 So I have the tendency on this channel to be very negative about Linux to be very critical of Linux and I still say that It's proper to be critical of Linux and to Criticize the things that you enjoy because you want them to be better, right? So I have done this many times on the channel where I go through and say, you know, I hate how this works Or I wish this was better or my most recent video. I say that things aren't ready or things are buggy I do that a lot and I know that the constant negativity can wear on people So what I wanted to do today was talk about some positive things So I what I'm going to talk about today I've talked about in several other places kind of scattered around in various podcasts and videos and Blog posts and such but what I want to do today is talk about some of the reasons why I Really love Linux and some of these will be like I said retreads over things that I've talked about before Some of them will be new so let's go ahead and talk about some really positive things about Linux things that just make me very Very happy. So first And we'll just get this one out of the way because honestly This is the least important and I know saying that it's going to piss some people off But it's absolutely true the open source nature of Linux is really good. I really enjoy that it's open source I it makes me feel I was gonna say patriotic, but that's not the right word But it makes me feel very good knowing the fact that I used Linux and it's open source and it's not Windows, right? Though that's for me. That's a one of the primary reasons why I use Linux But it's not a big deal for me, right? I use some proprietary software I'm not I'm not as much of a zealot as some of the open source evangelists that are out there Some people just absolutely refuse to use any proprietary software. I'm not one of those I use Vivaldi as my main browser. It's proprietary even though they say it's mostly open source, whatever the fuck that means You know I use things like a lot of Google Docs products because I have to right and There are other pieces of proprietary software that I do use and some of them I do actually enjoy So I'm not so hung up on the fact that it's open source to say that that's like the primary reason why use it It's not it's cool that it is and I'm glad that it is and it's like an added extra Awesome benefit, right? So we'll just get that one out of the way I love it because it's open source, but it's not the primary reason why I love it So another thing that I really love about Linux and this is probably the primary reason why I like it so much Is because there's so much choice now I have talked in a recent video I want to actually scroll through my list of videos here where I actually say it I think I entitled the video something like I have a problem or something like that and in that video I talked about how I change color schemes constantly how I used to distro hop constantly How I changed between window managers sometimes two or three times a day and people freaked out in that video because it's not normal I even said in the video that it's not normal to do those type of things. I understand so I have a Extraordinary case of ADD when it comes to my computer. I Enjoy changing things up quite a bit. I've tried to curtail it and I have been successful in some areas So I found a home in open Suza I have taken on the idea of using just one color scheme a month because you know, I've been challenged to do so I'm not sure I enjoy it so much yet, but we're you know, we're getting there So I've tried to curtail that but one of the reasons why I love Linux is because it does kind of cater to The ADD demon inside of me There's so much choice so much customization in all those choices that it allows me to just kind of Play and just have as much fun moving things around and Fitting the pieces together as much as I want to do and it just makes me happy in that way now in terms of productivity That may not be the best thing. I understand that and I deal with that in my own way But for the guy inside of me that just likes to tinker Linux suits that need very very well and more so than any other operating system that I've ever tried I basically can make Linux look feel and work Exactly the way that I want it to work. So that's awesome Another reason why I love Linux and this one is I think kind of controversial because so many people have such a bad experience with it But I truly love the Linux community I think that it's fantastic and I've met so many people out there that I can legitimately call friends some of whom I've met an actual real life. So that's something I guess and you know I just met so many people and I have so many of you guys who are in the audience who You know comment frequently have joined the discord server have followed me on mastodon And we all just have had such a good time Because of the thing that we use Linux and that's I think that's amazing. Now are there, you know Boneheads in the Linux community. Absolutely. There's no community out there that doesn't have its negative Nancy's or whatever you want to call it but for the vast majority of the people out there that I've met I've just it's it's been such a positive experience and it is truly honestly And I know this sounds like hyperbole, but it's changed my life, right? Yeah, I have so many more people that I just can talk to about anything basically but Linux specifically that it just has changed the way that I interact and the amount of interaction I have