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!
Glad you’re enjoying it! Linux is incredible nowadays. I’ve been using it for decades, still have to lookup terminal commands. Way she goes
I mean, even just the fact that everything seems to simply work (i.e. drivers) without messing around is mind-blowing. Huge kudos to anyone who’s helped to build Linux into what it is today.
It’ll be interesting to see how my desktop handles it. It’s like 15 years old, and I remember always having to mess around to get things working right, especially wifi.
I think Linux looks intimidating when you’re first getting into it, but once you realize it’s not user-hostile by design like windows, you really begin to appreciate the experience.
it’s not user-hostile by design like windows
Truth!
You install Linux, and you start using Linux.
With Windows, you go through a painfully long installation process, then spend another hour debloating all the shortcuts and shit it installs. Then more time closing out boxes for offers. Then you have to harden it before your data is stolen…
Don’t get me wrong, Windows has been stable and reliable for me, but this is likely due to the fact that my installation has been tweaked over the years. Using it fresh is a horrible experience. Reminds me of using the internet without an adblocker! LOL
Love to read this, I’m exactly on the same journey! Was using Mint until a few days ago, and now I’m on Aurora. There is a bit of a learning curve due to the atomic factor (some apps aren’t in Discover), but overall I’m happy with the stability.
Linux is truly wonderful and I look forward to learning more and seeing it grow. Fuck Microsoft, I’m done with their crap.
Yes! As much as I wanted to love Mint and Ubuntu, they just didn’t work well for me. Aurora has been amazing.
I am trying to stay with Flatpak apps (for convenience and probably stability, too), but I feel pretty safe installing apps outside of Discover, if needed. Fortunately, most of the stuff I use is already supported as a Flatpak, so it hasn’t been a big shock.
I feel like if people started on Linux first, moving to Windows would seem like a massive PITA and a huge backwards! I’ll be moving my wife to Bluefin in the near future. She’s unbelievably hopeless with computers, but I honestly think it would be easier for her to use Gnome on Bluefin than Windows!
I agree with you, lol. The other day I tried windows 11 at a store, and it was a pain. The learning curve was bigger from windows 10 -> 11 than from windows 10 -> KDE.
I’m curious about your choice of Gnome for your wife, though. If she’s hopeless with computers, why give her a less (imho) intuitive DE to play with?
I’m curious about your choice of Gnome for your wife, though. If she’s hopeless with computers, why give her a less (imho) intuitive DE to play with?
It’s like using a chromebook, and the less there is to click on, the better.
Any software she already uses would be available as a flatpak, so even updating is easier vs windows.
It’s like using a chromebook, and the less there is to click on, the better.
Hmm, you may be onto something here.
I think I’ll test drive it and consider the same for my wife. She has a Mac, and she says she prefers Windows (clearly she hasn’t used it in nearly a decade), and this might be an option for her if I can just put all the stuff she uses on the bottom docker.
Thanks for the tip, and best of luck in your Linux journey! 🐧
And to add to that, even with vanilla Gnome, you have the option to do what you like via extensions. If you want it to look like a Mac or Windows UI, you can!
My wife doesn’t care, as long as it works. If I can set up favorites/shortcuts to the stuff she needs access to, she’s golden.
Hey, so I wanted to come back just to say: I ended up trying Bluefin, and frankly… I like it better than Aurora now. Lol. The workflow is insanely good for me who get distracted so easily.
I thought I was finding a distro for my wife (who will surely love it) but I ended up finding it for myself also.
Just thought I’d let you know. Cheers buddy!
I installed bluefin on my wife’s laptop, and on a spare laptop, just yesterday 🤭 It really is great.
I think I’ll be putting it on my desktop PC and keep Aurora on my daily driver Laptop.
Either way, we’re all winning 😂
I’m doing the opposite journey and let me tell you that so far Mint is leas stable feeling for me. I may go back to Aurora soon lol
Now that you’re a linux user proper its time to bully you for using atomic. 😜
Just teasing, welcome to linux!
Are you going to talk down to me because I’m not using Arch? LOL 😆
At my age, I just want something that works. Long gone are the days when I enjoyed staying up through the night to fix shit on my computer. 🤭
Naw, I’m a lowly Debian user. I 100% understand the not wanting to tinker with shit all night though lol.
Also, it’s 1am and I’m in the middle of fiddling with a self-hosted docker image of Immich on my Synology NAS… so much for living by my own rules 😂
I remember waking up my wife in the middle of the night when I got a spotify tui app working, and accidentally blasting a song lol.
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 use Aurora on my thinkpad, bazzite on my gaming desktop, and fedora on my desktop at work. Huge fan of what Universal Blue is doing.
Do you think Aurora is a good choice for beginners? A friend of mine wants to switch and I’m still looking for a good match.
It should be immutable, use KDE, have Nvidia drivers pre-installed (or a easy UI for installing them), not be maintained by a single maintainer and should not have non-OS applications like Steam pre-installed.
Aurora so far seems to be the best choice.
Aurora is a great choice given those parameters. I also installed it on my wife’s laptop and she hasn’t had any problems. I even edit video in Resolve on my Aurora thinkpad so I know the nvidia drivers are fine.
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Ditto. I jumped ship from Windows 10 to Bazzite. That’s how I learned about the Universal Blue project. It’s working like a charm. Freedom!
hell yeah! ublue has been fantastic.
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.
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
