Windows update glitches had me thinking it’s Linux time again.
It’s been 20 years since I last used Linux full time on a PC. Even then that was on my work laptop which was mostly used for everyday office use, word processing, email, etc. web browsing, Remote Desktop and the occasional venture into a Terminal to program the odd Cisco switch. I used WINE for our primitive ticketing system which had no Linux alternative (and frankly, it barely worked in Windows, piece of shit that it was).
There has always been a Linux device in my possession, whether that be my laptop, tablet, or even my Nintendo DS Lite without GUI but worked great for remotely managing switches prior to the advancement of WiFi. My main desktop PC has always been Windows only; with a flash drive nearby for a live Linux session on the rare occasion.
That was until the end of last year when it seemed like every Windows update started causing problems for people. Microsoft would release a fix for the update which would cause a different, serious problem. Every. Damn. Update. Postponing my updates was becoming the norm, until Windows would decide to update anyway, when I turned my head, or blinked. Alongside that were my concerns I covered in a previous post. This is not how I envisioned using my PC.
Can I run everything I need/want to run in Linux?
Here’s the challenge. Running some basic packages for work 20 years ago is a far cry from the things I use my PC for now. Admittedly, that’s also 20 years of progression for Linux but also 20 years of this stubborn, old fart being stuck in his ways. Way, way back I used to run Red Hat pre-Enterprise but on that work laptop I used Ubuntu with the Gnome Desktop Environment, which I wasn’t much of a fan of. I know my Desktop will play nice with Ubuntu from my live sessions so I opted for that but with the KDE Plasma6 DE.
This is what I needed from the get-go:
Web Browsing. Not an issue. My go to, Brave, is readily available. Ubuntu 24.xx with Wayland recommends not using graphics acceleration and I see why with stuttering and flickering. This no longer seems to be an issue on Ubuntu 25.xx.
Email. I used to use Evolution for this because it connected directly to our Exchange server. An Exchange connection is no longer needed so I don’t need to consider that. I only use email on my PC for local backup purposes so I do need to access old Outlook files sometimes. I’ve never deleted a legit email and have a very organised set of PST files going back to the 1990s. It’s not as good as I remember it and, if I used my PC for email like I did 20 years ago I’d be looking for an alternative but for now it’ll do.
Coding/Scripting. I do some coding and scripting occasionally but, again, this isn’t a problem. Linux was built for this stuff and comes with most of the tools needed. Notepad++ isn’t all that reliable through WINE but the Kate Advanced Text Editor is a worthy replacement.
Office apps. I’ve had Libre Office on my laptop for a while and it does what I need so I’ll stick with that.
Games/Emulators. I was expecting trouble here. Modern games don’t really hold my interest, too involved for my ADHD brain. The newest game I run right now is Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Shredder’s Revenge and would you look at that, Steam runs great on Linux. Plugged into Lutris there are now issues. Even my saved games transfer over. Lutris also allows my to load up the other old timer games I enjoy such as the OG Resident Evil trilogy, Assassin’s Creed: Black Flag, and Transformers Devastation.
Meanwhile, most of the emulators I use have Linux versions. In fact they were originally Linux which were ported over to Windows. MAME and Mednafen cover most of my emulation needs so that worked out well.
Media. My main media source is my Jellyfin server which I can access via web browser or the several available clients on the Discover app store. “Desktop client for Jellyfin” it is. This really isn’t going to make much of a difference in honesty, it’s essentially just a web interface frontend.
iPhone backups. Now this… this could’ve been a problem. Thankfully I found libimobiledevice-utils which allows access to the iPhone’s storage system for just this purpose. Using that I was able to knock out a quick Bash script to prompt, and automate the process. Woo Hoo! No more iTunes.
iPhone backup in progress using libimobiledevice-utils in a Bash script
Photoshop. Oh. Please not GIMP. I used GIMP way back but it become a lot of work after being familiar with Photoshop for so long. I’m overly attached to my Photoshop CC 2018 and I’m not sure I can manage without it. Still, I got it installed and working after figuring out why I had a blank screen at the start of the install process. Had to skip over the online stuff.
IPCAM Security Software. I was using Cloudedge VMS on Windows. It looks like some kind of JAVA/HTML5 thing so I thought I’d try running it through WINE. Well it worked straight off the bat.
Hardware hasn’t been difficult. Everything connected to my PC was recognised and just worked, including printers, and game controllers.
Daily grind
I’ve not used Windows at all this year, in fact I killed my Windows drive, removed the GRUB entry and that drive is now being used for my Linux backups via Timeshift and Déjà Dup.
Timeshift is basically System Restore (Time Machine for you Apple folk) allowing you to take regular snapshots of your system in the event of needing to revert back to a working machine. Déjà Dup is a simple backup tool ideal for creating backup copies of your Home, or any location, you consider critical to your usage.
This is how things currently look on my desktop with a few open windows
Windows hasn’t been missed and everything I’ve wanted, or needed, to do – I could. I have to admit to being impressed with how far Linux has come since the ‘old days’. There are plenty of Distros out there too, so if Ubuntu isn’t your thing there are so many other options. I don’t want to distro-hop myself but I did only go with Ubuntu due to familiarity so I might consider looking at one of the others at some point. CachyOS (Arch-based) seems to be looking popular.
