memes

I had a similar Ubuntu experience in the Windows XP years too (2006ish?).

Everything had a barrier. WiFi drivers always seemed to be a problem, but if I wanted to do anything non-standard it was an exercise in frustration. At one point I owned a Sony digital camcorder that I wanted to get video files from. Eventually, following hours of forum research I learned I had to recompile the kernel to do it, which did actually get me there. To this day I have no idea what a kernel is, and I have no desire to. I remember thinking how wildly complex it was to do something that worked so easily in Windows. 

Entirely off topic and potentially triggering anecdote when accounting for Linux’s general prevalence here, but that wasn’t what turned me back to Windows from Ubuntu 20 years ago, it was actually something that most would could consider a positive for Linux. It was the fact that it was so customisable. I had weird multiple desktops that were mapped to a rotatable cube, I spent ages configuring translucent live performance stats on the desktop, hours updating icons and themes etc, whatever I saw on forums that looked cool and wanted to replicate. 

Then one day I acknowledged I just wasn’t ever actually using the computer. I literally spent more time modifying and customising stuff than I did actually doing anything. I realised I was never satisfied with the current config and just kept tweaking.

It’s probably not surprising to hear I’ve since been fully into the almost entirely un-customisable Apple ecosystem for a while now. While it’s taken my money, it’s given me back my time!