Linux

If you want to read the story of how and why I switched over to Linux, check this previous post. Today I’m mostly going to share some general thoughts on the operating system, and then get into details on some of the stuff I installed or configured on it. This includes efforts to achieve parity with what I had on Windows, as well as some new stuff I hadn’t done before. 

Overview

I’ll kick off by saying that I think the distro I picked, Bazzite, is great.

Its ‘immutable’ nature includes good guardrails to prevent enthusiastic amateurs breaking their OS, but you will still find yourself able to follow various guides that involve e.g. use of the Terminal and grasping new technical concepts, which is a great way to dip toes into the Linux waters.

The OS is clean and performant, and the basic GUI layout – taskbar, ‘start’ menu, desktop etc – will be familiar to Windows users, especially those who long for earlier eras where Windows could be cleaner and simpler. A wide range of software can be installed with a few clicks from the Bazaar, a frontend you can search or just browse categories in.

Moving away from Windows OS has been on the cards for a while now. Microsoft are a prominent fixture on the BDS consumer boycott list, for one. They’re also major players in the ongoing insane genAI / data centre arms race, that joyous economic bubble and source of negative ecological impact at precisely the historic juncture where human civilisation needs it least. Even from a base consumer perspective, they’ve been blasting themselves in the foot with both barrels for some time, between the strategic decisions with their Xbox gaming division and their closure of beloved, sometimes only recently acquired, games studios (they are not the worst offenders in the M&A insanities of the past decade in the games industry, though this is a low bar). 

There’s also the small issue that my PC, which has been happily running Windows 10 for some years, does not and cannot support Windows 11. Another of Microsoft’s strategic decisions has been to cut support for Windows 10 earlier than they have for any other OS with its market share. Thanks, dickheads. And it’s not as if I was keen on Win11 anyway, as it looks like a bloated, AI-infested, data-harvesting, always-online, MS-account-centred cesspit.