It’s been about a month since I switched back to Linux. I summarized a few impressions in this Twitter thread.

I’m gonna guess that this thread is about “why do you like Linux” similar to the Mac thread, so here goes.

Actually, I’m not sure where to start - there’s many things:

• free software: I’m not really in on the “no non-free software shall run on my computer” story, but the fact that almost everything is done in the open, by volunteers, is just brilliant to me
• customizability: Installing or uninstalling something is a matter of one apt install, and keeping software up-to-date is equally simple. Configuring most things is just a matter of viewing the manpage for the service, updating it, and reloading / restarting the service. I know that systemd isn’t everyone’s favourite, but I like it for this exact reason: every piece of its documentation (that I need, anyways) is just one man away, such as man timesyncd.conf if I want to reconfigure my NTP servers.
• runs everywhere: I run Debian on my (second) home computer, my Raspberry Pi at home runs Debian Buster (custom Kernel), my servers run Debian, the list goes on. Learning something new on one almost always helps you with all others.
• free software, part two: Likely not super Linux-specific, but the package management probably plays into this. For most things there will be multiple projects accomplishing the same thing (in different ways) and you will rarely be locked in to using a single x or y. For instance, I’m currently messing around with systemd-container (see systemd-nspawn - ArchWiki and / or I Challenge Thee) which is a nice and simple alternative for running containers compared to all the other solutions out there, but using something else is a matter of a few shell commands.

A big part of the reason is probably also Valve’s excellent proton which works wonders to play games on Linux, and a lot of my “Windows-only” Steam games now run on Linux without any hassles. I love it

I’ve recently had to acquire a Windows machine for C#/.NET Core development. I had been using my MacBook Pro with both the macOS tools and Bootcamp for as long as I could but just got to a point where it wasn’t practical fighting against the current any longer.

I had been considering building a desktop anyway, so knew the parts I needed to order, and despite having never built a computer before, found it was very straightforward.

I put Ubuntu and PopOS before installing Windows as it was taking an age to create a bootable USB (another story). To my surprise, absolutely everything worked straightaway, with PopOS even downloading the correct nVidia drivers for the pretty new 1660 Super I bought. Even Windows later required help finding the right drivers for GPU, WiFi and Bluetooth.

I’ll almost certainly getting a second drive to dual boot (probably Pop) as the Linux experience (for the few hours I used it) was utterly flawless and a far cry from previous attempts with Linux on Apple hardware, and even Windows and macOS on their respective native hardware. Truly impressive.

Sidenote RE: leaving Apple. I was skeptical about ever truly leaving Apple despite knowing that I’d need to build a non-Apple computer for these projects. That said, despite being heavily invested in their ecosystem (iPhone, iPad, iCloud Drive, Apple Music and friends and family using FaceTime & iMessage almost exclusively) I’m not sure I’ll ever buy another Mac again.

All the things I worried about (non-Retina screens, clunky/ugly/unpolished operating systems, ecosystem) are proven to be irrelevant and for the first time in over a decade I’m actually excited by computers again. I’m looking forward to improving the hardware in this computer, building another to act as a homeserver and start playing with all the exciting things that are very “un-Apple”. As @sasajuric said, it’s very liberating no longer being dependant on a single company for your work environment.