Linux Is My Computer Operating System

Tagged with desktop computer, laptop computer, linux, raspberry pi, shopping, windows on March 29, 2024

Linux will probably continue to be my laptop or desktop computer operating system until the day I can no longer use a computer. I doubt I’ll ever use a phone with anything other than Android on it, and I doubt I’ll ever own a tablet. I no longer use Windows for anything, and I’ll never own anything Apple.

This story begins with the first desktop computer I owned with Windows on it and ends with the laptop computer I’m currently using. The total count is 12 because I’m not counting the 8-bit computers I had before them.

The Computers That Ran Windows Only

I bought my first IBM PC compatible computer system in 1994. It came with Windows 3.11 preinstalled, 72 megabytes of RAM and a 340 megabyte HDD. The computer system cost me more than twice as much as a high-end desktop computer would cost me today. The enclosure sat horizontally across on top of the desk. The computer monitor, a huge beast, sat on top of that. All of my later desktop computers had tower enclosures.

I bought another desktop computer system as a replacement in 1999, but I don’t remember the specifications. A few years later, I built my own white box desktop computer with the parts I bought at Fry’s Electronics (defunct in 2021) to run side by side with the previous one because I wanted to learn how web servers operated.

The server software ran on a stripped down version of Windows XP. Instead of buying another monitor, keyboard, and mouse to go with it, I bought a KVM switch, a device I became familiar with while working in the IT department of a call center.

I bought a laptop computer shortly before moving to the Philippines in 2006. After a year, it started displaying lines on the screen. I was able to make it last until October 2007, when I replaced it with a white box desktop computer system I bought at SM City San Fernando. I’m still using the cheap computer desk I had to put together myself.

The Computers That Ran Linux

Ubuntu with the GNOME desktop environment was the Linux operating system I installed on that desktop computer. In June 2009, I bought a netbook when it became a thing. It had Windows XP on it, and I eventually replaced it with Lubuntu before giving it away.

I replaced the desktop computer system in April 2011 with another white box computer system I bought at a computer store at the Subic Bay Freeport Zone. I installed Ubuntu on it, but this time it came with the Unity interface. That was the last time I installed Ubuntu on anything other than a VirtualBox virtual machine.

I went to the United States in 2012 and returned in February 2013, with another laptop computer. It had Windows 8 on it. I set it aside and used my desktop computer for about a month before it stopped working altogether. Never mind the details. I installed Linux Mint as the second operating system on the laptop computer in a dual booting system.

I went to the United States again later in 2013 and remained until December 2014. This time, I returned with yet another laptop computer, with Windows 8.1 on it. I immediately installed Linux Mint as the second operating system in a dual booting system. The previous laptop computer developed lines on the screen, so I was back to one computer available, which lasted me until I went to the United States in June 2018.

I bought a laptop computer with Windows 10 on it in 2018 and brought it back with me in 2022. By the time I was ready to get rid of it, it only had Linux Mint on it. I reinstalled Windows 10 on it and gave it away before I went to the United States in 2023.

My Current Computers

I bought a Raspberry Pi 400 desktop computer in 2021, and it’s currently sitting on the computer desk I mentioned. It runs Raspberry Pi OS, another Linux distribution. I bought the laptop computer I’m currently using while I was in the United States in 2023. I had it dual booting Windows 11 and Linux Mint for a while. Then I relegated Windows 11 to a virtual machine. Then I ended up deleting the virtual machine.

Most Linux distributions and desktop environments are easier to use than Windows. The only reason there are more Windows desktop users than Linux desktop users is because most people are never given a choice in the matter.

Image by Diego Carvalho, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons