a documentation of fails,… maybe

Hello world,

with steamOs on the horizon, I thought it might be a good time to take a closer look into linux again. I always liked the idea of a free, opensource, crowd computed, highly customizable, super efficient operating system. So after a buddy of mine started diving into FreeBSD back in the days, now almost 15 years ago, I blindly tried to follow him and kind of failed due to the fact that I was also a bit lazy. Why work on an OS when you have a fine running windows machine on which you can do whatever you want?! Well, it took a couple of years til I gained more understanding of what it means “to do whatever you want” and now with the recent mass-surveilance of innocent citizens of whatever country with the help of proprietary software of tech-monoliths I really like the idea of an open OS which is controlled by the people and doesnt control the people. At least thats the idea.

Wow, I kinda lost track, I started because of games and now make statemenst about surveilance and tech-giants spying on us. I guess it all comes together somehow. I want to learn linux because I was always interested in computer and such stuff, I think Valves decision to build their own OS based on the linux kernel has great potential to change the whole PERSONAL-Computer game. Stating that the computer is personal again might be a nice marketing campaign but yet has to be fullfilled by those claiming it. With linux it was and is always possible. Yet there is the problem of embarking and diving into new things for alot of people. Linux doesnt have a reputation of being easy to learn and use, if you like it or not. Yet I think alot of things have changed in the last 15 years when I first entered the outskirts of linuxtown.

People only need to be able to use an OS, they dont need to program it. Windows, in my opinion, is highly complex yet people dont fear using it cause it makes it easy for them to just scratch the surface of possibilitys. MacOS goes a step further, it strips the main interface of all the complex stuff and presents you a nice sleak user experience, streamlined to be working, easy and enjoyable. Both OS  come preinstalled with a new computer depending on which model you purchase. And thats a big problem for linux marketshare. Accessibility has been highly increased over the last decade. There are distros like ubuntu, opensuse, elemtaryOs (beta), just to name a few, which make it very easy for the normal user to install said OS on their computer. If linux would come preinstalled on computers I guess people would use it, at least for a while. Compatiblity issues and choice of software aside. I know there are companies selling computers with preinstalled linux but it hasn’t reached the big market yet. I cant simply go into a store and chose between Win8, MacOSX and a popular linux-distro.

tldr; The purpose of this blog is mainly a documentation of fails/succes of my linux projects and attempts, but of course theres gonna be alot of attitude and opinion for free with my posts. I do not claim to know shit about linux, I’m a noob so take my opinion as such.