Posted by deadvey

2 Years on the Linux desktop

Initiation:
I began using Linux in late November of 2022 after I heard that it can be better for programming in, I installed Linux Mint because my cousin recomended it.  When I installed Linux Mint, I somehow ended up corrupting my Windows partition, which I was intending on using as a dual boot, in hindsight, I think this was a good thing as I was now sort of stuck on Linux with no quick way to just boot back into Windows if I felt like it.  At first, I was using it like Windows, I was installing everything from installers off the web and finding the whole thing a bit confusing, I didn't see the benefit of using the package manager, I assumed it would be as buggy and shit as the Microsoft Store, but I was surprised, it had every program I needed on it and more.  I was also attracted by the customisability of the Cinnamon desktop environment, I was blown away by small things as simple as being able to change the menu icon and add a colour picker to the panel.  Eventually I learnt about installing other desktop environments, my Windows brain was confused by the fact you could have the same files and system on a seperate desktop environment, I was so used to it just being like how the creators wanted it to look.  I also ended up using XMonad and i3 and getting into ricing and more customisation.

Distro Hopping:
In early 2023 I started using Arch Linux because it sounded cool, unfortunately I accidently overwrited my Mint partition (I think there's a theme of me doing this without any backup) I did enjoy the rolling release style of Arch Linux, but I also found it confusing and things went wrong a lot that I didn't know how to fix.  So then I tried OpenSUSE Tumbleweed as I heard that it had the rolling release cycle but was much stabler than Arch and more user friendly, I stayed on OpenSUSE TW for a while with little issue, one issue being that because OpenSUSE was abit more obscure, some software didn't work easily with it, meaning I had to get more comfortable with building programs from source.  Around this time, I also setup an OpenSUSE Leap server on my old PC (I still have it but it's not running).

NixOS:
In late 2023, I started using NixOS a bit, though I kept jumping between OpenSUSE and NixOS and Arch Linux every month or so.  NixOS is just so awesome with it's declarativity and is so nice to use seeing as things just continue working on it forever.  Every time I try to switch to something else now, I end up going back to NixOS or OpenSUSE as for me, they just work.

GCSE era:
When I was taking my GCSE exams in 2024 (UK secondary exams) I was trying not to use my PC too much, and mostly just used my 20 year old laptop with Puppy Linux (Lightweight) on it.  I never really tinkered with Puppy much as it was mostly for productivity and getting stuff done, it had some queerness though.  On Puppy, you're always logged in as a root user, and some options don't carry over when you reboot, such as WiFi conections, I also tried AntiX, but it seemed to perfom a bit worse then Puppy on my Acer Laptop.

And that's where I am, I still swap between these three distros (OpenSUSE, NixOS, Arch) every few months, I'm currently on NixOS on my PC, OpenSUSE on my laptop and NixOS and Debian on my two servers, I think I've left Arch Linux behind, I don't really see any advantage to it over OpenSUSE or NixOS Unstable for me, I like things working, but I also like tinkering and customisation.  Now that I'm doing my A Levels, I've got my PC setup without a GUI on NixOS to prevent distraction, and I mostly just do some programming and writing on it, I also have multiple laptops now, some running Nix, some on Arch and one on OpenSUSE, though this will undoubtebly change at some point, knowing me, I can rarely settle on something for too long.