Every year since the dawn of time someone has declared “it will be the year of the Linux desktop!” I don’t know if that will be true in 2025 for everyone, but it is for me. I’m now using Kubuntu exclusively on my home desktop after initially leaving Windows on as a dual boot. Once I realized I went 4 months without even starting Windows once, I knew it was safe to drop it.
Now, I have been exposed to Linux for a long time. I first set up a system in 1999 with Mandrake Linux (most recently called Mandriva), and loved it. I set up a server for development at work with Ubuntu Server in 2006 and since have used Linux servers at work almost exclusively. For a few years in the late 2000s I had an Ubuntu Desktop as my work machine.
In this post I want to share why I switched now and some “risk free” things you can explore if you are interested in switching away from Windows on your PC.