To Linux or not to Linux, that is the question.

Way back when I was just a wee lad in grade 6, my math teacher introduced me to Linux. I had no clue what an operating system even was at the time, but he handed me an old laptop, a beast to haul around back then, and told me to play around with it. I didn't realize it then, but he planted a seed that would eventually grow into what I'm building now. Even after that, I didn't really get into computers until later. When I did, I started on Windows 95 and stuck with Windows from there on out. That only changed in the last 10 years. Mostly for tin foil hat reasons, I started looking at Linux again. I had always reached for Linux programs first whenever I could because commercial software is expensive. Tools like GIMP and Blender were free and got the job done.

Fast forward to when I got serious about AI and coding. Even though I had zero real experience with Linux, I made the call to build my new desktop for AI work on Linux. It felt almost instinctive. If I was diving deep into custom open source software, Linux just seemed like the better place to mess around and learn. I remembered the old Linux UIs being pretty janky compared to the Windows experience I had grown used to since I was a kid. But after running Linux steadily for the past seven months, I can say it has not let me down once. My workflows didn't really change because I was already living in free and open source tools out of necessity. The latest Ubuntu is actually really nice to work in, and the new communities I'm part of default to offering Linux versions for pretty much every tool you could want.

Windows usually wraps everything into one polished program with a single UI, while on Linux you often piece together the same functionality yourself, which is probably why mass adoption has been slower. A big reason I made the switch was seeing the writing on the wall with Windows heading toward a SaaS subscription model. Everywhere you turn these days it's another account and another monthly fee, and it gets incredibly frustrating always being at the mercy of subscriptions. Linux feels like a real path away from that mentality. And now with the power of ICM and AI behind me, I feel confident I can handle any rough edges I run into during the transition. My main desktop is still on Windows 11 for now, but I can say with confidence that its days on my systems are numbered. What are your thoughts on this? Have you had similar realizations? Did you bring Linux back into the fold, or has it always been there for you?

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