Why?

Why am I considering a move to Linux, anyway?

Fair question, and one to which I don’t have a great answer, but I’ll try.

First, I like computers. I like tinkering with them and doing things with them. My first real computer was a Commodore 64 and I loved that thing. I started working with Macs using a Macintosh Plus in the early 1980s. Other than a brief dip into Windows in the early 2000s, I’ve been using Macs ever since.

I’m kind of a nerd. Not a neckbeard-level nerd, but I’ve been a programmer, sysadmin, devops manager, etc. for 30 years. Apple computers haven’t always been conducive to that, but ever since OS X, they’ve been close enough.

Linux has been part of my story since the mid-2000s, but only in a server capacity. I used FreeBSD on servers for a few years, but switched to Linux when it seemed that’s what everyone else was doing, and I could use all the help I could get.

But why on the desktop. And why now?

I’ll be honest. Even though I’d love to say that it’s because I want to use and promote free and open-source software, it’s actually for more selfish reasons.

I felt the need for a change. Something to shake things up a bit and get me out of my rut. Something more dramatic than switching to a different todo app on my Mac. I don’t have any real beef with Apple. Apple is just being Apple, and they’re different now. That’s fine, but there’s also the underlying hum of Apple being ultimately in control of how I use my computer. That nagging feeling has been growing in recent years, and I think it’s finally surfaced.

Using a FOSS setup on older hardware has a liberating feel to it, but just as important to me is that it feels like an act of subversion. It feels like zagging, you know? I’ve never wanted to do the same thing everyone else was doing. For many years, using a Mac was subversive. That’s not been the case for a long time.

So, I thought it was time to zag, and rebel against the normal flow, just a little bit.