I Changed My Go-to Linux Distro for the First Time from Year 2006
Ubuntu 4.10 was my first go-to Linux distro, I have never changed to another distro besides some trials
In year 2022, my go-to distro changed to Fedora 35, not because of Linus Torvald’s favorite but Nick is my spokesman for many whys.
Especially last 7 years, people know me as Apple person in my jobs. There were many reasons to be an Apple person at that time because:
Linux desktop was still evolving and had countless incompatibilities.
I was principal solutions architect and need to travel a lot as well as I need to present many things in different environments. As a result, my machine should just work.
My job was requiring countless external customers facing, and using Apple was a sign of prestige.
I didn’t need to change my laptop frequently because Apple operating systems’ upgrades were not breaking its laptops (good old days!).
Apple had the best battery life.
When we relocated to Germany, my job and workplace became a more static and fixed environment. I attempted to switch to Linux several times during these years, but Apple MacBook Pros were perks and none of the other options had English US keyboard (keyboard with small enter, not the international one). As a result, I continued to use Apple in my professional life but Linux in my private life.
In 2019, I also changed my private primary environment from Linux to Apple MacBook Pro 16”. I tried once more in 2017, but Apple’s butterfly keyboard switches made me crazy, and it was the first time that I bought pressured air cans because the keys were stuck. When I was abroad, “A” stopped working, and after some days space key also stopped working. I solved the problem with a local mechanic guy but enough was enough, and I gave the laptop to my wife as she was using it with an external keyboard anyway.
I was happy — Apple MacBook 16” with scissors keys were great, and I paid more than 3K euro for the configuration: I have MBP 16” 2019 with 2.6 GHz 6-Core Intel Core i7 and 32 GB 2667 MHz DDR4. Furthermore, I am still using this laptop and writing this article with it.
But day by day, I realized that I am not so happy with Apple laptop because:
I want to avoid being a locked environment.
Everything is for Apple — They introduced heic photo format, and it is incompatible with other environments. Come on, this is a photo guys!
Dongles… I hate dongles!
Bloated operating system… It was not like this when I’ve started to use MacBook Pro back to year 2010. I prefer not to say that Steve Jobs was the magician, but he seems so. After Steve Jobs, what I got is that bloated visualizations without not performing well Apple products. When they get a new update, your battery begins to drain, it is becoming non-responsive or slower.
Laptop and app startup times, as well as sluggishness while using apps… Yes, if you buy M1 or later CPU MacBook Pro, it is better. I have MBP 16” 2019 with 2.6 GHz 6-Core Intel Core i7 and 32 GB 2667 MHz DDR4 which I paid more than 3K euro in one shot and now, it is 40% slower than my professional life laptop which is Lenovo Thinkpad X1 Carbon Gen 9 with i5 and 16 GB RAM.
Time to Return to Linux
The year 2022 is my refreshing and changing year. You have seen migration posts from me, and it will continue. I do private transformation every 5 years like 5-year-purge.
I decided to return to Linux but in my professional life this time because I decided to change my role from engineer to architect. Not only that, but I also missed my old friends like Vim, proper Terminal, Gnome and feeling-of-being-in-3% 🤓
It also doesn’t make sense to use Apple product in professional life because it is all restricted innately. You cannot install whatever you like, carry the apps in your private iCloud account etc. It is bare minimum with default Apple products, which is basically an art that you can only watch but not touching. Generally, Linux gives more freedom because you are using open-source products and IT Admins don’t care or don’t know Linux administration. They are like: “If you break, you fix it” mode, and I am happy with it.
Life with Linux in Professional Life
Currently, I am pleased about my choice. They gave me a brand-new Lenovo Thinkpad X1 Carbon Gen 9 14” with 11th Gen Intel Core i5–1135G7 @ 2.40GHz × 8 and 16 GB RAM and US English keyboard. Laptop itself is fantastic. It is just 1.14 kg and effortless to carry in backpack. Its battery life is so-so by comparing M1 Apple MBP.