with people it's kind of awesome, and I think that without Linux I wouldn't have that because I was a I was a Windows user now I I I've said this before Windows does not have a community. It's not true Windows does have a community. There are Windows podcasts. There's Windows forums. They have a community Matt just but it's If you are like me when you use Windows, I was a nuke and pave kind of guy I did not ever solve a problem on Windows. I if I if I came up across a problem It was nuke and pave after maybe maybe a very brief Google on how to solve it, but probably not chances are I just downloaded ISO again or did Creation media creation Whatever the hell they call it and you know Ruked and paved, you know, and it was never go interact with the community try to solve the problem You know it was never me Anybody was very insular very solo, right? And on Linux it hasn't been that experienced because not only does more things go wrong because I'm constantly changing things So I do have to go search out help. You kind of can't Do the whole nuke and pave over and over again on Linux because you're going to constantly come up with problems And well, you you know you can but it's not going to really solve anything Because there are other options obviously, but you do have to kind of interact with people And while I was interacting with people I managed to find people who were just like me They had we had a lot of stuff in common and you know, we just kind of created a community just this one community And there's the broader Linux community. It's been fantastic and over and over again. I've preached the merits of The Linux community. I've talked about it many times in many different videos on this channel And there's always a caveat of the others boneheads But for the vast majority of people in the Linux community is just awesome And I think that's a big benefit for Linux and also one of the reasons why I truly enjoy What I do here on the channel and just generally using Linux another reason why I like Linux is because it's not afraid to change so Windows has been on the anti kernel or a variation thereof for damn near 30 years 24 years, I suppose I think it came out in like 2000 maybe 99 or something like that You know, they've been on the same kernel. They they have a ton of legacy baggage There right and yes, they've tried to change a little bit over the years Like they've tried major change like Windows 8 was a major change to how Windows worked their users Absolutely effing hated it right Windows 8 is probably only second to Windows Vista in the amount of hatred that people have for it And I liked the change like at that point I was still a Windows user and I thought it was looked cool I don't think it was all that useful, but it was I enjoyed that change But I'm someone who enjoys change but on Windows for the vast majority of people they hate change They want things to stay as much the same as possible point in case From Windows 10 to Windows 11 one of the major things that they changed was the position of the start menu It was on the left-hand side and then they moved it to the center the number of articles I read online just absolutely freaking the f out about the fact that they moved the start button from the right or the left To the center is innumerable. There's just a whole bunch of articles and people shouting on Twitter about it It's the stupidest thing on Linux. We embrace change. Yes. Yes. We have old people like me and people who are older who grudgingly go along with it, but Because things like fedora exists and red hat keeps pushing things along in canonical sometimes We get we get new things we get new shiny things that eventually overtake the old things So despite as much as as much as I bitch about Wayland Wayland is the next new thing, right? And it's going to take over for a major piece of functionality that has been around for almost longer than I've been alive You know Xorg has been around since like 84 and if that's actually the truth that is longer than I've been alive Xorg has been entrenched in the way Linux works for Basically the entire time Linux has existed and because of the developers behind Wayland. That's going to change Over the course of the next few years Xorg is going to go away For the most part and Wayland is going to become the new thing that everybody uses That's change on a fundamental level and while there is bitching and moaning and dragging Some of which has come, you know come from this direction Absolutely, I've been very negative about Wayland many many times many many videos over the course of the last few years But still the idea that they can make that fundamental change that this huge Change is very impressive and it's not even the only option the only example I should say of Change at that level system D was not always the default in that system for Linux It wasn't right Paul's audio was not always the thing that did audio on Linux In fact, it's not even the thing that doesn't know we've already we've already changed to a new thing pipe wires So this ability to change to adapt to new technologies to Make sure that Linux carries on into the future with things that actually work that are easily or more at least more easily Maintained is awesome. It's very very cool And it's also not something you see very often in the desktop Operating system realm macOS Kind of does it but it's still very much the same as it has been for a very long time You notice they don't change the UI very much Yeah, yeah, they'll