For the past 4 years, I’ve been using Linux on my computer. No dual booting, no Windows, no Mac, no BSD. Just Linux.
In few weeks I’ll write a detailed post on my blog about how I got started with Linux and why I’m switching away. In that post, I’ll talk about the experiences I’ve had trying all these operating systems, but for now, this will be a brief update.
After the past year of using Arch Linux, I decided that if I’m going to be serious about being a solopreneur/indie hacker/bootstrapper/whatever you want to call it in the near future, the small inconveniences of trying to do real business on Arch Linux will overwhelm me. From trying to connect AirPods via Bluetooth for calls, to explaining to someone why the video call software isn’t working on my computer, it isn’t worth the hassle. Surprisingly when it comes to video calls it’s not that bad, but the few times when it causes trouble could mean a lost client.
There are also small things that turn into rabbit holes. st doesn’t have scrolling out of the box? Now I need to find a patch, or write one in C, to make my terminal scrollable. This kind of stuff is fun when you’re a young kid that has a lot of free time, but I figured I’m just on the far edge of that, and I don’t look forward anymore to hacking away at my system all day to make it work.
I’ll happily take some good defaults so I can have time for things which I feel are more important.
Over the past couple days, I’ve dusted off my 2020 MacBook Air which I bought to attend my final semester of university online due to COVID. As luck would have it, the university used the only video calling software that simply would not run on Linux.
But now, I’m glad I have it. It’s my new primary workstation, and I can already feel the relief of not wondering why my battery percentage indicator decided to spit out extra characters today.