I didn’t mean to become a Linux nerd. I’m not even really a techie. I majored in languages at uni, got a law degree that I never used, and have spent most of my admittedly chequered career working in document production, technical writing, and HSEQ. I experimented with Ubuntu for a bit in the 2000s, but ultimately went back to Windows because word processors and gaming on Linux weren’t really where I needed them to be at the time.

Fast-forward to 2021 when Windows 11 came out and, like the early-adopting fool that I am, I eagerly downloaded the latest upgrade. At the time I was using duel monitors with the taskbar on the right-hand side of my main monitor, because that was the easiest place for me to access it from both monitors.

So I installed Windows 11 and cheerfully when about customizing the desktop environment. Which was when I realized that Microsoft, in its infinite wisdom, now only allowed me to have a center-aligned taskbar. I am after all, a mere User and cannot be trusted to make the correct decisions about complicated things like where I want my taskbar to be. I need a software engineer somewhere to tape down all the buttons on the metaphorical remote control. Or more likely, I’m an edge user and catering to my needs doesn’t maximize profits, but I should still have to pay to not have my needs catered to.

So I did what any sane human being would do:

  1. Whined about it for a week to anybody who would listen and several people who wouldn’t.
  2. Figured out how the hell I burn an installation disk, given that the last time I’d needed to do so, DVD ROM was still the pinnacle of storage technology.
  3. Installed Ubuntu, Proton, and GIMP.
  4. Installed Pop_OS, Proton GE, Inkscape, and Krita.
  5. Lived happily ever after.

It probably sounds like a ludicrously trivial thing to do one’s ‘nana over, and I did admittedly find a workaround that allowed me to force the system to reposition my taskbar (reports from people still living in the “Old Country” suggest that this no longer works), but it really rankled. I felt like over the last few years, Microsoft had been steadily taking away more and more features while charging me more and more for a product that increasingly didn’t meet my needs.

The hundreds of dollars in subscription fees that it saved me was just a nice bonus.

Anyway, that’s my story about why I made the switch to Linux. What’s yours?