My Linux Experience

 

 

In today's post, I would like to talk about my experience in the cyber Antarctic world of Linux, how I chose my distribution Manjaro, how I learned using the terminal as a long-time Windows user. 

 

I have been using Windows ever since I was tall enough to reach a keyboard and over the years, I started to dislike the path Microsoft started to take with their operating system. Bloated sizes, unnecessary programs pre-installed, lessening personalization options, over-use of AI (which I won't get too deep into here, it's a whole another can of worms) and the slow nature of the latest system caused me to slowly look towards the Antarctic shores of the penguin kingdom.

 

Near the end of summer, I decided to start using Linux. My idea was to use Windows as my "generic workspace" machine and to use Linux as my new personal work/research environment. The first step in this journey was to choose a distro (distribution).

 

There are many Linux distros available, each distribution with their own purpose & use case. After trying out different distros in a virtual machine, I decided to go with Manjaro because it's an Arch based Linux distribution and has support for programs & applications that are more up-to-date and maintained openly by the people. While this makes some programs a bit unpredictable, Manjaro tries to make the regulation process much easier and friendlier than base Arch. The second step was to choose a desktop environment, which is purely preference. For example, you have KDE Plasma for a more Windows style desktop environment and GNOME which is more similar to Mac & Android interfaces. The one I went with is called XFCE which is a more light-weight and very customizable desktop environment. With making all the necessary choices, I finally started using Linux as my personal workspace environment.

In my personal opinion the best part of Linux is its; endless customization, total control and fast/snappy work experience. The customization options are almost endless thanks to the total control you have with the system. With just a few commands, you can change any core system functions and stylize it to your own linking to make the experience truly unique and your own. Not to mention its very light and fast nature. It feels much more efficient to work on my Linux than waiting for Windows to check for an update that doesn't exist. The feeling I had after looking at my fully customized desktop environment was undescribable.

My current desktop environment :)

However, there are drawbacks and the biggest ones are the whole new operating system learning process and self-maintenance. With the price of total control, you sacrifice all the automatic maintenance features from a commercial operating system like Windows or Mac and the more things you add to the system, the more you have to be careful with how that will affect your entire system and most of these are fixed through the terminal. However, I think that it's still a better experience than the drawbacks you get from Windows, and would even argue that these problems and the nature of the system forces you to learn the INS-and-outs of the system and how it works. Thanks to various problems I have encountered both severe and minor, I was able to not only learn more about how Linux works, but also how computers work in general, and I am very glad that I chose to work with Linux.

Overall, my experience with Linux was very positive and isolating my work between two different environments not only mentally made my work much more efficient but also caused my productivity to increase. When I open my Linux system I feel much more aware, in control and focused and having Windows in the back as a generic system also makes me not forced or reliant on the penguin.

If you want to have a new computer experience or have any interest on trying out Linux, look for a distro that really fits your needs and start using it right away. Don't be afraid to look into forums and share your experience with people.