So I've decided to return to Linux. I've had an "on again, off again" love affair with the platform since the mid 90s. Back then you had to configure everything, networking was a nightmare, and chances are you had to create your own drivers for some of the hardware on your computer. Man, has Linux come a long way since then.
I picked up a gaming computer around 2021. It was mainly for processing video and trading crypto and not gaming. It came with Windows and I immediately installed a Linux partition. To my dismay, I just couldn't get my video editor to work good. So I mainly used Windows because most of the work I was doing at that time was based around video editing.
Almost 5 years later, I noticed the computer was starting to slow down a bit. I was already considering a switch to Linux. On top of that, I haven't been doing much video work. Then the other day, I was saving a "seed phrase" for a crypto wallet and I noticed it automatically was being saved to my One Drive. This is not good! Never put a seed phrase in the cloud.
What bothered me more than having the seed phrase saved to my One Drive was the fact that I kept on trying to remove OneDrive and no matter what I did, it kept coming back. Maybe I could ditch it for a day or two, then with the next update, Windows would load OneDrive again and automatically back up to the cloud :( This madness had to stop! I needed to take back control of my device! Enter Linux!
So I decided to return to my Linux partition. I booted up the computer to Linux. I opened up the terminal, typed in "sudo apt update" and Linux downloaded the latest updates for my machine and installed them.
The first thing I noticed was how fast the computer was again. It was like the day I bought it. No annoying AI prompts, no mandatory file backups to the cloud. I had resumed control of my device.
I think this is a big issue now. More and more, corporations like Microsoft force feed us AI, and cloud backups, without many ways to opt out. In the meantime, they share meta-data, sell it to the highest bidder, force software on us that we may not want or need. With Linux, those issues are gone.
So, I went with Ubuntu. It's what I already had installed on the machine. I originally started with Red Hat back in the 90s. Then I went with Fedora which is like Red Hat but designed more for the casual user rather than a commercial venture. Then I spent some time with OpenSuse. I almost always ran the KDE windows environment. I ended up going with Ubuntu down the road, due mainly to ease of use, and plenty of support. For the first time, I'm sticking with the Gnome Desktop.
I've tried Gnome a couple other times and always returned to KDE. KDE in my humble opinion is the closet thing you can get to a traditional Windows experience. With Gnome, the application launcher and desktop are a little different but intuitive and still easy to use. On top of that, KDE can be really resource intensive, just like Windows. Gnome is still a little lighter. For a really light version of a desktop there is the Cinnamon environment from Linux Mint. I think I used that on a Raspberry Pi once. If you're looking for a truly light desktop environment, Cinnamon is the lightest.
Ubuntu in my humble opinion makes Linux life incredibly easy. There isn't a lot of configuring with Ubuntu. Updates and support are plentiful. Multi media generally works right out of the box. It's just a painless way to experience Linux.
That's the downside of the freedom Linux gives you. Although you can make it do just about anything you'd want a computer to do with a little configuring and tinkering. It can however, be a bit fickle at times. Still, the trade off is worth it, if you don't want to get forced into the cloud and have AI take over your computer. 😝
One example of getting Linux to do what you want was an old laptop I turned into a DVR. With a little configuring I was able to plug my cable TV into an old video capture card and record movies directly from my TV. That took a lot of research, but in the end it was well worth it. It also left me with one hell of a DVD collection.
Gnome is growing on me this time around. Mainly because I'm tired of messing with desktops. It works, my computer is fast, and my software is working with the environment. So for the time being, I'm sticking with Gnome.
With this computer, I'm shocked at how fast everything runs again. Click on any program and it loads almost immediately. I'll probably have to screw around with my video editor a bit. Hopefully I can get that running right on Linux. For now, if I have to do any serious video editing, I can always return to my Windows partition.
The only other issue I had with Linux is the printing feature. Although Linux printing has come a long way, I'll stick with windows for that. When I have to ship orders for the resell business, I'll boot into Windows to print out the orders and shipping labels. Besides that, I'm really happy with the switch back to Linux.
Oh yeah, and lets not forget about software. Most everything on Linux is OpenSource and often free to use for non-commercial projects. You can also make a donation of your choice to the software companies you choose to support. That in my opinion is the best part. Software can get expensive and most of the Linux apps work just as good as their Windows and Mac counterparts. Libre Office is a great alternative to Microsoft Office.
My main computer right now is my gaming computer. My laptop is on it's last life. I'm pretty sure I'm going to shop for a Linux laptop the next time around. I don't do much gaming, and Linux generally covers most of my needs. With my laptop, I generally stick with email, social networking, blog posts, and some photo editing. I don't need a super powerful laptop.
