Using Linux Daily
Already last year in January I had the ambition to switch to Linux again after a few years living in MS world. Didn’t have time to actually convert thinking into doing back then so I muddled along. Its nice, it works and it doesn’t give too much of an headache. Fast forward a year and three things has happened:
- I started to pay attention to the flow of data and what’s listening to what and where that data goes. Let’s just say that it needs a Fair Data audit, and the whole thing would (or likely will eventually) require a separate post.
- Windows has become bloated to the point where it fights me. Co-Pilot everywhere and it’s like Clippy all over - really not that helpful compared to other services like Claude. Its also not customizable to any decent and useful extent.
- Claude really gave me the confidence that we together would be able to work out any quirks beyond just finding the Linux version essential apps needed for day to day work. Does it run Zoom? Yes it does. Does it run Dropbox? Yes it does. Does it run Antigravity? Yes it does. The list of unsupported software is nowadays minuscule and can in most cases be fixed via Wine/Bottles and similar. The point is - everything else, like fine tuning, fixing hickups, doing config-stuff - all that can be done with an LLM so I don’t have to spend X days searching the web for a potential solution. It literally fixes Linux.
Day one was scary. I had prepared over the weekend, threw out Windows, installed Ubuntu Sway - set everything up and now it was prime time. Would the external screen work? Yes it did, and perfectly so. Did that Teams call work (via Teams Web Version mind you)? Yes it did - to my complete surprise. Did emailing and calendar work via outlook? Yes it did - not optimal but 95% similar. That Zoom call then? Yes of course it did. Bottom line, everything bloody just works! Did Claude help? Not only that, by switching I discovered that I could design my OS to fit me and not the other way around. There is a lot of technical intricate details here to unpack, but 2026 is not unlikely the year when Linux will make a desktop comeback. Why? Because no other OS allows you to rethink and re-design your desktop to suit your everyday work-process.
