Hills and valleys: My Journey Away from Big Tech
I will take you on my adventure to switch from Big Tech software to more reliable, European or open-source alternatives. I share my experience with you frankly: successes, setbacks and challenges. Along the way I encounter all kinds of obstacles, such as hardware that does not work, services that cost money and incomprehension from people around me. I will share everything with you so that you can learn and enjoy this journey. Come with me!
Of course, it was immediately clear that I had to get away from Windows. Alternatives? Which ones are there? Not that much, it turns out. Of course OSX falls off immediately, because Apple, ChromeOS falls off, because Google (and a very limited OS, my wife works with it). It soon became clear that it was going to be Linux.
I tried the first version of Red Hat in 1998 from a CD-ROM with a computer magazine and I once ran a laptop on Ubuntu for a while. But my work is Windows-based, so that was never a long life. Not enough to say I know Linux. A lot of googling, a lot of reading, a number of ‘distrochoosers’ further and I had a shortlist of distributions (distros) that would suit me. I've read a lot about rolling releases, window managers and desktop environments. In short: choice stress!
Eventually I downloaded a number of them, placed them on a so-called Live USB and tried different variants from that USB. My eye fell on a very slick looking distro and I installed it. And that wasn't possible...... Because I had to change some things in the BIOS first. Reduce some security and choose a less slick control of the SSD. Installation was surprisingly easy. You really don’t have to be an expert to work with modern distros. It looked very nice but didn't work very well. Too much eye-candy, too many animations, everything moved and flashed in rather emphatically present neon colors. A whole light show. But the showstopper: I found out that there was a lot in it that communicated with China and India.
Linux is very adaptable. But that doesn't always serve your goals. North Korea, for example, has Red Star, a linux distro that everywhere(!) makes the name of the great leader bigger than the rest of the text. And who reports every keystroke to the Kim family.
My chosen Linux distro called home and that house wasn't my house. So erased the laptop and chose another distro. I installed it again very easily and I now work with this distro on a daily basis. The entire interface has been adapted to my wishes. From the placement of the window buttons to a whole bunch of custom gestures and keyboard shortcuts. I currently prefer to work on my cheap spare laptop with Linux than with my expensive work laptop with double-sided touchscreen, NVIDIA video card and other bells and whistles.
And then comes the question: If you prefer to work with Linux, why isn't Linux on the luxury laptop?
I don't have the guts to do it. Because on this spare laptop the speakers don't work under Linux. My mouse and keyboard are recognized, but the extensive configuration software that goes with it is not available. My beautiful Logitech Spotlight Presenter can only browse forwards and backwards under Linux. All the tricks I use in presenting don't work. In short: I don't dare to limit the whole luxury machine in functionality. I can't do very well professionally without it. My substantial library of files is on OneDrive and I haven't found a good alternative. There is NextCloud, but functionally that can't compete with OneDrive. The link with my phone is a lot less functional (which is actually bizarre, because Android is basically Linux). Same with my Remarkable2: that device also runs on Linux, but the integration with my laptop is simply absent. If I want to place a file on my Remarkable2 (which is next to the laptop) I first have to upload the files to a cloud via a browser.
In short: When it comes to hardware support and support for things other than core tasks, I find Linux considerably more limited.
On the Windows machine I would have dictated and corrected this blog. Much faster than mine ten-keys-get-of which-three-right-and-then-correct-type-method. WINDOWS+H It's all you need on Windows. Text-to-speech is ingrained. On Linux I have been watching an installation for 12 minutes (which eventually failed). But I have chosen to tap this out on the Linux machine. Rather than switch to the Windows machine.
That says something, I guess. That says a lot!
But what does it say? I haven't figured that out yet. If I have the answer, I'll let you know!
English (UK)