Short story long
It’s a very long story, but the point, in a nutshell, is that I’ve been struggling for many, many years to switch to the ‘dark side’ (or just the Jedi side?). I’ve tried using Ubuntu several times before, but for some reason, I’ve always been disappointed to get back to Windows.
However, about a half year ago (around 2021 June), I decided to step in again. But not just in this matter, but that I’m turning my life upside down.
If you do something, do it right!
The story:
So far, I’ve worked with a Lenovo T420 laptop as the base, to which I connected 2 monitors so I could work on 3 displays. It was awesome. I loved it. But as many customers, so many habits, that is why almost every customer had to use a new channel for communication. Skype here, Meet here, Discord, Messenger, Telegram, Hangouts, and more. And since most of them have (or have only) a desktop app, I installed them.
Why?
Because in many cases my phone is muted or set to vibrate. On the one hand, not to disturb a meeting, and on the other hand, not to beep constantly.
So the Desktop app can help me get messages in and reply to them relatively quickly (more on that later).
However, having a whole bunch of software for my work and a whole bunch of software for communication up on my machine resulted in the machine slowing down terribly.
There was a consultation and/or training where I managed to hold the event from 3 tools. And I said that is enough...
First steps I did
I've installed Ubuntu on my desktop computer first. We looked at each other for a few days, but the laptop was still up on Windows. Consultations on the multi-machine solution continued. 4-5 monitors.
So far, I haven't dared to switch completely to Linux because the software I used and needed to work (Photoshop, Illustrator, XD, Premier, Office, etc.) is only "ported" to WIN and MAC os. So I should have made a compromise. Although there are solutions that can bridge this thing on Linux systems (Vine, PlayOnLinux, etc.), I haven't been able to breathe life into it, at least in the current versions.
Switch entirely
Then one night I thought about it and decided to make moves. On the one hand, I was fascinated by the idea that I could only learn from it (but it would take a lot of struggle with it, which in turn would strengthen and provide usable knowledge), and on the other hand, the purity and "simplicity" of Linux was very sympathetic. Of course, I don't want to offend anyone here, so I'd correct that when I write this if you do something on Linux, it's done. I meant it like this.
Was the idea that what I was used to so far and what programs I used for my everyday work will be really replaceable scary (and still is)? Yes, It was very scary! But I thought I should give it a try.
The next day I installed Ubuntu on my laptop as well. But just to start in an advanced mode right away, I put up the 21.04 Hirsute Hippo version instead of the 20.04 version. About when the release came out.
How is it going?
So it's been a half year since. The trip is terribly exciting and will even last for a while, so I’m sure I’ll tell you about that in the next few posts. What kind of software I use now, what my experience is, and how at all, how sharp an active business case is on the go. If you think the same way as I do, and you are before the switch, or just want to smile good at my ball steps sometimes, follow me on this bumpy road :)
Thanks for reading.