EXPERIMENTING

Linux Journey

Ay, I remind you
to enjoy the journey
and happy computering xD

Log, mostly about my struggles diving into the Linux and NixOS ecosystem, through storytelling rather than technical:
Format: YYYY-MM-DD, Sort: Descending

  • 2025-12
    • After spending a lot of time diving into the Linux trenches, this month I tried to take my sanity back.
    • I’m writing about this journey on 2025-12-20. My bad for not documenting it earlier, I was so hyperfocused on chaotic trial & error building instead of taking proper step-by-step.
    • I deployed this note-website (still integrated with a private GitHub repo and Cloudflare Pages, since they’re more robust and easier for the publishing workflow), the repository (on my self-host), and the landing website (also on my self-host) using my NixOS system.
    • Over the past three months, I’ve learned a lot while building on top of it. Not being Nix purist, I still use other OSes as virtual machines or tools and do containerization with Podman/Docker, so I can run whatever software and games I want.
    • Adopting a new paradigm (declarative operations) together with current LLMs (both SoTA and local) has been one of the most radically cool things I’ve spent my time on in front of a computer.
    • Building my entire personal digital infrastructure is a dream come true. With the Unix philosophy and files over apps, free from “normal” tech stacks and corporations, it feels incredibly liberating.
    • Yes, this isn’t for everyone. I’m doing it for myself, my life, my passion, my curiosity, my unemployed time, my free time. And it resonates with my life system philosophy of prioritizing flow, understanding, and long-term sustainability.
    • So, no regrets!
  • 2025-11
    • Still forging my infrastructure as code, now taking it even further.
    • I’m sticking with Labwc & Openbox window managers since they fit my philosophy and are reliable as floating window managers on both X11 and Wayland.
    • Hacking an unsupported VPS (Hostinger) with NixOS, my world is Nix-based now hehehe.
    • I managed to get my huge note system working seamlessly again. The experience feels just like my old Windows setup. My publishing platform (this site) finally works again on my current operating system :D
    • Self-hosting Git with Forgejo on my NixOS server for long-term sustainability, and I’ve uploaded my infra there.
    • I’ve spend locked-in time learning sysadmin stuff. Managing multiple machines with Nix is neat!
  • 2025-10
    • Got locked-in and super serious with NixOS. Fully diving into its ecosystem and innovations, no more unnecessary distros as secondary OS. Other OS are simply being tools and playgrounds.
    • Built my system from scratch, trying to understand how everything works… then I crashed out. But I didn’t give up, I simply refused to accept my skill issue.
    • Tried so many window managers and compositors: Wayland & X11, tiling & floating, until I found my sweetspot, an operating system that truly feels like “this is so me.”
    • Experimented with different Nix configuration styles, studying tons of configs from NixOS master: without flakes, with flakes, flakes-parts, until finally settling on a dendritic setup. As right now, I found it to be the cleanest system for my needs and clicked for my long-term, sustainable configuration.
    • Somehow I became a mildly viral microceleb as NixOS noob on Xitter hahaha. It made my learning journey way more fun.
    • I’ve been gaming Wuthering Waves on NixOS, getting done with Rinascita quest, and the experience has been super smooth. I mean, what do you mean I can play with my waifus on my beloved niche OS?
    • Truly blessing experience.
  • 2025-09
    • Month of fully diving on Linux and the Nix paradigm.
    • I’m sticking with NixOS as my daily driver, and using other distros as comparisons and tools to understand Linux better.
    • It was painful, pure suffering. I basically ruined my life just to reset my muscle memory for using a computer.
    • Naming my entire file and directory system using unix conventions: all lowercase, with spaces replaced by hyphens or underscores.
    • Distro-hop-slop. I spent an unholy amount of time trying distros, not for the looks, but to find a system that actually fits my needs and long-term commitment. Mutable vs immutable, imperative vs declarative, I tried them all.
    • X post about it
    • Ricing to the max until I hit my peak. compiz miku compiz teto It reminded me of my childhood, when X11 Compiz was the coolest compositor ever. So I pushed it further in modern times, and the result is surprisingly cool, honestly cooler than current Wayland compositors.
    • Tryhard to understand the NixOS config in /etc/nixos. Still basic, but it works. Literally burning LLM tokens just to understand alien concepts, learning functional programming, and even trying Guix (pure curiosity, it was cool, but didn’t stick with it).
  • 2025-08-29
    • ----- START LINE FOR FULL DIVE ON LINUX
    • Here’s the moment. After a few months, my Windows 10 finally breaks, like no kidding, and when I switched to Linux, everything worked just fine.
    • No matter how much I troubleshoot or take care of my Windows machine, it always breaks on its own without any user intervention.
    • I’m at my creative peak energy at this time, but it’s getting interrupted by some Windows error nonsense makes me raging.
    • This time, I really YOLOed my Windows system and diving straight into dual-boot NixOS & CachyOS on my main machine.
    • The wild ride, and my insane obsession with finding a better system has just begun.
    • X post about it
  • 2025-07-28
    • I installed CachyOS with KDE to try gaming and content creation, the real use cases of an operating system.
    • And yeah, it works, and surprisingly it’s the most seamless, performance, and easy Arch-based I’ve ever used.
    • But I still need to dual-boot with Windows, because stockholm syndrome, and everything still works there.
    • X post about it
  • 2025-03
    • Heard about Nix, NixOS, & Guix! Got really curious because of the tech side of Xitter!
    • This month I only did a bit of research on its declarative system, then installed NixOS on my Panasonic laptop. X post about it
    • Very different from “normal” operating systems in general, and that really got me hooked.
    • I like how LLMs make it easy to research new things, so I’m experimenting with them just for the sake of curiosity.
    • But for a while, I’m not ready to fully dive into the Nix world yet, still quite attached to willy-nilly-windows 10.
    • But knowing NixOS & Guix itself feels like a huge privilege, so I’m pretty glad about it.
  • 2025-02
    • Installed Debian after not using Linux for long time, maybe more than half a decade? Oh my…
    • I replicated a retro Windows look. I also tried to replicate my note-system setup on Linux, but I didn’t really have the courage to fulldive.
    • So rn, I only install Linux in a virtual machine as a playground.
    • I truly miss Linux and I’m curious about how its ecosystem has developed over time.
    • X post about it
  • early and before 2020s
    • Linux has literally been part of my childhood. Not starting from zero, it feels like a nostalgic home to me.
    • I was already using Linux in the early 2010s when I was still in elementary school. I witnessing Ubuntu on its golden era, had that cool desktop cube animation lol.
    • In midschool, I mainly used Linux Mint with Xfce on my Lenovo IdeaPad netbook, ricing it with Conky and Compiz.
    • During high school and college, up until 2019, I enjoyed experimenting with niche operating systems as unrecognized hobby.
    • In the early 2020s, during the pandemic era, I got really into retro operating systems and built retro computers with crt monitors, from Windows 3.1 to Windows 98, IBM OS/2 Warp, and even MacOS9 PowerPC virtualized on top of a Debian system.
    • But from around 2020 to 2025, I spent most of my time building secondbrain things on Windows 10 and using heavy creative software. My based, I never have will to upgrade my main machine to Windows 11.
    • Looking back, my Windows experience so far honestly feels definitely a Stockholm syndrome.
    • So yeah, this is definitely not “Linux from zero”, I’m a computer worm.



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A fun GIF

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