meathorse

As requested, – here is an update on my Linux adventure - the first week has gone by without incident and I'm not turning back!

The tl:dr summary: OMFG. This is probably the EASIEST OS install I’ve ever had – and that’s saying something - since most modern Linux distros are easy!

Reminder of who you’re reading right now – I’m a Windows veteran for the past 25 years and between work and home, I’ve used and supported every flavour from Win95 to Win11 and Server 03 to Server 22. I have installed well-north of 1000 instances in my time, deployed from Floppy, CD, USB, Ghost, WDS and more.

I have dabbled in Linux on-and-off over the years but always on secondary PCs so this is my first time rocking Linux on my primary. I’ve spent the last 12 months experimenting with Linux in preparation for the End-of-10 and this very moment. Testing different distros, Desktop Environments and philosophies while digging into proper Linux learning (not just ‘best Distro’ lists or reviews on YouTube). I’ve had several ‘lightbulb’ moments as I’ve come to learn more about Linux that make me feel like a n00b all over again and I’m loving it. You can read my other lightbulb moment in here.

The remainder of my home gear is already Window-free. Home server: (Unraid), laptop and TV box (Fedora Gnome & KDE respectively). These have all been cut over and running well for the past 6-months as I’ve really sunk my teeth into this new learning. Now that my last hurdle - Windows-only software requirement - is no holding me to Windows, I’m free at last!

Current state: Brand-new parts purchased - and since I couldn’t wait, it’s all hosted in a temporary case while I wait for stock of the exact case I want. Core7 Ultra, B860 and 5060ti for those that care.

Summary: This must be the easiest Linux distro I’ve ever used. Here is a breakdown of what happened:

• Installed Bazzite
• Log into the desktop
• Sign into Steam
• Download Doom 2016
• Play Doom 2016 in glorious ultra widescreen.

It really was that easy. No Drivers to install, no endless Windows updates, no mountains of software to install and configuration to remove all the garbage and regain privacy. Once I got eaten by a Pinky then I quit the game to continue my setup, just a handful of flat pack software installs required to fill the gaps but all that was done in about 20mins. In fact, downloading Doom took longer than the rest of it combined!

And fast! The new hardware helps obviously but I've forgotten how bloated office has become. Libre Office by comparison opens in half a second and everything feels so snappy. Nothing is snappy on Win11, not even notepad anymore.

I watched a very timely video on the weekend featuring a guy with fancy chest-hair and this really hit me where I lived (and worked). So many of Window’s ‘quirks’ are normalised while the same (or less) on Linux is seen as a problem. To paraphrase: we think nothing of editing registry, running PowerShell scripts or sacrificing small woodland creatures to remove built-in functions and apps, and endless other utilities to give us control over our system and yet, if we do anything like this in Linux, it's "too hardcore, not ready for mainstream".

I haven't touched the terminal at all, yet I have to the software I need and my entire PC is ready to use.

If you're someone who's been on the fence about Linux, please don't be. If you last tried it 5+ years ago, I encourage you to revisit. I honestly think Linux is about ready for the mainstream and I genuinely didn't think Bazzite would be this easy getting games going. A huge thank you to the Bazzite team and everyone who contribute to making Linux better and easier!!

This is a story all about how... one sad old sack finally “got” Linux distros.

I've been a very casual Linux user over 20-odd years, mostly on secondary PCs and generally sticking with noob-friendly distros, but only in the last few months I’ve become serious and started to learn the how and why of Linux.

Like many others, this year is my own personal year of Linux on the desktop. My server, media box and laptops are all now running Fedora, only my primary PC remains left behind on Win10 because of critical software keeping me tied to Windows - but from next week that is no longer needed and the shackles are off! I've sampled several different Distros this year to find the perfect fit for this very moment, but this search reminded me how the sheer number of distros annoyed me.

I've always seen the vast number of Distros as wasteful. Effort that could be put into pushing Linux forward rather than creating another fork sideways. I'm not sure now what I thought a distro actually was but I've now come to realise the genius of this (not to say there isn't any replication and waste between Distros).

I had settled on KDE Fedora as my distro of choice some time ago. Then, when I found the idea of an immutable distro, this appealed (to help prevent my dumb-arse breaking things), so I pivoted to Kinoite to give me exactly what I wanted. All I needed was to work out how to get Steam running. Many of you can probably already see where this is going.

In a moment of Picard-level face-palming, I started exploring Bazzite thinking this would give me an idea of what's required. The distro itself looked good and when I went digging deeper, I found an Immutable, Fedora base in either KDE or Gnome. Bazzite is basically Atomic Fedora, pre-configured for gaming! Face-smack. Maybe I thought Bazzite was based on Arch which is why I hadn't looked at it before, but now I better understood the genius of Linux distros. The Bazzite team could take the core of what they want, then tweak it for a specific use-case and release it, thinking others might like it too. They're not reinventing the wheel as I first believed, they were building upon previous work. One of the greatest strengths of open source. I probably already knew this but somehow, I hadn't quite put the pieces together in one place.

TL;DR: I’m a numpty

Tune in tomorrow when I argue that no one should recommend Arch to anyone - and why that's a good thing...

After seeing something similar elsewhere I decided to give this a go.

Honestly, I thought the top 1% (population the size of Hastings) might reach down to Whangarei or at most upper-upper Auckland, but it's the visual representation of the top 10% - basically everything north of about Kaikoura - that shocked me the most!

... to make this the most played song of the year!