I've been using Linux for over a month

Amazingly, I finally got to a point where I could use Linux full time as my main OS.

And wow, has this been a long time coming. More on that in a moment.

Of the two computers I have, one runs Kubuntu 22.04 LTS and the other Microsoft Windows 11 Pro.

I may write a full article on Win11 later. My gripes and complaints about it are the same as others. However, it does have some notable improvements. For example, Command Prompt finally has tabs, and you can have both Command Prompt and PowerShell in the same window. You can even have Command Prompt, PowerShell and Azure Cloud Shell as 3 tabs, again all in the same window. That's actually pretty good.

But of course, Linux has had the multi-tab thing in Terminal going on for a really long time, so... yeah. Let's get to Linux.

For more years than I care to admit, I've been trying to switch over to Linux. And finally, in this year 2023, I did it. As noted above, Kubuntu LTS is what I went with. Why Kubuntu? I like Debian based Linux and also prefer KDE for my desktop. A long time ago when I first tried out Linux, KDE was always the best, and it still is.

The way I prepped for my Linux switchover was that I first bought a brand new Samsung SSD so I could save the old Windows 10 installation on my other Samsung SSD just in case I needed to go back to it.

After that, I backed up some files to USB sticks and just went for it. Being I had a brand new SSD, I let the installer format the whole thing to the proper ext4 type and the installation went through with no issues.

From there I started to piece together my new operating environment. What I did (and still do) is keep a text file documenting everything I installed, every configuration change I made, every customization I did, and so on. It's just a big ol' set of instructions in case I want to install Kubuntu elsewhere or possibly even go with straight Debian in the future.

See, here's the thing. Whether using Kubuntu's default "Discover" and/or Synaptic Package Manager, I knew I would be installing a fair amount of stuff, and did. I also knew that if I had to install this all over again on another computer, yeah, I'd need documentation, hence the text file I maintain just to do it all.

I actually did this same thing for Windows 10. I had a text file called windows crap.txt just for getting through a Windows 10 installation. I don't use Win10 anymore, so that's no longer needed.

Oh, and kind of a funny note (or at least funny to me). My successful switchover to Kubuntu was actually the reason I installed Win11 Pro on my other computer.

Believe me, I was dead set against Win11 and didn't want to touch it. But after diving in to something totally different with Kubuntu, I said what the heck, let's dump Win10 Pro and put Win11 Pro on the other computer. I went ahead and downloaded Win11 and did a from-scratch install. Works fine...

...but I'm sticking with Kubuntu as my main OS. Surprisingly, I quickly got used to The Linux Way of doing things. While true I can get Linux-like stuff going on with Windows 11 PowerShell, it's still at its core a Windows environment. I'll be using PowerShell, go try a standard Linux command and whoops, nope, can't do that because I'm in Windows. An example of that is something as simple as a directory listing that shows everything. You can ls to your heart's content in PowerShell and it works every time, but ls -a? No. That's dir -Force in PowerShell, a Windows thing.

Yeah, if you couldn't tell, I use Terminal. But then again, I was a heavy Command Prompt user in Windows.

The stuff I use in Linux is almost the same stuff I used in Windows

Many moons ago I switched over to as many free and open source programs as I could. OpenOffice, GIMP, 7-Zip and so on. I did that because I'm a cheap computer user. Unintentionally, going with free and open source programs was prepping me for Linux use.

The end result is that there really wasn't any "Oh my God, I have to learn a whole new OS and software that's totally unfamiliar" thing that happened. GIMP in Linux acts the same as GIMP for Windows. LibreOffice is a more advanced OpenOffice but most things are generally in the same places. Firefox acts the same in Linux and Windows, as does Google Chrome, as does Chromium web browser, VLC media player and OBS.

Where things get different concerning the stuff I had to learn is with file management and Terminal.

Different stuff I had to get used to

No drive letters in Linux, which doesn't bother me.

After saving a bash script, it does require an executable permission set to run it with chmod +x script.sh.

Seeing free drive space available isn't told by ls but rather df (meaning "disk-free") for bytes or df -h to show info in a more human-readable format.

Similarly, a list of every file on the system and how much space it uses is done with du ("disk usage") or du -h. Writing that to a text file is done with du -h >list.txt or whatever file name you want. After the text file is written, it can be viewed using any text editor like nano, Geany, Kate, and so on.

In Kubuntu, yes you can see all the free space and usage info with the GUI using the default Dolphin file manager. But I like that I can get the info I want straight from Terminal also. Also, Dolphin does show a "progress bar" like indicator for used/free space similar to Windows.

Copying files in Terminal is done with cp and moving with mv. However, it doesn't state what it's doing unless the verbose option is enabled such as cp ~/Documents/file.odt ~/Desktop/file.odt -v.

To get a text-based file copy progress bar while a copy is taking place, one way to do it is install gcp. It's in the Synaptic Package Manager.

