It has always been in the back of my mind to rid myself of Windows and convert to Linux but I grew up with Microsoft’s products. I still remember the wonderful Windows 3.5 and used to play a LOT of Pinball (from 95 to XP) smashing the spacebar relentlessly. It’s really hard to break up with someone you’ve stuck with most of your life; not to mention I do like the convenience of a Windows machine and how I know it pretty much inside and out by now. Windows has never let me down…save for the few blue screens of death, a couple of inexplicable deaths and some seriously aggrevating reinstalls…

So why change?

Microsoft lost the plot

I get that the new slogan for tech is ‘privacy is dead’ but do you have to execute it in such a public manner?

No more games for me

I haven’t gone on a rampage ride in Euro Truck Simulator in a long, long time and my loyal subjects in Democracy 3 haven’t had to endure my tyran–leadership in a while.

Editing open source

Film and photography is a very expensive hobby. You have to buy a decent DSLR then start buying lenses, lights, tripods, rigs and when you are all kitted out (which never really happens) you have to pay the Adobe gods every month…Seriously, I needed another hobby, like programming…oh wait. Slowly but surely I have moved to open source alternatives for all my media editing tools as well as LibreOffice or Google Docs and co.

Apple eww

As an avid Microsoft/Android user I was always a great opposer of anything Apple (greed is why this planet is in the state that it is right now. I spare you the green rant now…). Then I have started my apprenticeship at Wellcome and got a Macbook as a work computer. It’s been two months, I still hate it. But it has jostled me out of my little comfort zone enough that I got curious about what else was out there.

You develop on Windows? Haha!

Yes, there is a stigma amongst developers using Windows for development. As I got more into the work I had to realise that it does, in fact, make my life a tad harder.

Ubuntu on

A few days ago I’ve finally made the jump. Didn’t go for dual boot but went straight ahead purging Windows completely. Since then I got into a bootloop (not Ubuntu’s fault. But on a related note, it’s so much fun trying to troubleshoot a bootloop on an SSD /s) and lost sound (again, not Ubuntu’s fault, I’ve got a bit trigger happy and deleted a system folder…long story. I’ve fixed it).

First impressions It smells a lot like Apple - and I don’t mean Unix but the looks. Really don’t like the whole dock concept, that it has to be seperate from the system tray. Such a waste of screen space. The GUI doesn’t give you much access to the things behind the scenes. I have no clue about my drivers, what hardware Linux can see etc. I’m sure there’s a way to tickle it out of the command line but I am a lazy and visual person who’d prefer to click it out.

Spotify on Windows is pretty much the king. Having to only hover over the icon on the tray and be able to control the thing is the definition of user-friendly design. On the Mac I have to right click and on Linux (for which btw, huge thanks to the Spotify devs who built in in their own time) first click the clock to be able to skip a song. Did I mention I am lazy?

Despite my small gripes however, I am keen to continue this journey!

Written on my Ubuntu machine