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I started this as a comment on @felipe's post "What is your story with Linux? Me first:" but decided it was getting a bit long.

How it Began

It started on my first day at my first job in tech. I was working part time and being trained by a retired IT guy that had built the computers and set up the servers I was going to manage. He showed my my workstation which was running some Linux distro. I knew nothing about Linux at the time and I don't recall which distro it was. I am pretty sure it was using KDE though. He just called it Linux. At the time I was using OS X (now called Mac OS). I didn't dive into Linux at all. I only used it when I had to use it.
Fast forward a few years and our team was tasked with launching a set of web sites and I needed to set up servers for hosting them. I had never done this before. I hired a consultant to help me evaluate and do the work. He was a Linux guy, and also a Vim user and regularly encouraged me to dive into Vim. I'm still grateful for that. He was a Debian fan but due to my limited knowledge of Linux and upper management's desire for support we went with Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL). What is funny is I now work at Red Hat. I started learning more and more about Linux servers as I ran them. I set up many Debian servers and have been using Linux on the server ever since. I still default to Debian when I need to set up a server. I know it best. Over the years hosting web sites for myself and others has taught me quite a bit about Linux but that is only the first part.

The Year of the Linux Desktop

In 2020 I started working at Red Hat. I stayed on MacOS but over the years I had started to tire of Apple's neglect of their operating system, their increased focus on iOS and making MacOS more like iOS. I wanted to do things that MacOS just couldn't do. My job required a lot of use of Docker and MacOS at the time was painfully bad at running Docker Desktop. In 2021 I'd finally had it with their hardware as well and decided to try to make a go all in using Linux on the desktop. After all I now worked at a Linux company and had many co-workers that used Linux as their main OS.
I did my research and decided to go with Fedora since I like the desktop environment. I later learned that DE is not a great reason to choose a distro. But, all and all Fedora has been solid and I haven't been tempted to go back to MacOS. I bought an early Framework laptops and soon after requested a company issued Thinkpad. I installed Fedora on both and haven't looked back.
I've tried Arch but its never stuck as my daily driver. I still use it on an old Thinkpad from time to time. I'm planning to try NixOS soon. I've also tried to use a couple tiling window managers but just haven't been able to make the jump yet. I think that's where I will land as I have used Tmux for my development work for 10+ years now and I like the UX. Linux has an amazing ecosystem and there's so much you can do with it. I now recommend anyone getting into programming or working in IT start using it as their main workstation. I wish I had done it much sooner. Thankfully there was a lot of knowledge I gained using MacOS that transferred to Linux since they share the same origin but there is no substitute for Linux.
178 sats \ 1 reply \ @felipe 4 Mar
Hey @kepford! Thanks for you contribution!
A few recommendations:
You should try Debian as your daily driver as well. I'm pretty sure you're going to love it. It's so simple and rock solid stable.
Maybe you've already read it but, in case not, you could take a look at the official Debian Handbook. It's an excellent read.
As you can see I'm a huge Debian fan, hahah.
About tiling window managers, try sticking with i3 for a week or two. I promise you'll be proficient enough and probably won't even try to get back using DEs anymore.
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Yeah you are probably right on all accounts. Thanks!
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Hehe, when I first glanced through and read "The Year of the Linux Desktop" my mind went back to the late nineties, that was a thing even back then! ;-)
One of the really great things about running QubesOS is that I get access to almost any distro that I like, although it defaults to Debian and Fedora most of the time. Windows work, but requires some maintenance.
I've had several instances fail recently outside of QubesOS, but I suspect that is more about the old Thinkpads I've been running rather than RockyLinux and Mint themselves. All of that UEFI shit is soooo toxic...
Linux can for sure be used as a desktop OS these days, but my experience is that there is always something happening, not with device management so much these days, but unfortunately lower level.
Do you have any thoughts on the BSD variants? I've been testing OpenBSD now and then, simply to get used to it so that I can migrate to that kernel if communists get to the Linux kernel for real...
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43 sats \ 0 replies \ @freetx 8 Mar
My condensed history.
  1. In 1993 used a NeXT cube at university. Got to know Unix, started to hate MS DOS
  2. 1994 heard about this "linux thing". Struggled to download 27 floppies and install on home PC. Struggled to get it setup and working (imagine trying to configure X when you have no internet). Eventually got it working after much trial and error....
  3. From 94 onwards used Linux both at home and professionally (my new company was administering web and email setups).
  4. In 99 heard about Jobs returning to Apple and bringing NeXT with him....
  5. In 04 eventually bought a macbook and started to use MacOS on my personal machine, while continuing to use Linux on servers.
  6. By 2015 it was clear that Apple was turning into a company that I didn't really like anymore, so decided to migrate back to Linux
  7. Initially went to Debian, but eventually settled on Fedora / RHEL.
  8. Currently I'm running RHEL (Alma9) on my personal machines and servers, but will probably move to Silverblue on personal machines and keep Alma9 on servers.
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I use MacOS now, but I vow that this Apple Macbook Pro will be the last Apple product I buy. I have become revolted by Apple's lack of transparency with their new M1 chipset. I tried to find a linux distro that I could install and run on a thumb drive (Tails, Qubes, Whonix, etc) none work and Apple refuses to work with the Linux community to make this happen. VirtualBox no longer works on the latest line. Not to mention that they forced Nostr to remove zapping in app. I am...so...done.
I do most of my work on the command line, so I am quite familiar with *nix. My next laptop/workstation will be Linux without question.
