How I went from Windows 11 to Linux and (just) survived

He always arrives this moment in the life of a specialized computer journalist where, when he got up on a Saturday morning, he decides to bazard his Windows installation for good. The reasons can be multiple: puff of acute anti-conformism, sudden hatred momentum during an undeveloped OneDrive synchronization … For me, it is when Windows 11 chose not to let me place its task bar on the left of the screen. A choice of life that saddens all my consorts, convinced that it is a guy’s whim that farts it a little too much, but being able to scrape a few vertical resolution pixels, listen, it does not really have a price when you scratch papers on the switches of keyboard keys all day long.

So yes, plug-ins and other community grafts to repair Microsoft equalments exist (PowerToys,, Windhawk…), but these are only a placebo for a more general problem: Windows, it is a past. At the age of maturity, it is time to assume my very personal preference for MacOS, his interface so refined, so simple to take in hand, his dock so practical … on far too expensive products. How to do, then, to carve out an operating system that looks like me?

The solution, I said to myself then in an excess of madness, would be to return to the source, where it all started, and go on a Unix system, this large family from which MacOS flowed, but also the crowd of Linux distributions which make librists around the world. And maybe mine too – because it’s always better when it’s free. No ?

The arrival of the last modular laptop Laptop 13 framework At the editorial staff was the perfect time to throw itself headlong into this company: what could be better, after all, that a Librist bone for a bike that wants to be freed from the diktat of the Big Tech ? Framework thus provides a crowd of tutorials to install a Linux distribution on their laptops – and even advises Fedora 41, one of the many distributions based on the Gnome graphical interface (or Gui). But in digital, we like the NEC Ultrathen it is in all innocence that I decided to opt for Fedora 42 Instead, its latest version made available in a stable version on April 15.

If there is one thing to remember before embarking on the world of Linux distributions, it is because they are not all equal in terms of accessibility. Some are voluntarily turned towards hackers (Arch Linux), others downright unfathomable for those who have not yet won their PHD in spatial engineering at MIT (Instant OS). Fedora has the advantage of being simple to install (and to take care of the partitioning alone, phew) on its storage module, but also to have a very similar interface to MacOS. In short, on paper, everything seems perfect.

The practice is nevertheless more nuanced. If the installation happens without problem, you must understand how to use Really An operating system also decentralized – and familiarize yourself with the command prompt, commonly known as terminal. This inevitable passage in the most austere lair of UNIX provides access and performing features of the “shell” internal to the operating system, the lowest interface level.

A practice that the popularization of graphic interfaces (GUI) during the early 1980s has made us forget the common users, but which allows you to execute many orders more quickly – if not particularly intuitive. We must therefore adopt a whole new jargon: “sudo” allows you to perform actions at the administrator level, “FWUPD” to allow firmware updates … A new world to learn. Just as you have to reason with the concept of programs to download in the form of archives containing their files (packages) from their public libraries (dependencies) …

Fortunately, the advantage of a community as libriste as that of Linux users is their unilateral rejection of modern communication channels. By this means that many forums still exist to chat with other much more experienced users, as much for advice as for service-after-installation. A positive state of affairs, which avoids typing Microsoft’s abscons forums with each problem on W11 or having to add the “reddit” mention on its Google research.

Because it will inevitably be expected to encounter many various and varied problems when you pass on a Linux “Distro”. Whatever the advances in terms of ergonomics and stability of the most popular, any beginners will encounter a problem of hardware compatibility, software failure, of something who disconnect at some point; And good luck to find the real reason for its last crash, as error logs can be cryptic.

Just as it is in vain to hope to find all its favorite W11 applications: if some have a fork Linux functional, such as web or messaging browsers like WhatsApp, others have no free equivalent. It is then necessary to go to alternative customers adapted by the community. Some are of quality, as Cidera much better Apple Music application than that offered by Apple. Others, like the countless discord versions (Vesktop, Webcord …) are at best imperfect and will make you regret the ease of use of Windows. Likewise for video game enthusiasts who will have to do with the problems of capricious drivers with external GPUs; Even if the gaming experience on Linux in 2025 is infinitely less restrained than not even 10 years ago thanks to the advances of the Proton interpretation software, the same which feeds the Steam deck of Valve.

Everything is ultimately a story of compromise and learning curve to be cashed in order, ultimately, get rid of the easy solution. And perhaps becoming a springboard towards a practice of computer science distant from GAFAM, by adopting free or decentralized ecosystems, such as turning Firefox and its very good Thunderbird customer, to make a proton email, barter the sequence 365 for LibreOffice … It becomes impossible over time to design a web different from that has been imposed for us for more than two decades, and From our personal information has never been so in danger, healthier practices seem more important than ever. To also come back to the perfect ideal of JCR Licklider where the personal computer would be Really staff. Even if it means suffering an entire evening on textboards Moving. How, there is an error in the package …