About two weeks ago, I posted my frustrations with Linux, and how it seemed unstable and breaks too easily. At the time, that had been my experience every time I tried Linux over the last 20 years.
But I made an effort to persist, tried some other distros, and found my happy place!
Thank you to the people who sent me on the path of “atomic” distros, and mentioning the likes of Bazzite, Bluefin, and Aurora (All from the Universal Blue group).
The last two weeks have been pure Linux joy on my daily-driver (Framework laptop), with only a few problem-solving expeditions.
I was looking for stability, and got it!
As a Windows user since the 90s, it’s such a breath of fresh air to use an OS that’s clean and designed to serve me (and not the corporation in charge!).
And I’ve also replaced windows on the minipc hooked up to our family room TV, and will also replace Windows that I’ve got on a lesser used desktop.
It’s exciting to see just how far Linux has come, and even though I’ll likely need to learn some terminal commands, I don’t feel it’s necessary for most people to even get into that.
The GUI in both KDE and Gnome already offer more than Windows. And I’ll never have to see those goddamn pop-ups and banners about Office 365, OneDrive, or Xbox, at least not outside a VM!)
Freeeeeedom!
Thanks again!
Same. Bazzite was the first distro I used that had a great “out of the box” experience, with fractional scaling, gear lever, gamescope, caffeine, tiling shell, seamless background updates, etc.
Cool to see them grow beyond their initial notariety as a handheld distro and into one of the top recommended distros for beginners.
I switched to Bazzite for my new gaming PC and it’s worked great without any major issues.
The only problem I have is that I’m still not sure how to install software that isn’t through flatpak or package layering.
I’ve been a Linux user for years and had plenty of similar experiences when trying to make the transition.
Let me tell you, I know very minimal amounts of commands off the top of my head, but I know for certain if I have an issue or want to change something advanced, there is definitely an excellent article or post somewhere that can help me
Hey. Thanks for the update! As someone whose experience was heavily windows apart from some failed Linux attempts, your experience switching now is an excellent comparison.
Glad the story got better in the second act.
Keep the story going. Please update.
Thanks for persevering also.
While I run straight Fedora on some of my systems now, I do agree the Atomic versions are a boon for stability.
Used to use Ubuntu and Mint for desktops, but they are a bit too vintage with the kernel and package versions, and everything is moving very fast with Wayland replacing X11 and lots of kernel driver improvements for modern hardware (especially AMD hardware), so being on Fedora is the next best thing to the bleedingest edge Arch when it comes to uptodateness.
Honestly I’ve daily-driven Fedora, Mint, and Ubuntu and I can’t say I saw a fraction of the problems that you did.
I will say that I struggled with PopOS – despite claiming to be the most Nvidia and gaming friendly distro, it gave me endless trouble with the Nvidia graphics in my gaming laptop. Mint and Ubuntu, though, never had a whiff of trouble. I’m on Ubuntu now with no complaints.
Same issues with Pop!_OS – I’m having a much better time on Nobara. But you’re making me want to try Kubuntu… still haven’t found my happiest place but I’m happy :)
I really don’t know what the problem was with Ubuntu. I had issues every time I tried… but funny enough, these problems seemed to only happen if I was running a live USB or an installed copy. Ubuntu or Mint on a VM seems to work just fine! LOL
Oh well, I’m quite happy with where I’m at now, but I’m glad that my past issues don’t seem common or “normal”.