Copyright XDA Developers
Ever since I actually learned the fundamentals of Linux through my education, the prospect of using it full-time has been attractive. I don't really like Windows, I just tolerate it more than anything. I'm used to the settings menu quirks, the broken updates, and invasive telemetry and bloat. The promise of escaping all of that for what sounded like an OS-utopia sounded divine. A few months back, I gave Linux a real shot as my daily driver, but the experience was less than satisfactory. Both operating systems have their problems, and it really makes me yearn for an OS that lets me have my cake and eat it too. Why I switched initially Complete control over my experience When using Windows, I've never felt like my computer was truly mine, and with Microsoft's continual creep towards making it less about being a usable operating system and more about it being an ad platform, I was running out of valid reasons to stay on it. Windows 11 is the continuation of increased friction when trying to do everyday tasks. Needing to dodge around account requirements to get it installed, nagging about OneDrive, the multiple-year-long process to unify the settings, and the incessant begging to use Edge instead of literally anything else, and of course the gross-feeling telemetry are all ranked high among my frustrations with Windows. Besides that, most of the time, it did just work, which I know isn't everyone's experience. When I went to reinstall a few months ago, all of these frustrations were brought back to the forefront, and I decided it was a great time to give Linux a real shot. What I switched to Bazzite, Ubuntu, and CachyOS were all great Starting at my roots, I went with Ubuntu to start with. It was the Linux distro I was most familiar with, having worked with the GUI-less server version in my formal education quite extensively. The install was smooth, and the usability of the OS was dramatically better immediately, but I began to run into some performance issues in some games. Between crashing and some weird stuttering I couldn't get to the bottom of, I thought it might be worth it to try a gaming-specific distro, so I went and tried Bazzite. The same problems unfortunately arose, so I decided it might be worth trying something a little more cutting edge. My hardware is fairly new, so having the newest kernel in addition to bleeding-edge GPU drivers might help with any issues I might be facing, but no. Even on CachyOS I was experiencing some of the same issues, but even still, I stopped spinning the distro-wheel and stuck with CachyOS for a while. CachyOS was by far the best experience of the three. After I had stopped troubleshooting my issues, my daily work and play was pretty much fine on it. I particularly loved that I could choose whichever desktop environment I wanted during setup; GNOME feels the most comfy for me, but I did swap to KDE for a while and found it just as usable. Unfortunately, the dual-boot setup I had going just ended up being more of a single-boot after a while. I needed frequent access to Adobe Software for my work, and the specific plugins I need just can't be used with Krita or GIMP. I had to go back to Windows I still miss Linux Going back to Windows felt like giving up a bit of freedom. All the command line tools, simple scripts, and clean intuitive UI were gone, but I simply needed the compatibility. Sure, I could learn PowerShell, but it'll never feel as clean as being able to grep through thousands of files quickly, or quickly automate the renaming of a bunch of screenshots in a way that doesn't suck. As much as I do miss it, the reality is, my needs just don't align with my wants. I would like an OS that doesn't try to spy on me at every turn, but I need one with compatibility with specific software. I would like an OS that has great performance in the games I like to play, but I need one that can also play games with specific anti-cheat software. The release of Battlefield 6 also put me in a tough spot. I enjoyed the beta a lot, but it was made clear pretty early that there would be no anti-cheat support for Linux, so between that and the requirements of my other job, I'd rather not have to reboot every time I want to play. Why can't we have both?
