Long time Mac user, but have gone in on a Framework 13 DIY (sporting Fedora at the moment) in part, to immerse myself in Linux-land to boost said skills. I may be a “normie” in one sense, having used a Mac for essentially forever, but I’m also an IT professional so am no slouch on, well, having technical chops. So far things are good. I miss some stuff from my Mac already (iCloud drive, some native apps, some things being easier), but for the most part, for what I want to get out of this device, it’s more than capable so far. I’ll have to report back in this thread if this changes over the coming weeks and months as I use it more. But I suspect, for dev work, infosec stuff and general research it will perform pretty great. I like what Framework stands for, I like the upgradeability, I like the look, form-factor and keyboard-feel. I’m thinking the experiment will be a success.
Must have missed this thread. Here’s my two cents:
Framework has been my first experience daily driving linux. I started on Windows 10, used Linux Mint XFCE for a while as a low-distraction programming and note-taking os, swapped back to windows, and I am now daily driving Fedora GNOME.
I was somewhat familiar with Linux beforehand due to virtualization and a brief stint livebooting Kali.
I will say, hardware wise it’s been stellar. Fedora gives me better battery life than Windows, which is mind-blowing. The expansion cards have been a neat gimmick that feels right at home with Linux due to my personal philosophy around computing: your computer should adapt to you, not the other way around.
The freedom I as a power user feel with Linux is always noticeable to me compared to Windows, where everything felt hacky. That being said, I had quite a few “dealbreaker” issues that it took periodic finagling every few months or so to finally convince me to make the swap for good.
First off, eGPU support. I have an external NVIDIA card, which makes things nightmarish. It flat out wouldn’t work due to the Linux drivers not knowing what to do with it for the first year of my purchase. Through six separate attempts, I managed to eventually get enough knowledge and combine it with a modern driver to get the setup working.
Then, suspend with said eGPU. Turns out disabling every single /proc/acpi/wakeup item except the power button fixes the nagging wakes-up-right-after-suspending issue that’s been around for almost a decade if my forum diving is any indicator.
To be honest, I’m both shocked and relieved that my dealbreaker list was so short. All of my frequently used programs had either Linux compatibility or a suitable equivalent. The ones that are no longer accessible are really just a mild inconvenience.
In terms of actual changes to my habits caused by switching to linux:
- picked up Obsidian for notetaking as opposed to Word
- Learned LibreOffice for writing actual documents
- Occasionally have to go through a one or two step intermediate process to play a game
- Going through a one-step process to use most Windows-only utility programs (I have a kitchen-sink 64-bit prefix in Bottles with all the libraries that I shove everything into. If it doesn’t run there, it probably won’t work on Linux)
- Swapped to VLC for all the functionality of Windows media players and more
- Got significantly more familiar with the command line
- On this point: it’s definitely possible to use linux without getting deep into how the terminal works. However, as I increasingly made this installation my own, a lot of little hacks and themes required increasingly copious use of the terminal. To use a distro as-is for productivity and web activities, it’s probably not as required.
- Overall, just became more comfortable with the computer I was using, because on the whole I adapted it to my habits. All of the above are the few instances where I had to go the other way around, and consciously choose the next best alternative because I was no longer on windows.
I’m definitely happy with my switch and don’t have any plans to go back. If I can stomach another migration, I may jump ship to Endeavour.