2025 is (my) year of Linux desktop

Enough is enough

I think Scoop Everything should've been a sign. But I've been growing more and more frustrated with Windows and Microsoft in general. Teams? Good luck searching for any past conversation. Outlook? Honestly, this might be a disdain for emails in general, so this might be a stray here, but the corporate structure of emails is such a game and I'm over it. You can send me a direct message (preferably Slack or Discord, but you don't choose the food you eat sometimes). Effective Writing is cutting the fluff out, not whatever 9/10 emails are.

But Windows.... oh Windows....

• recall
• copilot ads
• start menu search
• one drive
• AHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

A company that I grew up thinking was the pinnacle of software has completely dug a hole of corporate-driven trash. This is a gross exaggeration, but it almost feels like Microsoft wants users to leave. WHY DOES AN UPDATE THAT BREAKS LOCALHOST NOT GET CAUGHT IN TESTING?

aside: above rant is not including PowerToys. these guys are great.

I'm drunk on the kool-aid

More and more I've been following DHH and his work. In June 2025 DHH released the first version of Omarchy. "Beautiful, Modern & Opinionated Linux by DHH". Omarchy provides a good start for a noob to Linux (hey that's me!) and gets me over the hump of installation hell. I don't want to set up bluetooth settings, wifi adapters, lock screens. Give me a decent start and let me drive my own path.

So after reading about the distro and what it offers, I installed it and I don't think I'll go back.

It's such a freedom. I have complete control over my computer. I don't like something? Fix it. It's my problem to fix now and I have nobody to complain about besides myself... and guess what... I CAN FIX IT. There's nothing in the way!

• Want to set up a developer environment specific to a language? Super + Alt + Space -> Install -> Development -> you pick... recently I've been playing with Laravel and like a drag race, it only took minutes to install.
• Custom key binds to open to a specific website that I frequent? Sure, never needed that but hey, I'm on my work computer and now I instinctively hit Super + G to open GitHub or Super + B to open my browser. Too bad Windows doesn't have a good native solution for that.
• Hyprland? One of the first things I do with a new Windows installation is use Fancy Zones from Microsoft Powertoys (BTW, don't forget Powertoys is peak MSFT software). Oh, there's a Linux tiling manager that already does this? Without the fancy setup that I manually create?
• AI support? Sure, out of the box! I've even gone as far as creating a CLAUDE.md in my home directory so Claude knows what's going on and can help me debug my system.

At the same time, I'm given a loaded gun. I can shoot myself in the foot as well. I've already broken my video settings and had to nuke & restart a few times. But good thing I don't have OneDrive and can make actual backups!

Have I become the people who I thought were off the deep end in university? Ya know, the guy who scrambled to install GIMP over Photoshop, would always talk about his riced system. Yeah most definitely, but maybe they were onto something, ahead of the curve?

How far does the kool-aid go?