Why do I keep coming back to Linux?
I have been distro-hopping ever since I've met the great world of GNU/Linux, and eventually I've been installing Windows for a reason or another. A few months ago, I had to borrow my personal Laptop to my wife when hers stopped working while she got a new one, but she needed to use Adobe software, which, as you may know is one of the main reasons a lot of people don't fully switch to Linux, I didn't want her to encounter any issues using something like wine to run Adobe software or any other alternatives there might be, so to save both of us trouble, I got rid of good ol' Endeavour OS which was my favorite distro at the moment, and installed Windows 10 (since my hardware is apparently too old for Windows 11 smh).
With that, I created a profile for each of us and one for only gaming. This is to separate productivity from leisure and not be tempted to open Steam and play Euro-Truck simulator 2 for 4 straight hours instead of writing a post or start another unfinished project for Ramen Development. Everything was running ok, but I missed my tiling windows, which are so satisfying and make it so easy to multitask or write code and watch logs while your product is running at the same time, making use of the whole screen effectively. Some friends wanted to play Counter Strike 2, and I installed it, on my now Windows laptop. The thing was struggling, a lot. I used to play CSGO a lot on this very laptop with Linux, so I blamed it on the CS2 update because the graphics did look better. But then I tried one of my all-time favorites, the previously mentioned Euro-Truck simulator 2, and guess what? It was struggling! With a 12 yo game! Unbelievable! At this point I should mention I'm talking about an HP ProBook 440 g4 (i5-6200U 8GBs of RAM and obviously integrated Intel HD Graphics lol). So It is a low-spec laptop for today's standards, but still capable of running a fair amount of games without problems, or at least I could do so when it had Linux. I was still able to play Minecraft Java with Windows though, so even when I missed out on some great titles I could still play some lower-spec ones that I really enjoyed, but still, lagging everything else. I was truly ignorant on how much of a resource-hog windows is, this was not about customization and aesthetic desktop environment ricing anymore, it was about probably killing my laptop from overworking the poor CPU by only playing simple games.
At least it did the job for the Adobe software. As soon as my wife got a new laptop, I got rid of Windows 10 and guess what? No more lagging in ETS2, I even was able to play Skyrim again! And some newer titles too! I got Fallout 4 to run, a bit laggy but still completely doable! That got me to think, are the people buying the ROG ally really getting a good deal when most of the hardware that is better than the steam deck's is getting used by the damn OS? Why not just try the cheaper and far better steam deck, which will actually put the hardware to good use thanks to Linux and will run most of the games even better?
As soon as I came back to Linux I remembered why I like it better, It works for me, it is a way better experience and far more aesthetically pleasing as well. Since I do not want to create electronic garbage, Linux will power AND keep my cheap outdated laptop secure until the end of its life, where I'll continue to play endlessly, procrastinating instead of completing my personal projects.
