Linux and I: Growing Pains

A beginner’s missteps into the world of Linux

Photo by Lukas on Unsplash

I have been running Linux as my main operating system for the last six months or so. I’ve written before about my efforts to move away from MacOS and my frustrations with trying to find an operating system that respects my privacy and my wishes to avoid the AI hypetrain that is dominating consumer tech’ at the moment.

After this short period using Linux daily, I wanted to chart some of my missteps as a means of showing people that Linux is indeed ready to be the operating system of choice for those of us who don’t have a bachelor’s degree in computer science. So much of the Linux media landscape relates to hobbyists and tech’ diehards that I’d like to add a relatively average person’s take on using Linux.

Weird bugs

I’ve moved around a few different Linux distributions over the last six or seven months. Mainly this has been to try things out — like a taster menu — but also because I’ve ended up getting frustrated at one specific thing.

I have a few apps that I need to work very well: Joplin, Libre Office Writer and a PDF viewer. They are essential to my fairly mundane job. All of these things are easily available but the level of performance differs across distributions/versions of the programme. For example, the…