Why Linux

Serious question: aside from privacy, why would I want to use Linux as my daily driver over Windows? Also, what's the best distro to use and why isn't it Ubuntu?

arch because the wiki

>why would I want to use Linux as my daily driver over Windows?
You wouldn't perhaps, but I do.

>Also, what's the best distro to use and why isn't it Ubuntu?
Ubuntu is more than fine, don't listen to the trolls on Sup Forums. I've been using Ubuntu since 2006.

it just functions

Debian. It's stable (unlike Arch) and has all of the software you'll probably need. If you find that it's lacking, you'll be able to ask the friendly community about how to set up a VM for Windows or OS X. Debian is also very fast and secure.

Customization. Not joking. You can customize almost everything. Once you have a nice setup, just write a script with your changes and copy your config files to github, and youre done for years.

>Also, what's the best distro to use and why isn't it Ubuntu?

I have no idea why it would not be Ubuntu. Ubuntu is perfectly fine and will be a painless experience.

You know that webcam you have covered up with tape? You don't have to cover that when using Linux.

Oh and your computer will also be faster.

I don't like how Canonnical is handling things lately, and there are plenty distros to chose from.

>Privacy
Man, Windows has gotten bad, hasn't it?

When I switched to Linux, privacy wasn't even a consideration.

I know it's a bit subtle, but really look into Microsoft's practices and how much they hold back the computing industry (and therefore the world) via their unethical business models, their proprietary standards, their shitty security and such. After that, think to yourself, 'Do I really want to be paying for Satya Nadella's yacht?'

The thing is, I already used Windows 10 for so long that my privacy doesn't even matter anymore because they already have more than enough on me.

Not to mention illegal (but often ignored) data collection by the government, and probably google, and definitely facebook.

Because it's overall a better operating system set. Try Fedora. It's what I started with and it's what I keep coming back to. Unlike what you must have read, Arch is easy to install and it is stable - just less of both than most distros, but comparable to Windows 10 and macOS.

>why would I want to use Linux as my daily driver over Windows?

Because you find it useful, and appealing? If not then you most certainly shouldn't use it.

It's a fucking OS, not a major life's choice. At least it shouldn't be, but of course people don't simply use things these days or have mere interests. No, everything is a fucking lifestyle now, and it's fucking annoying.

>Also, what's the best distro to use and why isn't it Ubuntu?

Ultimately it really doesn't matter. There are variations between the major (and often enough the minor ones based off of them) distros, but ultimately you can do the same things with one that you can the other. You could turn CentOS into a user-friendly desktop system, or run hardened server on Manjaro. Of course they come as specific distros for a reason. CentOS is meant to be a solid server platform. Manjaro is meant to be a noob friendly desktop. You might as well figure out what your expectations are and find a distro that best fits that from the start, or else you're going to be reinventing the wheel a lot, or even more likely, just giving up and retreating back to Windows.

>It's stable (unlike Arch)
I've been running the same Arch install for over three years. It has never bricked. It has never failed me. I don't know what you're doing but Arch isn't unstable. Maybe you did something stupid in configuration...

>it doesn't really matter
Given you have the time and willingness to fuck with all the defaults, sure - kind of.

I personally don't see any reason to recommend anything but stock Ubuntu LTS to newbies.

Well, that's kind of what I meant by having to reinvent the wheel. I'd go with Xubuntu or Mint over Ubuntu though, if only because I fucking despise Unity.

Security: Set Linux up right, and the government would have a very hard time getting into your shit, remotely or physically. As long as you don't implicate yourself you're good.
Customization: since everything on the operating system is open-sourced and can be edited freely, the whole machine can be riced to shit or used for any purpose you have it for.
Privacy: This plays into security AND customization; having full control of your system means monitoring every connection made to it. If you don't want a mega-corporation eyeballing your every move so they can sell shit to you or the government, you can take steps to prevent it.

Well gee Wilikers! I hope you're correct. I'd hate for the mean old government to run across my extensive collection of trap and femdom porn, and all that pirated death metal, hardcore, and grindcore music on my storage drive.

Por que no los dos.
Antergos passthrough for Linux gaming w/ Debian host.

Nigger, it doesn't matter if you're a criminal or not. The government has the tools to oppress us worse than any shithole in the Mid-East; the only thing keeping them from doing it is some faint sense of morality that isn't guaranteed to stay in our lifetimes. The biggest lesson I got from being a history faggot is that this kind of all-encompassing power should never be trusted.

Xubuntu is the correct answer, and yes, Unity is trash.

It's easy
It's fast
It's free

Depends on what you do with your computer, if you are someone who just browses the web and plays a few videos you could look at something like mint with XFCE as a fast lightweight OS. If your into programming it can give you a distraction free environment to work in.
However if you do anything in 3D you may run into problems. It all depends on what you need it to do.

Actually, Ubuntu Mate is the correct answer.

you mispelled satan nutella

thats not how data collection works. thats not how any collection works.

lubuntu is the right answer.

I"ve been on Lubuntu for about 2 years and just switched to MATE 16.10. Good lord it's nice.

Because of gaymes

The problem that I have with Ubuntu is that it's doing some shady contracts with Amazon. Amazon search is now turned off by default as far as I know but Canonical have shown that they're more than willing to install adware without properly informing the user before installation. I'm not a free software purist (mainly because I think RMS is a massive cuck virgin) but I use Linux because I have a certain desire to know what software I use and what my software does.

For greenhorns I'd actually recommend Ubuntu MATE. MATE is pretty much the easiest and most responsive desktop I've used since back in the day when GNOME 2 was stock on Ubuntu.

>responsive
true that. people seem to love KDE (or whatever it's called today) but the only thing I see when I use it is unnecessary design elements and animations that make the whole thing sluggish and inconsistent. MATE or XFCE it is.

>install linux
>nothing works

Nope, never using your weeb autistic OS again

Not to circlejerk too much but MATE also seems to be pushing forward with development. I've used XFCE for years but it's getting old; had some problems with the XFCE power manager on a newer laptop that the MATE power manager handled.

>start car
>nothing works

Nope, never using your normie method of transportation ever again.

You run linux if you want to script/automate everything and do crazy shit with sed like have one program pipe it's output to a stream editor to get analyzed and refed to another program.

The best distro depends on your use case. If you want reliable and non complex, then you go for Slackware. If you want rolling release and highly complex you would go for Debian testing or Arch/Gentoo the meme distros.

Ubuntu is highly complex, they've made a shitload of kernel mods and have custom shit like Unity (unless you get Mate/Xubuntu). Ubuntu a whole lot of things happen without you knowing you may as well just run Windows/OSX.

You can get the same "security" in windows if you use EMET, and sandboxie to launch a browser like Firefox or Chromium. In fact you get better security.

There's a bunch more OSs out there such as GuileSD (like NixOS, except you have a system that is configured by scheme with simple rollbacks if anything happens) and of course the BSDs like NetBSD or whatever, plus there's always OpenIndiana the Illumos desktop if you want state of the art developers box with DTrace and other Solaris utils.

Because not every single computer has the same arch/drivers/ECC memory/power problems ect.

Modern day computers are a pile of proprietary junk that kernel.org attempts to abstract over with binary blobs. That shit can always go wrong at anytime.

You can also go on a 3 week vacation and come back to a ridiculous amount of merge CPU thrashing with a rolling release like Arch. It's a hobby system for people who don't mind dicking around with it when stuff breaks or who have built a custom box with compatible and mainly open drivers/hardware.

*GuixSD
*sed/awk

the state of my proprietary phone