Yep. I’ve already decided when my Win7 PC’s no longer work for some reason or another; it’s time for Linux. I played with it years ago and it wasn’t bad at all back then but I just liked windoze better; plus I was a PC tech so 99% of what I worked on was windows.
It’s probably just a matter of time before an entirely different business model is developed that sells a laptop or for those few dinosaurs like me, a PC, will make it optional which Linux OS the customer wants and even pre-installs the correct drivers for whatever printer, scanner, etc. a person might have. They will be cheaper, faster, and more secure too. Kinda like what Chromebook is right now but I’m not a fan of Chromebook for no particular reason.
A pay VPN service is now a must IMHO.
“It’s probably just a matter of time before an entirely different business model is developed that sells a laptop or for those few dinosaurs like me, a PC, will make it optional which Linux OS the customer wants and even pre-installs the correct drivers for whatever printer, scanner, etc. a person might have. They will be cheaper, faster, and more secure too. Kinda like what Chromebook is right now but I’m not a fan of Chromebook for no particular reason.”
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If you stay with the most popular Linux distros, such as Mint & the official Ubuntu family, drivers are rarely a problem. Also, many already come with “Wine” installed, so you can run Windows programs (or at least quite a few Win programs). I could like Chromebook if it weren’t so Google-dependent.
“A pay VPN service is now a must IMHO.”
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For ultimate privacy using Linux, “Tails” would be the way to go. But it’s not great as a Windows or Linux substitute that is meant for all-around usage. Tails runs from a disk or a USB stick only. I suppose it could be installed on a machine, but that would defeat it’s purpose.
https://distrowatch.com/table.php?distribution=tails
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tails_(operating_system)
Almost exactly the same experience here. My latest Winblows is 7 (which I really like BTW), but I've seen Microshaft's attitude degenerating, so for several year's I've foreseen a time coming eventually when I'd no longer be willing to buy MS stuff. So, not really being interested in Mac, I've attempted to try out Linux several times, but always found the learning curve like more of a wall I couldn't penetrate. A couple years ago was different. It's interesting how it happened. Mint 17 was Windowsy enough that I could actually navigate it a little bit, which in turn resulted in me learning a little Linux, enough to now be able to find my way around Ubuntu and so on.** Meanwhile, Microsnot continues it's slide into treating the user as the product, so I see the deadline approaching. So while Windows is getting worse, Linux has passed the critical threshold (where it is for me, anyway), so I'm with you. No more Windows after 7. Then it'll be Linux with any Windows stuff under Wine or in VMs.
**This shows the error in Linux-heads who don't like Mint and think it's fake Linux, because it actually left me with a workable knowledge of Linux that I would never have got with the "pure" distros.