Viewing all the hidden folders a.k.a. dot folders is ls -lat (or ls -lath for more human readable) in Terminal. In Dolphin, it's hamburger menu > Show Hidden Files or just CTRL+H on the keyboard.

Then there's the KDE stuff.

KDE-specific things I had to get used to

I have to start this off by saying there are several Linux desktop environments (such as XFCE, LXDE, LXQt) aside from KDE. What I'm going to say here only applies to KDE.

Everything on the graphical end to do with KDE is done from System Settings, and there are a lot of settings. Some of it is very straightforward while other stuff is buried.

An example of buried: Changing sound events, such as if you wanted to change the login sound, is done from Notifications > Configure (button) > Plasma Workspace > Configure Events. Not exactly intuitive.

An example of straightforward: Changing how the desktop acts after login is Startup and Shutdown > Desktop Session. I can configure the session to remember everything where the session is saved and restored on next login, or have it where it's an empty session after each login (which is how Windows does it). From this same screen I can instruct KDE whether to offer me options when I ask to shut down or just shut down immediately when I instruct it to.

Another example of straightforward: Changing how the mouse cursor looks. Appearance > Cursors. Change the mouse pointer color, style, size, whatever. Easy.

Configuring the taskbar area is weird at first only because I'm given so many options. And to be honest, it's very easy to screw things up. For a Windows-ish look, right-click anywhere on the taskbar, then "Enter Edit Mode". From there I hover over what I want to change, then configure to suit.

My desktop is configured to act more or less like a "modernized Windows 2000", so to speak, because that's what I like.

Comparisons

Here is where I'll get into modern Windows vs. modern Linux, starting with Windows.

Windows 11 is better than Windows 10 conditionally. Never thought I'd say that, but after using it, yeah, it is better. I'll get to why that is in a minute.

What's the condition? Win11 only runs the way it's supposed to if you don't mess with it.

An example of messing with Windows is the use of O&O ShutUp10++ and/or Winaero Tweaker. If you use either one of those and start disabling stuff all over the place, Win11 may break. In fact, I believe both of those software titles outright tell you, "Hey, you better BACK YOUR STUFF UP before changing things around because modifying these settings could break Windows". Even with those warnings, it's inevitable that you will break stuff, have to piece your broken OS back together somehow, and just when you think you've got everything set up right, uh-oh, here comes another Microsoft update that just undid all your changes. And I know O&O ShutUp10++ tells you about that with a notice that effectively says, "Hey, every time Microsoft releases a major OS update, you will have to come back into this software, check your settings here and apply them all over again. That's the way it is. Sorry."

O&O ShutUp10++ and Winearo Tweaker are both good software utilities and do work, but... they also both modify settings Microsoft doesn't want you, the user, messing around with in Windows. Take that as you will.

When I ran Win10, yeah I used a bunch of stuff to change around the way Windows functions such as the two utilities above. The end result of that is over time I ended up with a semi-broken Windows. It was a cycle of use utility software, tweak settings, major Microsoft Update happens later, things break, try to fix things that broke, repeat. Run this cycle enough times and things just get messed up. My Windows 10 worked, but kind of just limped along, and I didn't want a repeat of that...

...hence the reason why I decided to use Win11 Pro in stock form for the new installation I did. Having a Windows that works means yeah, you have to use the Microsoft online account just to get into the OS. Yeah, deal with the crazy Settings area that's a mishmash of menus from modern to sometimes over 20 years ago (the Device Manager still looks like it comes straight out of Windows 2000). Yeah, deal with the fact there is integrated Bing searching all over the place, and so on. That is the modern Windows experience when running stock Win11, which I do.

Win11 is better than Win10 because Win10 obviously wasn't finished on release. Once you start using Win11, should you go that route, you'll understand what I mean better. You'll instantly get annoyed with Win11 at first, but after a short spell you'll get over those annoyances. Then you'll poke around, take a look at what's new and different, see the new features and whatnot, and say to yourself, "Ohhh... okay, I get what Microsoft is trying to do now" when getting used to The Modern Windows Way. Then you will come across little nice things here and there (like tabs in Notepad!) and think, "Why didn't Microsoft make Win10 have this out of the gate?"

For example, if you click the titlebar of a window and drag to the top, you're presented with window placement options, and a good number of them. Left half, right half, 60/40 vertical split or quarters. This is genuinely good. While true it's very late to the game with stuff like this compared to what Linux desktop environments have had for years, hey, at least Win11 has it now.

But, again, this will make you ask why Win10 didn't have this. Or heck, why didn't Windows 7 have this?

I'm not saying Win11 is finished, polished and perfect, because it's not. But it absolutely does act and feel more put-together compared to Win10.

Enter the Linux

I don't have to use an online account or have integrated internet searching (although it is an option) in the GUI with Kubuntu, but more importantly, I do not have to use any utilities to disable stuff I don't like.

I'm not just talking about background processes, I mean anything. Change around the entire GUI, have multiple desktop environments installed, change the entire icon set, easily change the system font for the whole environment, and so on, and so on.

When I say I can add, remove or modify anything, I mean anything.

