Why I Use Linux

Windows 7 was the last version of Windows that felt like it belonged to you. Your files were on your machine. Your settings were on your machine. The operating system did what you told it and stayed out of the way.

Everything since has been a slow drift in the other direction. Settings that sync to the cloud. Files that live in OneDrive whether you asked for that or not. An account login where a local one used to be. Each change is small and presented as a convenience. But cloud storage is not neutral infrastructure. It is a corporation’s server, subject to their terms, their data practices, and their business interests. That data can be scanned, analyzed, and used to train AI models. It can be handed to governments on request. It can be monetized in ways that are buried in terms of service that nobody reads.

Linux behaves like Windows 7 did. Your machine, your files, your settings. Your data lives on your machine and nowhere else. No Microsoft account required to log in — just a username and a password, on your machine. No telemetry running in the background reporting your activity to anyone.

It is not for everyone. But for me, it is the closest thing to what computing used to feel like before the cloud became the default assumption.