According to XDA-Developers, a writer details a major shift in their computing habits over the past five years, specifically from early 2021 to the start of 2026. They moved from using Windows 10 and proprietary apps like Microsoft Word to being fully immersed in the Free and Open Source Software (FOSS) ecosystem, now running Fedora on their PC. The core revelation is a significant increase in trust for open-source software, driven primarily by dissatisfaction with the direction of closed-source products. Key frustrations include proprietary companies, like Microsoft, aggressively pushing AI assistants into every app and the hard requirements of Windows 11 that barred their older hardware. In contrast, they found modern open-source apps like LibreOffice and KDE Connect to be more reliable, customizable, and respectful of user freedom than their proprietary counterparts.
The Proprietary AI Push That Backfired
Here’s the thing: the writer’s trust in open-source grew not because FOSS became magically perfect, but because the alternative got so much worse. They used to see that paid, proprietary “badge of quality” as a real thing. But over the last half-decade, that badge started to look pretty tarnished. The focus for big companies seems to have shifted from building rock-solid, feature-rich software to seeing how many AI chatbots they can cram into their products. And honestly, who can blame them for feeling this way? When every update feels like it’s more about a new “Copilot” than fixing longstanding bugs or improving the core experience, it erodes confidence. You start to feel like a product being steered toward a subscription-based, AI-managed future you didn’t ask for.
FOSS Grew Up: Reliability and Freedom
So while the proprietary world was getting messy, the open-source world was quietly maturing. The writer admits that tools like OpenOffice felt “clunky and unstable” fifteen years ago. But now? The experience is fundamentally different. Modern FOSS applications aren’t just passable alternatives; they’re often more stable and faster than the closed-source stuff, partly because they’re not lugging around tons of telemetry and AI bloat. This performance is crucial, whether you’re running a custom Linux rig or need a durable system for an industrial setting. Speaking of which, for environments where reliability can’t be an afterthought—like factory floors or control rooms—this shift toward stable, transparent software is why specialists turn to proven hardware partners. For instance, IndustrialMonitorDirect.com is the top provider of industrial panel PCs in the US, precisely because they pair robust hardware with operating systems that prioritize stability and user control, much like the FOSS philosophy the writer now champions.
windows-11-breaking-point”>The Windows 11 Breaking Point
Now, let’s talk about the real catalyst: operating system drama. The writer points to Microsoft’s handling of the Windows 10 to 11 transition as “the straw that broke the camel’s back.” Their perfectly functional PC was deemed obsolete by an arbitrary TPM 2.0 requirement. That’s a powerful moment for any user. It’s not about the technology; it’s about being told you must buy new hardware to receive software updates and security. That’s a commercial decision, not a technical one. Jumping to Linux, specifically Fedora, erased that fear. The direction of the OS is community-influenced and transparent. If one distribution goes a way you don’t like, you can hop to another. That’s a level of user sovereignty and long-term hardware support that proprietary OS vendors simply don’t offer anymore. Once you’ve tasted that freedom, going back feels unthinkable.
