After three months of using Linux, I don’t miss Windows at all

In January i Finally it got good On my country The threat/promise of installing Linux on your desktop. I wanted to see how far I could get with using a Linux PC as my main computer without doing a bunch of research beforehand or troubleshooting afterwards. Since then, I’ve booted into Windows exactly twice: once to scan a multi-page document that didn’t scan properly in Linux, and once to print a photo for my kids’ school on very short notice. There’s a reason it took me three months to write the next part in my Linux diary: nothing went terribly wrong.

It didn’t take long for my Linux installation to stop feeling new and exciting and start feeling like my own computer. it’s not exactly Like a less annoying version of Windows, even though it’s less annoying than Windows, it was a much easier transition than I thought. There are sometimes a few extra steps to find and install apps — usually easier than with Windows, sometimes more difficult. There are some applications that I have not yet been able to replicate in Linux. I also encountered a few fun bugs, and some really frustrating moments, but the overall experience is much calmer and more robust than I expected. Even troubleshooting is (mostly) satisfying in a weird way.

Fortunately, everything that has gone wrong so far is over slight Wrong, like a gaming mouse only works in games, and most of them were pretty funny, like a gaming mouse only works in games. Some of them relate to specific devices I use, or specific options I to make. (save My enemy, the HP OfficeJet 8720 printer(For one.) Some of it has to do with the fact that I chose a relatively new one Rolling distribution It’s based on Arch Linux rather than a more mainstream distribution with a predictable release cycle, like Ubuntu.

This is my favorite fix so far. CachyOS comes with Snappera built-in imaging service that stores snapshots of the operating system before you install or update software, so you can roll back if something goes wrong. 50 snapshots are saved by default, which are stored in the boot partition. When you installed CachyOS, you chose the recommended size for this partition, which is 2GB. That filled up pretty quickly, and after a few weeks Snapper started warning me that it was running out of space and that it wouldn’t take any more snapshots (the default is 50, but it doesn’t have space to store 50 snapshots). CachyOS has since changed its installer to the 4GB partition by default, but it was too late to help me. There was only one thing to do: reboot to the live image, shrink the rightmost partition by 2GB, and then scroll Each volume is on disk To the right of the boot partition by 2 GB, one by one, to make room for expanding the boot partition. It’s silly that I had to do this, but it was easy enough, and kind of satisfying in a tangible way.

In January, I noticed that I couldn’t get an IP address from my router on my ethernet connection after waking from sleep unless I connected to a Wi-Fi network first. This led me to the damned top wall. Fortunately, I could continue to use the computer while I troubleshooted because I have both Wi-Fi and Ethernet, but I prefer Ethernet, so I had to fix it. I learned that the default driver used by the Linux kernel for my Ethernet card didn’t always work well, so I installed a new driver. I turned off IPv6 and then turned it back on. I made sure my wired connections recognized themselves as different devices from the router, although that didn’t help. You have set a static IP address on both your router and computer. I have extended my DHCP lease timeout. Finally found the real culprit.

Several years ago, in an attempt to get multi-generational Sonos speakers to work well with my Unifi router (it’s a whole thing), I followed some advice on a forum and enabled STP — an older port-scanning protocol — on my network adapter. This was fine on my Windows PC, but on Linux, it made getting the IP address from the router take a long time every time the ethernet card stopped. Disabling it solved the issue with the desktop and I finally got the Era 100 in my kitchen that constantly shows up in the Sonos app. Figuring out how to fix a problem on an operating system I’ve been using for a few weeks happened to solve a problem I created while trying to fix a problem. various Problem on a different OS a few years ago. We learn by doing!

My current problem is that the microphone on the Logitech Brio webcam does not always transmit sound. Sometimes no one can hear me from the beginning; Other times it stops working between one meeting and the next, and more recently it gets deleted mid-sentence. Maybe this is because I installed it Easy effectsBut I’m not sure yet. I have another microphone, and also other computers, if really needed. If I didn’t, I would probably be more upset. Maybe bothered enough to fix it.

