Windows: Where It All Started

Like every 90s kid, I grew up on Windows. The computer had exactly two purposes: gaming and pretending to learn Word, PowerPoint, and Excel. To be honest, Windows was actually pretty good at both of these things. Still is.

When I started programming, Visual Basic was my entry point. For a 12-year-old who barely understood what a computer actually did, dragging and dropping components and wiring up click handlers was absolutely magical. Microsoft really nailed the onboarding experience for young developers. I still have warm feelings about those days.

But here’s the thing - Microsoft’s products aren’t built for professional programmers. The command line is an afterthought. The GUI is king. The entire system is a black box that doesn’t follow Unix principles, and once you know what you’re doing, it’s just not fun anymore.

Sure, in recent years Windows added PowerShell and WSL support to bridge the gap. Too little, too late. Also, PowerShell? Why does every two-character command turn into a verbose novel? Why do I need to type a dissertation just to list files?

Beyond the programming limitations, there was the stability issue. Every six months like clockwork, I’d need to format and reinstall because the system would become unbearably slow. Virus scanning, registry cleaning, mystery slowdowns - it was a part-time job just maintaining Windows.

After a decade of this, I wanted out.

Ubuntu: My First Taste of Freedom

I’d always heard about Linux but never had a chance to try it as a teenager. It fascinated me - this was a completely different world that would change everything I knew about computers. Like every Linux beginner, I started with Ubuntu.

Ubuntu tries to make Linux accessible for average users, and it worked. The installation wasn’t hard, and for a Windows refugee, the experience was familiar enough to not be terrifying. Ubuntu taught me about Linux gradually - first the package manager (which blew my mind - Windows didn’t have anything like this back then), then basic bash scripting, then deeper Unix concepts.

But Ubuntu had a fatal flaw: it was way too easy to break.

One wrong apt command and suddenly your libc libraries are gone. An automatic upgrade breaks GRUB and you’re staring at a black screen on boot. This happened to me repeatedly, and I know it still happens to people today. Most of the time, the only solution was to format and reinstall - just like Windows.

Over time, I realized Ubuntu wasn’t for me. I’d learned enough to move to something more stable. I read about various distros (there are thousands, but they all trace back to a few core families), and since Ubuntu is based on Debian, I decided to go straight to the source.

OSX: The Dark Times

At this point, despite my plans to try Debian, work forced me to use OSX.

I already had terrible expectations. I hated how Apple treated developers. I hated their overpriced, overly-fancy machines. But I agreed to use it just to confirm exactly why I hated OSX so much.

I could write an entire blog post about OSX. Maybe I will. But here’s the short version: after six months of using it, I hated it exponentially more than before. It’s just not for me. I would rather be unemployed than use that ugly beast.

At this point in my career, I refuse to work anywhere that requires Mac. It’s a hard line. Linux or nothing.

Debian: Getting Serious

Back to the journey - I switched from Ubuntu to Debian. The transition was straightforward since they share the same package manager and basic structure. Debian is a more minimal distro, and I used LXDE as my lightweight desktop environment.

For the first time, I felt like I had real control over the entire operating system. I could tweak almost everything and use only the basics I needed, without all the unnecessary bloat that other distros ship.

I spent a few years on Debian, and my knowledge of Linux, scripting, and system administration deepened considerably. Unlike Ubuntu, the system was rock solid. Random apt commands didn’t break things. GRUB just worked.

But Debian’s problems showed up when I needed newer software. One piece of new hardware I bought didn’t work - the solution was to use a newer kernel. But Debian is famous for running old, stable packages. It takes years for new software to make it into Debian stable.

I tried fighting this by manually building libraries and hacking the system to use newer software. It wasn’t fun, and ironically, it started breaking the system again - bringing me back to the format-and-reinstall loop.

RedHat & Friends: Not For Me

Part of my work involved installing our company’s software at customer sites. I was responsible for building and packaging code in various formats, including RPMs. My knowledge of RedHat, CentOS, and Amazon Linux came from work - testing installers, troubleshooting production issues, jumping on emergency calls.

These distros are built for enterprises, with enterprise features and enterprise complexity. Everything that can be complicated is complicated. I’ve never tried to use any of them as a daily driver - dealing with them at customer sites was more than enough.

Arch: Home at Last

So Debian and its family were decent but not good enough. RedHat and its family were for enterprises and bureaucrats.

This led me to Arch Linux.

I already knew Arch from their legendary wiki - it had helped me solve problems even before I used the distro. I was aware of the steep learning curve, but I was willing to invest the time. I decided not to just blindly follow an installation guide, but to actually understand every single step.

I read most of the installation documentation before even attempting it. Then I created a VirtualBox VM and practiced installations with different combinations - different desktop environments, different partition schemes, different bootloaders. After a few weeks of experimentation, I created a new partition on my actual PC and did a real installation.

The journey to get a working Arch system that does exactly what I need - super stable and running current packages - was long. But it was absolutely worth it.

For over five years now, I’ve been using Arch as my daily driver for everything. The system is so stable that I never need to format it. When I do reinstall, it’s purely as an exercise so I don’t forget the process.

Unlike most Arch users, my setup doesn’t include any desktop environment. No GNOME, no KDE, no LXDE, nothing. Just Openbox as a window manager and a collection of scripts and homemade utilities that give me exactly what I need - no shiny animations, no unnecessary features, no ugliness that usually comes at the cost of stability and performance.

At this point I’m happy. The only thing that makes me consider switching again is pure curiosity and the desire to learn more.

Linux From Scratch: Just for Fun

That curiosity led me to try LFS (Linux From Scratch). I followed the process and got it working on a new partition on my PC. But during the journey, I realized there’s no practical point to doing this beyond learning and fun.

It’s tedious to compile all the packages yourself and stitch them together. The Arch maintainers do a great job, and I can’t imagine doing it better myself.

The LFS partition is still there and working, but I never actually use it. It’s like a trophy - proof that I could do it, but no reason to use it.

Why This Matters

Looking back at 25 years of self-learning, from Visual Basic on Windows 98 to a minimal Arch Linux setup, the pattern is clear: I kept moving toward more control, more transparency, more understanding of how things actually work.

Every transition was driven by hitting a wall - Windows couldn’t handle professional development work, Ubuntu was too fragile, OSX was fundamentally wrong for how I think, Debian was too conservative, enterprise distros were too complicated.

Arch gives me exactly what I need: bleeding-edge packages, complete control, excellent documentation, and a system that respects the Unix philosophy. It doesn’t hold my hand, but it doesn’t get in my way either.

Is Arch for everyone? Absolutely not. Is it for me? Absolutely yes.

And no, I still won’t use a Mac.