It’s an entire coincidence that I put in Linux across the similar time as my colleagues Nathan Edwards and Stevie Bonifield. A number of months in the past, I made a decision to breathe new life right into a 2019 Dell XPS 15 that had been accumulating mud for a few years.
Regardless of its (on the time) high-end Core i7 CPU and 32GB of RAM, Home windows was frustratingly gradual on it. The fan was continually at full throttle even when the machine was idle, and it frequently failed to put in updates. So in early 2024, I gave up and switched to an M1 MacBook Professional.
However I wished to provide my oldest baby one thing to follow typing on. Plus, I’d been looking for an appropriate distraction-free writing answer. (Spoiler: this laptop computer was not the answer I used to be searching for.) So I put in Ubuntu. Once more.
See, earlier than the MacBook and earlier than the Dell XPS, I used to be a Linux person. I first put in Ubuntu in 2006 on a ThinkPad X40. And it remained my main OS throughout three completely different laptops and 13 years.
Regardless of some… let’s name them quirks (Wi-Fi didn’t work out of the field on that X40), I used to be pleased with Linux for a very long time. I dual-booted Home windows out of necessity, and sometimes had a work-issued MacBook readily available. However these have been for testing apps or particular duties, like enhancing video. 99 % of my life was spent in Ubuntu.
That’s, till about 2017. As I acquired older, tinkering with my laptop computer modified from a interest to one thing that acquired in the best way of me pursuing my different hobbies. I had rediscovered my love of constructing music, and, strive as it would, Ubuntu Studio simply wasn’t reducing it. I used to be spending extra time in Ableton Reside, which meant extra time in Home windows, till in 2019, I purchased the aforementioned XPS and converted fully.
Loads has modified within the 20 years since I first put in Linux, and even within the seven years since I final used it. It’s now arguably the most effective platform for PC gaming. There are genuinely nice photo-editing apps, resembling Darktable, which was launched in 2009. And there are even viable, industrial choices for making music in Bitwig and Reaper, all of which have improved dramatically since 2019.
The Ubuntu set up course of hasn’t modified a lot, however the interface is prettier. I put the ISO on a thumb drive and briefly thought-about wiping the XPS fully. I chickened out on the final minute and determined to dual-boot, which meant repartitioning my onerous drive.
Proper off the bat, I used to be reminded that Linux hasn’t fully overcome its fiddly nature. The fingerprint reader didn’t work. A minor annoyance I made a decision to disregard.
Extra regarding was that Ubuntu failed to put in updates due to an EFI partition problem particular to the XPS 15 that was additionally inflicting issues below Home windows. I managed to get them put in, however I’m not satisfied I didn’t create a ticking time bomb by deleting important recordsdata.
Ubuntu additionally refused to mount my Home windows partition for the primary month or so, earlier than all of a sudden working for unknown causes. Stevie equally admitted to “rage quitting and going to mattress” after they couldn’t get Ubuntu to connect with a second SSD.
Nathan had his personal weird issues the place his CachyOS refused to acknowledge his mouse clicks. He was additionally hit with possibility paralysis, making an attempt to decide on between 4 bootloaders and 13 desktop environments. For some, that is a part of the attraction, the infinite customizability, the facility to bend your laptop to your each whim and make it actually yours. Ubuntu doesn’t throw its customizability in your face, the best way Cachy does, but it surely’s nonetheless there in order for you it.
The issue, as I encountered throughout my days of meticulously tweaking desktops and crafting my dream note-taking software utilizing Obsidian, is that you just’re constructing a home of playing cards. One tiny factor in some seemingly inconsequential library or plugin may trigger the entire system to return crumbling down. I don’t wish to be losing my time tweaking and troubleshooting once I have already got issues that work.
Even should you maintain it easy, as I did on my XPS, you’re hardly assured easy crusing. Ubuntu is likely one of the best-supported Linux distros. And, whereas my particular XPS 15 isn’t one among them, Dell has offered many Ubuntu-certified laptops over time, so I figured I used to be within the clear — flawed.
A number of apps, whether or not from the official Ubuntu App Middle, downloaded snaps, or .deb packages, quietly failed to put in. No apparent error, no nothing. I needed to open the terminal and set up them from there to see what went flawed. Putting in software program on Linux is one way or the other much more complicated than it was 20 years in the past.
Even the issues that labored weren’t seamless. I acquired Steam up and working, but it surely took hours, required putting in outdated 32-bit libraries, and it crashed alongside the best way. Oh, and Steam video games refused to acknowledge my audio interface; they might solely play via the laptop computer’s audio system. CachyOS or Bazzite would have supplied a smoother Steam expertise. Nevertheless it’s additionally illustrative of the issue. Saying you utilize Linux is nearly meaningless as a result of there are such a lot of completely different flavors.
Fortunately, Bitwig acknowledged my audio interface, but it surely was fickle about which MIDI controllers it wished to work with (a difficulty I’d by no means had on the Mac model), and crashed once I first tried to run it. Additionally, whereas the native Bitwig devices are stable, I missed my favourite smooth synths and results, like Arturia’s Pigments, which is Home windows- and Mac-only.
There have been a handful of different minor annoyances. If my laptop computer went to sleep (which it solely appears to do when it’s plugged in, go determine), it refused to reconnect to the exterior onerous drive I’ve attached, and it stopped recognizing the SD card reader. To get them working once more, I’ve to reboot. It additionally doesn’t wake on enter from a Bluetooth mouse or keyboard. I’ve to open the lid to wake it when it’s hooked as much as my dock and an exterior monitor.
If I simply want an internet browser, Ubuntu works like a appeal. I had no points with my Wi-Fi or with Firefox. My XPS now runs sooner and quieter than it did with Home windows. And I acquired Obsidian up and working with minimal fuss. I used Ubuntu as my main work machine for a number of days, and every thing was fantastic. However I can do most of my job from the confines of an internet browser.
It’s every thing else. I can recreation on my Linux machine, however the expertise is smoother on my Swap or PS4. I could make music in Bitwig or Reaper on Ubuntu, however Ableton on macOS is simpler to make use of and helps all my VSTs. GIMP and Darktable supply stable picture enhancing, however let’s be sincere, they’re nowhere close to as highly effective as Lightroom and Photoshop. Linux can do all of the issues now — generally higher than Home windows. However for all it does, it all the time looks like there’s a greater possibility.