My transition to an Ubuntu workstation
I've been using Ubuntu as my workstation OS for several months now. Ubuntu Server with the i3 window manager to be specific. I love it, and I've had to change my workflow a lot to make it work for me. But now that I've made the switch to it from Mac and Windows, I'm very happy with it. I'll be honest, there's not a ton of hard evidence that working on a Linux distro is objectively better than working on Windows or Mac. I have almost equal amounts of time spent working on each of these platforms, and I think each one excels at something different. With that in mind, I think Ubuntu just feels right for the priorities I have now. So what have I gained, what have I lost, and what did I learn along the way? While switching platforms is not always an easy task to accomplish - especially for people with very specific platform-specific software needs like, say, Xcode - I am convinced people convince themselves it's harder than it really is. You can learn a lot from switching platforms, and test runs can teach you where your dependencies lie and how to overcome them, which is a wise thing to do, especially when you're relying on proprietary tools that have turned into single points of failure beyond your control.