My tech preferences

I love working in labs, where environments and methods are reproducible.I like to write information as clearly as possible to avoid misunderstandings.But I also like to play with ambiguous words to make the work more fun.

My Journey with Linux

My first encounter with Linux was in the summer of 2007.I had to reformat Windows XP because the official guide claimed NTFS was better than FAT32 in every way. I had no internet connection yet, so I couldn’t verify the facts.

With a high school diploma in programming, I had no intention of depending on a system deliberately designed to make money rather than serve users.

Let’s try Linux! I dug out an old Mandriva CD that came with a magazine a decade earlier. The only errors were from unrecognized hardware — obviously, since that hardware didn’t even exist back then.

A friend gave me an Ubuntu disc. The moment I opened the Gnome menu and saw programs organized by category, like I did on Windows. Customization was ready to use, no unlicensed programs needed to change its appearance, and everything installed through a package manager. The only missing piece was an internet connection, easily fixed.

That summer I tried many distributions to understand their differences — so many that when BackTrack 3 released as a Live CD only, I managed to write an installation guide for it.

With experience, I realized the most stable, least bloated distributions were the upstream ones. I chose Debian Stable for its package policy and the assurance that dependencies would never be too new compared to other systems — I want my software to work across multiple systems without redoing the work.

Years later, I returned to exploring new distributions, searching for something closer to Linux’s origins. I tried OpenBSD in a VM and liked its separation between base and “normal” packages, which simplifies system updates. Package count didn’t concern me: fewer packages mean longer longevity, and older ones mean no other distro has to wait for compatibility with BSD-compiled software — a real benefit for end users who shouldn’t have to switch programs over unmaintained dependencies.While building my BSD workflow, I wanted programs unavailable. Flatpak/Snap are Linux-only, and I didn’t want to recompile packages myself — the user experience must be for ordinary users, not just experts.

So I looked for a Linux distribution with a clearer OS/package separation. I found NixOS and Void, researched their philosophies, and NixOS won. Comparing BSD and NixOS further, I realized what truly mattered wasn’t base/package separation but package management itself: whether packages are old or new becomes irrelevant, updating a heavily customized system becomes easy, and rolling vs. versioned becomes irrelevant. NixOS solved it all, freeing me from constant setup stress.

And now…

I’m grateful for the experiences that brought me here. And now that I’ve arrived, it’s time to explore and enjoy it.