As I’ve mentioned a few times in the past, I’m quite an avid Linux user and have been for a long time. All my rack machines run Ubuntu Jammy, and I’ve been running Arch on my laptop ever since I got it.
However, I haven’t used Linux on my desktop machine since about 2 years ago when my budget SSDs shat themselves. I quickly bought a 4TB Samsung NVME replacement and decided to go the Windows route because of games and music software. I’ve been using Windows 10 since then, and I think it affected me in odd ways.
I’ve always found myself more productive in Linux, even if I have all the same distractions installed. No idea why, I find it just way easier to concentrate. Using Windows, I find myself just procrastinating. Even if I want to play a game, I usually end up scrolling up and down my Steam game list. I’ll open Goland to code something, I’ll get distracted on YouTube. I’m not sure why, but for me Linux just means getting shit done.
I think the only thing I’ll really have issues with are the music production apps I use. Reaper now has a Linux native release, and wrappers exist for VST plugins, so maybe I’ll be ok. If not, Windows is still sitting there ready for me when I need it.
What prompted me
After 2 years of using Windows and not really thinking too much of it, the final nudge to head back to the penguin was Microsoft’s decision to start showing ads in Windows 11. Support for 10 was ending next year, so to avoid being forced to update I thought I’d changeover now.
It shits me how all these paid services are suddenly deciding to flood me with ads. I block most ad serving domains on my opnsense router, plus I use Brave with Privacy badger so any other ads that do slip through end up not being served generally. I’m usually happy to pay for things, but I can’t see why I should if they’re still going to aggressively monetise me through ads and data collection. Maybe low interest rates have dried up all the VC money and they need to make up the shortfall. Maybe bonuses are aligned in a rather daft fashion, and force executives to make stupidly short sighted decisions. Either way, the end user is losing out.