Every few years I decide to give Linux another chance.
I don't know why.
Maybe I read a few success stories. Maybe someone tells me the Linux desktop is finally ready. Maybe I start thinking that I'm missing out on something.
The funny thing is that I'm probably exactly the type of person who should like Linux.
I work with Unix systems every day. Running scripts, checking logs, troubleshooting weird issues, digging through technical problems. None of that scares me.
But here's the thing.
I expect to be paid for that.
I don't come home from work, sit down at my own laptop and think:
"You know what would make this evening fun? Troubleshooting why my sound suddenly stopped working."
Apparently Linux disagrees.
My requirements are stupidly simple
I don't need anything special.
I need:
- the keyboard to work
- the mouse to work
- the monitor to work
- the sound to work
- the Wi-Fi to work
That's it.
I'm not building rockets.
I'm not rendering Pixar movies.
I'm not running a supercomputer.
I just want a functioning computer.
The latest experiment
A while ago I picked up a Ryzen laptop.
16 GB RAM.
256 GB NVMe.
Nothing amazing, but perfectly fine as a Linux machine.
I installed Bazzite because everyone seemed to be saying good things about it.
And honestly?
It was pretty good.
Steam was already installed.
Games worked.
Older titles ran fine.
For a brief moment I started thinking:
"Finally. Maybe this is the one."
There were some weird things.
When playing on an external monitor, the mouse would randomly leave the game screen and wander onto another display. Not ideal when you're trying not to get shot in a game.
But whatever.
Annoying, not a dealbreaker.
I played for a while and shut the laptop down.
The next morning Steam wouldn't launch.
No update.
No changes.
No explanation.
Just a generic error message.
Forums didn't know.
AI didn't know.
I reinstalled Steam.
Nothing.
I reinstalled the operating system.
Nothing.
I wiped the entire drive and installed everything from scratch.
Still nothing.
Steam simply refused to exist as a working application.
At that point I looked at the laptop and thought:
"You know what? Somebody else can own this problem."
Then I sold it.
I'm not even joking.
The Wi-Fi story
My Ubuntu experiences weren't much better.
One time I had a laptop where everything worked fine.
Then one day Wi-Fi stopped working.
No updates.
No obvious changes.
Just gone.
The really funny part?
The laptop didn't have Ethernet.
So I needed Internet access in order to figure out why I no longer had Internet access.
That's the sort of problem that sounds like a joke until you're the one dealing with it.
I'm sure there was a technical reason.
There always is.
I don't care.
Yesterday it worked.
Today it didn't.
That's the part users remember.
The sound story
Another Ubuntu machine was being used as basically an office PC.
No gaming.
No crazy software.
Just browsing, documents and YouTube.
In other words, I had already surrendered.
I wasn't asking Linux to do anything difficult.
Then the sound stopped working.
Why?
Who knows.
I tried fixing it.
Didn't work.
I reinstalled drivers.
Didn't work.
I reinstalled Ubuntu.
Still didn't work.
Think about how ridiculous that sounds.
The operating system was reinstalled and somehow the computer still forgot how to make sound.
At that point I stopped caring about the root cause.
I just wanted a computer that behaved like a computer.
Linux people and I evaluate things differently
Whenever these stories come up, somebody inevitably explains the technical reason.
Maybe it was a driver.
Maybe it was firmware.
Maybe it was PipeWire.
Maybe it was ALSA.
Maybe it was a kernel issue.
Maybe Mercury was in retrograde.
I genuinely don't care.
If the Wi-Fi doesn't work, the Wi-Fi doesn't work.
If sound doesn't work, sound doesn't work.
Being able to name the thing that broke doesn't magically make it unbroken.
Why I still use Windows
People sometimes assume this means I'm a Windows fanboy.
Not really.
Windows annoys me plenty.
Microsoft annoys me plenty.
But after all these years, Windows has managed to accomplish one important thing.
Most days I don't have to think about it.
The keyboard works.
The mouse works.
The monitor works.
The sound works.
The Wi-Fi works.
The next morning they tend to still work.
That's not exciting.
It's actually incredibly boring.
And I've come to appreciate boring.
Final thought
I don't hate Linux.
In fact, every few years I find myself wanting Linux to win me over.
I genuinely like the idea of Linux.
The problem is that Linux keeps turning a computer into a project.
And I'm tired of projects.
When I get home from work, I don't want another ticket to investigate.
I don't want to read logs.
I don't want to troubleshoot audio.
I don't want to debug networking.
I want to press the power button, open a browser, and continue with my life.
Maybe one day Linux will finally be that machine for me.
But based on my history, the first thing I'll ask is the same thing I've been asking for years:
"Will the Wi-Fi still work tomorrow?"
And so far, Linux has not been very convincing.
