Why I am not using Linux (anymore)
The year was 1994. I wanted multi-tasking operating system so I have
tried to install fresh Windows 95. It failed; actually, it failed 12
times in a row. I think now that the reason was my computer – I was
using UMC CPU. After
the 12th failure I have installed Slackware Linux. I did not
have enough RAM (I had only 4Mb) to run X Window or Red Hat (one needed 8
Mb) but Slackware worked as a charm. I did every beginner’s mistake,
starting out with “What is /proc/kcore and why is it so big? Can I
delete it?” Luckily, I had a friend who knew about Linux and was
answering my never-ending questions. Long story short, I have got my
FidoNet point and
UUCP running. Of course, I did
not have any Internet access (which was not very useful at that time;
just think that Google started out as a research project in 1996) and my
modem was 2400 bod without error
correction
(I also had VGA monitor which I did not like due to it is not being
sharp enough, so I was using monochrome Hercules
monitor – mind
you, amber-glowing not green-glowing). I was doing MNP5 for my modem in
software. Later I have moved to Debian (was it 13 floppy disks?), got
14400 bod modem with error correction, and dial up internet access – in
this order. I vividly remember upgrade from 1.2.13 kernel to 2.x line.
It has required to update everything, and on dial up it was an adventure.
All in all, using Linux was a pleasure. I knew everyone in ps ax output,
and I could configure everything, and I knew where the logs were.
Soon I had an X terminal connected to my main computer via
RS232 cable. No, I did not have
any network cards.
Gradually I became quite good in Linux and in 2001 (!) I was hired by Nokia as a Linux kernel developer. I remember being very impressed by my computers in Nokia – I got two with 1Gb RAM each!
I was using Linux as my the one and the only operating system until about 2010 (yes, about 15 years) when I have started using Macs as my desktop. The reason was simple – I still had my Unix in a terminal window but after OS upgrade wireless network was continuing working. I could fix the fallout in Linux but at tender age of 35+ my eyes were no longer glittering when I was doing that. I still was running Linux on (many) other computers in my home and outside, but my desktop became Mac.
Three years ago all that has changed. I have realized that Linux (for
me, at least) became mind-bogglingly complicated. All that stuff I do
not understand anymore – dbus, polkit, consolekit. Last but not least
systemd which tries to do everything, dictates to other software how it
should work, knows all better than you, and is of exceptionally poor
quality. It once put my remote server into sleep. It was fun but I can live
without such kind of fun. Configuration files outside of /etc. Logs I can no
longer grep. Enough is enough.
Nowadays I am happily running FreeBSD everywhere where I was running Linux. The main feature: it is understandable. Otherwise it is Unix, and it works for me. What concerns desktop – heresy warning! – it is Windows. Hardware is cheap (Macs, I am looking at you), just works, a lot of things started to comply to open standards or even become open-source (the latest PowerShell and .NET are open-source, cross-platform and very reasonable), there is scoop, and Microsoft’s winget. I also have ssh (built-in into Windows), and vcxsrv. Things like vim, and git, and Python, and Rust just work. All is fine.
Disclaimer: I had a love affair with OpenBSD in 1999, and another with Solaris on Sun hardware (Forth in the bootloader!) around 2004.