On the other hand, sometimes problems solve themselves if you wait. I wanted to find a way to add text extraction to the screenshot utility in KDE Plasma – a feature I missed in other operating systems. The solution was to wait a week until Cachy was updated to Plasma 6.6, which added that feature. Score another point for laziness.

When I last wrote about my experience with CachyOS, I bemoaned the absence of Arc Browser. Several readers pointed it out to me beautifulwhich is basically Arc but open source and built on Firefox, is already good enough. Thank you, readers. I also caught a Spotify client From the Arch user repository. I set up git and recompiled the ZMK firmware For my number plate. So I got Zamak Studio – GUI keymap editor – works. Instead of Photoshop, I used Photoopia Web application. It might not be as taxing if I had to edit a bunch of photos, but so far I haven’t had to.

I haven’t finished installing Welcome To unlock your webcam’s facial recognition because it doesn’t seem as secure as Windows Hello. Windows Hello uses 3D infrared face mapping; By the developer’s own admission, you’re welcome, apparently Fooled by the image. I’m not worried about my kids printing out pictures of me so they can run sudo commands on my computer, but for now I type in my password every time. Microsoft and Apple have invested a lot of money into installing biometric authentication, and Linux’s “hope someone volunteers to do it” approach really puts the ecosystem at a disadvantage. Fingerprint authentication seems to work fine, but my desktop doesn’t have a fingerprint reader.

Cachy works well for gaming, with the caveat that I still don’t play competitive multiplayer games or anything that requires anti-cheat — or anything that really pushes my RTX 4070 Super, for that matter. I got Minecraft: Bedrock Edition work with MCPE launcher; All I had to do was enable remote login and disable the vibrant visuals. My kids kind of fell flat Minecraft But we had a good few weeks there. I also played a little bit of Hard Space: Shipbreaker, The decline of esotericism (great game), May Caves (living and drinking), and Baldur’s Gate 3 (Just a little). They all went well. I played Solid space Through Heroic Games Launcher, and the rest through Steam.

Last time, I mentioned a weird bug where my old gaming mouse was just working in Games, not outside of them. that it Apparently repairablebut I replaced it anyway with Kikron M5 The vertical mouse, which has been great in and out of the game and has largely replaced my trackball, was a surprise to me.

Current remorse level: still zero

You might be wondering: why would I put up with a computer I had to convince him to get Wired Does the ethernet work, which sometimes completely forgets the microphone on my webcam, and refuses to sleep for unknown reasons at unexpected intervals? That’s because those are outliers. It mostly just works, and figuring out how to fix things that don’t work is fun.

I was happy on Windows until I wasn’t. I liked Windows! I’ve been using it since I was a kid, and I’ve been building my own desktop computers for nearly 20 years. It wasn’t me who decided to destroy the Start menu by making it search Bing instead of My Files; I did not violate indexing; I haven’t renamed the application that launches Office documents so many times that my computer forgets how to open Word documents. I didn’t sign up for any of that. for me The options didn’t make Windows worse. It’s no fun fixing Windows when it crashes because Microsoft is shipping its organizational chart.

But if my Linux browser can’t find my webcam microphone because I installed Easy effects Without bothering to read the documents, brother, that’s on me. Likewise, if half of my operating system is suddenly in French, that’s why I enjoy it. I signed up for this situation; It wasn’t imposed on me. It’s the difference between running because you want to go jogging and running because you’re late for the train.

Linux is built on Unix philosophy: It’s made up of lots of small pieces of standard software that each do one thing well, rather than huge, monolithic software that tries to do everything for everyone. It’s like a Lego box, not an action figure. I’m having a good time with metaphors today. The skills I build by knowing how to install a spell checker, change drivers, add a software repository, or configure git are transferable to the rest of the operating system and a lot of software as well. I think that’s neat.

I haven’t completely moved away from Windows. My laptop is still running Windows at the moment, and I have to hand it to Microsoft: the Surface Pro is a great tablet. Of course, it would be better if Windows were less annoying, however Microsoft is aware of this. And I need to be up to date with Windows for my job. But it turns out I don’t need to run Windows on my desktop, and I have more fun with Linux, so I’ll stick with that.