Like many others, I am getting more and more frustrated with MS. The last really decent OS they had was Win 7. They have commenced on a program that has made my Win 7 machine useless. I have a Win 11 all-in-one but I do not like Win 11 and now it seems like even that machine will soon be useless.
Anyway, to the point.... Is there a price for the average Linux installation, which one does everybody recommend and can it be installed where I have portioned my interior HDD on the 7 machine? All of my day to day files are on an external HDD.
I obviously know very little about Linux but I'll stop using computers altogether before I let MS have total control over my operations and what I have stored. I have a small amount of stuff on my MS Cloud space but this stupid 11 machine insists on putting EVERYTHING on the cloud! I am using it very little and for nothing that is sensitive material.
I need your help!
I honestly get where you’re coming from, because I’ve been on that same path for years. Personally I didn’t even like Windows after Longhorn/Vista XP was the last really good OS Microsoft made in my opinion. XP felt like
your computer. After that it slowly shifted from being a tool you control into a platform that tries to control you. Windows 7 was stable, sure, but the direction was already set long before Windows 11.
First thing: Linux itself doesn’t have a price for normal use. Almost all mainstream distributions are free. You download the ISO, put it on a USB stick, boot from it, and install. No license keys, no subscriptions, no forced cloud accounts. Some enterprise versions cost money for support contracts, but for personal use you pay nothing.
Second: yes, you absolutely can install Linux on a partition next to another OS. Since your day-to-day files are already on an external drive, you’re actually in a good position. During installation you can choose manual partitioning and install Linux only on the space you assign to it. Many people dual boot at first while learning.
But I want to address the bigger points you mentioned, because there’s a lot of exaggeration mixed with real concerns.
The frustration with Microsoft isn’t just nostalgia it’s about direction. Forced upgrades, TPM requirements locking out perfectly good hardware, deeper cloud integration, and AI features that feel pushed rather than chosen. Windows used to be local-first. Now it feels cloud-first, data-first. That’s a big psychological shift, and many users feel like they’re losing ownership of their own machine.
The market share drama people talk about is often overstated, but the resistance to Windows 11 is real. Businesses and long-time users aren’t rejecting it just because they hate change. They worry about workflow disruption, compatibility, telemetry, and long-term control. That’s why so many stay on Windows 10 or explore alternatives.
Where Linux is different and why I switched long ago is choice. You don’t pick “one Linux.” You choose layers:
First you choose the base (Debian, Arch, Fedora, etc.).
Then you choose the desktop environment (KDE, GNOME, XFCE, etc.).
Then you decide how much you want done for you vs building it yourself.
If you want something easy, Ubuntu or Linux Mint are usually good starting points. If you like control and building your own system, you can go more minimal or server-style and build upward that’s what I do now.
Also, Linux does not automatically push your files into cloud storage unless you explicitly set that up. Everything stays local by default. That alone removes a lot of the stress people feel moving away from modern Windows.
One honest warning though: Linux is not magic. You will need to learn new workflows, and some software works differently or has alternatives instead of direct replacements. But the trade-off is you gain control back over updates, privacy, and how your system behaves.
From my viewpoint, if you’re already at the point where you say you’d stop using computers before letting Microsoft control everything, then trying Linux is worth it. Start simple, don’t overthink distro wars, and treat it as learning a new tool rather than replacing Windows overnight.
