Back in the summer of 2019, with two weeks to spare before the academic year began, I took my first tentative steps into the world of Linux. My starting point? Zorin OS. It was an experience defined by both excitement and a lot of confusion.

The Tarball Debacle

One of my first big mistakes was trying to install everything manually from the web. Freshly minted with my new Zorin installation, I somehow thought the correct way to install Firefox was through a tarball, using tar commands. Little did I know that Zorin had an App Center ready and waiting for easy installs. Suffice it to say, my early days with Linux involved more mistakes than victories.

The Distrohopping Phase

What came next was a whirlwind of experimentation with different Linux distros. Over the course of a few years, I hopped between operating systems like a kid in a candy store. I don’t remember the exact timeline, but the sequence went something like this:

  • Ubuntu: My introduction to the larger Linux ecosystem, like many.
  • Elementary OS: Sleek, minimalist, but ultimately, not my thing.
  • Linux Mint: This one stuck for quite a while—it was solid, stable, and I felt comfortable.
  • Back to Ubuntu: For reasons I can’t even explain, I ended up back where I started.
  • Manjaro: The Arch-based beauty drew me in for its rolling release model.
  • openSUSE Leap and Tumbleweed: I tested both the stable and rolling versions. Tumbleweed was wild but stable enough.
  • Debian: Where I got a taste of the hardcore, no-frills side of Linux.
  • Rocky and AlmaLinux: After CentOS’s shift, I played around with these enterprise-grade distros.
  • And many more I don’t even recall.

Each distro brought something different, but I could never quite settle down for long.

Venturing into the BSD World

At some point, my curiosity took me to the world of BSD. While my Linux adventure was marked by trial and error, BSD was a whole different beast. I’ve dabbled mainly in FreeBSD and OpenBSD, each offering its own unique charm and challenges. OpenBSD’s simplicity and security philosophy really stood out to me, though. Its no-nonsense approach feels liberating after years of hopping from one Linux flavor to the next.

The Plan 9 Experience

In a bid to explore even more esoteric systems, I dipped my toes into Plan 9, specifically a modern fork called 9front. Running that was quite the adventure, to say the least. Plan 9 is like being handed a blank canvas and told to create your own operating environment from scratch. It’s beautifully minimal and doesn’t hold your hand at all.

Finding My Balance: OpenBSD, NixOS, and Beyond

These days, I’m trying to strike a balance between indulging my tech curiosity and actually getting things done. I’m increasingly drawn to systems that “just work”—as overused as that phrase is, it resonates. While OpenBSD isn’t my daily driver, its simplicity is captivating and I keep coming back to it for how clean and stable it is. It’s a system that lets me focus on tasks without getting bogged down in endless tweaks.

On the development side, NixOS is still my go-to. The declarative nature of Nix and its ability to reproduce environments make it perfect for my dev work. Most of my coding, testing, and building now happens on NixOS.

I’ve also spent some time with Fedora Linux, which I found to be solid and stable, but it eventually lost its appeal as I grew bored of it. Fedora Silverblue wasn’t bad either, but didn’t quite stick. On the other hand, openSUSE Aeon really impressed me. I ran it on my mini PC for a few months, and its transactional updates and immutability made it a joy to use.

Looking Ahead: UXN and Beyond

But of course, I can’t resist the allure of niche, low-level computing environments. My next planned adventure is to dabble in UXNtal/Varvara, an ultra-minimal computing environment that takes simplicity to the extreme. It’s essentially a virtual machine with a tiny instruction set, but it makes low-level computing easy in a way that feels refreshing.

Conclusion: The Journey Continues

After years of bouncing between distros and operating systems, I’ve learned that there’s no “perfect” OS—only the right one for what you need at any given moment. For now, OpenBSD gives me stability, and NixOS gives me flexibility in development. But I know that my curiosity won’t stay dormant forever. The world of operating systems is vast and varied, and I plan to continue exploring its many corners.

Here’s to the next chapter of the journey!