# Linux 745 Hacker News commenters recommended Linux and 277 criticized it, November 2025 to November 2026. It was recommended in 12 of 13 months; owners who said how long report a median of 19 years (116 owners). It meets the Hacker Approved badge rule. **Verdict:** A free, open-source OS praised for total control, stability and wide hardware and software support, especially on servers; desktop use can still take extra effort and debugging. ## Why people recommend it - Full control and customization (5 comments): "Make it do the security stuff out-of-the-box, allow the user to change ANYTHING they want, including turning off the security stuff. Linux!" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46348544)) "I can choose my own desktop, or even forsake the desktop entirely for a simpler window manager, without changing operating systems." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47551653)) "FreeBSD and Linux give me more control over my daily experience, but at the cost of way more time debugging and administration." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46764365)) - Most hardware and software works (4 comments): "Switch to Linux today. Unless you're working with a shit company, chances are pretty good that all of your software and workflows will work on Linux too" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46465134)) "Obscure old printers and scanners, Bluetooth headphones with modern codecs like LDAC and SBC-XQ, RGB gaming mice all "just work" on Linux" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49388721)) "The last desktop I bought took under an hour from linux install usb stick boot to steam installing my library of windows games." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48965605)) - Excellent server and production OS (4 comments): "I like Linux as a server OS (and would pick it over Windows or MacOS for that any day of the week that ends in y), but as a desktop OS it's just more work than I care to exert" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48494725)) "Now, Linux powers every Android phone, most servers, most routers, and is probably more broadly adopted than all other operating systems, combined." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49753192)) "our customers all run linux in production too, so it's very easy and natural to develop and test the software in its usual environment" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46081301)) - Free, open and independent (4 comments): "Consider the Linux ecosystem. "Give them everything and expect nothing" works fine despite the great effort which goes in to building and maintaining that system." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46132649)) "It is open source. Many companies which contribute to it are American, but nobody from America can tell you what you can or cannot do with it" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47729591)) "you can at least just install it in a second partition and use it that way untill you're sure it works for you, zero money required" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46446456)) ## What people warn about - Desktop requires more effort (4 comments): "I like Linux as a server OS (and would pick it over Windows or MacOS for that any day of the week that ends in y), but as a desktop OS it's just more work than I care to exert" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48494725)) "in Linux not only the required configuration was more complex, but I tried several programs and all had stutter problems at FullHD resolution" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47406228)) "still a nightmare? basic functionality introduced maybe 50 years ago now, and the linux world is still working out the kinks with GUIs" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46733264)) - Complex, crufty codebase (4 comments): "Sure Linux, Docker, Kubernetes, Postgres, and all the other standard tools in the box are open source and free, but they're also arcane and complex to run" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48983083)) "This is different from Linux (and Windows, to a lesser degree) where you have a crazy amount of moving parts with drivers/hardware/resources/etc." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46462754)) "Linux is also full of cruft, it's good enough but I don't think you should live with the impression that is a benchmark of software quality" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47909308)) - Security weaker than alternatives (3 comments): "A monolithic kernel written in C with an extreme focus on performance at the cost of having immense complexity is not reasonably secure." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49365268)) "Linus still doesn't tag bug fixes with potential security impacts as such because he is more worried about unpatched consumer garbage" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45870937)) "Linux _may_ be the best solution overall I am not sure. It is definitely not the best solution from a security perspective." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48448189)) - Desktop bugs and regressions (3 comments): "a substantial perf regression in 7.0 that can only be mitigated by a default-off non-trivial functionality also introduced in 7.0" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47645616)) "Linux is worse about it. Right now I've got two Linux machines that can sleep but will become unusable when they wake up." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49000911)) "The forcing of the various incompatible waylands by the big linux corps has meant the end of support for screen readers." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46732324)) ## Alternatives hackers recommend - [Windows](https://hackerapproved.com/p/windows.md): 1287 recommend - [macOS](https://hackerapproved.com/p/macos.md): 1041 recommend - [Haiku](https://hackerapproved.com/p/haiku-os.md): 115 recommend - [NetBSD](https://hackerapproved.com/p/netbsd.md): 100 recommend - [ChromeOS](https://hackerapproved.com/p/chromeos.md): 91 recommend ## Cite as Hacker Approved, "Linux", https://hackerapproved.com/p/linux/ (counts from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026).