A few months ago I decided to make a manual Arch installation following the official wiki to learn some Linux stuff. I planned it beforehand because I guessed it’d take a good time (it’s my first distro that doesn’t come with a GUI by default).
I went 3 days straight setting everything up, since basic boot installation until my full Linux setup and programs, all from scratch. I even calculated the SSD blocks to partition the system, I had to make it perfect without a single non-used space. Later I figured out you can just use a percentage.
The thing is, I’ve never felt so fulfilled doing something in my life, it’s probably one of the few joys I still have on my life. Not even playing games make me feel like that, I can’t stand 2h of gameplay anymore, but when it comes to configuring literally ANYTHING on my Linux it’s a pleasure to go after it and make it work.
It’s just awesome, you type some random words and things get done, so much data and information about the system behind those little simple words, and you can combine all of this in way more complex stuff, it’s nearly an infinite sea of possibilities.
There’s so much stuff built for Linux that every single day you discover something new, every day is a new possibility, I just don’t stop learning, I use Linux for like 7-8 years and still finding new things that exists since the beginning (like before 2000).
We can’t deny how important Linux was for the digital freedom, imagine people having to rely only on Mac and Windows for everything, it’d be a nightmare. Not saying that those 2 OSs are necessarily bad, but big corps would make us even more dependent on their services, abusing of our data and privacy.
If something good happened in the world of digital technology, surely it was Linux. If you don’t use Linux yet I’d suggest to try it, I know it might be hard at first but the real hard part is already done, which is building all this stuff, you just need to learn about it.
(I just realized how even the paragraphs are and now it’s looking like AI-made but it’s not, I just can’t proof it).
I’m just like that and I really recommend NixOS. it’s configuration is based on files written in the Nix programming language. You can have all your configuration on a single place, even for user programs with HomeManager.
And, since it’s a programming language, you can make it execute stuff, like reading a directory and doing something based on that!
Fucking LOVE nixos. It’s so wonderful and I’m not even good at it
I suspect I’m at least a little bit autistic and I’ve been obsessed with NixOS since I installed it on my primary computer over a year ago.
Before that, I always appreciated the concept of making a lot of tweaks and customizations to one’s computer, but I never did it much because it was never as easy to review and document those changes as it is with NixOS + git.
I got general pc autism, so I find myself doing it as a fun thing for any pc I use. Quick maintenance just brings me quick joy
I also have general PC autism. But if there’s one thing I detest is tweaking Linux.
I love Linux for old computers and servers. I absolutely detest fixing Linux. People always say Linux’s biggest strength is options, but more options makes it a pain to fix. With windows it’s just the windows. You have at most 2-3 currently supported versions so at most 2-3 different options.
On Linux? Holy fucking shit. How many different ways can there be to set a static IP?
Its how computers made me feel as a kid. Linux made me love computing again.
So many people view it as a chore because of m$ and apple ruining the experience. The love of tinkering is being degraded in everything and people become impatient and never satisfied.
So glad we have Linux !
You’ll make custom changes that you’ll forget about. These changes will fuck up your day eventually.
Time to introduce OP to NixOS and make them suffer.
This hasn’t been my experience at all. Really depends on what kinds of things you’re tweaking.
That’s being a challenge, fixing the issues that come up instead of just doing a clean install.
After I switched to Arch it became much easier to fix everything, the wiki is awesome, it covers like everything.
I used to just break my Linux then clean install it.
It’s all fine and dandy until you have to do actual unrelated work on your computer. Suddenly you’re trying to do something and it doesn’t work because of little fix you did three years ago.
I’ve only briefly dabbled with Linux, but during the time I did I felt similarly. I (not sure if autism or ADHD causing it) hyperfixate on one hobby for a bit, then move onto another, and repeat.
i just got into trying to customize niri but man, i don’t think i have the configuration file autism at all. i just threw on noctalia shell and called it a day.
i am trying to beat my head against the wall of configuring a waybar on my other machine tho. the CSS isn’t CSS-ing so now all the components on the right side are smushed together.
(I just realized how even the paragraphs are and now it’s looking like AI-made but it’s not, I just can’t proof it).
Nono, don’t worry. This level of autism was totally expected from the headline already 😁
And I get that. I did that same tweaking with win before I switched to Linux. And am already managing like 15 servers at home. Something breaks every day and I am…err…happy-ish about it.
Except when you actually need something RIGHT NOW but (a) broke, so I fix it only to see that (b) and © broke too and need to fix those before I can get to (a). But while doing so I notice 5 totally unrelated optimization-issues which I will take care of now. While having done 3 of those, I notice that…you get the drift 😁 ADHD does the rest to make this a nightmare that is also pure enjoyment. If that makes sense to anyone.
I used to be like that until 2010, then I became a software engineer focused on Linux development. Now my personal setups are whatever works out of the box, sometimes I may change the wallpaper.
When I started out with Linux, this was definitely a huge obsession of mine. Wasn’t really into it for the last couple of years, though, at this point I don’t do much more than making the old setup (themes, keyboard shortcuts, scripts etc.) work with new OS updates, and I’m way behind on OS updates (currently using Ubuntu 22.04, released in 2022 (still gets security updates)) because I don’t want to put in the work.
Yep, one of my fixations is tweaking anything to be marginally more efficient (for a very narrow, personal definition of “efficient” 😉).