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I'd recommend getting an old laptop that is well supported by QubesOS, the HCL list has lots of those that are inexpensive.
The pure, brute power you get using QubesOS is hard to describe, writing this in VM that holds everything for the Lightworks account well separated from anything else I do.
It won't become the main driver for anyone the first months I think, which is why getting it on a separate device to start learning its ways is the most realistic :-)
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Yeah, sounds like you are ready for Linux. The best time to try it is yesterday, the next best time is now.
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Been working with Linux remotely for years. It's just my primary workstation is this Macbook Pro with the M1 chipset. My next move is to transition Bitcoin core full node from the laptop to a dedicated linux mini server. Raspberry Pi is too small, so something along the lines of a Dell Optiplex looks suitable.
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33 sats \ 1 reply \ @hodlme 4 Mar
Similar to Tmux but (IMO) more GUI user-friendly, I suggest Tilix. While I also use a tiling window manager, it's sometimes nice to have a group of arranged terminal windows that you can move around as a window.
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Thanks. At this point I have Tmux so dialed in I'm not looking for an alternative.
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Which Linux distro would you suggest for my 1973 Brother Delux 1522 type writer?
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netbsd. It's nearly as old and runs on almost anything.
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LOL
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33 sats \ 1 reply \ @hodlme 4 Mar
For a tiling window manager, try Qtile. It's written in Python (anyone sensing a theme yet?) and the configuration file is Python, which allows for some handy conveniences as well as some odd quirks.
I've added key bindings to do things like
  • resize the current window with <win>+up/down/left/right
  • move a window around within the current desktop <win>+<shift>+up/down/left/right
  • move a window to a specific desktop <win>+<shift>+[1-9]
  • switch to a specific desktop <win>+[1-9]
  • open a terminal <win>+<alt>+t
  • open a file manager <win>+<alt>+d
  • run a command <win>+`
  • kill the current window <win>+Escape
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Thanks. I hear this one mentioned sometimes.
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33 sats \ 2 replies \ @doofus 4 Mar
I tried Fedora, but just knew the commands to Debian systems better and didn’t take enough time learn it.
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I don't really like dnf (the package manager used by Fedora). I prefer apt.
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If shilling Archlinux is fine, let me add yay. Colors, ease of use with shortcuts.
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Nice story! I didn't know Mac OS X is now called Mac OS. I wanted to work at RedHat too, but I progressively gave up with their corona virus vaccination requirements displayed on their job offerings.
What did you dislike with Archlinux? It has been my main OS since 2015 I think, never went back to another. Initially the big advantage of Archlinux was to configure everything in one file, like in Freebsd. However it is not the case anymore with systemd. Yet, it is a minimal install, with AUR packages, a good wiki, rolling-release system. For the others I installed Manjaro and more recently Endeavouros.
That being said, my Linux story is at first on a PowerPC macbook, I wanted to install Linux because a friend at the university was using it on his PC, with KDE 3.5 or something at the time. Beautiful desktop, icons, etc. So I tried on PowerPC, at the time struggled with YouTube videos because of flash player compatibilities. I struggled with plenty of other things like xorg, the keyboard, etc, but thanks to these struggles I learned a lot during this time. Then stopped using macbooks because I was always inexplicably pushed to touch something I was not supposed to in the OS, like change a setting here and there, etc. In the end I wanted to work for a time as a sysadmin but at least in Japan it can be boring and/or painful (people working with night shifts) so I gave up there too. I chose the path of least resistance which is the software industry. In my case I use Asus PCs so I can recommend it, however sometimes I found even for a high price point, Asus uses realtek chips (in my experience, realtek = poor Linux support) so depending on the batch it can be a bad pick. For machine learning since there is a gaming series Asus can be good for compatible laptops with Linux.
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I am very new to GNU/Linux. Back in 2022 I committed to getting Ubuntu setup on an old laptop. It was easy enough for a noob like me so I appreciated that. I want to become fluent with the CLI/terminal side of using Linux.
I am thinking I should try something besides Ubuntu. I played with Kali for a quick bit when I wanted to learn more about cyber security. I may try to get that same old laptop setup with Kali instead of Ubuntu.
Any pointers for a noob?
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For a noob would you recommend Pop!_OS, Debian or Fedora?
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They are all good. Debian and Pop are very similar. Fedora is great and if comes with Gnome which is the desktop environment. If you are coming from MacOS Gnome will feel more like what you are used to. But you can use Gnome on any of the distros.
I think Pop and Debian have more packages/apps in their systems so if that is important go with either of them. I've not use used Pop but many people love it. Debian is incredibly solid. I have never tried to use it as a desktop but I hear it is great.
I'd say just pick one and go. Any of those three would be a good start.
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I'm waiting for Asahi Linux...
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Why?
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I know that some compatibility problems Linux (Asahi) have with M1. I think it's a matter of time when they fix this. And then installation Linux on M1.
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there is no substitute for Linux
BSD is great as well, specially OpenBSD.
stackers have outlawed this. turn on wild west mode in your /settings to see outlawed content.
stackers have outlawed this. turn on wild west mode in your /settings to see outlawed content.