My Journey through Linux (And the Dangerous world of Distrohopping)

Heeelllooo I'm the KronguCritic. I remember it, so you don't have to!

6 months ago, I switched on over to Linux. And as a now, passionate user of it- I think that comes with some responsibility, And that responsibility is pestering other people into joining you.

But that's not what this blogpost will be about— maybe in the future, perchance. I'd like to talk abut my experience so far with Linux, and my downfall from a person with a bright future into a distro-hopping addict.

Real quick—I wanna clarify some things. I'm somewhat tech literate, but i do think Linux is completely viable if your not, you just need to be able to follow guide instructions. And if you get a distro like Mint you likely wont ever have to touch the ever-dreaded terminal. If you're on Neocities you are capable of installing Linux. Just a side note!

Where did it begin?

I'm not entirely sure what pushed me over, But my problem was that I genuinely didn't know much abut Linux. I have always loved tinkering with my computer, and I used to love ricing out my computer with Rainmeter when that was still a thing. I think if you sat down 14 year old me and explained what Linux was, and that it's viable- I would have thrown up and cried.

So I did a couple days of research- and by a couple days I mean one day of binge-watching YouTube videos before deciding to switch onto Linux Mint. It seemed like the best option, and I was beyond excited to get off windows, where after pressing the '@' key I had to wait a full 12 seconds for the search function to register.

HOP ONE: LINUX MINT

I assumed installing it was a lot harder than it ended up being. All i needed was an external USB, the most annoying part BY FAR was actually verifying that the ISO file was safe—but after that it was pretty smooth sailing.

And by god, was Mint beautiful. Linux Mint felt like a warm hug after a decade long war, a warm cabin in a snowstorm. The UI was slick and nostalgic, it was responsive, and this is probably unpopular but I loved the noises— You could set it so minimizing/opening tabs and other little actions would make these little noises, Still brings a smile to my face.

So, I stuck with Linux Mint. And if you put a gun to my head and told me I had to stay with mint for the rest of my life- I would be more than happy to.

….But, this is all in past tense, What happened?

Did something break? Did mint fail me?

…No. Alas, it was me, not it.

For as stable my computer was, and how slick, and productive i was becoming- a young, fiery beauty caught my eye.

And its name was Arch Linux.

HOP 2: ARCH LINUX

If you're familiar with Linux you're probably clicking off the tab. If you're not— Arch Linux is a distro that I honestly discovered through the memes? It's hard to install, and the people who use it are very smug about doing so.

Arch is what you call rolling release. Mint is a stable release, as Mint releases a new version upgrade every 6 months (you can actually put off upgrading for quite sometime). Rolling releases however update multiple times a day, meaning if you have newer software or need newer packages, It can be useful for you. They call this bleeding edge,

…Bleeding coming from the fact that your systems DEFINITELY Gonna break a couple of times from all these conflicting file versions. Arch is very unstable. Arch also comes with nothing but a terminal screen. You choose your desktop environment and everything after that—if your type of person who gets stressed out having Bluetooth because it's "Bloat", maybe look into Arch.

But I didn't care about that. Like the One Ring, I sought to covet Arch's power.

And the first step to taking it as my own…was to actually install it. I was not about to brick my system for it, So I actually practiced in a virtual machine. Multiple times. And by the way— anyone who says it's easy to install is lying, especially if your a dumbass like me, but if you take the time to read the entire manual, then it isn't so bad. I believe I got arch working on my fourth attempt.

After doing it twice in a row, it was onto the real thing

So when I followed the instructions, did it exactly how I did earlier and opened up my computer to a black screen, I did start panicking…mildly.

I spent the next 4 hours trying to figure out what the fuck went wrong. No idea what even did it but when I restarted my computer it randomly showed up again, so I finally got to use Arch.

…For a day and a half, as the day after I got cocky and tried to customize my lock screen, only to fuck it up again.

I was pretty exhausted from doing tech stuff for 3 days in a row, So I switched back to Mint… For about a day or two, until I learned of…

HOP 3: ENDEAVOR OS

I love EndeavorOS. Endeavor is like Arch if it was good- please ignore my clear fuck ups in the previous section.