First, I asked to install Ubuntu 20.04 LTS. I didn’t have many problems, but I also cannot say that it was not the smoothest experience that I’ve used to have:
It was getting frozen for unknown reasons, sometimes restarts, especially when I connected external monitor. Its GUI couldn’t scale back to original when I removed the external monitor.
Sound was an extreme problem, and I am not the only one having this issue.
Ubuntu doesn’t have disk encryption while installing. You need to spend good amount of effort to make it happen. Pop!_OS and Fedora (maybe more, but I know these) have the disk encryption during the installation, and it is straightforward: just define a key. IMPORTANT: Thanks to @Joe-Erlend Schinstad , Ubuntu also has this feature. I missed this point because I haven’t installed fresh Ubuntu for a long time but distro upgrade. Now, I checked it in VM but for me, there is still an UX problem to find disk encryption option during Ubuntu installation.
Ubuntu’s update schedule, especially for the GUI (Gnome) is not feasible. This is a common issue in development: How much you customize, you need extra time to align to the new updates. It is like following 1 major release behind in Ubuntu, which is not sustainable for me because GUI makes everything easier or harder. If I would like to have everything in command, I go with i3.
Battery life is extremely short while using Ubuntu.
I will never accept to be locked into snap package system while using Firefox. Why can’t Firefox be installed without snap? Why should I do tricks? Firefox in snap package doesn’t perform properly and it is also creating problem for the applications that are using the same environment. For example, if you don’t install 1Password as snap, it doesn’t get system status of 1Password so Firefox addon and main 1Password app behaves like different applications. Of course, there is a trick to make the things work because Linux itself is customizable but I don’t want to deal that much of details. Web browsers are one of the main applications in this century so there is no proper explanation to restrict it into one package system.
As a popular movement, I changed to Fedora 35 currently, and I am delighted about my choice. I have better battery life, up-to-date Gnome, up-to-date packages and better video performance.
What am I missing — Ubuntu?
Although it is a bit discussable topic, I like Ubuntu’s color template, especially terminal. Of course, I can set up it for another distros, but I am not doing as it is like remembering your ex 🤓
Debian-based environment… I am used to using it and I know what to do while installing
build-essentialetc. Now, I need to do some search because I have never used dnf until now.Ubuntu was the first love of Linux, and it has a special place in my life. As a result, when there is something wrong, I could cover it. But now, the new distro makes me feel as a stepchild, so still attempting to align myself.
What am I missing — macOS?
Text rendering definitely… How much I work on this in Linux environment, I couldn’t be so successful. If you know a proper solution, please let me know.
Ready to use and compatibility with the tooling… I could use many things as native application but in Linux, I need to go either Electron or Web Applications. I don’t like Electron and switching between tabs is not always easy and productive for Web versions.
App developers, listening customer/user base… It is not the case in Linux environment in general. I love Ghostwriter for example, but there is no document panel, I have to open the documents one by one. If there will be document panel and tabbing, it will be extremely great, but there is no plan to have it. Don’t you like it? Then, it is open source, fork it and either submit changes (will be rejected generally as it deploys feature) or release as different product.
Last Words
I am not pretty sure that what’s happening on Ubuntu side, but I am also seeing some movement in distro area that they are also moving away from Ubuntu as base but Debian directly. Ubuntu is Debian-based, but I see that Linux Mint is doing some trials, Peppermint Reborn is now Debian-based.
Aside from all positiveness and open-source power, Linux still has a problem in computer area. There are specific companies like System76 and Slimbook, but it is hard to beat Apple MacBook Pro M1 price tag. If you go with high-end laptop like Lenovo, it is becoming more expensive if you count everything like learning curve if you don’t know how to use Linux. My father-in-law has used Ubuntu for 4 years, and he was pleased because all he was doing connecting to Internet. When he wanted to do more, I was on the phone to help him. As a result, Linux is not an operating system that you can jump directly. I remember that I’ve solved many codec problems of him via terminal, which he doesn’t know how to use.
As a result, I still don’t think to switch anything apart from macOS in my private life because of price tag, integrated environment, and just works. Of course, it also comes with a cost of “If I have been watched or not”. I believe in Linux more than anything by its philosophy and technology, but I think that there is still not a competitive hardware for it.