Starting a new thread to speak about my new Linux adventures...

I have been a long Windows user, jumping from version 3.11, to 95, 98, Me, 2000, XP, 7 and now a bit of 10.

However you may have noticed already that I installed Linux on my new rig.

Unfortunately I reached the point where I can't stand it anymore. Windows 10 has become worse and worse for me.
When you have to change your habits built over the years because Microsoft design changes without considering the implications, it wrecks my nerves.

You can't trust the updates, you don't have proper control on them.
You machine half-reinstall after each major upgrade. Software are bloated. Telemetry and privacy concerns.

All of that bother me too much now.

Anyway, after some input for here and there I decided to install Manjaro. It's a Linux distribution based on Arch Linux.

I had a bit of experience with Ubuntu in the past (started back when they were shipping Live CDs for free in the mail !) but never but super satisfied.

With the progress of Steam, Wine and Vulkan, Linux is now a much more acceptable choice for 3D Artists I feel.

Anyway, my experience so far with the system (running on KDE) is great.
It looks and fell good, and you can tweak so many things that I have reached the point it works almost like Windows. So I feel at home, with all the Linux superpowers.

It's not as user friendly as it could be, but in my case with a bit of python and bash scripting I was able to tweak the last few things I needed.

I'm still struggling to install a few tools. Took me almost 3 hours today to figure out how to install perforce command line for example, but in general the documentation is very good.

Compare that to Microsoft where nothing is documented and you have to read the personal blog of someone to figure out a registry setting that nobody heard of named {5534-GHTYU-4EDA}...

I freaking love the system settings manager, there is so much stuff in there ! And the search system works !

Obviously if you want to do 3D Blender is your friend. Some major DCC apps work there too like Maya or Houdini (and Substance ;) ).
For the rest ? Wine seems to be good enough to make things run, like zBrush

Another thing I like very much: the global shortcuts and the ability to remap/use the Windows/Meta key as I want.
I was able to replicate Windows behaviors and add more. Like moving between virtual desks with or without a specific window, etc.

I also appreciate very much how good and well featured the base apps are, without installing anything.
- Dolphin: file manager (aka Explorer).
- Konsole: terminal/command line.
- Kate: text editor with syntax highlighting (aka Notepad++).

In the little things you didn't know you needed: you can resize the taskbar as you want. You aren't stuck to two size like in Windows:

Didn't notice before, but compiling UE4 eats quite a bit of memory: around 18GB ! Glad I went for 64GB of Ram !

The joy of Linux:

(Was trying to add a third screen, so I rearranged a few cables... Looks like it wasn't a good idea...)

(It wouldn't be a real Linux experience without a GPU driver issue.)

Fixed !
Turns out I shouldn't install things without looking at what they are first.
In this case I installed the VESA drivers some time ago and since I never rebooted the computer the last few days I forgot about it.
Removed it and I'm booting again !

Turns out you can even calibrate your monitors with your Spyder with the help of custom software on Linux ! (Which look even better than the official one)

Tried for the second time Krita today.
Maybe it's good for painting, but for image editing is a big "meh".
Between the shortcuts, the performances and the random UI bugs I'm a bit disappointed.
Guess I'm gonna find another alternative... or even build my own ?

Alright, it's confirmed.

I really, really, reaaaally don't like Krita.

On another subjects: updates.

Look like a new Kernel update is available, but since the work I'm doing this week is too important I won't risk updating. (That's fine.)

If only the packet manager UI would let me install other stuff without checking in the 460 other updates...

Another example of where you have to switch to a terminal to do what a simple "remind me later" or "uncheck all" button could have done.

Turns out "turning it off and on again" is a thing on Linux as well. After a forced reboot (GPU crash, don't switch virtual desktops when UE4 is starting kids), my bluetooth headphone didn't want to work.

Had to unplug/replug the usb dongle. ¯\\_(ツ)_/¯

(Took 30 minutes to figure out...)

Ha, turns out viewing PPT/PPTX files under Linux is not a thing. I have a lot of saved Power Point files that use videos and I don't see any conversion tool for that.... will I have to write my own ? This feels like a Pandora box. :/

When your mom enters the room and you quickly need to hide that NSFW stuff...

(Virtual desktops are cool, and much better handled than on Windows)