Part of the reason that I have been away for a while is because I have been working on Linux and Windows SSDs. Let’s chat about this…

Context #

So last post (October) I was talking about Linux mint on my desktop, I explained some of the issues that I was having with it and all of that. Well Here is how it went down and finished. Most of my work load is done in ETC’s EOS, or Vectorworks with the occasional Microsoft Office app along with video editing in Davinci Resolve. I was fine using Libre office instead of Word, Power Point, Excel. No issue, I did write some stuff in Libre Writer, although what that was I can’t remember. However the severe issue came in when I was needing to run EOS, and Vector. They are both Windows and Mac applications. No native Linux support. That was an issue as for work I use EOS a lot (both in Nomad and console form), and Vectorworks to help map out a plot for my light crew to hang.

What did I do? #

I tried two apps, Wine and Bottles. Wine is an older program that runs Windows apps in Linux, the issue steps in when on ultra specific apps. Bottles however is a lot newer and will emulate the Windows file structure and make apps think they are in Windows. A good friend and I spent a good few hours getting it to work and it sort of did.

I mean it did start, only the augment engine was super broken and would render on the other side of the EOS window which is an issue as that is how I see what I am doing. I did not do to much with it in Linux as it was super broken, so when I needed EOS I would jump to Windows as I did not mess with it’s install. Vectorworks was a lost cause, because it would not let me type my license key, it refused to see the key board entirely. Davinci was being a pain, as it would spit errors and I could not get them to be fixed.

In the end I was spending a lot of time in Windows, it had everything that I needed and everything simply worked. As a busy stage tech, I did not have a moment to work in Linux on the projects that needed to be done. In my opinion Linux was more of a chore than a fun project.

I was not sure what to do, it wasn’t until my friend posted this that it occurred to me that I can abandon Linux: a read that I highly recommend. When he said

It is at this point that I began to realize the extent that Linux still falls woefully short of the computing needs of your everyday person. Furthermore, I also realized that I had spent most of an entire week’s free time getting these installations up to functional snuff for regular usage. Thus, the temptation lingering at the back of my mind early in the week came back with a vengeance, and I went back to Windows on my office machine.

I honestly could not agree more, so with a small pile of determination (and some chocolate for the chaos that was about to be caused) I decided to leave Linux.

What happened next Fuzz? #

Well here was the issue at hand. Drive 0 in the computer was the boot drive for both Windows and Linux, I had been thinking about moving the boot drive over to my faster M.2 that was bigger. The issue was I had no idea on how to move two OS’s to a new drive. With the news of Linux’s departure from my computer, that is when I decided to move things around in Windows. Once I was done making sure I had all my files that I wanted to keep in both Linux and Windows, I said “I’ll see you later”

From there I simply booted into a Windows installer, and then installed it to my M.2 drive. During the install process I also wiped the C drive. I then got everything set back up and like a sane human being I disabled all of Window’s location, and telemetry data. Once I rebooted the computer into a fresh Windows install, I tried to get all my files back. It was at this point in time where I realized that I do not have any of my files somehow.

Here is where past me saves current me: I use a lot of web based programs, Google Drive, Bit Warden, my NAS (which is not web based but is network based), and then physical hardware that is still in support that I can get the drivers for. Due to my past self getting all of this put together, I was able to get most of my computer back. Logging back into my google accounts (I have a couple of them, some personal and some work), was a breeze because of Bit Warden and passkeys. Google Drive and my NAS had all the files that I needed again (well most of them), my WinRar key was on my NAS and in Drive, all my games are synced up to Steam, this blog is on Git Hub, and then I talk to my friends on Discord. I did not take any massive hits on my data due to the pre work that I did months before Linux was a thing on my computer. The only file that I did loose big time was my base EOS show file, I no longer have the file that ran projects “The Contract” (Twenty One Pilots), the 1994 version of “Be Prepared” from Disney’s The Lion King , “City Walls” (Twenty One Pilots), “Cotton Wood” (Twenty One Pilots), and “Short Skirt Long Jacket” (Face Vocal Band).

I recreated the augment model from scratch for the latest project “Bandito” (Twenty One Pilots),.

I loved the time that I spent in Linux, however I could not get myself to spend time with it. Can I recommend it to others? The answer depends on your needs, if you are looking for a basic OS, to play some games or surf the web and do nothing too crazy then yes I would use Linux over Windows, especially if you are still on Windows 10 and are not in a position to get a new computer, I personally recommend Mint. It is more robust, secure OS that can do most of things that are needed at a basic level. The more complex you get then that is when I would start going to Windows for stuff because of how easy it can get, you download the program and then it will work out of the box.

If you have an old computer laying around and you want to use it again then 100% I would use Linux (a distro like Mint or Ubuntu) would be perfect on it. If you want to learn the terminal you can use Windows Sub Linux (WSL) to run a terminal.

Did I enjoy my time in Linux? Honestly no, as I mentioned above, it was a chore instead of something that I was hoping to do and was excited to work on it. When I am at my computer I am looking for things that are simple to use and set up. There are some things that I will do that I don’t mind take several steps, this blog, the recipe archive I will talk about later, and all the hardware that I use that need some driver and I don’t mind getting those drivers.

We live in a world of convenience and quite frankly I have been caught in that mess. With computers I don’t mind going the extra mile in order to get things set up the way that I want them to be set up. I don’t mind installing some hardware so I can have better internet around the house. If in the end it will make my life .5% easier then I am for it. My Stream Deck has been set up to run scripts and macros that open Davinci Resolve and get the proper windows set up at the press of a button, because it’s easy for me.

If you are thinking about trying Linux then I recommend using a virtual machine, if you are thinking about moving you OS to your faster M.2 drive. Then do it. I also recommend using a clean install of you OS because it feels like a breath of fresh air, just be sure to back up your critical files before you destroy your old drive.