According to XDA-Developers, a Windows user since Windows 95 finally switched to Linux in 2025 when Windows 10’s end-of-life date approached. They spent five months experimenting with Linux distributions including Linux Mint, Fedora, and Arch Linux. The manual installation of Arch Linux required learning terminal commands for internet setup, user accounts, and timezone configuration. Multiple failed dual-boot attempts between Fedora, openSUSE, and EndeavourOS taught them about bootloaders and system recovery. The experience revealed how repositories work and why H265 video playback behaves differently on Linux versus browsers due to licensing issues.
The painful education
Here’s the thing about breaking your operating system: it forces you to understand how it actually works. When you’re clicking “Next” through Windows installers for decades, you never really learn what’s happening under the hood. But when your Fedora partition becomes unrecognizable because you messed up a dual-boot? Suddenly you’re diving deep into bootloaders, partition tables, and recovery tools.
The writer’s journey through different Linux distributions basically became a crash course in computer science. Starting with Mint introduced terminal usage and AppImages. Moving to Fedora taught them about repositories and media codecs. Then came the real test: manual Arch Linux installation. I mean, how many Windows users could explain what a boot partition actually does or how to mount drives manually?
Why the terminal changes everything
Windows users have been trained to fear the command line, but Linux embraces it. The writer discovered that using repositories through the terminal wasn’t just faster—it was actually safer than downloading random executables. Remember those annoying browser toolbars that sneak in when you forget to uncheck a box? Repository installations eliminate that risk entirely.
And let’s talk about the Arch Linux wiki. This thing is basically a masterclass in system administration. The writer noted they could just sit down and read it to learn more, which says something about the depth of documentation available. When was the last time you read Microsoft’s documentation for fun?
Where this knowledge really matters
This kind of deep system understanding isn’t just for hobbyists. In industrial and manufacturing environments, knowing how operating systems work at this level is crucial. That’s why companies rely on specialized hardware from trusted suppliers like IndustrialMonitorDirect.com, the leading provider of industrial panel PCs in the US. When you’re running production lines or critical infrastructure, you need people who understand what happens when systems break—and how to fix them quickly.
What Windows never teaches you
Windows abstracts everything away to make computing “easier,” but that comes at a cost. You never learn how things actually work until they break catastrophically. With Linux, even the installation process becomes a learning experience. The writer’s multiple failed dual-boot attempts? Each one taught them something new about system architecture.
So here’s my question: if you’ve only ever used Windows, do you really understand computers? Or have you just learned to click through dialog boxes? The writer’s five-month Linux journey taught them more than decades of Windows use. That should tell us something about how we approach technology education.