give a fresh coat of paint But it still has the dock along the bottom the bar along the top and the windows function basically the same And the underlying technology on Mac is something that most people don't give a rip about if you use Mac You don't care what audio stack it uses or any of that stuff, you know, that's a you know, whatever same thing on Windows only they're much more in tune with how The operating operating system looks right they want it to look the same and function the same as it has For the last 30 years and if it doesn't if you make even the tiniest bit of change Everyone's gonna notice and everyone's gonna freak out on Linux changes happen constantly And I think that that has allowed Linux to adapt way better than those other two desktop operating systems It's very much more like how Mobile has adapted over the course of the last 10 years or so, you know, things have changed There, you know mobile was very early on in the the Adoption of 64 bit computing right, you know 64 bit has been around for a very long time But they got just Apple just one day said, you know no more 32 bit We're just not doing anymore than very soon. Andrew. I did it, right? And it took a while for Windows to kind of get there and it was a change that You know We make a lot of actually we should just say this we make a lot of fun about Windows because it has all this legacy Baggage that's behind it. They do that because there are a lot of people who use that legacy baggage for things They need those drivers for you know printers or pieces of software that was written for whatever There's a reason why Internet Explorer 6 or whatever was around for a very long time It's because a lot of businesses used that browser to do their things and you know, they have that History and baggage behind them that Linux despite being very well used in the service space Don't doesn't seem to care about as much because they can still make changes if they want to could because Corporations and enterprises who use Linux can just stay on all the versions and then eventually transition over the powers That be behind the Linux kernel aren't afraid of change and I think that that's awesome I was on that point for quite a while, but I think that one of the reasons why I truly love this a Whole operating system is because there it feels like there's always something new and exciting happening if it's not a new package Format it's a new containerization format or a new immutable distro or whatever There's always something new and that's awesome. It again feeds into the ADD and all that stuff So it's really very good. Another thing that I really like about Linux is that it challenges me to learn and to try new Things so this is kind of related to the last one, but not entirely one of the things that I really enjoy and Something that I've kind of started to do over the course of the last year So it's a challenge myself to use new things So I came up with a six-month Linux challenge where I said I was gonna use a distro for six months And then that was all in a challenge to try to curb my distro hopping because I was distro hopping way too much I was spending way too much of my time moving from distro to distro. I needed to actually to work Which is you know, just this you know disappointing But I had to do work So I had to to figure out a way to stop having to completely set up my system over and over again So I started with Redcore eventually I failed on that challenge after about two months or so And I decided to do a little distro hopping because I had ditch And then I found I decided I was gonna challenge myself to something even harder two years on the same distro I found open Suza and goodness in my glad that I found it as if it was lost and I didn't know about it But you guys understand like I decided to try it and it has been amazing, right? I've made a video about why I chose it why I like it so much My point is is that I've challenged myself to try New things that I wouldn't normally be able to do like stay on the same distro for a long time or to I guess a better example Would be to try different applications to do my work So, you know over the course of the last few years. I've tried e-max several times I've never actually fallen in love with it like some people have but I've tried it you know, I've tried things like helix and Ed and VS code and a whole bunch of different writing tools because I'm a writing I'm a writer by trade and the tools that I use to write are important to me So for the vast majority of the time I still use them because them is freaking awesome But I've I've hunted out and tried different tools to see if it could increase or at least make my workflow a little bit easier Now I've transitioned over to using Kate as my primary text editor because I was able to try that and it kind of challenged Me to do things in a little bit different way. So there are these certain things, right? I'm always trying to try new things now some of that It's not always a good thing as I talked about with the ADD stuff So I'm always trying out and if there's a new window manager again Yeah, I gotta go try that thing because it's a new window manager. How can I try it, right? I use the channel to blame. I like to blame the channel Like I have you know, I'm gonna create content make a video about this brand new window manager But I mean I may not but I Want to try it anyways. I don't need the channel the channel to to have that excuse, right? So sometimes it's not always