OK, a day or two was probably an exaggeration, although it really does seem like that sometimes.
Probably part of the problem is that I only use Windows every 1-2 months, and then when I do start it up, it spins the fan for an hour downloading and installing updates.
That said, I really do end up with many, many more issues on Windows than on Linux. For example, I just yesterday had - out of the blue! - some Visual C++ Redistributable to suddenly go missing, and not able to open up Visual Studio Code (I'm mentoring some students who use Windows). I had used Visual Studio fine on that computer multiple times, and had never touched any of the system folders. No idea what happened to the missing library. I re-installed it and it was fine.
I end up helping family members who come to me with mysterious Windows problems. Often the problem is just that the OS has slowed down over a year or two of normal use. I've tried registry cleaners, and they sometimes help a bit, but the only real success I've had in those situations is saving their personal folder and re-installing the OS. Sometimes there is evidence of malware on their computer, but often there is not.
Never had things like that happen on Linux. Nor on OSX/MacOS. Windows just doesn't strike me as a reliable system. And that's not even bringing up the resource requirements for running Windows - I can easily run Linux on machines that could no longer run Windows without running into massive performance issues.
This isn't some pathological Microsoft hatred: I'm favorably impressed with Visual Studio Code, with Powershell, with C#, with F#, with Typescript. I'm just not impressed with Windows as an operating system. It did get more reliable after the moved the the NT kernel, but still not half as reliable as MacOS or Linux.
And, there's a downside to Linux, which is hardware compatibility (although that's rarely as bad as Linux critics describe it).
Probably part of the problem is that I only use Windows every 1-2 months, and then when I do start it up, it spins the fan for an hour downloading and installing updates.
That said, I really do end up with many, many more issues on Windows than on Linux. For example, I just yesterday had - out of the blue! - some Visual C++ Redistributable to suddenly go missing, and not able to open up Visual Studio Code (I'm mentoring some students who use Windows). I had used Visual Studio fine on that computer multiple times, and had never touched any of the system folders. No idea what happened to the missing library. I re-installed it and it was fine.
I end up helping family members who come to me with mysterious Windows problems. Often the problem is just that the OS has slowed down over a year or two of normal use. I've tried registry cleaners, and they sometimes help a bit, but the only real success I've had in those situations is saving their personal folder and re-installing the OS. Sometimes there is evidence of malware on their computer, but often there is not.
Never had things like that happen on Linux. Nor on OSX/MacOS. Windows just doesn't strike me as a reliable system. And that's not even bringing up the resource requirements for running Windows - I can easily run Linux on machines that could no longer run Windows without running into massive performance issues.
This isn't some pathological Microsoft hatred: I'm favorably impressed with Visual Studio Code, with Powershell, with C#, with F#, with Typescript. I'm just not impressed with Windows as an operating system. It did get more reliable after the moved the the NT kernel, but still not half as reliable as MacOS or Linux.
And, there's a downside to Linux, which is hardware compatibility (although that's rarely as bad as Linux critics describe it).