It was an overcast January morning in 2025 the day I decided to delete my operating system.
The Ubuntu installer warned me that it would remove everything on my hard drive, permanently wiping the entire Windows 10 installation I’d been running for years at that point. I hesitated for a second — maybe I should just dual-boot? No, I’m going all in! Finally, I hit the button to install Linux. One year later, I still don’t regret that choice. I even resurrected an old Windows 10 laptop by installing Linux on it.
My decision to try out Linux was driven by a growing dislike for modern Windows more than anything else. However, I’ve come to appreciate Linux as more than just an escape from Windows. Linux hasn’t been as intimidating as it’s often made out to be, and I’ve found a lot to love about it, despite (and sometimes because of) its challenges.
The hard-earned lessons of Linux
My first night on Linux was rough. Getting all my apps installed and set up was exhausting, especially because I had no experience using the command line. For those who haven’t stared into the dark void of a Linux terminal before, it’s where most system management happens — installing apps, running updates, and the like. It’s an unavoidable part of the Linux experience, even with more App Store-like platforms popping up, like the Snap Store and Flathub.
After so long on Windows, it was also a shock to my system trying to learn how to navigate Ubuntu (although I luckily didn’t have any mouse issues like my colleague and fellow Linux user Nathan Edwards). I couldn’t figure out how to get a second SSD connected properly that first night, and ended up just rage quitting and going to bed, thinking I’d probably have to reinstall Windows the next day.
But in the morning, I logged back into Ubuntu and realized what was wrong with my SSD. I hadn’t created an entry for the drive in my file systems table, or “fstab,” which is where you configure how disks and storage devices are mounted to your PC’s file system. After fixing it, I started to think maybe this whole Linux thing isn’t so bad after all.
Linux isn’t especially complicated on a daily basis, but you have to be willing to solve your own problems
It’s mostly been smooth sailing ever since. I’ve rarely run into issues on Linux, and when I have, they’ve never been apocalyptic. They’re always little things that are annoying, but fixable with some research and trial and error, like a Flatpak app not working because I need to change its permissions, or an AppImage refusing to run because I’m missing a library.
If anything, that first night on Linux prepared me for one of the biggest takeaways from this year: Linux isn’t especially complicated on a daily basis, but you have to be willing to solve your own problems when they come up.
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