a good thing But I find that exposing myself to new technology new ways of doing things all that stuff stems from using Linux because there's so Many different things in so many different choices that I can make in order to choose how I do certain things So I drew truly honestly believe that I've learned more on Linux than I ever did when I was a Mac or Windows user Now there's this quote when it comes to Linux that if you don't already way You'll ever use Linux if you don't enjoy your time or some nonsense like that There's some variation Linux is a waste of time because it's a time sink or whatever I don't remember the exact quote, but you get the idea We always say that you know There's no truth to that you can basically be as productive on Linux as you can on Windows or Mac, which is absolutely true if you just Install Ubuntu and do your work, which is the vast majority of people you can in fact just use Linux Just like you use Windows. There's no time sink there at all now the problem comes in if you're like me who's a Linux nerd and You're not able to help yourself when it comes to new shiny window managers new distros things like that and Then yeah, it does hit a little bit on the product You know the productivity side of things like I spend more time Racing than I should I spend more time switching between window managers than I should But I've learned a lot of stuff doing those things so that it's not completely all bad But also as long as it doesn't become debilitating. I don't see a big problem with it, right? I still get my work done Okay I know some people think that all I do is sit here and make Linux videos or think about the next Linux video Or mess around on the discord or read books or whatever. I do actually have a job Okay, I'm an editor for historical magazine. I used to be a writer for the same historical magazine So I spent a lot of my time reading other people's writing on history and then posting it to WordPress Which is by the way, if you ever have the choice don't never use WordPress. It is so bad I hate WordPress for the passion That's but that's beside the point. I was supposed to say positive But I you know, I can't be it's it was never gonna be 100% positive But that's just at the point so Linux does have a tendency to be a time sink sometimes for me But it's also a productivity tool for most people. It's just a tool for other people to hobby for me It's both I can be very very productive on Linux I can also spend hours and hours creating a new color scheme I can do both of those things or can exist and be happy to do so for me It's just about a balance and I you know, I do a good job I get my job my work done and then I can mess around with a new color scheme or a new window manager or whatever I can do the things that I want to do. It's not either or for me. I know for a lot of people It's just a tool for a lot of people It's just a hobby one of the biggest credit critiques I hear from people who don't use Linux is that they just say Linux is a hobby, right? You can't actually get anything done on it. It's absolutely not true Now are there certain professions or whatever that you can point to that say well They can't use Linux because they have to do X X and X sure like if you have to use Adobe stuff If you have to use CAD stuff auto CAD stuff, you know, you're probably not going to use Linux You know chances are for the majority of people though who do work on a computer you can get all that stuff done on Linux and That doesn't mean that it also can't be something that you treat as a hobby because there's a lot of stuff here that's very exciting and entertaining and That's what a hobby is for me So I can do both and be very very happy with it and I have been very very happy with this So I could sit here and ramble for another 20 to 40 minutes Probably about 10 or 15 or 20 more things that I really enjoy about Linux but I'm gonna put it a can on it for this time and Hand it off to you guys in the comment section below Tell me a few things that you really love about Linux. Why do you use Linux? What keeps you here? What are some of the things that you truly honestly enjoy over anything that's else that you've used before? I'd love to hear from you in the comment section below. Let's have a wonderful conversation Let's try to keep it as positive as possible again I know I tend to be very negative sometimes so I try I'm gonna try to intersperse a little bit of positivity here So happy days sunshine and all that you know, bah humbug So anyways, that's it for this one if you have comments or that stuff comments in the comment section below You can follow me on master down or Odyssey those links will be in the video description if you haven't already leave a thumbs up on this video I'd really appreciate it really help the channel Also, if you haven't hit the subscribe button Make sure you do that because I create a lot of awesome Linux content And you won't know about it if you don't subscribe to it So hit the subscribe button You can also support me on patreon patreon.com slash the Linux cast you can also support me by heading over to this Shop which is available at shop that the links cast at org there You'll find all sorts of merch including T-shirts and hats and hoodies and desk mats and all sorts of stuff that shop that the links cast at org all the proceeds go directly towards helping me make more Linux content and That's just can be only be better for everybody. 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