What is Linux

Linux is made up of several components, or layers, most of which are common with other OS:

1. Bootloader - Just a set of instructions managing the booting process. All it does is contribute to loading the OS.

2. Kernel - This is the lowest layer of the OS and interfaces directly with hardware components, such as the CPU, GPU, memory and storage. Fundamentally, this is what is referred to as Linux although, for the sake of simplicity, I will use Linux to refer to the entire stack here mentioned.

3. Init system - This is the system which is loaded right after the bootloader. It manages the rest of the booting process and initialises the services (daemons) which will run when the OS starts.

4. Daemons - This refers to all background processes which support various functionalities on the booted desktop environment. It includes processes to manage sound output for example.

5. Graphical Server - This is the "server" which deals with displaying graphics on your monitor. It itself is not the graphical user interface (GUI) you are presented with when the PC has finished booting.

6. Desktop Environment - This is the GUI which the user actually interacts with most of the time. However, it is worth noting that sometimes Linux installations will be command line only, meaning you interface with your OS through commands. Instead of using ctrl + c/v to copy paste files across folders, you need to go write cp /home/alex/website.html /home/webserver/.
   The GUI comes with tools like file managers or web browsers which allow you to easily work on your PC.

7. Applications - The final layer but nonetheless one of the more important. This is the suite of programs which you install in your OS. Things like games or MS Office or whatever else you install on your PC fall under this category.

Seriously? Why on Earth am I moving to Linux? Some people who follow me across social media may think Linux is a huge downgrade from a "stable" and "accessible" Windows 10, which was my previous daily driver. Especially with how I've often considered this migration to be utterly insane.

Well, yes and no. The crazy side of Linux will be coming up soon in future chapters of this endeavour. For now, let's see what Linux offers that Microsoft has been falling short on.

Windows as a Service

Unfortunately, Windows has been gradually shifting away from being a product and more towards a service. The difference is extremely subtle. But, with Windows 10 and 11 being completely free, Microsoft has had to introduce new ways to make money.
This manifests itself under the form of the subscription services endlessly promoted within your OS - your computer. No, I'm not interested in Xbox Game Pass. Nor am I interested in Onedrive cloud storage options. And yet, those are constantly being shoved in the user's face.

Linux is not only free but completely open source (more on that later) and a host of software beating Microsoft's equivalent also has a price tag of only zeros. This is great to avoid exorbitant license fees from Microsoft's suite of apps.

Your PC is not even yours

I like talking about internet privacy; I think it's a very important consideration for a future devoid of anonymity. Windows has been getting on my nerves recently, especially with W11 and its appalling privacy issues. W11 is turning out to be more of a spyware than a functional OS.
Furthermore, Windows has the tendency of making your computer no longer yours. Updating at inconvenient times and now you have to "please wait while we install updates, this will take a moment". For me, this is infuriating since I have to restart all of my programs, such as MSI afterburner. Microsoft's continuous Windows updates are a massive nuisance and that's an understatement.

Linux, on the other hand, rarely needs updating and Linux-based servers may go years without a reboot.

Stability And Performance Issues

Unfortunately, Windows has been plaguing me with performance issues, eating up my PC's resources. My desktop has 16 GB of DDR4 RAM and a Ryzen 7 2700X so should not be suffering from freezing and monumental usage of resources. This is further exacerbated by Windows clogging its root drive/partition with garbage. My laptop was struggling to run Windows due to this saturation of resources.
Tandem to this is Windows' instability whereby it or applications within it may sporadically crash or grind to a painful halt. "please wait as we diagnose the problem..."

Linux, on the contrary, is extremely stable, as long as you don't meddle in settings and configuration files which you have no knowledge about. Furthermore, it uses way less resources than Windows, making it an ideal alternative OS to old laptops which run Windows at painfully low speeds.

People say that Windows works well. Does it really though? Is it not endlessly frustrating? Is it not a nightmare to fight malware, bloatware, crashes, slowing down or ridiculous license fees for "premium" software? People put up with this nonsense because that's all they have ever really known. They're not aware that you're not supposed to be frustrated at your computer every 10 minutes.

That folks, is why I moved.

Linux comes in many distributions, referred to as "distros". However, I've taken the habit of calling them "flavours" of Linux.

Linux itself is a very broad collection of different distros, such as Linux Mint, Ubuntu, Arch Linux and Fedora. All of these are fundamentally Linux but are distinct and are developed by different groups. So, Fedora will not be the same as Arch. Each Linux distro has pros and cons associated but I will not be going over that here.

I have been running Linux Mint on my laptop for more than a year now and it's just as fluid and responsive (and unproblematic) as when I installed it. However, for my desktop, I wanted to try something different, to give yet another adventure in the world of Linux.

As such, I chose Arch Linux.

Why Arch Linux?

Two things: the memes and the difficulty. It is a pretty huge joke in the Linux community to say "I use Arch". I unironically wanted to see what the fuss was about. The difficulty of Arch does not lie in the use of the desktop environment. Instead, it's a real challenge to even install it.
Until recently, Arch did not have a graphical installer where you could easily configure the OS for install. Instead, you had to do it through the command line, typing commands to create partitions, create a user/password, and even installing the graphical desktop interface. I, looking for a challenge, went with the CLI (Command Line Interface) installer.

Other than not sporting the serious flaws of Windows, Linux brings a lot more to the table.

Simplicity

Linux is extremely simple, as compared to most expectations and stereotypes. For OS like Linux Mint or Fedora, it is designed to be the most beginner friendly possible. The command line for advanced functions is a rarity for these OS, allowing you to interact solely through the graphical UI. Furthermore, Linux is extremely slim as OS, meaning it is much easier to change settings than Windows, where you have half a dozen settings applications, each managing one part of the computer.

I tend to say that some Linux distros are built with the user in mind. That is, ease of use and accessibility are a top priority in the design. Here, from my Arch desktop PC, everything is easily accessible. I have a task manager, software manager (MS store alternative) and a single settings app with everything I would want to change. Furthermore, Linux is geared towards customisability, allowing you to alter even the smallest details of your OS. I can go change the colour of the icons in the file explorer. Or even change my entire desktop environment from Gnome to KDE Plasma! As I said, anything can be changed.

Open Source

Open source means that the source code (like C, Python, Java) is available freely online. People can access the code and modify it as they see fit. This may be to add new features or patch bugs. Regardless, it means that there is a large decentralised active programmer base maintaining Linux for free. Accessibility of the source code also means that you could even build your own Linux distro and share it with the world.