sina kepeken ilo [wile_ike_nasa_tawa_o] anu seme
ilo pona ala pona
I've been using Windows for as long as I can remember using computers. Save for the scant iOS interactions I've had from school computers, Windows was the only lens that I viewed the wwworld through. And, it works fine, right? I'm not an avid fan of it, but Windows has always worked without much issue. I got a new laptop for school, Windows 10 came with it, and it's been good enough for schoolwork.
ni li lon anu seme
ni li lon ala la sina sona a
Okay, maybe it's not perfect (and I never said it was), but I can't hold them to that standard. It's a big product serving lots of different use cases, and accomodating the small annoyances is the least I can do to get the returns of having a functional computer.
Doesn't mean I won't still bitch about them though.
The default terminal is kinda sucky, so I installed pwsh and never used Command Prompt ever again.
I want a tree view option of my files that shows the proportion of space each folder takes, but the default explorer only gives the option of scanning folders individually for its size, so I use TreeSize to do so.
There's only the option to compress to a .zip file, so I installed 7-Zip for copmression (and checksums).
For some reason it sometimes just decides to run some program in the background, even when it's supposed to be sleeping, overheating the bag I put the laptop in. It could have something to do with the printer drivers but I've given up on searching for a solution.
Why does shaking a window minimize all of my other windows? Maybe I'm just bad at aligning the windows? Who thought this feature was intuitive enough to be the default behavior?
Why do I need to edit the registry to disable this? I don't want to mess with stuff that could break the OS! Why isn't this just A Thing that you disable in the settings normally?
I've found that I can no longer trim videos using the default Windows player anymore, I need to download Clipchamp instead. Which is great for consolidating video editing uses (the video player needs only to play videos, mind) but now I need to download a whole extra editor when I just wanted to trim the video. If I wanted to do proper editing I would have just used DaVinci Resolve, not Clipchamp. Just give me back the trimming function on the video player.
I can do the backups just fine without OneDrive, stop putting my files there. I don't need Cortana. Away with you. I don't want Bing Apps. Go away. I can access emails from Outlook with my browser just fine. Leave me alone.
I needed to use gcc for school, but the memory checking functionalities (-fsanitize=leak,address,undefined) are Linux-only for some reason, and I have to connect to the school's computers to compile and debug the programs. You would think that I could use an extension integrated to the IDE like Remote Desktop to do so, but the abysmal student account memory limit means that you basically have to use the command line to share files.
I was taking math courses and I was let down with the tools available to annotate math in the PDF documents they give out for exercises. What do you know, there's this whole workflow using snippets to live-update LaTeX documents (matching lecturing speeds), but all of the tools are in Linux. So fine, boot up a new VirtualBox Debian image, share the files through a folder to the VM, and I can switch to a math-notation-mode through Debian during math class.
- , , .
This un-skippable, roiling discontent, allayed only slightly by furtive peeks at what should've been but never was.
Y'know, with all these pain points of only having a taste of Linux, why don't I just full send and switch to Debian instead?
ni li nasin pona a
sina tawa ala e nasin ni tan seme
I'm really more of a mathematician in these matters, as long as a solution exists, I'm satisfied and it's good enough for me. Actually implementing the change is more of a hassle, I think. What with mathematicians being terrible at arithmetic, I have no need for the nitty-gritty. And don't give me that crap, yes, I have above-average tech knowledge, but it's the wrong threshold for competence. You wouldn't tell a driver to drive a train.
You've tried it with a VM already, you've seen the many benefits, you've tasted the divine fruit. There's a rich community in reach for support. It's become easier over the years to get into Linux, and other people have even publicised their foray into daily driving. What remains, what constrains you are emotional blockers alone.
Look, I wish it were that easy, but it's really only for people who know computers, y'know? It's still an effort I don't think I'm willing to make. It's for people who have all of it planned to a tee, who knows what they're doing, won't mess up their own environment, regret their choice.
Dual-booting exists. You don't have to pledge a full-time commitment. Keep a backup of the files most important to you, try the alternative, and explore the new horizons. You can always switch back if need be.
And it's the middle of the semester (and schooling, even) too, you can't just do that right now! You need to wait until you have the space to think, for it to really simmer and then decide you want it.
Don't undermine the happenstance respite in life. Don't go searching eterally for a sign of the green, for it is a fruitless endeavor, out of the cosmos's purview.
And everything runs on Windows nowadays, isn't it more of a hassle to be dispossessed of all that compatibility, that begrudging convenience of a default? And what of the workflow that you have that ain't broke yet?
Abject misery is not a precondition for change. Anytime as a treat a change you can have.
And what of the stereotypes of Linux users being aggrevating and obnoxious pricks, evanglizing Linux at every opportunity? Won't that be something you'll be getting youself into? Won't you be accepting that designation when you join their ilk?
You don't have the onus to advocate using Linux for other people while you're still testing the waters. And who, save yourself, operates with such omnipotence so as to infer your OS from your behaviour? Would any person even know, if you don't give them that information explicitly (they can always tell? yeah right.)? You speak as if the act of using Linux is solely motivated as an endorsement for the preported bad behaviour, of which you only have an second-hand evidence, rather than the material benefit of a improved OS experience. You speak as if any misconstrued perceptions are faults of your own, that needs to be deconstructed, defused, and explained away.
, ,
...fine. Fine, I'll give it a go.
tawa ilo ante li utala ala utala
How do I burn a disk image? What's a Rufus? Do I need a GPT or an MBR partition? And why doesn't it boot from this USB?
How do I shrink space in Windows? How much space does the partition need? I need to allocate more space for the partition? Why doesn't defragmenting my SSD just give me more space to shrink? I need to boot another image to partition the drive?
What's a UEFI? What's BitLocker? It just boots back to Windows again? Why does booting back to Windows always flag up BitLocker? I can just disable BitLocker? I need to disable BitLocker?
"Oh you just need to disable SafeBoot on the registry, then just change your SATA from RAID to AHCI, then just choose GRUB in the Boot Options-"
Like a rite of passage, the pain you endure a bloody certification, a fair exchange for comprehension. But I know better than to just define change as suffering alone.
God, I was right, it's just too much, I'm out of my depth, I- why couldn't I just be satisfied with Windows? Wouldn't it be easier if I just put my nose to the grindstone and use Windows?
tenpo ni la sina kepeken ilo seme
I dual-boot with Ubuntu now. Well, I'm effectively daily driving Ubuntu with an abandoned Windows partition that I rarely use now. It's been nice, I don't have much qualms about it currently, but I have the knowledge to change distros or switch packages if I do. I've been bringing along things that I wanted to keep, and leaving the rest in legacy.
Goodbye Office, hello LibreOffice. Goodbye ShareX and Lightshot, hello GNOME and GIMP. Goodbye notepad++, hello Geany. Goodbye Cisco Packet Tracer, goodbye DeepL, goodbye VirtualBox, goodbye NohBoard, goodbye VRCT, goodbye OpenUtau, goodbye HeavenStudio (well they got DMCA-ed anyways so eh), goodbye HDD Hex Editor, goodbye WXImg, goodbye Intel VTune Profiler. Hello WINE, hello Proton. Goodbye Windows, hello Linux.
But why stop there? There's now a wealth of vestigial free space, space hogged up by the residual Windows system, space to grow into and utilize if only I allow myself to slough it away, finding new meaning for old memory. Not that it's a requirement to do so, but I'd recommend against not trying, at least. You're not building up character by putting up with self-imposed inefficiencies.