I replaced Windows 11 on all my home and work machines with Linux about 6 months ago and I am not going back.

I had been a Windows user at home and work for at least 30 years, starting with Windows 3.1, and being an early adopter of NT 4.0 Workstation, XP 64-bit, and all the way through to Windows 11, occasionally running the Betas and Release Candidates. Windows is a kind of muscle memory for me.

However, for the last 12 years, Linux on the server has been the target for all my work, for both software development and operations. As such my laptop and my desktop machines have used virtual machines (VMs) and later Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL) then WSL2 to provide a local Production-like environment.

There was always an element of friction doing Linux work on Windows with VMs and WSL, although WSL2 has reduced that friction significantly. Even so, I have always been curious about running Linux natively on my desktop and laptop machines. I tried a few times over the years, usually with a spare laptop, but always hit issues with power management, NVIDIA drivers, or WiFi.

But its 2026 now, and the industry moves quickly, so it was time for another attempt. I started with my custom built gaming desktop, which has an AMD GPU, wired Ethernet, and does not have sleep or hibernation requirements. I installed Fedora KDE Plasma Desktop and have been seriously impressed with how much has “just worked”. Some notable highlights include:

• My Creative Stage soundbar and Lenovo webcam worked automatically.
• Steam, Factorio, and a bunch of other games just worked.
• My old Bitlocker-encrypted NTFS Windows 11 SSD was automatically detected and I was prompted to enter the Bitlocker recovery key, which I did, and the drive was mounted and accessible.
• 1Password, Signal Messenger, and VSCode were all readily available and just work.

The experience was so smooth that after a few weeks I decided to replace Windows 11 on my work laptop with Fedora KDE Plasma Desktop as well. This machine ia a recent model Lenovo ThinkBook which has an Intel GPU, depends on WiFi, and is expected to sleep and wake reliably. And again, the experience was very smooth. I have had one instance where the machine froze after waking from sleep, but it has not recurred since.

The work laptop demonstrated that Zoom, Google Meet, and Microsoft Teams video calls all worked automatically, using the laptop’s built-in webcam, and my Poly Voyager bluetooth headset. Even my Lenovo ThinkPad docking station worked automatically, with the external monitor, keyboard, mouse, and ethernet.

A few more months of stable use of Linux on the work laptop, and it was time to try the more challenging personal laptop: a Lenovo ThinkPad P16s with both a discrete NVIDIA GPU and an integrated Intel GPU, aka NVIDIA Optimus. Again I went with Fedora KDE Plasma Desktop, and again I encountered no issues. In fact, it feels like the battery life is even better than it was under Windows.

I have also now gone through several OS upgrades, from Fedora 42 to 43, and then to 44, and each time the upgrade has been easy and uneventful.

My biggest issue having moved to Linux has been trying to find an antimalware solution. ClamAV seems to be the defacto option, but it seems to want a lot of hand-holding to get both automatic signature updates and on-access scanning working. I am looking for a more turnkey solution, like Windows Defender, and I’m happy to pay for it. So many vendors insist that you “contact sales” to get pricing and buy their Linux AV product, including Sophos which was recommended in multiple Linux forums.

I eventually found BitDefender which allowed me to purchase individual licenses for my home Linux machines through their online store, but I’ve since discovered they’re classifying all Linux installs as “server” licenses which is causing problems with the licenses I’ve purchased.

The state of Linux desktop antimalware generally is very disappointing, especially considering the Windows 10 end-of-life that is nudging more people to try Linux, and Steam’s Hardware Survey statistics now report that Linux represents a larger install base than MacOS, albeit still under 5%.