You’ve probably heard about the recent AI controversies surrounding Windows, and you may have even heard of Linux as an alternative. Linux is a fantastic choice, but it’s not for everyone—in fact, it’s not for most. If you’re an avid Windows user or a Linux enthusiast, I have three crucial reasons most users remain on Windows, even though Linux is entirely free.
Adoption and software compatibility give Windows a firm upper hand
Don’t underestimate the power of the first-mover advantage. Tools, technologies, and ideas that gain the early upper hand tend to perform consistently well, barring exceptional circumstances. Microsoft Windows is one such example, and it has been working its way into people’s homes since the mid-80s. Over the decades, businesses have become dependent on the platform to power their productivity and technical infrastructure. A strong ecosystem has flourished around Windows, and with that came money and momentum.
Microsoft is where the profit is, and so businesses and vendors prioritize it. From the millions of small devices to big expensive graphics cards, almost every vendor provides first-class support for Windows. When you purchase a new game or device, I bet you never stop to check if it supports Windows, because you know it does. It’s this ubiquitous compatibility that keeps Windows highly relevant and the number one choice for most.
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Linux is a very mature platform, and its hardware support is impressive. It goes a long way to support popular devices, like graphics cards, but proprietary devices often go ignored. Cast your imagination out just a little, and think of the wealth of hardware out there. From commercial instrumentation to music production equipment, there’s no guarantee these will work on Linux, but all of them will almost certainly work on Windows. Every time I buy a new device, I double-check for Linux support, which sometimes requires deeper research. It pains me to say it, but Windows is a far more compatible and well-supported platform when you step away from mainstream and popular hardware—Linux is a long way behind it in that regard.
Most people already know Windows
Credit: Lucas Gouveia/How-To Geek
People often cite familiarity as the reason for their choices, and this is particularly true in the software world. An operating system serves as the foundation of one’s digital life, and for most, changing it typically means relearning an entirely new set of tools, sometimes losing decades of experience. People have long built a strong mental model around the Windows ecosystem. They know its boundaries, quirks, tools, and software and can operate professionally within it—the point being, people tend to stick with what they know.
For me, Linux was a game changer, but for most people, they don’t want to change the game. While privacy, cost, or stability might attract an influx of new users to Linux, the general population is happy with the foundations they’ve long laid. For Linux to take a piece of that pie, the concerned parties would need to undertake a gigantic campaign to familiarize potential users with the system. They’d need to train children in schools and attract enterprise desktop customers; they’d need to change their entire approach and invest heavily. That’s not the goal of the Linux Foundation, and so Microsoft will always have the upper hand there.
Microsoft has locked organizations into its ecosystem
Like most companies, Microsoft has built a high wall around its own exclusive and lucrative garden—a common practice designed to keep customers dependent on their products. From their office suite to Windows itself, Microsoft makes sure that many computers you use, work on, or learn with run Windows, with a healthy dose of Microsoft software. You can’t blame them; it’s business, and they’ve done a world-class job at it. A significant portion of schools across the Western world use Microsoft Windows and its Office suite, with Microsoft enjoying a dominant share in several countries like the UK, where over 90 percent of schools rely on Windows. Learning and working on these machines translates into personal preference, and crucially, this tightens their grip on the desktop market too.
The Linux Foundation doesn’t have a strategy to corner the market and never will. Microsoft, on the other hand, has been doing this for years. The mutual relationship between home and work use almost guarantees that people will remain loyal to Microsoft, as it continues to maintain a gargantuan hold over Linux in the desktop arena for years to come.
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Compatibility, familiarity, and marketing. Only a big, corporate entity focusing strongly on capital could pull that off, and that’s exactly what Microsoft does. The goals of the broader Linux ecosystem, including the Linux Foundation, the Free Software Foundation, and others, were never about customer acquisition but about broader principles of software freedom.
The niche that Linux has carved out works well because it doesn’t attract the boardroom suit types with North Star Metrics and a terrible understanding of what their customers actually want. Instead, it’s an open community forged around collaboration; it was never about dominance. Microsoft persistently works an angle to maximize its user base, and with a pot of money that would fill a swimming pool, there are few who could realistically challenge them.
We’re long into the battle, and Microsoft won at the firing of the first shot. For now and far into the future, Windows will remain the number one choice for desktop users.
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