How I became friends with Linux
Spoiler alert: It has to do with a bunch of accidents
Yup, this is a image directly taken from the web, but you'd have a hard time proving it. Because this was the Linux experience I had for a long time. Why? Because Linux is terrifying. Its unbelievable. I'd forgive the average rahul for not using it, its too different. Which begs the question, how come I am writing this blog on ubuntu 24.04 noble numbat?
How it started
Well, it all started when I saw a magazine while waiting to get my aadhar card printed. It was called digit. There was a image of a hacker on the cover so I was intrigued, and bought it. Fast forward a year(or so, I don't remember now) and I saw a virtual machine programme and a iso with it, on a CD they provided with the mag. I don't remember how I got to booting the iso on the vm, but I somehow did. Then I played the included promotional video on that ubuntu vm and fussed about messing in the iso. I couldn't do much though, the software store required a connection and I didn't have internet on me. Then I saw one of my favorite programmes (another one I discovered on this mag) had a linux exe equivalent(tar.xz) on the same CD. I transfered it on the vm, and double clicked on the programme. And it worked, it actually worked. It was that moment it clicked for me, this wasn't a toy, it was a serious OS that could get work done. But, oh well, I didn't had any know how on how to put it on my PC; but I still remembered that this was possible.
I finally learnt to create a live USB
and I put ubuntu on it.
The accident
I accidentally wiped windows from my HDD. How?
I remember GPT because I created a UEFI-based pendrive to upgrade to Windows 10, but UEFI only worked for GPT partitioning table and not MBR. This left my PC without Windows for weeks until a friend lent me their hard disk to boot, create a usable pendrive, and rescue my system.
— Abhitruechamp (@abhitruechamp) June 24, 2024
Because of some stupid technical reason.
Anyway, I didn't have access to windows for weeks. But I had a working live ubuntu pendrive at that time. Since I had no other way that I know of how to fix it, I put ubuntu on my machine. The change was painful. Microsoft powerpoint didn't exist for windows, so I had to use their aweful online solution. None of my games had any hope of working. I installed windows as soon as I could. But I did got that initial dip in the water. Some would say swimming was inevitable.
Push towards Manjaro
So, I was in the telegram group for this magazine I mentioned before, and got recommended Manjaro. This had KDE plasma, and it was really configurable. It beckoned me with it lightness and customization. Ubuntu was slower than windows on my machine, which made me think linux would always be slower than windows, but here Manjaro was staring me full at my face in total defiance of that notion. I created a live USB and whenever I had to borrow a laptop, I livebooted on it. I had a secondary pendrive with my required programmes. I was unstoppable.
I was on linux.
From that, the road to putting linux on my main machine on dual boot was just like jumping in water and waiting to get wet, but it was the happy accidents: Accidently seeing a mag, accidently nuking my windows install, getting manjaro recommendation that included KDE; it was those accidents that led to me currently writing this from... Ubuntu 24.04 noble numbat on Gnome. Guess some things never change.