1 year linux challenge write up
pre-amble.
ive messed with various flavors of linux over the years because im just a naturally techy guy, but ive never stuck with it because I just never had real reason to, growing up being a wingows/ OSX guy. At the time, windows didn’t suck, and thats where you had to be to play the mainstream games. But at time of writing this, windows 10 is going EOL next year, which I want to say is shorter than we have when win 7 was going EOL, and microsoft was pushing win10 originally. Ive seen whats going on with win11, and I want not part of it. So I ither keep using windows 10, and just freeball it when it goes EOL next year, suffer, bitch, and moan about win 11……or use whatever OSX has turned into these days. Which im not keen on doing. So linux it is. Plus with how good gaming on linux has gotten over the years, its easier for blokes like me to switch.
Before I actually started the official L1T 1 year challenge, I installed Pop_os onto a spare M.2 on my main PC in order to start messing with it, and actually start learning how linux works. The first thing I actually did was get a simple raid 0 array working so I could re-setup my OBS recording. That took learning ZFS. Now this is a bit of an ugly, because this actually took me a few days to get working because I wasnt following the instructions properly as it turns out. I was trying to do what I thought it was trying to say, but not what it was actually saying. Once I realized what I actually needed to do, I was able to get the drive array built, and set to mount on reboot. If I can remember this later, ill be able to swap my file storage server over to linux. Once that was taken care of, I started installing some shit: brave browser, discord, steam, surfshark VPN (which now had a gui for the linux version!), ya know, daily driver shit. The next unexpeced road bump is actually my data drives. Since their from windows, their in NTFS format, naturally. Linux sees them no problem because its linux. The problem is that steam isnt playing nice with the drive for some reason. So I need pull the data I cant loose off it, and go through the whole format, and rebuild process.
The next day, ive been moving all the data I cant loose from one of my windows data HDDs in order to format it to EXT4. That went fine. It was trying to get steam to see the drive so I could install games to it that proved the next herdel. After trying everything I thought the problem was, a guy on the LTT disc said I should try a different version of the steam client. I had initially installed the flatpack version, instead of the .bed version, as I didn’t think that would cause an issue. So uninstall the flat, and install the deb. Get back into steam, the library options, and lo behold, I can setup games to install onto the data drive. Going into the night, I have the needed files that I backed going back over to the data storage drive.
Had to find a linux version of the PDF vier I was using, though this I don’t see as much of a big deal. On windows I was using sumtraPDF as it was an opensource viewer, as I discovered it was for windows only. Luckily, I figured out rather quickly that its called a “tabbed PDF viewer” I.E. it allows one to open multiple docs or images as separate taps in the program. A bit of searching, and trying some search results, I found a viewer that does what I want.
November 8- I found a solution for 1 of 2 separate problems. Found a way to take screenshots like I used to via the snipping tool. The next one ive been working to fix on and off for a few weeks, being backing up movie. TV discs. I thought this would be easier to do since the program I was using on windows also has a linux version, but between the program, and how I use my ODD, something isnt playing ball, as discs just don’t read. I have yet to get into windows to make sure the setup still works over there, so nothing is really sure right now.
Nov 12- I put my windows stick back into my computer, and booted into windows for a bit to test blu-ray ripping, and check if anything in that chain is broken. No problems found, and everything worked. So for sure there is a missing link in getting makeMKV on linux to properly talk to the drive, and read/ open blu-ray discs.
Mid feb. I got an external DB reader , and I got it to work with makeMKV, so theres something wrong with the other drive, or that connection.
I also tried to start switching my media/ data server over to linux, but so many things went wrong its nuts. So ive put any work on that on the back burner for now.
But now I face a new delema, ive run into problems getting pop 22.04 to update properly, and it seems im not the only one. I know distro hopping is a thing, but having been a windows user, im not used to it, but right now, im considering installing ither 22, or 24 ubuntu LTS to see if I run into problems.
Start of april. Home sick, so I decided to finally get around to tackling some version of RDP so I can get into my local server without having to switch the input on my screen. Now I really have no excuse to spend time mucking around with a software RAID solution so I can have my mass storage pool back. I don’t remember if I still have to update problems as I mentioned above, I spent basically all my time since that last update just using my system for my regular daily needs.
Late april. Last week, and the week before, I was on vacation for a bit, so I “got around” to trying to figure out a solution for my small storage server array. Technically it works via ZFS, but something with permissions and mounting isnt working right because I cant actually access it. Havent had the time or energy to muck with it to get it working properly. Saw the pewdiepie linux video, and just been enjoying the buzz that has made.
Late june, almost july. Still havent blown anything up. Unless you count my attempt to get my storage server back online. I just dont/ havent had the time sit, and really work on it. Aside form that, I did boot into my win 10 install to check for any data I might be lacking, and do a clean up of the install, ya know, remove unneeded programs, and all that….and holy crap it was actually painful to wait for windows to be ready to use. Like crap, after having used linux for just this long, windows SUCKS!.
Wow, its been almost 2 months since ive updated this. Still just using linux. Only other thing I have done is boot into win 10 for maintanance, and to free up some space on the drive for battlefield 6, because I know im going to play it, and that it probably wont work on linux for a bit. Calling back to the pewdiepie buzz, ive been having fun watching other content creators I enjoy making videos about gaming on linux, and general OS related stuff since windows 10 goes EOL soon here, and I keep seeing random win11 problems pop up.
Late oct 2025 update/ check in. yesterday I realized that is has been 1 year, and actually a little over, since ive been using linux instead of windows as my daily driver. I actually had to do a reinstall on the windows side in order to try playing BF6, and I say “try” because thats what it is right now. I should have known better, but XP is XP. I still have a few months before I hit the 1 year for the challenge, but ill probably forget. Something that I am considering, since I had to do that unplanned win10 reinstall, I might just as well install win11 on it. Aint got anything to loose now.
Dec. 1. wow, im so close to completing the challenge. Just 30 more days. I really don’t have anything to add. I don’t intend to switch back to windows, but I also cant play BF6 at the moment because I need to upgrade my GPU, so I have no reason to really even use that install. But I also imagine I will have to recongifure that side for my media presurvation activities before long.
Jan 9 2026. I got so occupied the last week and a half, I missed that I hit the 1 year mark. Challenge complete!