Starting out a few years ago, I had three Windows systems, a dev/gaming machine, a test machine and a work machine.
I noticed this thing called WSL. It looked cool so I put it on my work system and my dev.game system and played with it.
WSL2 came out. Updated the Work and Dev systems. Started to actually learn Linux, watch videos, read articles and wrote some bash scripts and a couple Python3 programs.
Converted my old windows test machine to MX Linux. Got much more involved with the Linux side of things.
Was laid-off from my Windows Developer job (18 years). So the work machine went back. I ordered a new XPS laptop (13th gen) from Dell, but I got the Linux option (Ubuntu 23.04). Updated to 24.04.
Updated the MX Linux system to Debian 12.
I still have the Windows machine, but I spend more than half of my time on the Linux machines.
Moral of the story (so far)… I blame WSL2 for moving me (mostly) to Linux.
A friend of mine gave me an old Dell Insperon (oldish… 11th gen). I switched it to Linux Mint 22.
I was going to move my Desktop machine but I still need to use Visual Studios to maintain several WinForms applications that use C#.NET and SQL so it stays Windows 11 Pro for now.
Let me offer you a belated Welcome…seems I am 3 months late.
I have been off playing in the real world, but suspect that the pendulum will be swinging me back here soon.
Microsoft seems to be its own worst enemy. Between WSL, Recall and all the advertisements I suspect that the number of Microsoft expats will only continue to grow. Couple that with corporate America shedding jobs as the global economy sinks into the abyss and we could see Linux bringing more lost souls to the Free For All that is Open Source Software.
I totally agree (though I still like WSL2, it was my Linux gateway).
On the job shedding, I was shed at 68… despite decades of experiance (including current experiance), nobody wants to hire a 68 year old developer. As a result I decided to retire (though I will persue contract work if I can work from home).
My next project here is to repair my old Alienware desktop machine (needs a new liquid cooler, a fan and a good cleaning), that I will turn into a Linux file server.