If you never at least heard the name PewDiePie, then welcome to the Internet. He is what is called an influencer where he has a channel that has millions of subscribers (110 Million), this single video has over 3 million views in one day.
How did he just blow up the internet with Linux? It started innocently enough he was doing one of his videos when someone noticed that he had Linux installed on his computer. This of course spread like wildfire in the Linux community, so much so, PewDiePie decided to do a video called “I installed Linux (so should you)”.
You can check it out here – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pVI_smLgTY0
The video starts out as if he is speaking to you (a first person view from failing computer) and says “Don’t worry, I can save you. INSTALL LINUX!”. Then he mentions and show a clip of him not being a tech guy, which debunks that Linux is only used by “techie” people (yes it’s used by many technical professionals, however, a lot of regular everyday type people do too). Then he goes into why he installed Linux, and what make this so incredible is that he did not just install Linux recently, he has been using it for years!
Now I’m not going to document his entire video, however, I will say he starts with the reasons he uses Linux and that even though the video is over 20 minutes long, it’s worth it.
It has been rumoured that 2025 will be the year of the Linux; Microsoft going off the rails with their Windows 11 policies, the end of life of Windows 10, Valve Corporation using Linux as their portable gaming device the Steam Deck as it’s operating system, and the economy taking a dive.
The first reason; it’s no secret that Microsoft went from making money by selling licencing for their Windows OS to monetizing the OS itself and even worse, spying on what you do on your system to sell to third parties.
The second reason; discontinuing support for Windows 10. This means that there will be no further updates/security patches as of October 14th, 2025. Because of that, any users still using the consumer version of Windows 10 will eventually become (more) vulnerable to viruses and malware by cyber criminals forcing them to upgrade to windows 11. The problem here is that many systems don’t meet the requirements of Windows 11 forcing people to upgrade their hardware or buying a new system. This will cost money and damage the environment as many of these otherwise perfectly working computers will end up as e-waste. The better option is to keep the system and switch to Linux.
The third reason; Valve Corporation is a major player in the gaming world. Due to Linux running on their Steam Deck, game developers now have to start developing their games to run on Linux or get left out. Linux not running many games WAS a huge hurtle for people using Linux as their choice as a desktop OS.
The forth reason; the economy, with the threat of a rescission looming, people are hanging on to their money. That means no budget for upgrading the computer hardware. Linux is the answer to that as it is FREE! Yes, if your computer can run Windows 10, even Windows 7, then install Linux – problem solved (maybe).
Now before everyone rushes out to install Linux on their hardware (which I would love to see), there are some caveats. Remember that gaming issue mentioned earlier; there are some games that still don’t work on Linux (ex: Multi-player games with anti-cheats). Also there are some applications that will not work on Linux such as Adobe software, Microsoft Office, most tax software, and others that are only available for Windows or Mac (however, there are open source alternatives to many of these programs). Then there is the learning curve, as time goes by, it is straightening out. The desktop environment may be similar, however, it is a different OS, so there will be some adjusting on how you do your daily tasks on your system. For example the task bar in Windows is the dashboard in Linux, instead of downloading programs from various websites you use the software manager (similar to the Microsoft Store but everything is free), and there’s no drive letters only folders to mention a few.
Again, if you have not watched the PewDiePie video, use the link above. Also, check out other videos on the subject; like “The New PewDiePie Linux Video Is Insane…” by SomeOrdinaryGamers
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