It’s a whole coincidence that I installed Linux across the similar time as my colleagues Nathan Edwards and Stevie Bonifield. Just a few 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 consistently 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 present my oldest baby one thing to apply typing on. Plus, I’d been looking for an appropriate distraction-free writing solution. (Spoiler: this laptop computer was not the answer I used to be looking 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 totally 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 proud of Linux for a very long time. I dual-booted Home windows out of necessity, and infrequently had a work-issued MacBook available. However these have been for testing apps or particular duties, like enhancing video. 99 p.c of my life was spent in Ubuntu.
That’s, till about 2017. As I received older, tinkering with my laptop computer modified from a interest to one thing that received in the way in which of me pursuing my different hobbies. I had rediscovered my love of constructing music, and, attempt as it’d, Ubuntu Studio simply wasn’t reducing it. I used to be spending extra time in Ableton Live, which meant extra time in Home windows, till in 2019, I purchased the aforementioned XPS and converted fully.
Rather a lot 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, business 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 exhausting 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 issue 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 information.
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 bed” once they couldn’t get Ubuntu to hook up 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, attempting to decide on between 4 bootloaders and 13 desktop environments. For some, that is a part of the attraction, the infinite customizability, the ability to bend your pc to your each whim and make it really yours. Ubuntu doesn’t throw its customizability in your face, the way in which 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 instrument utilizing Obsidian, is that you just’re constructing a home of playing cards. One tiny factor in some seemingly inconsequential library or plugin might trigger the entire system to come back crumbling down. I don’t need to be losing my time tweaking and troubleshooting after I have already got issues that work.
Even in case 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 considered one of them, Dell has bought many Ubuntu-certified laptops through the years, so I figured I used to be within the clear — unsuitable.
A number of apps, whether or not from the official Ubuntu App Heart, 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 unsuitable. Putting in software program on Linux is in some way much more complicated than it was 20 years in the past.
Even the issues that labored weren’t seamless. I received Steam up and operating, but it surely took hours, required putting in outdated 32-bit libraries, and it crashed alongside the way in which. Oh, and Steam video games refused to acknowledge my audio interface; they’d solely play via the laptop computer’s audio system. CachyOS or Bazzite would have offered a smoother Steam expertise. But it surely’s additionally illustrative of the issue. Saying you employ Linux is sort of meaningless as a result of there are such a lot of totally 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 after I first tried to run it. Additionally, whereas the native Bitwig devices are strong, 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 exhausting 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 attraction. 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 received Obsidian up and operating with minimal fuss. I used Ubuntu as my main work machine for just a few days, and every part was wonderful. However I can do most of my job from the confines of an internet browser.
It’s every part else. I can sport on my Linux machine, however the expertise is smoother on my Change 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 strong picture enhancing, however let’s be trustworthy, they’re nowhere close to as highly effective as Lightroom and Photoshop. Linux can do all of the issues now — typically higher than Home windows. However for all it does, it at all times seems like there’s a greater possibility.
