So, I’ve been using Linux for over a month now. In this post, I’ll share my experience, what led me here, what I’ve learned, and whether I recommend it.
How It All Started?
The story begins around three months ago. I was using my 6-year-old laptop like usual—watching YouTube, anime, browsing Reddit, etc. It was running Windows 11.
Then, the Wi-Fi started acting up. It kept disconnecting randomly, and sometimes the adapter would just disappear. A quick restart would fix it temporarily, but over time, it got worse. My phone worked fine, and my router seemed okay too, so I knew the issue was with the laptop.
I searched online and most people pointed to a driver issue. I reinstalled the driver—but nothing changed. The disconnection happened every 5 minutes. It became unbearable.
Why Linux (Kind of by Accident)
Around this time, my friend’s laptop also broke. It wouldn’t boot and kept showing a drive error. He was also using Windows 11. I took a look and suspected it was a drive failure. As a classic move, I unplugged and replugged the SSD (technician style), but no luck.
Then I had an idea: “What if I use a live USB OS to check if the drive is even detected?” That’s when I discovered you could do that with Linux. I downloaded the Fedora ISO, created a bootable USB, and tested his laptop. Sadly, the drive wasn’t detected—most likely a hardware failure. He later took it to a service center and got it replaced.
But with Fedora still on my USB, I thought—why not try it on my laptop?
I booted Fedora and did my usual things: YouTube, browsing, etc. And guess what? The network issue was gone. Completely gone. That’s when I seriously considered switching.
Distro
After some research on Reddit and YouTube, I decided to try EndeavourOS—an Arch-based distro. I dual-booted it alongside my broken Windows 11 (just in case I messed something up). I used Endeavour for about a week and loved it.
Then I thought, “Maybe it’s time to grow up and install actual Arch.”
So I did.
I didn’t know archinstall was a thing back then, so I went the manual route—configuring everything, installing packages myself, and watching a lot of YouTube tutorials.
archinstall is a helper library which automates the installation of Arch Linux. It is packaged with different pre-configured installers, such as a "guided" installer.
Ricing Time
After installation, I quickly dove into ricing.
At first, I used Hyprv2 dotfiles. They were simple but hadn’t been maintained in a while, so I switched to meowrch dotfiles and used them as my base rice.”
meowrch -> eudaimon
I wanted a login page that matched my style, so I edited the background and theme configs. Next up, the boot menu. I use GRUB, and yes—turn out you can customize it. I created a custom background and adjusted the theme configs. I loved how it turned out. Then came the tricky part: Waybar. With no formal programming background, figuring out how it worked was a pain in the ass. After a lot of trial and error, I finally got the look I wanted. I used this setup for about a month and was really satisfied.
HyDE
A few days ago, I found a beautiful set of dotfiles on GitHub called HyDE. I said, “Fuck it, let’s install it.”
But here’s something you should know: when using someone else's dotfiles, you have to check what packages and paths they use. Otherwise, the old setup might still run in the background due to custom paths or configs. There's no universal dotfiles uninstaller—so cleanup is manual. (Or maybe there is one… I’m not sure.)
Anyway, HyDE came with a cyberpunk Edgerunners theme—which I absolutely loved. So I used it and customized some parts myself. As usual, I made sure the SDDM and GRUB matched the style for a consistent rice.
Final Thoughts
Using Linux gave me something I didn’t expect: freedom.
I get to choose every program I need. I can customize virtually everything. I even learned some terminal commands along the way. The experience has been so fun.
Would I recommend Linux?
Yes, especially if you're tired of bloated, corporate-controlled software. If you’re done with mediocrity and want to take back control of your machine, Linux is the way.
It’s a journey and I’m so glad I took it.█