Hey everyone! Sorry for not posting in months. Anyways, I’m giving an update post – I’m switching back to Windows. This may be big news, but there’s some reasons. In this article, I’ll be giving an overview of the reasons why I switched back to windows.

1. Paint.NET

Unfortunately, Linux doesn’t have Paint.NET. Paint.NET is the perfect image editing software for me because, when combined with the plugins I use, it’s really powerful while being super easy to use. On Linux, I tried using Krita, which wasn’t a bad alternative, but Paint.NET truly is special to me. I tried using Pinta on Linux as well, but it was so unstable that literally zooming in made it crash.

I tried using winapps with Paint.NET (which, if you’re not familiar, lets you run Windows apps on Linux by using a VM). Unfortunately, it was completely unusable.

It could theoretically be possible to run an older version of Paint.NET, such as version 3.5, through Wine, but I want the latest version.

2. ShareX

Don’t get me wrong, Flameshot is not a terrible alternative to ShareX, but I just prefer ShareX overall. I feel like it has a nicer UI and has some extra features that Flameshot doesn’t seem to have. This is certainly not as big of a reason as Paint.NET, though.

3. Android Nearby Share

I had found out that Android has a feature called Nearby Share. This is basically the Android equivalent to AirDrop, allowing an Android phone to share things with another Android device, a Chromebook, or even a Windows PC. Of course, this doesn’t exist for Linux.

Some of you may be asking, “What about KDE Connect?” To that, I say that you have a good point. KDE Connect actually works pretty well. However, Android’s Nearby Share feature seems like something that will be more clean and convenient to use.

4. Backblaze

I pay $9 per month for Backblaze’s unlimited Personal Backup with 1 year file history. However, I’d need to boot into Windows and let Backblaze run overnight to get my files backed up. This is because Backblaze isn’t available on Linux.

So, how are my files being backed up when I go to Windows? The answer is simple – when using Linux, I would store the majority of my files on NTFS partitions. This way, if I wanted to switch back to Windows, or even if I just needed to access them from Windows, I could. Linux is great at supporting NTFS partitions with the ntfs-3g package.

I understand why Linux isn’t supported with Backblaze Personal Backup. If it was, we’d have a bunch of people backing up entire storage servers (such as NAS servers) that take up tens of terabytes of storage each. This would make the $7/month cost of Backblaze unsustainable. With that being said, a GitHub repository by JonathanTreffler exists that should allow the Backblaze Personal Backup client to work on Linux. I’m not sure about whether or not it works with NTFS partitions, though, and I wouldn’t find it worth my time and effort to switch “computers” to Linux only for it to not back up my NTFS partitions.

5. Microsoft Office

Linux does not support Microsoft Office, which I sometimes need for various things. For instance, my resume is a docx file. When I open my resume with LibreOffice Writer, there are some formatting issues. When I fix the formatting issues in LibreOffice Writer and open the file back in Microsoft Word, the formatting is now messed up there. In fact, I think the formatting issues happen back in Microsoft Word when I save any changes via LibreOffice Writer. In OnlyOffice, there’s formatting issues and the font is completely messed up. Google Docs also has issues opening the file. While winapps technically works, it’s not the smoothest experience due to a VM being used. I also feel like Microsoft PowerPoint is better to use than its alternatives for slideshows.

6. VoiceMeeter

Before I used Linux, I used VoiceMeeter all the time with voice chat. I primarily used this for Soundux, but I could also use it for audio control in general. For example, I could route my PC’s audio through my microphone while having my microphone either muted or unmuted. Or, I could have my microphone’s audio not come through while still letting my soundboard audio come through. Controlling audio on Linux is not as easy as with VoiceMeeter on Windows, though. I didn’t have as much control with just Soundux.

7. Other Compatibility

There are a ton of random things that have compatibility with Windows, but not Linux. For example, I used to use a USB A to VGA adapter from Amazon (and yes, it really worked) that used a driver to work. It unfortunately died months later, but my point is that the driver needs Windows. Additionally, if I want to use another device as a wireless display, Windows has a variety of options. Linux only has one option that doesn’t require an HDMI dummy/ghost plug (which I’d be using for my second actual monitor), which is by following the instructions of this article by Tom’s Hardware. The problem is that I’ve read comments on this article of people messing up their x11 by doing this, but they seemed to have AMD hardware. The GitHub repository used states that this must be done at your own risk, and that it requires Intel integrated graphics. If you want to use an Nvidia GPU, you must follow a separate set of instructions, and I feel like I could especially mess up with that. That’s not the only problem with the Nvidia graphics though.

8. Having a Laptop With an Nvidia GPU + Intel iGPU

I know, it’s Nvidia’s fault that Nvidia graphics are a nightmare on Linux. However, the fact they are makes Linux a lot more inconvenient to use. If I want to force something like Minecraft to use my dedicated GTX 1650 Mobile, I have to use Optimus Manager to switch to my dedicated GPU. This logs me out, making me log back in with this mode, and forces everything to use my Nvidia GPU. It’s not like Windows where I can make only specific applications use it. I wish things like this could be easier on Linux.

Transitioning Back to Windows

The transition back to Windows was not difficult at all due to me storing the majority of my things on NTFS partitions. There were only a few sets of files I had to transfer, which didn’t take long at all.

Things I’ll miss about Linux

There’s a few things I will miss about Linux, which are:

• The powerful customization abilities of KDE Plasma. I absolutely love KDE, as you can make it and applications themselves look amazing and customize everything how you want. The only downside I’ve found with KDE is that you can’t change the lock screen. The KDE lock screen is not to be confused with the SDDM login, which only shows when you’re logged out.
• Having the sudo command in the terminal to elevate to the root user. However, I have found this GitHub repository by geardog that might do the same thing for Windows. I’m yet to try it.
• Having different “tty” terminals by pressing Ctrl + Alt + a function key, such as Ctrl + Alt + F5 to get to tty5. This was great for the rare occasion when KDE would freeze up (only happened a couple of times, and I’m not sure of the reason) and I just needed to enter some commands.
• Having native, built-in shortcuts with KDE. On Windows, AutoHotKey or another program needs to be installed and running to have a shortcut. However, KDE lets you have built-in ones. I primarily used this for being able to use Print Screen to take a screenshot and bringing back some Windows shortcuts to Linux. However, I also had Ctrl + Alt + T open Konsole.
• Not worrying about Windows nagging me to update was great as well.

Conclusion

There were some great things about Linux, but I have my reasons to switch back to Windows. It’s unfortunate that Linux isn’t 100% ready for me, but at least I gave it a try for some months. Maybe one day I can switch back to it if my problems with it can be solved.

Thanks for reading!