What this ultimately means is that if I find something in the OS that's not to my liking or is just outright broken (which undoubtedly happens from time to time), I can change a setting or switch out something and FIX it without the use of a third party utility that could and probably would break the OS. True, sometimes I have to read Linux help forums to find the information I need to change stuff around, but I don't have to download and install something just to make a change. More often than not, all I need to do is just use a text editor to edit a configuration file to get the desired result.

Anything truly old in Linux is reserved for the Terminal, and the only old stuff that sticks around are things that follow the "if it ain't broke, don't fix it" mantra. I've not found anything graphical in KDE that was around 20 years ago or that looked decidedly old and out-of-place...

...save for one thing, XTerm.

This very old school Terminal is one of the scant few (if not the only) absolutely old-as-dirt graphical things in Kubuntu. In KDE, Konsole is the modern Terminal (which I prefer), but XTerm is still there. However, this actually makes sense because if there is anything you totally want to have an old-as-dirt option for, it's Terminal itself, hence why XTerm comes installed if you want to use it.

Things I will miss out on using Linux

The #1 PC gaming platform is Windows and there's no denying that. To play modern PC games, Windows is required.

Yes, I know Steam exists for Linux. I even tried it out, but uninstalled it.

Did I uninstall Steam because it didn't work? No. It's because I'm not a gamer.

If I really wanted to game, I'd just buy a Sony PlayStation, Microsoft Xbox or Nintendo Switch, because I have zero interest in dumping over $1,000 into a PC and necessary accessories solely for the purpose of playing games. To me, that's a total waste of money.

To be clear, Linux can game, but you can't get around the fact you still need the the expensive PC hardware like a high end graphics card. I'm not about to dump a pile of cash into computer hardware just for games, regardless if the OS is Linux or Windows. Again, this is why I said if I wanted to game, I'd just get a gaming console instead because it's ultimately cheaper.

To be brutally honest, for gaming I'd probably just buy a renewed PlayStation 2 since that's under $200 and it plays both PS2 and PS1 games. Tons of titles for cheap. Good stuff.

What I miss out on by using Linux, sort of, is that there are certain really old Windows programs I can't run anymore.

I have to talk about gaming again for a quick moment.

Old games made for Windows don't work on modern Windows. This happened when Win98 games didn't work on WinXP, then with each successive Windows version with new DirectX, old games would break in modern Windows. That's been the way of things concerning PC games in Windows for over 20 years.

The entire reason many gamers build PCs today specifically with old hardware is just to use Windows 98 or Windows XP properly so they can run all their old games. When you have the right hardware, right OS platform and right DirectX, you're good to go.

However, for productivity software, Windows has the best legacy support of any OS. I can run Paint Shop Pro 7, a 32-bit graphics editor originally released 1999, in native Windows 11, and it will actually work. If I want to run an ancient copy of WinRAR, like the 4.00 32-bit version from 2011, yeah, Win11 will run that.

There is a lot of old 32-bit Windows stuff that still works in modern 64-bit Win11 on a native level. The reason behind that are the thousands of corporations who use Windows that absolutely require the old stuff to work to keep business running.

I didn't have many ancient 32-bit programs I used in Windows. Paint Shop Pro 7 was one of them, but I've since ditched that for GIMP and do all my graphics stuff there.

Now of course, in Linux I can run ancient 32-bit Windows stuff in Wine, and things are made even easier with Winetricks. But as I've learned, I'm really better off just dropping the old win32 stuff in favor of modern Linux software.

A thing I've learned in Kubuntu is that finding the software you need to do something is a 4-step process. Try "Discover" first. If that ends up with nothing, Synaptic Package Manager next. If that ends up with nothing, outright type out the thing in Konsole (example: type rar, and Konsole says Command rar not found, but can be installed with: sudo apt install rar). Konsole will even guess what you're looking for even on a misspelling (very nice). If Konsole ends up with nothing, then you start searching the internet. One of those will get you to the software you need. The thing you need is most likely already in the repository but just went by a software title name you'd never think to search for.

For example, I needed a way to make recovery files for archives. Turns out the thing I needed was already installed in Kubuntu by default, par2. But I didn't know it was called that until I searched around first, found the name of the utility, looked it up in Synaptic, and oh, cool! It's already there!

Ultimately, the only things I miss out on in Windows are the things that either only run on Windows, or only run on Windows or MacOS.

An example in my computing life of that is Garmin Express. No Linux version. People have been begging Garmin to release one for years. They won't do it. It's only for Windows or Mac and that's it.

And yes, that software is on my Win11 Pro computer, obviously.

It literally has to get that specific just to find something that absolutely won't run on Linux.

So other than that ultra-specific stuff I just mentioned, I'm not missing out on anything by using Kubuntu full time.

Kubuntu gets the job done, and I'm sticking with it.

Although as I said earlier, at some point I will most likely just install straight Debian. If I stick with this for the long haul, which I most likely will, Debian will be my next OS.

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Published 2023 Jul 20