So, I broke my Arch install by running a test build of VirtualBox. My bad, absolutely my fault. I was going to reinstall, but instead, I’ve decided to simply move away from Linux as a main operating system on my tower. I realised that even outside of that incident, I was actually having way too much friction with Linux. Maybe I didn’t realise how much the friction was actually getting to me, or maybe it’s because of the ADHD medication, but it felt like it wasn’t worth clinging on to Linux as my main desktop OS, which I attempted for years (since the late 2010s in general, and since 2023 with this tower.)
The issues at hand were:
- Lack of freedom in the software and services I had to choose, as Linux isn’t really looked at due to its low market share. (good luck if you’re boycotting Spotify and wanting to use Linux.)
- The lack of a good player/organiser for local music like MusicBee that is native to Linux, and having to rely on a janky compatibility layer that feels like it works better on games than regular applications.
- The lack of a good virtualisation option for when there is no other choice than virtualising Windows. VirtualBox has been very unstable with Windows on the stable releases (and the test build was how I broke my last Linux install, as said before), KVM/QEMU was way too slow out of the box and GPU passthrough was not an option, and VMware doesn’t support Wayland fully on Linux hosts.
- Dualbooting feeling like a very real barrier to VR gaming by having to switch between operating systems and waiting for Windows. (no, my headset doesn’t have Linux drivers, yet. No, I’m not replacing it.)
- Feeling like I was being a constant beta tester when I wanted to do work and have fun on my computer.
There were other issues at hand that seem very minor on the surface, but can pile up and become grating, especially with the larger issues - such as Cloudflare being very paranoid with Linux machines and having to click the CAPTCHA every bloody time (which poses a problem when a site is more paranoid than normal, e.g. Rate Your Music), and passkeys requiring a smartphone (e.g. Apple’s “Log In with iPhone”) not working on Linux when they work perfectly fine on Windows.
Note (A slight tangent about Linux on ASUS ROG AM5 motherboards)
There was also an issue that resulted in me having to change the bootloader parameters every time I distro-hopped (which I need to talk about another time) - essentially, because the power management handling on this motherboard (ASUS ROG Strix X670E-E Gaming Wifi) was so awful, both the Wifi and Ethernet drivers would panic and crash, resulting in no network connectivity. Intel won’t fix it because they can’t reproduce it on their systems, ASUS won’t fix it because they won’t support Linux. The workaround is to disable PCI-e power management and/or to set the ASPM (Active State Power Management) policy to performance or disable it outright, to stop the devices from going into a “sleep mode” of sorts.
If you have ran into this issue, you will need to add pcie_port_pm=off pcie_aspm.policy=performance to your boot parameters and that should sort it out. This worked for me and results in those drivers being stable on these motherboards.
It also didn’t help that I was using Arch for the convenience and software availability (via the Arch User Repository), and thus dealing with the unstable nature of a rolling distro, which in hindsight may have contributed to said friction since even though Arch does have sane defaults, it does need a bit more care in comparison to other distros. I’ve already made it a goal to use something simpler at the cost of some control, not using the native package manager for everything, or dealing with outdated software - my current choices being either Ubuntu (well, Kubuntu actually, KDE best desktop) or Fedora - but even then some of these issues like the reliance on WINE or VirtualBox over VMware or just using Windows, or having to deal with Cloudflare and RYM’s paranoia, would persist no matter what distro I used, so it really did put its worth into question. So I whacked Windows 11 on it, used Winutil to disable as many of the annoyances I can, and called it a day.
Being on Windows on this machine has been honestly more freeing than I thought it would be. Being able to natively use MusicBee, choose between Spotify or Apple Music (which I’ve got a free trial for so am giving it a proper go), not worry about dualbooting and being put off from the VR games I have on Steam, not worry about whether the hardware I’m using is fully compatible with the OS I’m using, use whatever passkey manager I want - including logging into apps using a third-party password manager, both through Windows and via a smartphone! - and have a good experience with virtual machines through VMware, it’s felt like a fog has cleared in my brain by going for Windows here, even if this issue of general availability is not Linux’s fault. Some Linux-isms have stayed with me as well, such as:
- customising my shell to make it look nicer (Powershell users, go check out Oh My Posh)
- installing software via the terminal - instead of Pacman, I use Winget, which is basically like the AUR for Windows, but with much less malware attacks (if there were any), which is kind of ironic and slightly amusing even if not that surprising.
- using KDE applications in day-to-day use, such as KDE Connect for transferring files to/from my phone, Konsole for terminal use, and Kate for writing this very post!
As a result, Linux (and KDE) has been beneficial to my workflows, even if right now it’s not beneficial to my day-to-day use.
Yes, I am aware that Windows has been headed into the wrong direction since Windows 11, with moronic decisions such as insistently forcing Microsoft accounts and patching out any way to use a local account, or adding unnecessary AI chatbot features into the OS to appease shareholders. I’m not delusional about that. But I also want to do work on my computer, not work on my computer, and I don’t want to fight my computer to do what I want, and that’s how I felt with Linux more than Windows. Things like getting a local account added are one-time issues I don’t need to think about after it’s said and done, and telling Copilot to piss off every month is honestly a mild annoyance compared to the constant everyday friction I realised I was dealing with when I used Linux.
This also isn’t to say I hate Linux; on the contrary, actually - I think the Linux desktop does a lot better than Windows in a lot of things such as user experience and customisability - this goes for GNOME as well as KDE, too - and development workflows are one of the cases where Linux is well ahead of Windows. I built an app in C# on Linux, and thanks to .NET I was able to compile an executable for Linux and Windows. In terms of where I’m using Linux now, I have Ubuntu on a virtual machine which has been great even at its default settings (I do feel how slow Snap is, though) and using VMware has been a breeze on Windows. I also have a Steam Deck, and a laptop I can throw whatever Linux I want on in case I get that itch, particularly since I want to keep my Steam Deck running SteamOS at the moment. And if you want to get very pedantic, my NAS runs QNAP QTS, which is QNAP’s own flavour of Linux intended for their NAS boxes. (yes, I tried building my own. No, I don’t want to.)
I think this will allow me to have a better relationship with Linux in the long-term, instead of trying to bodge it into a part of my life where it’s just not working out and therefore it feeling toxic and frustrating when it shouldn’t be. I think back to a friend of mine suggesting to me that maybe I wasn’t satisfied with Linux at all since I kept distro-hopping (which I definitely need to write about), and in the case of my main tower, I agree.