It’s quite a coincidence that I installed Linux around the same time as my colleagues Nathan Edwards and Stevie Bonifield. A few months ago I decided to breathe new life into a 2019 Dell XPS 15 that had been gathering dust for a few years.
Despite its (at the time) cutting-edge Core i7 processor and 32GB of RAM, Windows was frustratingly slow. The fan was constantly on full throttle even when the machine was idle, and it regularly failed to install updates. So in early 2024 I gave up and switched to an M1 MacBook Pro.
But I wanted to give my oldest child something to practice writing on. In addition, I tried to find a suitable solution for writing without distractions. (Spoiler: this laptop was not the solution I was looking for.) So I installed Ubuntu. Again.
Before the MacBook and before the Dell XPS, I was a Linux user. I first installed Ubuntu in 2006 on a ThinkPad X40. And it remained my primary operating system on three different laptops and 13 years.
Despite some… let’s call them quirks (the Wi-Fi on that X40 didn’t work right out of the box) I was happy with Linux for a long time. I dual-booted Windows out of necessity and often had a work MacBook handy. But those were for testing apps or specific tasks like video editing. I’ve spent 99 percent of my life on Ubuntu.
That is, until about 2017. As I got older, tinkering with my laptop turned from a hobby to something that got in the way of my other hobbies. I rediscovered my love for making music, and try as I might, Ubuntu Studio just didn’t cut it. I spent more time in Ableton Live, which meant more time in Windows until I bought said XPS in 2019 and switched over completely.
A lot has changed in the 20 years since I first installed Linux, and even in the seven years since I last used it. Now it is probably the best platform for playing PC games. There are really great photo editing apps like Darktable, which was introduced in 2009. And there are even viable commercial music creation options in Bitwig and Reaper, which have improved dramatically since 2019.
The Ubuntu installation process hasn’t changed much, but the interface is nicer. I put the ISO on a flash drive and briefly considered wiping XPS entirely. At the last minute, I backed off and decided to dual boot, which meant repartitioning the hard drive.
Right off the bat, I was reminded that Linux hasn’t completely overcome its clumsy nature. The fingerprint reader did not work. A minor annoyance that I chose to ignore.
More worryingly, Ubuntu failed to install updates due to an XPS 15-specific EFI partition problem that also caused problems under Windows. I was able to install them, but I’m not convinced I didn’t create a ticking time bomb by deleting critical files.
Ubuntu also refused to mount my Windows partition for the first month before it suddenly started working for unknown reasons. Stevie similarly admitted that he “stopped the rage and went to bed” when they couldn’t get Ubuntu to connect to the second SSD.
Nathan had his own weird problems where his CachyOS refused to recognize his mouse clicks. He was also hit with option paralysis as he tried to choose between four bootloaders and thirteen desktop environments. For some, that’s part of the appeal, the endless customizability, the ability to customize the computer to your every whim and make it truly yours. Ubuntu doesn’t throw its customizability in your face like Cache does, but it’s still there if you want it.
The problem I ran into in my days of painstakingly tuning desktops and building my dream note taking tool with Obsidian is that you’re building a house of cards. One small thing in some seemingly unimportant library or plugin could cause the entire system to fall apart. I don’t want to waste time debugging and troubleshooting when I already have things working.
Even if you keep it simple, like I did on my XPS, you’re hardly guaranteed smooth sailing. Ubuntu is one of the best supported Linux distributions. And while my particular XPS 15 isn’t one of them, Dell has sold many Ubuntu-certified laptops over the years, so I thought I was in the clear—wrong.
Several apps, whether from the official Ubuntu app center, downloaded snaps or .deb packages, failed to install silently. No obvious error, nothing. I had to open a terminal and install them from there to see what went wrong. Installing software on Linux is somehow even more confusing than it was 20 years ago.
Even the things that worked weren’t seamless. I got Steam working but it took a while hoursit required installing outdated 32-bit libraries and crashed along the way. Oh, and Steam games refused to recognize my audio interface; they would only play through the laptop speakers. CachyOS or Bazzite would provide a smoother Steam experience. But it illustrates the problem. Saying you use Linux is almost meaningless because there are so many different flavors.
Fortunately, Bitwig recognized my audio interface, but it was fickle about which MIDI controllers it wanted to work with (a problem I never had with the Mac version) and crashed the first time I tried to launch it. Also, while Bitwig’s native tools are solid, I missed my favorite soft synths and effects like Arturia’s Pigments, which are Windows and Mac only.
There were a few other minor annoyances. If my laptop went to sleep (which only seems to happen when it’s plugged in, see picture), it refused to reconnect to the external hard drive I plugged in and stopped recognizing the SD card reader. I have to reboot to get them working again. It won’t even wake up to input from a Bluetooth mouse or keyboard. I have to open the lid to wake it up when it is connected to my dock and external monitor.
If all I need is a web browser, Ubuntu works like a charm. I had no problems with Wi-Fi or Firefox. My XPS now runs faster and quieter than Windows. And I got Obsidian up and running with minimal issues. I’ve been using Ubuntu as my primary work machine for a few days and everything has been fine. But I can do most of my work from the confines of a web browser.
It’s everything else. I can play on my Linux PC, but the experience is smoother on my Switch or PS4. I can make music in Bitwig or Reaper on Ubuntu, but Ableton on macOS is easier to use and supports all my VSTs. GIMP and Darktable offer solid image editing, but let’s be honest, they’re not nearly as powerful as Lightroom and Photoshop. Linux can now do all the things – sometimes better than Windows. But despite everything, there always seems to be a better option.