It all started as a naive experiment in May. I had heard that people were giving Linux Mint a try after Pewdiepie did a video on it, and I thought, why not? The last time I gave Linux a go was with Ubuntu back in 2010, and I got so annoyed with the lack of drivers and no support for my fave apps that I rebounded back to Windows the same day. So, I downloaded Linux Mint and gave it a shot.

What followed was the beginning of a new addiction and a quest to find the Linux distro that best suits me. I finally got comfortable with Fedora Kinoite, and I've been using it daily ever since. However, one thing I didn't bank on when I made the switch in May was Microsoft going in a direction I really didn't like. As such, an experiment I did out of pure curiosity ended up providing me with a safe haven as I watched Microsoft slowly veer off the path into whatever it thinks it's doing now. So, here's why I really can't imagine going back to Windows in 2026.

2026 is the Year of the "Microslop"

People have had enough with Microsoft's AI tools

Earlier this year, the distaste Windows users had for Microsoft's endless AI tools finally bubbled over. They coined the term "Microslop," a word that combined "Microsoft" with the word referring to low-quality content from AI, "slop." The intent behind inventing the word was pretty clear: people were sick and tired of Microsoft trying to squeeze AI tools into everything they use and wanted a word that could quickly sum up their frustrations.

And who can blame them? Microsoft has been going all-in on its Copilot mission, including adding it to Notepad and Paint. The President of Windows has gone on record saying they wanted to make Windows an agentic operating system, which puts AI at the forefront of how people use their computers. And the head of AI in Microsoft recently took to X to vent their confusion that people weren't falling in love with Copilot as much as they wanted.

Microsoft is in love with AI, but its users are not. And I fear that 2026 will only feature more ways Microsoft will try to get people to use its AI tools, whether they want them or not.

It feels like Windows 11 has really struggled with bugs in recent months

Lots of weird issues have been popping up

Even if I really liked Copilot, there's something about Windows 11 in recent months that makes me hesitant to continue using Microsoft products. Perhaps I'm being nitpicky, and maybe I have rose-tinted glasses for past operating systems like Windows 7 and 10, but it feels like Windows 11 has had some really strange and critical issues in the past few months.

Some of my favorites from the past year include:

• The Task Manager spawning more Task Managers once closed
• USB devices failing in the Windows Recovery Environment, rendering it unusable
• Windows 11 refusing to shut down, instead choosing to reboot by itself
• That one time the ghost of Windows Vista haunted the test channels for some strange reason

In fact, Microsoft just flat-out admitted at one point that a lot of its core processes were broken. And while Windows has never been a perfect, bug-free operating system, I just feel like these strange Windows glitches have been happening more often and affecting more critical systems. And while I've never programmed an operating system before, I have a hunch I know why these errors are happening.

Linux has been spoiling me left and right

I feel like I'm using an actual operating system again

One of the most jarring aspects of using Linux as an ex-Windows fanboy is not what it does, but what it doesn't do. Over time, you get used to all the stuff Microsoft does with Windows that we should be complaining about; instead, we just fall in line and accep as "just something Windows does these days." Advertisements in the Start menu, a setup screen that demands an internet connection and tries to sell you Microsoft products, Microsoft Edge going into red alert mode when you dare to search for "Google Chrome" using Bing; they're things we really shouldn't be putting up with, but end up taking anyway.

Linux is a different beast. There are no ads in the Start menu (or even a Start menu, if that's your liking), nobody is trying to convince you to spend money on anything, and the operating system respects which apps you want without trying to influence your decision. And you can change how your OS looks by installing a new desktop environment free of charge. While Windows now feels like a product, Linux still feels like an operating system, something you can add to, tweak, and remove from at your own leisure.

I mean, take the Arch Linux setup process. If installing operating systems were like ordering a pizza, Windows would only give you two or three topping options and spam you with ads for sides and drinks at every step. Meanwhile, Arch Linux would let you pick from a huge list of toppings, crusts, and cheese, and would even let you customize where everything goes, how the pizza is cut, and how long it's cooked. You can remove the pizza base if you want. The pizza base is bloat, anyway.

While Windows feels more and more like Microsoft is forcing people to use the operating system the way it intends, Linux distros are all about what you want from your PC. I honestly believe there's a distro out there for everyone, from the bleeding-edge rolling update systems to the glacial but ironclad LTS builds that only get major feature updates every few years.

I can't go back to Windows in 2026

At the end of the day, I understand that not everyone can jump to Linux. There are still some essential apps that don't work on Linux, which keep people using Windows even if they don't enjoy it. However, personally, I can't imagine going back into Microsoft's walled garden after breaking out of it.