A year ago I finally switched to Linux. This has been my journey so far:
The final straw for me was when I was trying to figure out why 250 GB out of my 450 GB SSD were filled, according to Windows, with "something" I couldn’t even see or delete. I know this might sound like a trivial thing, especially after over 20 years of constant crashes and formatting just to keep my computers running "like new" for a couple of months, but that's when something clicked for me.
Deep down, I think a part of me had always wanted to understand how my operating system worked (or why it didn't work), but Windows wouldn't let me. I was so used to things failing that I didn't even stop to question if that was normal. To me, that was just how computers worked.
So, like so many others, I started by watching a couple of videos on getting started with Linux, asked AI a few questions, and finally made up my mind: I braced myself, prepared to step out of my comfort zone into murky waters, and installed… Linux Mint. It took me less than an hour, and I was honestly disappointed. I had mentally prepared myself for troubleshooting and endless issues, but everything just worked. No hurdles whatsoever.
I decided to gave it a couple of days to get used to it, but I was still missing that challenge. After digging a bit deeper, I read that Kubuntu might be slightly more complex. Once again, I felt disappointed. Installing my OS was just clicking "Next" repeatedly: I still felt like everything was too easy, like I wasn't making any real decisions and was just being guided on rails. Sure, using the terminal during those first days was exciting and felt like I was actually learning something new, but something still felt off. Everything was too smooth, I hadn't really had to put in any effort.
So, just 4 days after switching to Linux, I came to the conclusion that Debian, being the parent distro, was the logical next step to get closer to the source and cut through the wrappers. And here, Debian finally let go of my hand a bit. I installed KDE, tweaked a few things, enabled non-free-firmware, and felt like a true hacker.
It would have been the perfect journey if it hadn't been for NVIDIA. Issues everywhere: flickering, freezing, video and game crashes, you name it. Much to my regret, I had to abandon Debian on my main rig; though not before digging all my old computers out from under years of dust and installing Debian on every single one of them.
For my main setup, I ended up choosing CachyOS with KDE, and while it solved almost all my NVIDIA problems, I felt like I had lost that direct connection with my PC. So, while using CachyOS on my main machine, I decided to buy a second-hand HP ProDesk 800 G2 for €35 and put Debian on it. This time, I wanted to feel like I was building the distro piece by piece, so I skipped the DE altogether, left it bare-bones, and installed Sway without a display manager so I could always launch it straight from the TTY (I love logging in straight from the TTY!).
Although figuring out how all the pieces fit together was an arduous process full of trial and error, it was incredibly fun. I finally felt like I was choosing every single component that went into my system (even though quite a few things broke because, having installed everything with --no-install-recommends, I kept getting missing library errors I didn't understand yet). I loved using Debian on that second-hand driving school HP so much that I even stopped gaming on my CachyOS setup. My main computer just didn't feel entirely mine anymore. So a few months later, I sold my main PC and kept a much weaker machine, but one that undeniably felt like my own. Eventually, I was forced to buy a laptop because my decision wasn't very practical day-to-day. Naturally, I bought a used ThinkPad.
With this new laptop, I decided to leap into a distro built entirely on the DIY concept: Arch fit like a glove. I loved it from day one. The way packages fit together, how fast and lightweight it felt... and I was surprised that even running Hyprland and Sway, it gave me almost no trouble.
While I was happily running Arch on my ThinkPad, I installed Debian with KDE for my partner and all my friends on their computers. They fell in love with it immediately, computers that were about to be replaced due to performance issues were brought back to life, and within days, I saw them naturally using the terminal and feeling thrilled. For the first time, they were happy to tweak and tinker with their PC.
And yet, while everyone around me was enjoying Debian's peace of mind, I started asking myself if I really needed to be on the bleeding edge. Don't get me wrong, I’ve loved my time with Arch, I've learned a ton and it's undoubtedly an amazing distro and concept, but there was still something missing. Arch feels very fast-paced. For learning, it’s one of the absolute best, but now that the initial thrill of the new has settled, Debian's unhurried nature and reliability are what always keeps bringing my mind back.
At the end of the day, in a very personal way, Debian just feels like home.