It's Honestly a Coin-Flip at This Point

Introduction

It was the best of operating systems, it was the worst of operating systems. An operating system with so many distributions, an operating system with so few useful distributions. An operating system where you can configure anything, an operating system where you’re forced to use the terminal to complete tasks other operating systems automated years ago. An operating system with less bloat than Windows, an operating system with less peripheral and legacy support.

I’m so conflicted on my stance with Linux. I’m not going to pretend I’m the most tech-savvy person in the world, but my experience with IT and computer science has allowed me to explore more than most people. I used to create live-boots of every distribution I could find (Ubuntu, Debian, SigInt, Parrot, Kali (normal and Purple) and Tails were the main ones) and test them out on different computers. I’ve worked with it enough to know that it’s amazing and awful. I see why people switch to it, and I see why people run from it.

Love You Linux

Let’s start with the love. I have recently been using Kali Linux and I find it to be incredible. I installed it on my girlfriend’s MSI E-13 with touchscreen (that she gave me). Installing it with GNOME meant the touchscreen capabilities are the exact same as Windows. It now is a longer battery life and, after setting up a Virtual Environment, coding projects are so easy to do. I love the many applications also available in Kali, the pre-installed suite is phenomenal and installing other applications off of GitHub has been incredibly smooth. Every potential hiccup is just a speed bump barely noticeable enough to stop my progress.

My girlfriend (whom I love way way more than Linux lol) was also curious and wanted to run Linux Mint on a daily driver laptop. I installed that on one of her older computers, we got everything else set up and she’s loved it ever since. Sometimes installing applications can be a pain, but she’s found it to be intuitive enough and Mint works really well with her laptop’s touchscreen. She appreciates the ease of use with her everyday activities and the swap was (surprisingly) seamless.

Linux is Such Trash OH MY GOSH!!!1!

⚠️ WARNING

And now, we come to the part of our blog post where I shit all over Linux.

I’ve been attempting to run multiple servers using Linux. And every single opportunity, Linux refuses to do the thing I wanted to do. Then I’m left running back to my guilty pleasure Apple or my distant mistress windows.

First, I wanted to install a Plex server. Basic enough, I thought to myself. I run through the installation process fairly quickly. But then I attempt to set up my hard drive enclosure. For some reason, the hard drives would not mount. lsblk recognized that I was plugging in hard drives. But every other command, I tried failed to do anything substantial. I eventually gave up and set the Plex server up on the Mac mini. It took less than 10 minutes.

Next, the RetroArch gaming server. It’ll be fine, I thought. I’ll just install RetroArch on Ubuntu and then I can emulate all my games.

“Au contraire,” Ubuntu responded.

Even after installing the appimage, for some reason it just wouldn’t run. After a few hours I just gave up and installed RetroArch on my Windows Gaming PC. I likely could have still completed this on Ubuntu by just installing it through Steam, but I already had Steam and all of my games on the Windows PC so it just made more sense in the long run.

📋 NOTE

This isn't my first attempt, either. I tried running Lakka and it was such a miserable experience. It frequently broke, I spent hours to get the audio to work, it never worked with TVs, and N64 games specifically were constantly broken despite GameCube games working fine.

Then comes the ill-fated OpenClaw server. I once again attempted this in Ubuntu. Installing LM studio, which surely be simple I thought to myself, but after installing the app image, I then would have to open it the GUI using the command line. For some reason, I would have to really work just to make a desktop icon to double click and run the GUI for me. After that, I spent hours attempting to configure OpenClaw and got nowhere quickly. Once again, once I swapped operating systems, the entire process was so much smoother.

Mr. Brightside

Not every server I made has been a disaster with Linux. I have a small Samba/PiHole server that’s been running very well! As a personal operating system, Linux can be a pretty good experience if you’re willing to tinker. As a server, I’ve about had it. I’m sure I’ll eventually learn, but for now I’ll be sticking with my guilty pleasure Apple and my distant cousin Windows. I don’t need to fight my tech.

But what do you think? Is Linux the second coming of computing? Or are you going to just complain about Windows and do nothing about it? Let me know on socials! Thanks for reading.