Linux awareness, Distrohopping, Ricing, and Growing up

I have a rich long history with Linux distributions, and I wanna share that history and the evolution of my thought process of operating systems with you all in this post.

Linux awareness 🔗

I was using Windows 7 on my HP 250 laptop. I was happy with the operating system I have. Sometimes I face a problem with WiFi connection, or bluetooth, and I search Google and YouTube and fix it myself. I was satisfied with Windows 7 in a general sense.

I started to learn Visual Basic 6 on Visual Studio on Windows 7 and it was a fun experience with graphical user interface that uses forms and drag-n-drop widgets (I don’t recall the exact name of them).

After learning Visual Basic 6.0 for a few months, I decided to learn web development. I started to learn front end web technologies and languages starting with the obvious HTML, then CSS, then CSS3. I was learning from W3schools and some other forum I can’t recall right now. I used Notepad, Atom code editor, and Notepad++. I prefered Atom editor at that time.

I learned Javascript and focused on the DOM manipulation as I was thinking of the browser and frontend. My thinking was graphically, client-side, visually oriented. I have not been able to grasp the concept of backend yet.

Android’s shiny apps caught my eyes and made me pivot my learning path into Android app development in Java. I started to learn Java and it was a hard (almost horrible) experience but I passed it successfully. Java was the first programming language I learned deeply. I downloaded Android Studio on my humble laptop and it sucked big time.

I used my big enough skills in googling and I learned how to decide what are the problems in the computer which affects its performance, and what is the bottlenick. I used Task Manager to watch my laptop performance while I code, save, and run Android app on emulator. It was my hard disk drive. my HDD read/write speed is the bottlenick as it is almost always at 100%. I replaced my DVD with another storage unit with proper housing, so, my laptop then had 2 storage disks; one is SSD with faster writing and reading speed, and the older one is HDD.

My laptop became usable after fixing its bottlenick. So, I could continue to learn and build Android apps for businesses and myself.

I faced too much viruses, trojans, shortcut worms/viruses, .. etc, and I was searching too much about these things on Google. I was reading too many articles, forum posts, and documentation on viruses, security, and hacking (offensive and defensive security).

Kali Linux 🔗

I saw security experts using Linux operating systems such as Kali Linux when they talk about hacking, pentesting, cracking hashes, .. etc. I started to search with related words, my search keywords became more informed. After a while I decided to try Kali Linux in Virtualbox.

It was a horrible experience on my poor laptop. But I learned too much about the terminal, security, and simple hacking programs and tools.

After that, I started to read about Linux, open source, libre software, and operating systems in general starting with UNIX and MINIX.

Ubuntu 🔗

After a while, I decided to dualboot Windows 7 and Ubuntu for better performance and to gain more hands-on experience. I loved Ubuntu Linux.

After getting mature in software development in general and gaining more knowledge about Linux and opensource, I decided to go all in.

I moved all my personal files and other important files on a USB pendrive and some uploaded to Google Drive and some other files are kept on the hard disk inside my laptop. I wiped everything on the SSD and installed Ubuntu. I was so happy I could achieve that.

distrohopping 🔗

I faced issues from time to time on Ubuntu, so I started to think about better Linux distributions. I installed Kali Linux on bare metal instead of Ubuntu, and it was a horrible 2 day experience, so I reinstalled Ubuntu.

Linux Mint 🔗

After a few days, I was reading about Linux mint. I started to think of trying it. I installed it on the weekend. It was good enough, but it was sluggish and laggy compared to Ubuntu. I didn’t know why at that time.

I use Arch btw 🔗

After about a week, I decided to try another distribution that everyone talks about. So I decided to install Arch itself!

On my 15-day long holiday, I started it with installing Arch. It was the most stressful learning experience. I consumed days and nights to install and figure out things. searching, doing, and re-searching. More than a week later, I decided it was enough. No more time for Arch. I gained more knowledge in various low-level software architecture and apps, but it is enough. Let’s go back to business.

Back to Ubuntu 🔗

I installed Ubuntu again.

Kubuntu : Ubuntu with KDE Plasma 🔗

After about a month, the experience of hopping from distro to distro was giving me suspense, amusement, satisfaction, .. some fealing of fear and success, like trying to explore a wild new world. So, I kept thinking of trying KDE (later named Plasma desktop). I installed Kubuntu which is Ubuntu with KDE desktop environment. I had too much choices and customization options, but I was lost. It was a vast crowded wild world.

I kept customizing, changing things around, hiding, adding, installing apps, and even redesigning the desktop look and feel to be like Ubuntu, then to be like Windows 7 interface, then I stumbled up on a video that showing how to customize KDE to be like MacOS (OS X) interface, so I did it.

Back to Ubuntu, again 🔗

After 10 nights of geeking around, I quit this redesign loop. And I went back to Ubuntu with GNOME desktop environment. I kept Ubuntu for a while as I was focusing on software development (web and mobile).

Clear Linux OS 🔗

One night, I was reading some article about a performance beast created and maintained by Intel, specially optimized for Intel CPUs. So, I was hooked. On the next weekend, I installed Clear Linux OS on my laptop. I was thrilled with its performance. It felt like a breeze of fresh air with its performance and GNOME DE. Clear Linux OS has a package manager that has too few packages but it includes Flathub, so, it has popular Linux programs there. It was a quiet experience with little worries and issues at first. But after about I month, I faced an issue, and almost all webpages I read on Google search says update via swupd (its package manager), so I did. It broke! There were some issues in updating too. After a long night I figured out how to fix the problem. It was a horrible rolling release issue with packages older than expected for its “smart” package manager.

