Ah, it's been a long time since I had posted anything on my blog. In today's article, I will be talking about my switch from Windows 10 to Ubuntu 18.04 LTS.
Why did I make the switch?
I grew up using different versions of Windows OS and my favorite one is Windows 7. I use Windows 8.1 at work and macOS High Sierra on my mid-2010 MacBook Pro at home.
Recently, I bought myself a Dell XPS 9360 for serious development. Below are the specs:
- Intel Core i7 @ 2.4Ghz 7th Generation
- 256GB SSD
- 8GB RAM
- 13.3" Inch Full-HD Display
However, I did have an issue with it, it came pre-installed with a bloated Windows 10.
I tried giving Windows 10 a shot even after reading several blog posts on how Microsoft collects data, forces updates that users can't opt out of and so on.
Then one fine day, I left my laptop to download some files and then Windows decides to update without asking for my permission. My download got disrupted and I finally decided to make the switch.
Besides that, I wanted to have a good environment that's secure, programmer friendly and wanted to use the Terminal, which is a programmer's sweet spot for automation, executing scripts and accessing remote machines and so on.
Choosing a Linux distribution
At first, I wanted to try out Arch Linux for it's strong community and amazing configurations but I thought of taking a safe side by trying out Ubuntu.
I downloaded the latest distribution from the official website and created a bootable USB drive. Later, I changed my laptop's BIOS configuration to Legacy mode from it's UEFI Secure Boot mode, which was a bit annoying.
After everything was done, I plugged in the bootable USB drive and voila, Ubuntu's loaded on my screen.
Check for Hardware Compatibility
If you've read some articles, you might find some people writing out comments that when you install Linux on your computer, you might face some hardware compatibility issues. You can be detect it beforehand by trying it out on a bootable USB drive.
Luckily, thanks to Dell's hardware support for Linux, it detected all of my laptop's hardware without any issues.
I decided to go with a minimal installation as I don't want to have any bloatware on my computer.
Hello Ubuntu!
Ubuntu's new user interface looks really clean and minimal and it looked really vibrant in my laptop's Full HD Display.
The boot time was fast and it took a mere few seconds to display the login screen. As soon as I logged in, I installed the necessary development tools such as gcc, python, perl, git, node.js, npm package manager, Emacs text editor and more.
Conclusion
Well, every operating system has it's own pros and cons, likewise, Linux has a few cons such as that I won't be able to use Adobe applications like Photoshop and Illustrator but that's not a big deal for me as my focus is purely on development.
If you're a programmer and serious about development, I would strongly recommend you to try it out and you'll never want to return back to Windows again.
Hope you liked reading this article!
Adios Amigo!