C3 // Windows to a Linux install

A genuine change with a smaller effect than its reputation. The reasons to do it are good ones, and none of them are the reason people usually give.

Awazon Market // onion addresses

The three strings below open the same market. The same account, the same balance, the same open orders sit behind each one. Copy a string, paste it into Tor Browser, and read the last six characters in the address bar before you type a password.

awazonozc4jwyrveu4473igv5ldt2hnccl2s7lerm2z27cvrc22e4uyd.onion
awazonth6ocz5cyos63czmhtsglqr7ydkdcc4lopux7nxbauoo2qmvyd.onion
awazonvaqbgkhirejon6qnlxcjibrhkqhzh2xb2lclc6t67vxhlvjkyd.onion

NOTHING HERE IS RANKED. THE ORDER IS THE ORDER THEY WERE WRITTEN IN.

Baseline

Tor Browser on an everyday Windows machine that also does everything else you do.

Substitution

The same browser on a Linux install. Same network, same addresses, same account.

What moves

Far less software on the machine reports to a vendor by default, the malware population aimed at you shrinks, and full disk encryption is easier to arrange and verify.

Does not move

Your network path, the address you open, your account, and every habit you brought with you. A reused password is still reused on Linux.

Cost

A week of friction, a real chance of misconfiguring something you previously never touched, and a machine you are less fluent on at the moment you most want to be fluent.

Verdict

Only if the everyday machine is the problem: shared, managed by somebody else, unencrypted, or carrying software you did not choose.

IWhat genuinely differs

Telemetry. A stock Windows install reports a great deal by default and the settings that reduce it move between releases. A minimal Linux install reports almost nothing until you install something that does.
Malware economics. The commodity information stealers that harvest browser data and clipboard contents overwhelmingly target Windows, because that is where the numbers are. The clipboard point matters here, since copying an onion address is the core action on this site.
Disk encryption. Available on both, but easier to confirm on Linux, and confirmation is the part that gets skipped.

IIWhat does not differ

Tor Browser behaves the same on both and produces a comparable fingerprint on either. The market cannot tell which you used and would not care. Your circuit is identical. And the four most expensive mistakes documented on this site, all of them in the address and money groups, are made by a person and not by an operating system.

IIIThe condition, stated plainly

Do this when you can finish the sentence: I am switching because my current machine is x. Shared with a household, managed by an employer, unencrypted, carrying software installed by somebody else, or long past the point where you trust what is on it. All of those are real answers.

If the honest ending is that Linux sounds more secure, the effect will be smaller than the week it costs, and the week is better spent on the address group.

IVThe half measure that works

A live Linux system on a stick gives you most of the separation without replacing your machine, and it is reversible in the time it takes to reboot. That is record C5, and for the majority of people asking this question it is the better answer.

SCOPE

This substitution changes what your machine does when you are not looking. It changes nothing about what you do when you are.