EndeavorOS is an Arch-*Based* distro, meaning its forked off of Arch. Its basically arch, but with a GUI installer, and gives you a ton of tools for maintaining once you get into it. It gives you tools for updating, clearing your `sudo -S pacman' cache— bet you didn't know you had to clear your pacman cache, bet your learning this right now, cause I fucking didn't and I was prowling that wiki like a pig looking for truffles.

My time with EndeavorOS was short lived. I actually didn't run into many issues with it, but my next semester of college was days away and I was still trying to get things like printer support and Bluetooth to work. Customizing your computer from the bottom up is awesome….Until you have to do that.

So, I spent the next two weeks researching different distros, figuring out what my final hop would become. I was overwhelmed by the options if I'm being honest, I think that's why newcomers are usually forced onto Mint or Ubuntu for their own sake. There's no good reason for me to be researching at 2 AM if Gentoo is a good fit for me. Fucking Gentoo.

This was a weirdly stressful decision for me…But I ended up making my hopefully, final hop.

Hop 4: Fedora (KDE Version)

Fedora was one I never looked into too much because it honestly looked boring. But after trying to wrap my head around what the fuck void Linux is, I realized that boring is definitely my best option. It updates every 6 months, and mostly stays out of your way unless you try to install steam

At this point I was between OpenSUSE, Fedora, and Debian and I just had to force myself to make a decision. So I booted up fedora on a live disk, and went to install it where Endeavor was.

….So, at the time I was dual booting with Mint, Endeavor, and Windows. I had windows installed in case I needed proctoring software for college, and I had shrunk mint just in case.

On an unrelated note, I was about to learn that Windows really, really does not like playing fair with Fedora. Because upon installing Fedora, My data for it and mint both corrupted. NOTE! I was aware that this was a risk, so I backed up my files on an external USB.

Every installation attempt alongside windows did not work- and upon learning it was the issue I got fed up and erased my entire disk, replacing it with Fedora. This was the day before classes started by the way, So hat distro better not piss me off.

I've used Fedora for around 2 days, so I'll likely make a second blogpost on my feelings on it in the long run.

So far I like it! It stays out of the way. I enjoy that it has a stance on supporting open source software, and I feel like it strikes a good balance of being more recent than Debian and slower than Arch. I haven't updated with Fedora yet, but it's a perfectly functional, nice, and system and I could see myself sticking with.

My reservations so far is that installing proprietary software like Steam was a little bit out of the way but it ended up being a 10 minute detour at most. DNF package manager has dumb names for stuff (You can't do Sudo dnf install Steam, you gotta put Steam.x86_64 or some shit)… but I also found it easier to search for packages then Pacman or Apt.

I haven't used it long enough to understand its full powers or drawbacks, but between the big three (Debian, Fedora, Arch) I think it best suites my needs.

So no more Distro Hopping?

I have to control myself, so….No, sort of. I have to keep my computer stable for college, and some days I don't want to fuck with tech I wanna relax or game.

…However, the rush of switching to a new distribution cannot be understated. So, In the future my plan is to revive a second laptop, or use a virtual machine to test out other distribution's. I've become really passionate about Linux the past year, so I'd love to fuck around and try whatever's out there. Maybe I'll even make full on distro reviews? That would be cool I cannot lie.

Where does that leave us? Does this matter?

Not sure if I've mentioned this, I've been really inconsistent about my site in general, but I went to school for graphic design for a year. During this time I learned I fuckin hated graphic design. I felt pressured into it, and as a creative I didn't really feel like I had much else in me.

Learning about Linux made me realize I fucking love computers, and technology. I ended up completely switching Majors to IT, and I've never been more fulfilled and excited about my future. I've always been a tech head but I think I needed to really prove to myself that I can do these sorts of things.

So weirdly, I think impulsively switching to Linux snowballed into me wanting to go into IT.

…Now all of that all being said, I swear you can just get Linux Mint and run it like you would windows… But better!