It’s funny, I feel quite the opposite. Using windows is a form of asceticism, and Linux is the easy way. Everything just works under Linux, but under Windows, things go wrong for no apparent reason, the system installs updates and reboots without me telling it to, there is massive network traffic that I didn’t initiate, none of my tools work properly, there are ads on the start menu, and software I know I installed is nowhere to be found. Talk about mortification of the flesh! Nothing humbles you like being subject to Windows.
I don't get it, for me a computer is a tool. I want to get away from it as fast as possible, having to tweak the environment is a waste of time .<p>That's why I like macos so much, nothing is perfect but I know that whatever I do there are tools somewhat easy to use .<p>For instance I wanted to read an epub on my computer that runs windows, believe it or not but finding a good or even descent epub reader is a nightmare. Wasted a lot of time before settling on FB reader.<p>On mac, you just have the book app. It's not perfect, when you export highlights for instance it always add 'copyright blabla' but it's good enough for my casual reading.<p>Same for pdf, you want an app that can read pdf and do some basic stuff like reorganize pages or compress them. On Mac there is preview, on windows ? Edge can just read and it's a browser, adobe is paid software and install a lot of junk.<p>And you repeat that for basically everything it's such a waste of time.<p>Linux is even worst than windows on that matter.<p>If you are looking for that kind of 'experience' like the author, i suggest hitting yourself on the balls with a hammer. That would be quicker.
I was unsurprised to find Arch and NixOS mentioned, they're more or less <i>for</i> asceticism, and they usually show up on the ascetic's path. But having learned the power of going without <i>from</i> Linux, there's a lot of similar places to go besides an increasing difficult progression of Linux distributions.<p>Repeatable Builds is something that can be practiced without Linux, but which the Linux ascetic will find pleasingly austere. Working with immutable data send like another. And then there's all the ways one can avoid using a pointing device, or not buying things your can't hack...<p>It's a path that Linux can teach you to to walk, but it's not Linux's path.
A very interesting perspective that really resonates with me. My ventures into Linux have been mostly characterized by this. I still remember, when running Ubuntu on my main machine, not being satisfied because I felt like I couldn't «grip it» and the enormous amount of learning I had to do in order to run Arch on my main box. Although I today run MacOS on all devices, and only interface with Linux on servers, I am grateful for all the things I learned from my period with Arch.
This argument would more compelling for BSD variants.<p>That aside, I've noticed that certain kinds of users spend a lot of time thinking about their operating system. Personally, it's the opposite of what I'd like to do when I'm using a computer.<p>For most people, I'd advocate that they buy the best hardware they can afford, which during the M1+ era has been a Mac, and Macs run macOS. Some users want something more specialized, like native Docker or Windows-only engineering applications, but those users probably know who they are and don't need to be asking me for advice.
I've occasionally chosen to use Linux in this way. To abstain from certain aspects of the operating system to better learn Linux. Several of my close friends and I will also do things in Linux for the learning more than the outcome, but most of them use their whole toolbox. It's interesting to put a religious connotation, because I was doing this behavior while recovering from a heavily religious childhood.
I’ve been using Linux for a long time for personal purposes and I understand what the blog says. But I also feel like it doesn’t have to be this way: Linux should be easy to use, with little hassle, friendly to newbies, with a community of support.<p>Over the years Linux desktop has indeed improved, but still with much problems to use. We should adopt a growth mindset instead of sticking to asceticism.
I dunno, maybe…<p>I do think, though, he’s drawing a slightly artificial line between self-improvement, personal control, and practical concerns. If you haven’t “self improved” to the point where you know how your system works, can you actually control it? If you don’t know how to tell your system to do things, does it gain much practical value?
This is actually one of the reasons why I switched from Linux to Qubes OS: <a href="https://qubes-os.org" rel="nofollow">https://qubes-os.org</a>. And I learned a lot about security on the way.
I used to run Xen on my desktop as the hypervisor and then have hardware virtualized guests.<p>This was circa 2008 or so and I feel now is the time to dump my regular Debian and go for Proxmox VE... For my desktop. I'm no Proxmox dev but I know some are using Proxmox on their main desktop/workstation.<p>I kinda feel it's would be pretty ascetic: running an hypervisor and all your other stuff only inside guests requires self-discipline. It's a bit more involved than just installing a Linux OS and all the software directly onto the "main" Linux.
Great post. But something not expounded upon by the author, and not addressed much in the comments here, is that asceticism is not a binary. Sometimes you really have to get-shit-done, and in that case, yeah use something fully featured. But a lot of the time, you'd probably be better off accepting a bit of slowness and pain in order to learn more. It's the classic framework vs. scratch debate. Use the framework if you want to go fast, build from scratch if you want to get better.
I don’t know. I’ve bought a few machines with popos. They’ve been so few issues, that I haven’t learned that much new about administering them.<p>I’ll install stuff from the command line but generally stick to the gui tools. And they work.<p>I’m able to do my programming tasks with minimal issues.
This resonates with me. I think configuring Linux for on a Raspberry Pi for a specific task that includes network IO, storage and compute is a light version of the Askesis he describes. And absolutely a worthwhile exercise if nothing more.
As a software engineer, this post resonates with me.<p>But, you can find this attitude pervading the whole linux desktop ecosystem. This post may as well be titled "Why it will never be the year of the Linux Desktop".