81 lines
3.9 KiB
Markdown
81 lines
3.9 KiB
Markdown
---
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type: blog-post
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title: I like linux more
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description: I like linux...
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draft: false
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date: 2024-04-11
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updates:
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- time: 2024-04-11
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description: first iteration
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tags:
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- "#blog"
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---
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This may not come as a surprise to anyone. But I feel the need to state this as
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a person probably spending 8 hours a day on a Mac. Linux is superior for my
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profession; software engineering.
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I can imagine you rolling your eyes right now, yet another nerd screaming into
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the void that their niche choice that none understand somehow is better than a
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behemoth of engineering that is MacOS.
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First of all Linux is built for and by software engineers. It definitely has its
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own idiosyncrasies but for me most of the choices made by my distribution,
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(fancy name for a curated experience on top of the `linux` kernel).
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A distribution on linux, often abbreviated as distro, is a set of software which
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includes the linux kernel in their delivery. Like installing Windows, MacOS etc.
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You're probably used to just those choices, but on linux it is different. We
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call it linux, but you won't find a linux distribution. Instead you will find
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flavours of linux that include linux as their base os. I.e. Ubuntu, Debian,
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Arch, etc. Each are as different as windows vs macos. At least from a users
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perspective. So it can be confusing which is the right one for you.
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Linux unlike the other OS' actually allows you to choose what you prefer, each
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distribution is built by people which range from you - yourself (linux from
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scratch etc.) to fedora (redhat, owned by ibm), or ubuntu by canonical. These
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flavors are vastly different in their user experience, so much so that for a lay
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person, it without knowing that linux is the base kernel that all of it is built
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on, you wouldn't even know they share the same DNA.
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The linux desktop, which I am writing about in this article, is different than
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the linux server that most developers are familiar with. Not in the basics, but
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the user experience, simply, the linux desktop with all its flavors simply has a
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lot fewer eyes on it than the linux server as the industry standard for servers
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operating systems.
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Eyes on software, and hands on keyboard is one of the most important metrics in
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software engineering. Simply a software that is more important to more people is
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more mature and refined. (often, Jira phew.)
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This has already drawn on long enough, but in my experience, unlike MacOS; Linux
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actually allows me to be productive in the way I choose - professionally. As a
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software engineer, I am by nature or nuture, a poweruser. I usually switch work
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between a browser and an editor which I use to edit the programs I write.
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Often, I like to focus on a single thing at once, so I have my editor on one
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screen, and a browser, communication app, planning board on the other. A need
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then emerges that I quickly need to switch between these.
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MacOS does allow setting keybinds to switch between these. However, there is no
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keybind out of the box to send a program to another screen. And lets say I
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really need that feature - which I do, don't ask.
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I basically have to resort to rooting my device (rooting is a fancy term for
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getting access to the dirty bits of the OS. Normally you don't want to touch
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this as it really is like opening up pandoras box, you don't know what is gonna
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happen). Should I do that on a company device, probably not.
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The problem here is that I have to be satisfied with what Apple or Microsoft for
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that matter provides for me, if I don't like it, I basically have to violate
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every security best practice to simply set an uncommon keybind. While on Linux I
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can just choose to change my configuration, or desktop to include that piece of
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functionality.
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Linux actually allows me to control my device how I prefer, I don't ask for
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anything complicated, I just want to open a program on another screen, is that
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really so serious, I can do that using my mouse, why can't I do that using a
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keybind?
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I hate using my mouse
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