Well, that's where I'm at right now with computing. Whatever happened to the Linux Mobile Phone projects? I'd love to get away from Android. I thought Ubuntu was working on Ubuntu phone. I wonder what happened? I'll have to research that and see what happened.
For now, I'm happily back to using my Linux desktop. It's incredible how a fresh Linux install can breath life back into an old computer. If you have an older machine laying around, and haven't tried out Linux before, I'd highly recommend giving it a try. At the very least, Linux is always a great way to get a couple more years out of an old and out dated computer!
Image credits: ChatGPT prompt "Tux installs Linux". Screenshot my desktop.
I use Ubuntu on my node machines, which are great for things like that but I am a mac guy when it comes to a daily driver. It's just easy to use, lol. Linux is a pain in the ass just for regular usage.
It can be at times. It seems like it gets better and easier to use every year. It does suck spending an entire day trying to figure out networking or some other small issue that's usually fixed with a single mouse click on windows or mac. 🤣
Never used Linux, but have an old laptop and seriously considering installing the system for the first time and try it out. More and more I read posts like this and it definitely seems Linux use is waaaay simpler than back in the day.
It has come a very long way since the early days. On top of that, the more you use it, the easier it gets. Like all things, you just have to adjust and maybe read an occasional manual entry. I absolutely love it most of the time. IMHO Ubuntu is the easiest for new Linux users. They bundle most of the multi-media drivers, and most everything should work right out of the box depending on your hardware. You can also create a live USB pen drive to try out the operating system and see how it works on your machine before installing it.
Had no idea about the pen drive stuff. Thanks for the useful tips!
I would have moved to linux again if my work didn't require me to use microsoft heavy environment. I loved the flexibility it has and that definitely is a way to revive older machine. To be fair, microsoft these days sucked but enterprises and corporation still use it a lot.
For me, it seems like I love every other release. For instance I can't remember which ones, but say I loved Windows 8 then Windows 10 sucked. Every time I fall in love with an OS release, they change everything I loved about it. With Linux, you can almost always set up exactly how you like it. MS Windows doesn't really give you that freedom.
I've been stuck on Windows for similar reasons as well. It does make it simple for just about everything. Which is why I think a lot of businesses stick with it.
I jumped to Linux Mint a little over 18 months ago because of the Windows 11 issues. Figured I'd get ahead of the curve, you know?
I'm with you on the use of linux for media servers/home theater setups. I have a 15 year old laptop sitting under my TV right now, connected to another PC via SMB for all of our TV shows and movies. Kodi works so well, it's incredible how I'm able to serve up all our media in our house.
I will disagree with you on gaming, though. I'm playing all the games I've wanted to play, with the exception of two: Teamfight Tactics and I went to check if I could try Highguard, but it too requires kernel level anti-cheat. So that's a nope for me. But if that's the worst I run into, I'm not that bent out of shape. I have plenty of games at my disposal, including older games without issue.
I may have to play around with some Linux gaming. I actually meant to include that in the post. I've heard that Linux gaming has come a long way since the last time I used it. That may be a project and post one day down the road when I'm a little bored and have some extra time on my hands.
I've seen some really cool media server projects. That's really cool and a really fun way to play around with linux. You can learn a lot playing around with those projects. I seen a lot of people were using RPI's for media servers back when I used to play around with my Raspberry Pi's. Funny that you mentioned that too, I just came across my RetroPi the other day doing some house cleaning. I've got that loaded with all the old vintage video games. I might have to hook that up again. Got me craving some Super Mario Brothers now! 🤓
Steam has a native Linux app and all Valve games work natively on Linux. TF2, CS:GO, everything. Most other games work rather well on Steam. I've been playing Grounded and Grounded 2 early access, I played the PoE2 early access, most GOG games work (I'm streaming The Chronicles of Riddick: Escape from Butcher Bay tonight), Dolphin, RetroArch and PCSX2 all have native apps that work like a charm. Hell, with Dolphin, I can plug in my Gamecube adapter that I bought for my Wii U (The one that came out with Smash U and also works on the switch) and play Gamecube games with a Gamecube controller. Native, one to one, it just plain works.
The only thing that doesn't work is any game with kernel level anti-cheat. So no Apex Legends, no Delta Force, no LoL or anything from Riot Games, I don't think Marathon worked during their server slam this weekend, either. So if those are games you care about, that's going to be a strong motivator. But if you're playing those games, you have other, more pressing issues to worry about...
I'm a huge fan of the movies. I may have to check this out now!
Overall, I don't do a lot of gaming, but I will have to see what's available now. I still have my Steam account. Now you've got me curious. Thanks :)
Stream starts at 20:00 EST. See you there?
No promises but I'll see what I can do. Thanks.
Congratulations @the-bitcoin-dood!
You raised your level and are now a Minnow!
Check out our last posts: