• NixOS and its declarative approach irreversibly changed the way I think about system configuration and maintenance. Home manager and flakes are really important puzzle pieces in that as well.

• The steam deck is an amazingly well thought-out Linux computer that just anybody can use intuitively.

• From a UX standpoint, I love being able to remap keys on the system level with Interception Tools. (e.g. CapsLock is Esc if pressed and Ctrl if held on all my hardware for all users.)

GNOME GS Connect on PC with KdeConnect on phone… It works so well. I’m listening to Music on PC and phone call comes in, it mutes my music till call ends. I get an SMS message, it pops up as notice and I can reply via PC. I leave my system at work unattended I can lock my PC screen from my phone. Shares Cliboard between them. The list goes on, and it all works so well…meanwhile Windows Phone they keep pushing on me always fails to configure or work at all.

I had some old hardware lying around and decided to try building LFS (Linux from scratch) on it. For those unfamiliar, LFS is a “distro” where you compile every single package from source manually, with no package manager or anything. With my limited Linux experience it was really like diving directly into the deep end but the process was surprisingly easy and I learned so much by doing it.

Once the base system was complete, I installed the bare minimum needed to get X, Xfce, and some basic applications running. I’m honestly amazed how little system resources are required to have a fully functional graphical environment for basic web browsing and whatnot. The system boots almost instantly on a decade old hardware and after boot sits at way below 500mb ram usage.

It’s all been good, since I gave up on NeXTSTEP around '97, but it got next level best with rolling distributions. Arch has been game changing. I’d used Redhat, CentOS, Gentoo, Debian, Ubuntu, Gobo - all for one or more years - but until Arch I never felt I’d really escaped dependency hell. I still occasionally will have a hiccup, but it’s more like a dependency heck, not something that turned into something that consumed an entire day to resolve. And it’s the only distribution that hasn’t (yet, knock on wood) screwed up grub so that my machine wouldn’t boot. I’ve screwed it up, by e.g. migrating SD’s and getting the UUIDs wrong, but never has the upgrade process screwed me over.

I use zorin and by and large like it because I install it and can use it right away and maybe install a thing here or there as needed.

I’ve just bought a custom PC.

Impossible to make the darn network card to work on that Windows.

I installed Void from the Network…

I “lol” 'ed big time on that one.

Q: Which Linux distro were you using?

A: right now, kickesure a Debian based distro focusing on security and privacy. Before that, used started with Knoppix and, mandrake and then many other Debian based distros (maontky Xubuntu and Mint)

Q: What feature or aspect made the experience stand out?

A: smooth, stable, fast, secure

Q: Did it change the way you use Linux or tech in general?

A: not really but made me more interested in learning about my OS to serve my privacy better

My story is a simple one.

I turned on my computer I logged in, did some work, played some games then I turned it off.

No one tried to murder me (force updates), or put me in a potato (notification ads), or feed me to birds (change my defaults). I had a pretty good life.