I was born in ‘92. That makes me about 15 years old back in 2007, and that was the year everything clicked for me digitally. We finally had our own PCs—mine wasn’t fancy, but it was mine. I could finally stop fighting with my brother over computer time, which back then usually meant either downloading MP3s off LimeWire or booting up Warcraft III for the hundredth time. Around that time, we also made the great leap from prepaid internet cards to an actual DSL connection. No more 3-hour limits. No more “Please reconnect your connection to continue browsing.”

But what really changed everything was a disc.

I found one of my dad’s old Ubuntu CDs. Those classic brown cardboard sleeves. That weird, tribal-looking logo. No clue what it was at the time, but I was the kind of kid who liked messing with stuff—unscrewing my dad’s gadgets to see how they worked, reinstalling Windows XP after I nuked the registry trying to customize it. I was curious. So I wiped Windows XP and installed Ubuntu.

That’s how I discovered Linux. That’s how I discovered open source.

And it was like a switch flipped. It was this world where people shared ideas, built things collaboratively, made tools not for profit, but for principle. I even went full-on fanboy mode and ordered those free Ubuntu CDs from Canonical that they mailed across the globe for free. (Yes, kids, that was a thing.) I still remember handing out those CDs in school like I was pushing some underground software cult.

But reality hits quick when you’re 15 and just want to play games. Half the stuff I wanted to run only worked on Windows. So back I went. That would be the story of my Linux life for the next two decades.

Install. Explore. Tinker. Return to Windows. Repeat.

Fast forward to adulthood and I never really shook off Linux. Between 2015 and 2020, I went on a proper distro-hopping phase. Ubuntu, Mint, Fedora, Elementary OS, even Arch for a hot minute (never again). I was constantly in search of that perfect setup. My mainstay? KDE. KDE Neon first, then later Kubuntu. KDE just made sense. It was functional, beautiful, customizable, and didn’t treat me like an idiot.

There was even a time in 2023 when I tried going all-in on Linux. It worked… for a while. Gaming support was solid thanks to Proton and Steam’s continued push. But professionally, I still had one foot in Windows. Streaming software, VSTs, my DAW, and a lot of other niche creative tools just weren’t ready for the penguin party. So I dual booted. And I kept going back and forth.

But now… 2025. Things feel different.

Linux is no longer this “nerd in the basement” OS. Steam Deck shook the market. Valve proved that gaming on Linux isn’t just possible—it’s good. We’re at a point where unless you’re a competitive gamer needing kernel-level anti-cheat or die-hard on Adobe, Linux can handle your daily driver needs.

And more than just capability, something snapped in me philosophically.

I’ve grown tired. Tired of subscriptions. Tired of being sold to. Tired of opening a Start Menu and seeing f***ing ads. Tired of Microsoft forcing Copilot AI into everything, eating my RAM, burning CPU, chewing through SSD space like a kid in a candy store. I can’t debloat this OS enough to make it feel mine anymore.

And the surveillance? That’s the last straw. Everything you do is tracked. Telemetry this, “user experience optimization” that. It’s invasive. It’s manipulative. It’s not how personal computing should be.

So I did something radical. Something I’ve wanted to do for over a decade.

I said goodbye.

No more Google One. No more Microsoft 365. No more OneDrive. I moved all my files to my local NAS. I started using FOSS tools whenever possible. My Linux install is now my main system—Ubuntu 24.04 with KDE Plasma, clean and mean. Windows is still there, yes, on a tiny SSD partition, but it lives in the corner, like a backup generator I hope to never switch on.

I’m not pretending this is a perfect setup. There are still things that doesn’t run on Linux. But I’m willing to work around it because what I gain is mine. My OS doesn’t spy on me. It doesn’t sell me. It doesn’t treat me like a product.

I’ve taken control back. Of my system. Of my workflow. Of my data.

It’s not about being a fanboy anymore. It’s about freedom.

If you’re tired too—if you’re feeling the weight of Big Tech slowly closing in, taking more than it gives—consider Linux. It’s not just a hobby OS anymore. It’s a statement.

This is my digital rebellion.

And I’m not turning back.

Filed under: Editor's Picks,HTML Thoughts - @ June 17, 2025 6:31 am

Tags: Brain Dump