A lot has changed
First of all, I am back to the titles. Enough of that empty Journal naming. Second of all, this is about recent important changes, but little is said about the adopted solutions. That's topic for a different post.
A lot has changed recently. Again. This is a common expression for me for what I'm getting to know. Hopefully, this is not a psychological sign of something deeper with me, having these “rush” like behaviors; I think is only the fact that I still find joy and entertainment in new suff. Or at least not completely new stuff, but a big and radical change in something old that I have. So that was the case this time that I changed stuff with my computer and the way I do stuff with it. At first it may sound like no big deal, but for someone like me, a computer-head, making these deep core changes to one's system is, in fact, something big.
The most important thing that changed was my operating system. This alone can make up for the biggest earthquake to me, but it wasn't that bad. I moved from the old and trustworthy Linux to the even older but way shadier Windows. There are reasons for this: First, I want to be able to use integrated cloud services natively just for convenience. And second, videogames. This is an oversimplification that does not successfully explain the real reasons behind the move, but I will try to dissect this and make some sense out of it.
I am, obviously, aware of Linux capabilities in the cloud and videogames realms. After all, I've been a hardcore Linux user for the past 12 years, daily-driving the distribution Manjaro for all my daily activities and testing every other distro that I can just for the sake of it. I was able to play Steam video games on it, and to kind of run a couple of other launchers using Wine with little success installing those other games. I was also able to install proprietary software through the AUR repository, thus the cloud side of the needs was partially covered if needed. It was never an actual problem for me just for the reason that I did not used those services until recently, when my needs changed completely due to a sudden change in my preferences. I knew I needed convenience and consistency to achieve productivity.
At first, I was in denial that I needed to make changes to become productive. I thought that I could simply continue doing what I've been doing: finding an alternative way to do the task with my safe tools even at the cost of a lot of time, convenience and, naturally, performance. So, obviously, I went hunting for the perfect Linux open-source software solution that would cover those needs and start planning on hacking the tool to make it completely work with my gig.
There will always be something close to it, but never the whole thing covering all platforms and just freaking working. You either get that alternative half-assed tool, or a self-hosted solution, or maybe something that requires some deep technological knowledge to achieve results. Few stuff is ready to be used plug-and-play like, to be fair. I am not arguing about capabilities but convenience, and I don't mind the price. I don't suddenly hate my deeply loved Linux and Open-Source community: after all, I've learned literally everything that I know about computers thanks to them. But here is the time where we have to part ways and explore other grounds for our own good.
So then, when denial was retrieving and I was looking at how to install Windows on my PC, I entered another weird state in which I was trying to conciliate the sadness due to the new realization, that the open source (and privacy) community might not be ready yet to offer those solutions, and the ever-growing shadow of the Windows comeback into my life and the integrated spying tools that comes with it and that now I weirdly really wanted.
Like I said, first I wanted to make private and open services work in my new system, but I got lazy. That's just inconvenient, and that is not the mission for this case. I want to be able to just work and play without the hassle of mounting, connecting, pushing, terminal-navigating and much other stuff not suited for the easily distracted like myself.
Again, it was never an issue before, when all I was doing was learning. Earlier computer usage was on a complete hobby basis. Everything I'd self-taught will be used for me and my learning only, meaning that I never had a window of time to miss and never “had” to use certain software to communicate with a team. But new responsibilities have put some new pressure in the way I do computer stuff, which means I need to step up to those responsibilities and find a way to streamline those processes and deliver cool shit consistently and reliably fast. And if those changes include moving back to Windows, so be it.
Unfortunately, all this means that it finally happened: the very event I thought, for the past plus-decade, would never happen. I got tired of the inconvenience in the Linux ecosystem. Far, far from being a pessimistic hater that just complains rather than cooperating with the community, I am trying to tackle this with maturity and respect, admitting that I am no longer able to keep learning with the fantastic tools by the Open-Source community while keeping a productive state in which my computer simply works when I need it.
And to think that all this was triggered by my new videogame controller that, when connected, was detected by Linux and Steam could make it rumble, but only a Windows system could make it totally work, even after a huge and intense hacker fight against it. It was the drop that made the cup run over.