Linux

I finally decided to go full-time Linux again. I was on Windows 11 with this new laptop because, of course, your laptop will come with Windows… what other operating system is there? I couldn’t really stand it, though, and I used it less and less after the novelty of the hardware wore off. This was strictly Windows’ fault: its lack of customization, terrible terminal and scripting languages, stupid drives instead of mount points… and it’s slow. So off to Linux I went.

I wasn’t sure what distro I wanted to run, so I browsed through all the big names and even downloaded an Arch ISO. I tried Mint, Fedora, Debian, Nobara, openSUSE, and Pop!_OS. I REALLY wanted Pop!_OS to work, but I couldn’t get EVE Online running properly—not through Steam, not through Lutris, and not through Bottles. I didn’t try vanilla Wine, though; maybe I should have. I was able to get Debian, Fedora, Nobara, and Mint to work through Steam, so they were all on the short list. I hate RPMs, though, due to my past before a package manager hit RedHat (my first distro years ago). So that left me with Debian and Mint.

Mint was okay. I didn’t spend a WHOLE lot of time over there, but I liked some of the things they did. Their proprietary driver manager is nice, the default layout is familiar and friendly (because it looks like Windows out of the box), and it had some customization options. The main thing that turned me off, though, was its inability to slow down the touchpad speed. Damn, does that thing move fast without tweaking it.

I chose Debian and have no regrets. It’s slow to adopt new packages, plenty stable, and has a familiar package manager. Bookworm wasn’t nearly as behind the times as I thought it would be, and I’m still not really needing anything outside of the Debian repositories besides a few proprietary apps, such as Discord, IntelliJ, 1Password, and I believe Brave came from their own repositories. I also have an EVE Online intel tool installed from another location. Other than those apps, I’m really only using Flatpaks and the apt repos I mentioned. It’s been a while now, maybe 1.5 months or so, and Debian is working out great.

Getting up and running was pretty straightforward. I found the documentation on how to get the proprietary Nvidia drivers installed and enabled 32-bit support for Steam. Steam came from non-free, I think? Not sure exactly which repo it came from, but they don’t do anything to keep Steam from updating itself, so at least THAT’s up to date.

Everything isn’t perfect, but by far it’s better than Windows. My apps are snappy, the apps I develop are snappier, and the system as a whole is just more comfortable for me. I’ve had issues, however. For some reason, my Bluetooth mouse will no longer pair with the PC, so I had to resort to the RF module that it came with. I didn’t have window previews when hovering over them in my taskbar, but I managed to dig up help on that one and got it working. EVE doesn’t always run at max frame rates, causing me to have to reboot more often than I normally would. I’ll blame that on being a laptop and assume Linux doesn’t sleep very well still. OBS sometimes loses the ability to capture my screen. I still haven’t figured that one out, but I fixed it somehow—maybe it was just a reboot too… I can’t remember. Other than those issues, though, I haven’t had any serious problems with the OS.

Software development on Linux has always been good. Compilers run fast, apps seem like they have nothing getting in their way, and I much prefer GNU CLI tools over Windows tools. Now, in Windows, I always have the Git for Windows package installed, so that brings with it some GNU tools, which I end up using instead. It’s OK doing that… still Windows, but at least the CLI feels better. Docker is also part of my general workflow. I like Docker build images because you ALWAYS have a fresh environment for building, so I can guarantee the apps will build wherever I pull them down. Docker on Windows… garbage. Maybe it’s better now, who knows, but I hated Docker Desktop on my Mac and on my previous Windows computer, so I never installed it on my laptop.

Gaming on Linux… damn, do I love it. Thanks, Valve, for putting so much work into the Steam Deck and into Proton. You’ve really changed the landscape. With virtual desktops, multiboxing in EVE is so much easier. I don’t do much combat, so I’m mainly switching between industry characters hauling things, building things, auditing things, and resetting things. My current setup works wonderfully for all of that. Just a simple three-finger swipe to get to my other character, and it feels natural. The muscle memory comes quick too. I’ve thoroughly enjoyed running my favorite games in this OS.

If you’ve never given Linux a try and feel comfortable with computers, then installing it is as simple as walking through the installer. It’s really that simple. You don’t HAVE to know how computers work to run a Linux distro anymore… unless it’s Arch, by the way. You generally just have to pick a timezone, a locale (language), make your user and password, and let the installer format your hard drive (pick the recommended way when it comes to the drive setup). Then all you have to do is get used to the tools that the distro comes with and enjoy your computing time again.