at some point, but some of us found Linux to be so much better than Windows that we were couragous enough to get rid of Windows completely.
I myself single boot. This is as much accident as anything else, but I've never been tempted to rectify it. One day I tried booting into Windows XP and it refused: aparenty a virus had damaged the boot loader. I wasn't that upset, though: I was wondering how I could get rid of Windows in such a way that my wife wouldn't get mad at me! She was initially cross, "You've got to re-install it!" but as she used Linux more and more and got used to it she pestered me less and less. Now she'll even defend Linux againt Windows in conversations where the topic pops up. Converting her has been one of the highlights of my life!

[GNU-Fan]

I had to cut down electricity costs, so I ebayed myself a thin client (+hard disc) which I work on several hours of the day.

It has neither cd-rom nor floppy drive so I didn't even know how to install Windows even if I wanted to

[bigtomrodney]

100% Linux at home since 2005. Still have to use XP at work.

[elija]

Although I have to use Windows at work, at home I am purely Linux. I like to to say that the only Windows in my house are in the walls. Where they belong

I started out as most people do by dual booting with Windows XP. When I realised that I had not used Windows in about six months I took it off my hard drive. I have never missed it.

[deltaflyer]

100% linux in my house,even my children use it on their computers. been Microsoft free for 5years now

[Freston]

Originally Posted by Manchunian

She was initially cross, "You've got to re-install it!" but as she used Linux more and more and got used to it she pestered me less and less. Now she'll even defend Linux againt Windows in conversations where the topic pops up.Converting her has been one of the highlights of my life!

Well done!



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For a long time I dual booted between Linux distro's. I had one as my workhorse, and one to try out. I kinda never had the discipline to leave my workhorse 'as is' and frequently tried out new things on that too. This led me to Virtualbox, which I feel takes away the need for dual booting. So I voted 'single boot'.

[kveldulf980]

Single booting linux since 2000, haven't had any need for Windows. At first games were rough, but these days Cedega does a pretty good job.

[MikeTbob]

I only use Linux now, that's all I've used for about 5 years now. We still have Windows XP on my wifes machine. I just got tired of the Spyware, and having to deal with AntiVirus and whatnot. I used to dual boot so I could play games but now I just find Linux games to play. As far as I am concerned Windows XP was the greatest OS ever! (It got me onto Linux)

[Manchunian]

There are still some people that claim that Windows XP wasn't bad - that it was reliable, that it had good-ish security and that it generally performed well. Bull$! I got tired of viruses, spyware and the like - I seemed to spend more time cleaning the computer rather than acually using it! That's why I agree with you, Mike, when you say:

Windows XP was the greatest OS ever! (It got me onto Linux)

[Kieren]

I got rid of Windows a few months back now because I only used it for games and I rarely used it for that. So, I figured I was wasting 20GB of space and got rid of it.

Congratulations of converting your wife After a short period of resistance my girlfriend has also switched over. She still has XP installed but uses Linux most of the time.