Why Linux?

My move to Linux in 2018 was born out of frustration with Windows and a desire to experiment and try something new. What I found was a lean, bloat-free system that gave you freedom to experiment with free software, endless customisation options, and the education of a lifetime.

Why Linux? Rewind to 2018. Windows slowdown. General frustration. Exasperation. Curiosity - I'm naturally curious. Windows was glacial on my average 4GB laptop. I found an online guide on dual booting Linux with Windows. I closed my eyes and crossed my fingers. It worked. I never went back.

I started by installing Ubuntu. The first thing I noticed was the snappiness of the system, everything worked. On Windows there was a delay when opening files, if they opened at all. Everything was slow. In Ubuntu files opened promptly and programs were responsive. Was this the same laptop? I could have been content with basic use, but I wanted to learn more. So I migrated to the command line/shell.

I learned about the shell scripting, the apt package manager, GNU programs, and everything else in between. I learned that there were many ways to skin the electronic cat. I began to enjoy hacking on the system. I got weird errors that were difficult to resolve. Google became my new friend and Stack Overflow my encyclopedia of choice. I began to enjoy the efficiency and security of downloading a program from a secure repository, as opposed to randomly downloading Windows programs from the wild Internet.

I became smug. But my smugness was short-lived when faced with another weird configuration or permissions error. Oddly I enjoyed the challenge of having to figure things out by myself, instead of being hand-held in a Windows walled garden. It was all strangely liberating. I learned about the multitude of distros, the majority based on a handful of base distros, such as Debian, Red Hat and Arch.

I explored the file system. Compared to Windows, it was lean and bloat free. There was no hidden trackers and programs sending my data back to God knows where. The Windows 10 installation disc was close to 5GB in size; Ubuntu was 2GB. The Windows installation is renowned for its slowness. Linux was the opposite. On Linux I had freedom of choice to update my system when I wanted. Windows gave no such choice to the user, with forced updates at unwanted times.

Linux had an easy-to-understand file system tree based on the root directory; everything grew from there. It was logical, with clearly defined permissions for different users of the system. Due to its robust and time tested design, it was inherently more secure. I came to love the stability of the system. Unlike Windows, random crashes, glitches and freezes were rare. Under Windows the fans blew up a storm, the noise was constant. I loved the serenity of Linux.

I learned how to implement virtualization with Qemu/KVM. I installed and tested a multitude of distros. I then migrated to Arch Linux with Endeavour OS. I lived in that for a while. From there I moved to the immutable distro of Nixos. I improved my troubleshooting and debugging skills and became a savvy computer user. In Linux the system bends to the user's will, not the other way around.

Don't get me wrong, Linux is far from perfect, and it has many faults and foibles, and frustrations abound. Printers, for example, are notoriously inconsistent and error-prone on the Linux platform. But there's always something new to learn. One thing is sure, I'm never going back.