Growing up in the early 2000s, I've always found computers fascinating. The first operating system I could remember was Windows XP, ran on a hand-me-down laptop; rocking an unorthodox 1:1 aspect ratio, and the rolling green hills of the now iconic "Bliss" desktop wallpaper. Back then, I had no clue what an operating system was -- I just knew that pressing that power button opened an entirely new world. Even the most mundane things, like the animated screensavers and messing with Notepad -- I suppose my earliest encounter with a text editor. Perhaps I was too young to comprehend any of it, but one thing was certain: pressing buttons on the keyboard gave me the power to play music, change the theme, and watch videos -- the possibilities were endless.
Nearly two decades later, I find myself with the same curiosity that led me to switching to Linux full-time. I'm grown up, spent thousands of hours in front of the computer playing games, learning to code, video editing on both macOS and Windows. But I was missing one thing - the feeling of tinkering just for the sake of tinkering.
About a year ago, I decided it was finally time to try something fresh, free from the shackles of Windows 11. It felt sluggish and unintuitive, even more so when you compare it to XP or Vista. My short stint with EndeavourOS wasn't smooth sailing, as I was having trouble understanding the Linux filesystem at first. Of course, I had some previous terminal and Ubuntu/Fedora virtual machine experience which definitely helped, but Linux was very much still new to me. These days, I've jumped ship to the new cool kid on the block - CachyOS and it's been great.
My experience with Linux fundamentally changed how I think about technology. It altered my mindset to understanding how computers work, not just used. In the modern age of mega corporations and big-tech, Linux and the open source community stands apart. It simply gives you the car keys and lets you learn by doing. If the engine breaks down, or tires go flat, it's on myself to find a solution (in reality, I have the Arch wiki).
Yes, I use Arch btw. Yes, things may break. And yes, it might take me an hour to fix it. But doing all this, I actually understand why it broke and how it affected my system. I see that hour of troubleshooting not as lost time, but as an investment of time and knowledge. Every fix leads me to learning more, whether from documentation, YouTube videos, Reddit, or StackOverflow. It's akin to putting together a large puzzle despite only ever seeing the larger finished product.
Linux didn't just give me a cleaner, faster operating system -- it has trained my patience (Hyprland) and skills (Neovim) to satisfy my childhood curiosity. Oh, and as a bonus it's also been a huge jump in productivity for my professional development as a software engineer. Every second in the terminal (Kitty, but I love Alacritty too) has been a worthy investment.
Coincidentally, the penguin has also been my favourite animal 🐧!