Back to my beloved Ubuntu 🔗

I went back to Ubuntu with my mind full of gratefulness and satisfaction. I saw Ubuntu as valuable, stable, productive as it can be.

Elementary OS 🔗

But someday, I watched a YouTube video about a new Linux distribution that has a MacOS look and feel with a focus on user experience. I thought it was a novelty thing.. a shiny broken glass.. but too many youtubers tried it and recommended it! I started to think and search about Elementry OS. I knew it is based on Ubuntu with a new Pantheon desktop environment and a back-to-basics app store with a great pay-what-you-can policy. I loved the concept and bought the premise.

I downloaded the ISO file. A few busy days in my college passed, and I forgot about Elementary OS. I watched more youtubers talking about Elementary OS, so I came back to it, and installed it.

My out of the box experience of it was good. It was somewhat slower than Ubuntu and Clear Linux OS. But it gave me a clean user interface with good user experience. Installing apps was not bad for me as I was used to the terminal. But for everyone else, it was horrible as it has dozen apps in its innovative app store (called “App Center”).

I tried its code editor, it was basic but good. I saw it was a promising distribution but I face too many errors and issues down the road with updates and installed programs.

Debian 🔗

So, I thought I should come back to my belove Ubuntu. But another thing caught my attention. Ubuntu is based on Debian. Why not Debian?

So I installed Debian. It was not good enough as it started with issues with device drivers, then with playing videos and proprietary codecs, and its performance was worse than Ubuntu. It broke my heart as I see it as the wise grandfather of Linux distribution. At that time, I appreciated Ubuntu more and more.

Pop!_OS 🔗

Should I go back to Ubuntu? but I need more than Ubuntu ? What about the new distribution that is based on Ubuntu and maintained by System76 (a Linux-powered hardware company). It’d be it. I installed Pop!_OS (that weird name).

It was a stable distribution for the most part, but after a few days of usage its user interface started to freeze randomly. A program interface freezes, and at the same time the whole system and other programs works fine. The dock/panel freezes, but all other things and programs work properly. It was a chaos experience of great experience and horrible experience. I love the concept, but I hated the product. Their vision is good though. I follow their progress until now while they’re creating COSMOS desktop environment in Rust. COSMOS DE is in alpha stage right now (the time of writing).

Manjaro 🔗

I thought I should visit other friends to get my hands-on experience to make an informed decision about my Linux distribution of choice. So, I tried Manjaro. I liked its user interface, especially its colors and the prompt theme of the terminal. But it was deeply horrible distro with ducktaped parts which fail all the time.

Fedora 🔗

I tried Fedora. People are talking high about Fedora, but it was not that good. I faced too many device drivers’ issues and more issues with updating and installing programs.

Zorin OS 🔗

I tried Zorin OS, that shiny thing. It was not that good as a daily driver. It has the look and feel but not much in the functionality and stability.

Parrot OS 🔗

I tried Parrot OS, that security focused distro, similar to Kali Linux. It was not good at all. I thought of the next distro after less than 2 days.

Settle on Ubuntu 🔗

After trying all these Linux distros, I decided to settle on Ubuntu once and for all. I installed the good old friend on my laptop. I started to use it as usual. That stability and quitting distrohopping helped me focusing on my college and software development career.

But another behavior came along. I started to see a better user experience for every behavior in Ubuntu w/ GNOME.

the ricer 🔗

So, I started to customize GNOME with extensions. I did too many customization. I redesign its user interface to be similar to Pantheon interface but with a left side mounted dock. I added the menu to the left top corner like Elementary OS and Mate (good old Unity desktop environment). I redesign it to look like MacOS. I even changed program icons. The day after that day, I redesigned it to look minimal with less clutter and more of a tiling window manager.

I was constantly trying to optimize the user experience and my workflow, but I was literally lost in customization and ricing.

I was always ricing. I installed too many desktop environments on the same Ubuntu distribution. It was too much ricing.. too much customization.. too much change.. too much issues including “not booting to Ubuntu”!

After a crazy 2 month, I came to realize what I want! and I thought why?

That’s the great word. WHY?

Why should I customize that much?

why all of these changes?

Why KDE ?

Why GNOME ?

Why not GNOME ?

What I want? What is the purpose? Why I choose this or that?

Recovering and growing up 🔗

I started to think more clear utilizing my rich experience with different Linux distros. I put some rules, guidelines, goals, specifications, or points that should be in my chosen Linux distro.

I wrote this list:

1. passed the test of time with at least 10 years.
2. used by millions of people to make sure it is tested on various PC / laptop configurations.
3. left mounted dock of apps.
4. top bar.
5. touchpad gestures like MacOS, Elementary OS, and Pop!_OS.
6. performant and efficient as a daily driver not in synthetic benchmarks.
7. preferably has APT package manager (Debian based, or Ubuntu based).
8. not a rolling release, not cutting edge, I need stability more.

So, I decided to go with GNOME as a desktop environment as I need too minimal customization. I just need to put the app dock on the left. Then I compared Elementary OS, Pop!_OS, Ubuntu, NixOS. I landing on the orange Ubuntu land. I still using Ubuntu and I love it. I am writing this post on Ubuntu 24.04.1 LTS operating system of choice.

That was the chosen operating system for me. Ubuntu is great with its default GNOME desktop environment. Ubuntu passed the test of time, and used by millions of users around the world. Its performance and efficiency is great for me. GNOME DE has a topbar, and an apps dock which Ubuntu left mounted it for me. Its package manager is APT with their new Snap package manager. It has a famous long-term support release every two years (LTS). I daily drive Ubuntu and it is great and familiar and easy to use for me.

I now focus on programs I run, software tools I create, my time management, .. etc. I am feeling I grown up. I learnt more than enough about GNU Linux and its distros.

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