Linux for Writers
Being productive on Linux
I’ve documented on Medium my move from MacOS to Linux for, let’s say, philosophical reasons. I wanted to get out of the walled garden. Ultimately, however, for all of my principles, my computer is a tool with which I need to get things done. I’m currently researching and writing my next book, so Linux needs to work with me, not against me. And quickly.
A word about my setup: I am using a laptop docked to an external monitor with external mouse and keyboard. I have a wireless printer and scanner. All of it works. No faffing or tweaking required (although it is possible to mess about with things to your heart’s content!). My laptop runs Fedora with the KDE Plasma desktop. Through some trial and error, I found that I valued KDE Plasma for my work a little more than the other main desktop environment, GNOME.
Having moved from MacOS, Linux feels far less distracting. Granted, much of the distraction was of my own making (looking at you iMessage), but I can tailor my writing environment on Linux to a great degree. This was not the cae immediately, however. I had to invest some time in customising things so they suited me and, of course, I needed to learn Linux. Honestly, my writing was going so slowly that finding my way around a new operating system didn’t seem like a problem!
