Application Considerations

I was notified by Google today on my Windows machine about an update to Google Drive and how they are changing over to a new version. This got me thinking about all the secondary applications I use that I didn't think about. So I've compiled a non-complete list below:

• Google Drive

• Dropbox

• 7zip

• Discord

• Zoom

Hmm, now that I look at the list, its a lot smaller than I thought. I have purposefully not added applications that I know will be available such as Visual Studio Code, various programming language SDKs such as Python, Rust, Java. Video editing and image editing are native to Linux.

Office applications are through Google. I left the Microsoft office product eco system years ago when I was no longer a student and then had to pay the fees to write word documents.

Pop!_OS and NVidia

It should be noted that Pop!_OS offers 2 downloads, one standard and one with NVidia drivers packaged. Windows users may not care much of this but this is significant. One of the largest frustrations with transitioning to Linux or even operating Linux is a graphics driver failure. For those not accustomed to the command line, doing a driver upgrade/installation and having it go wrong could end a user up in the console with no immediate recourse for a fix.

Ubuntu does provide NVidia drivers, however they need to be enabled in the settings as a 3rd party driver.

It's still a three way mental gymnastics between Ubuntu, Pop!_OS, and Arch Linux. Right now Pop!_OS and Arch are the front runners with a heavy lean towards Pop!_OS. The ease of access to software, drivers, and enabling games from Windows makes Pop!_OS more intriguing. However the sheer snappiness and responsiveness in Arch Linux still makes it very appealing. Sometimes its also good to just know that there isn't a whole bunch of crap installed along with your operating system. Arch gives you this very minimalist setup that helps reduce software bloat.

Linux Versions

In Criteria, below, I alluded to determining whether Ubuntu or Arch would be the ideal distribution  of Linux to use. In the fast few days, as I dig further into the benefits of both, I've come to realize, there is a third distro I should consider. Pop_OS is a version of Debian maintained and curated by System76. I've used this distro in the past with some work laptops and enjoyed it, however because they were work laptops, I really could not take full advantage of the OS and its market space.

Of all the distros I am most familiar with, Ubuntu is the most. I've used this distro since before release 10 and have seen it grow and mature. The primary focus of this effort for me is to be able to continue my gaming on my PC though, and the more I read, the more Pop_OS sounds positioned to support it the most "out of the box."

Some of the games I'll be evaluating in this experiment will be No Man's Sky, Magic the Gathering: Arena, and Battletech. Two of the three are available directly through Steam so we will see how they are handled with Steam's Proton overlay. Magic the Gathering: Arena or MTG Arena will be a bit more of a challenge. MTG Arena is distributed directly and will require some sort of secondary support like Wine and/or Lutris.

Criteria

My majority personal use of Microsoft Windows is for gaming. Through the years the gaming services have become advanced, consider Steam for example. They've developed consoles leveraging Linux and tools like Wine. This leads me to believe that, if anything, I can get the core games that I enjoy working within a Linux environment, hopefully with minimal effort.

The graphics card in my computer is an NVidia card (but who's isn't amirite?) so managing the graphics card also needs to be easy. I can't have the GUI I chose suddenly bonk out on me cause of a driver update.

Finally there needs to be easy access to install software, whether from a market place or directly from a vendor. Essentially this limits me to Debian or Redhat package manager (RPM) distributions. I lean more towards Debian as its the OS I know better, the question is do I go with raw Debian or Ubuntu? Ubuntu has to be, by far, the most supported and well rounded distro I can think of. If I were to suggest to someone to try Linux, I would suggest Ubuntu. I work with Redhat at work and I've tried Arch Linux (which impressed me with its sheer speed and responsiveness on my older systems.) 

Redhat is not an option for home though considering there's a fee for service with the solution. Arch Linux is a strong possibility but there's much to take into account if I'm going to use this as my distribution. There is more work in Arch to get things up and running compared to a Debian distro, but I am going to ponder it over the next couple of days. As I said before, I was very impressed by the speed and responsiveness of Arch Linux.

An Acceptable Challenge

 
I've thrown the gauntlet down, more so to myself than at others. After administering and using Microsoft operating systems for many years, I've never truly cut myself away from the operating system. See there's a very strong hold on Microsoft's ability to provide a gaming platform, AKA Windows. Steam has recently changed this playing field as well as the explosion of indie developers that do not want be held to AAA game engine standards and publisher requirements.
Windows 11 is released Oct 5, 2021. At that time I will wipe my hard drive and install Linux. I'll cut myself from Microsoft completely and see how it goes, documenting it all here.
I will provide information about potential distros and build details as I start to figure them out.
The purpose of this effort is not to malign Microsoft or Windows. The recent discussions about Windows 11 though have made this effort all the more viable as I look to leave that ecosystem to something more freeing.

Sleep Study

Your mom is with you at the hospital tonight. We took you in for a sleep study. It was suggested by the ENT that we check and see if you have sleep apnea. It's a simple test, I took it a few years prior because we thought I might of had it. The test came back negative and its just chronic snoring. Mom sent a picture with you connected in all the sensors and your head wrapped up in all sorts of cloth!

All I can hope is you get some sleep tonight! It makes me sad to see you all wrapped up and in a hospital bed, but its only a sleep study instead of something more tragic!

Halloween 2015

This year you dressed up for halloween as a kitty cat. Well more like a leopard mixed with a black cat. Your mom made the tail out of feather bow and a coat hanger. It was ingeniously done! After your cousins and aunt and uncle came over, we all started getting ready.

There was a period of a melt down on your part. This could have been from the fact that you didn't nap at all during the day. We managed to finally calm you down by showing you everyone in their costumes outside. After you settled we were able to finish getting you ready. You ran outside for a while with the rest of the kids in the common area.

We went to all the houses in our neighborhood that had lights on. You walked up to each house and politely said trick or treat! You held open your bag and people placed candy inside. I was amazed at how polite and nice you were. You also seemed to be enjoying having people put candy in your bag. I suspect that you still didn't quite grasp what was going on, especially because you have only had one piece of candy since we got back.

I'll probably end up taking it all into work! I'm not gonna eat it all!