So, I have forced myself back on Linux, as the best way to get myself to drive it on my desktop daily is to switch to it for my daily driver. I started driving daily on my mini PC, a couple-year-old Beelink with a Ryzen process. With that said, I replaced my laptop with a Framework 13 with the Ryzen 5 7640U, which is more than powerful enough to be my desktop and laptop using a Thunderbolt dock at home.
Why I Am Moving Back
The biggest reason I want to force myself back on Linux is that I am tired of getting caught up in all the different FOMO of the tech stuff around iOS and MacOS. I think it is lovely to go back to remembering what it is like to own my OS and hardware, letting it run for much longer without feeling that I need to constantly upgrade. This is especially true right now with the cost of everything going up and me focusing on not wanting to spend much anymore. Locking into this laptop that can double as my desktop, and I can easily repair and make upgrades over time with it.
Finding That Sweet Spot
It has taken me a bit to figure out exactly what operating system, desktop interface, and all I want to run. I have been experimenting and playing around with the different tooling out there. While I enjoyed the GNOME desktop, even with 48, I have found it to still be buggy here and there with some roughness around the edges. I tried out COSMIC, and it has a lot of promise as well, but it’s still in Alpha, and thus, I’m not going to put it down for its bugs because they are reported, and they are working on it. That said, my most reliable and stable experience so far is on KDE desktop.
KDE gives me that modern feel while still having that familiar experience. I really enjoy the fact I can sit back and just have system tray icons work, desktop doesn’t randomly freeze and crash on me, and while I sorta like the minimalism of some of the newer GTK applications, KDE has started to work through modernizing several applications to not feel as dated either. That said, sticking with the default KDE theme, GTK apps don’t feel that out of place on the KDE desktop.
Going With Solid Base
So, I am playing around and testing the waters out. I found myself landing on Fedora with their KDE Workstation edition, which is now an official mainline DE rather than just a spin. I was very impressed and enjoyed it even during the beta. The biggest reason for not going to Debian or Ubuntu based images, I found myself where my day job is mainly managing Red Hat Enterprise Linux servers to be more in line with the same upstream base to be similar. I also enjoy the resources and abundance of documentation around things. Also, while it is a hot-topic issue, I prefer the SELinux security tooling, just as someone who has been able to see at the enterprise how good it has been at helping defend against exploits in some software, giving us time to patch and secure.
Linux Rough Edges
While I would love to say it has been smooth sailing and not that issue-prone, it hasn’t been. I have had to deal with some headaches around getting some older software I rely on to work, also giving up some of the paid software I have grown to enjoy such as Fork and emClient to replace them with things like Thunderbird and GitKraken(though I am seeking an alternative to this one).
For my gaming, I have my older desktop placed into a Sliger case and racked up so that I can boot it up remotely and keep playing my few games I love that don’t play well with Linux due to Anti-Cheat but using Sunshine and Moonlight are more than enough to let me enjoy my games over my 2.5 gigabit home networking. This also allows me to save power and keep my room from getting too warm when gaming, as the laptop doesn’t use nearly as much power nor put out as much heat.
Finally, for my VR, I have the little rig I have purpose-built next to me for playing VR occasionally, which is nice. Still, I have to keep that separate as the Linux experience isn’t really there yet for many VR Titles. I have looked at doing the VR over something like AirLink from my rack in my basement. Still, the latency and tracking aren’t that reliable. So, for now, sticking with my local small rig for that.
