I am getting increasingly irritated with the “enshittification” of so many things tech – closely linked to the subscription model – of everything. Very tiring.
With that inspiration, I am taking a cautious, and deeper, dip into the world of free and open source software. This month that meant purchasing a second hand computer (Dell XPS) and loading it up with Linux with a view to see how it compares to Windows (my default) or MacOS (the rest of the family’s default).
I am definitely not a tech wizard or system admin type by any stretch of the imagination. That said, I am a bit of technophile, so do love tinkering with tech. All that to say, not an expert nor a rank amateur.
After a bit of exploring around, I started with Linux Mint as my test distribution.
The Good
The basic installation was as straightforward as promised. Even on my test computer I set up a dual boot, but truth be told I have had almost no reason to use the Windows side of the partition.
Straightforward connection to the internet and a good set of software out of the box. Password manager plugged right into the browser interface. Software installation (with some notable exceptions) is flawless executed from the software manager. Bluetooth connected my earbuds right out of the box – albeit once I figured out how to put them in pairing mode.
The Bad
Some things are not quite as straightforward as advertised. For example, I had printer problems (i.e. stopped printing after initially working) – which required downloading and installing the manufacturer’s Linux drivers.
Also, as it turns out, the older laptop that I purchased has a biometric (fingerprint) reader that is an old model that only has Windows compatible drivers. A bit disappointing since it effectively makes using a passkey impossible.
Booting to cloud drives – which is a must have feature for me. This has been a real challenge. As it turns there are, at least, two ways of doing this each with its own challenges.
- The first is to connect via GNOME Online Accounts. However when conducting a naive online search for how to connect to an online account (Google or OneDrive) this option almost never appears at the top of the list, very strange considering that this is the native approach. The key draw back to this approach is that the files consistently available to applications that rely on local files – notably Obsidian.
- The second is to use a FOSS program such as rclone. Using rclone requires using terminal in a number of ways. First creating the connections requires navigating a terminal based tool. This was reasonably straightforward. The more challenging bit was getting Linux to establish connections with the cloud service providers on startup. What was required was writing a *.service script to prompt Linux on load these cloud services on start up. In the end in took me several weeks of tinkering off and on to get this bit to work adequately. The key advantage, in so far as I can tell, is that creates a local, if temporary, address for files which allows applications like Obsidian to read and write to cloud files.
Common to both these approaches is that the files are never actually stored locally (they remain in the cloud). This is a feature or bug depending one’s point of view. Certainly less local storage required but a strong and stable internet connection is required. In theory rclone allows for syncing a local drive to the cloud (and back again) but I have not as yet progressed to that level – and momentarily am happy enough with relying on internet/cloud service.
The terminal is not that bad and there are plenty of websites that will hold your hand through the steps of most tasks that require its use. It seems almost certain that regular users of Linux will need to develop some familiarity with the Terminal. That said, after a week I don’t really have an intuitive sense of what I am actually doing in the terminal.
Running R/RStudio and installing packages was mixture of easy (Software Manager) and moderately complicated (downloading from website and lite terminal work). At least once, I struggled trying to load some packages (tidyverse – which is a nonnegotiable must have) – which in the end turned out to be loaded from the Software Manager rather the R/RStudio interface. Other packages (keras3) loaded directly from the R/RStudio interface. I have understand why that would be the case.
The Ugly
While there are many tutorials and guidance to be found online, the fact that very people use Linux means that it is hard to get access to meaning in-person assistance. Perhaps I am old-school, or perhaps just old, but I find that problems that take hours of research to solve are often resolvable in minutes when there is a convenient in-person resource. Even the online resources were a bit hit or miss – sometimes that AI summary was very helpful but just as often high ranked links where AI slop made almost unusable to due excessive advertising.
Summary
Bravery is required.
After about a month in of tinkering and playing I am slowing getting my new (but older) laptop up to speed and set up in a way that makes sense.
Is Linux really that easy to set up and run? Sort of. Installing Linux and some basic office software – definitely on the easy end. Adding software via the repositories also quite straightforward, but the version in the repository may lag the most current version and sometimes substantially. Adding software not in the repository, for example to get the most current version, is of modest complexity – doable but requires a bit of reading. Working within the terminal to customize certain features requires a willingness to tackle items of a high complexity – reading multiple websites and understanding the basic underlying systems and methodology and not just blindly copy/pasting code.
My bottom line assessment is that Linux (Mint) is not inherently more complex than Windows, or presumably MacOS. The challenge is that I have built up a certain level competency sufficient to get most tasks done in those other OS – and switching requires restarting that learning curve.
Is adsorbing that learning worth it? Depends on what your motivation for switching is.
If you are privacy focused and are trying to avoid Acme MegaCorp – you may have certain challenges including how you address cloud storage especially with a view to maintaining offsite backups of critical files.
If you are cost focused – there are certainly some savings to be had. My impression is that the OS itself (Linux v Windows v MacOS) is not going to drive a material cost savings. Your ability to use FOSS (LibreOffice etc) may be material, but many of these are also available on other operating systems. The largest savings will likely come from extending the life of the hardware – replace every 8 years rather than 5 years say. This will come at a cost of running less than cutting edge spec machines – probably not a big deal for most.
My motivation is to avoid (reduce) digital enshittification. To the extent that I continue to use the web, lightly use social media, use YouTube, and have an email account – I will continue to suffer the rampages of late stage capitalism. That said, to the extent that I am voting with my pocket book and avoiding, to the extent possible, predatory software practices and planned obsolescence then hooray!
I am not completely sold on Linux systems, but a week is not really enough time to fully assess a new platform.