Introduction
First, thank you for reading my first article.
I migrated my Dell G3 laptop from Windows to Linux Mint six months ago in an effort to program more and game less (a struggle I'm sure many of us face).
I have never looked back.
I primarily work with Android devices and on the web. Luckily, Android Studio has a Linux deployment that is never too far behind iOS (which, from the native developers I have spoken to, remains the preferred development environment). Android does run on a Linux Kernel, so developing a familiarity with Linux systems lends a small insight into the background processes that allow our applications to interact with the Hardware Abstraction Layer (HAL), the interface providing access to hardware components not normally accessible. The overlap is short and perhaps contained to a wider understanding of the operating system.
In short, I moved for personal reasons.
Why Did I Do This to Myself
I describe myself as a rehabilitated serial gamer, and moving to Linux locked my out of a large portion of my Steam library. That said, with Steam Deck and Steam OS, Linux has a much deeper gaming library than I initially expected. By changing operating systems, I reduced my gaming time from 3-4 hours a day to 0.
Now that I am a better user, I could probably start gaming again. The intended effect (kicking my gaming habit) has largely worked, and although I can play games on my machine now, I do not feel the need to! Maybe when I pick up a Steam Deck.
Apart from my personal reasons, I do feel there are definite advantages to moving your machine to Linux (or perhaps dual-booting your machine).
Why You Might Consider Moving to Linux
Cost. Linux is free and often runs on older hardware better than Windows or iOS. For students on a budget, or in countries where new machines are more difficult to procure, being able to download their distribution of choice free at cost is a powerful reason to migrate.
Learning. Depending on the distribution, you may find yourself interacting with the terminal on a daily basis just to complete everyday tasks. Familiarity with these commands, even with common file system architectures, makes you a better computer user and developer. For example, a strong understanding of terminal commands gives you strong control of git, an invaluable skill in today's market.
Customisation. For people like me, who like to customise their working platforms down to the font, learning the different desktop environments and their customisation options is fun. When I first picked up my OS, customising its looks down to my preferences was the first thing I did.
Open-Source. Related to the above three reasons, Linux is a great way to dive deeper into the world of open-source. For any number of applications, there might be two or three solutions you can select. For example, I tried configuring an Xbox Controller (okay, I did try using Steam. You caught me) which lead me to three different drivers.
Ending Remarks
Would I do it again? Probably, yes.
Would you?
Top comments (15)
Back in 1998 I purchased a new computer and installed Linux onto it. It was just a little experiment. I installed Apache onto it and run it as a web server off my home fibre. It actually took a little bit of effort to get it all working at that time, but after a few weeks of messing about it was working.
Three months later, and I had not touched it. No time. I turned on the screen and there it was, still running. Now remember in these days you would be lucky to have your Windows machine stay running for more than a few days. There is a reason "turn it off and on again" became a thing. I had been under the impression this was because PCs were rubbish.
Turned out I was wrong; it was the operating system that was crashing with Windows machines. At this point I was the "tech guy" at an Aluminium Joinery company who would program computers, but also look after all the PCs in the company. Crashing was just a thing Windows did, and it took a chuck of time looking after them.
About a year later I got a copy of Red Hat and installed it over my Windows98 install. My home PC has been Linux ever since. I've never rebuilt my kernel, and when I have to use Windows because my employer insists it is frustrating. Can't just apt-get anything you need.
When I started I thought I would need Wine for all those applications on Windows I totally needed. Turns out I didn't need them after all. I've never really used Wine, and don't even hear about it any longer. As a developer it is also nice to be using the same OS on your local system as your deployment environment.
Now gaming isn't nearly as rich as Windows, and the video editors while passable are not as good as Windows ones. Sorry OpenShot. But in terms of a professional machine that gets stuff done, and is rock solid, can't go past Linux. My favorite flavor is Ubuntu, but there are many options.
Welcome to the club :-)
I did a similar thing with our company's web server in early 2000s. It was previously running on Windows with Apache Tomcat and often when I ran a stress test the OS crashed but I was able to get some metrics when it actually worked. On that exact same PC with some old Pentium CPU I installed RedHat and Apache Tomcat and it survived the stress tests every time and ended up with about 10x throughput - on the exact same hardware!
From that day forward all our webapps in production have run on Linux of some flavour (RedHat, CentOS).
As for the desktop - primary dev PC is still Windows but have some secondary PCs running Eclipse and IntelliJ and the results are pretty good.
I've also just installed Zorin 17 in the lounge room, replacing the family's Windows PC with something open source and less "if you pay for it you are the product" ;) I was amazed how easily the wife and kids were able to adapt to Zorin from Windows - well it is made to look and function in a very similar way so may not so surprising.
I migrated in the Win 7 era because Win 7 was BSODing occasionally when I turned a screen on or off. Sometimes so badly the box would not boot any more (it was an Intel NUC) and I had to open the case to bridge two jumpers and reset the firmware to get it booting. I got so sick of this I tried Linux Mint off a live USB (at a friend's suggestion). I tested all my peripherals and was happy so installed it. Never looked back and slowly converted every device I use ... And remain unrepentant. Absolutely brilliant move.
I share the same fate as you. I switched during the Windows 8 era and moved to Xubuntu. I remember how panicked people were at that ransomware
I switched from MacOS because Apple kept introducing more user-hostile features in their Unix. While I could tolerate many of the transgressions, I couldn't take how much worse the hardware was getting. Specifically all the dongles and the touch bar.
I didn't fully appreciate how much things had changed since the last time I had seriously used Linux 20 years before.
I've been on Linux for around 7 years full time. The only thing I miss is a reliable Sleep function. In the world of Linux, your laptop may goto sleep, but it may never wake up.
I tried. I gave Linux as my primary desktop OS an honest effort, from 1999 on an Apple G3 (which is a bit ironic given you are on Dell G3) until 2008.
In 2008, I gave up.
But since then, I've bought several Raspberry Pi computers, and I'm happily running them with Linux.
Not sure if that counts for as much, since none of them are my primary desktop machines.
But — the Linux desktop experience on them is far better now than the desktop experience I gave up on in 2008. And I've got to work on a few fun Linux skunkworks projects.
Great decision, just stick to it no matter what 🙌
Back in 2001, from a computer mag, I got in my possession a Linux distro, it's Slackware, talked about being baptized by fire. Video card was unrecognized, among many problems. I have to scour the internet, which was still using a dial-up connection. I feel like I'm on top of the world when a "window" displayed. After that, I was kind of distro hopper but always on dual boot with Windows, until 2016 I fed up with always having to reinstall Windows once a year because it always tends to slow down after a year. I chose Linux Mint, 5 years later, I haven't yet had to reinstall it, every major version was upgrading smoothly.
on Ubuntu, sometime my computer has stop working when memory is full, must hard reset PC. This's not happen on Windows or MacOS
How big is your swap, or do you have it at all?
16GB RAM and 8GB of swap
Linux for servers
Mac for work (and entertainment: music, film).
Windows for gaming
I've been sticking to this for years
Would I throw away the tinygentle in favor for Linux again? Yes ... it was a big turn in my life towards a better life quality ... more than a decade ago ...
I think it's good decision, I also made that decision a month ago and chose Linux Mint too because it's modern and easy to use.
by mentioning IOS as a PCs operating system, did you mean MacOS or OS X ?
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