So the fan on my IBM/Lenovo Thinkpad died a couple months ago. (This is what I get for buying a Chinese computer.) The hardware failure put my primary computer out of action for a few weeks until I could get it repaired under warranty, but I had a secondary machine up and running in less than an hour.
That doesn’t include all the continuous tinkering, but basically I added a GUI to one of my servers, and used Linux exclusively while my notebook was out of commission.
This was not my first experience with using Linux as a desktop, but it was the most satisfying. I first tried to use Linux as a desktop back in 1999 or so, and was far from impressed. Actually it was pretty awful. (However, I would like to point out that I’ve been using Linux as a server continuously since the Debian Potato days, and have always been happy with it in that capacity.)
Over the years, I continued to visit Linux as a desktop OS, and saw that it steadily improved, but ever since Windows 2000 came out, there wasn’t really a compelling reason for me to switch anymore.
Relying solely on Linux and KDE while my Thinkpad was being repaired wasn’t a bad experience at all. In fact, there are a number of GUI elements that I miss now that my Thinkpad is fixed and I’m back to using Windows XP. I also miss some of the software. For example, I’ve been using Editpad Classic and Editpad Lite quite happily for something like six years now, but Kate is FULLY AWESOME and I miss it terribly already.
Long story short, I enjoyed using Linux and KDE as a desktop enough that I’m thinking of building or buying another computer to use as my new primary computer, leaving the Thinkpad for HTPC, travel, and other times when I have to use Windows software.
I could continue to just use the double-duty server, but it’s a little slow for me to use as a desktop. And don’t even suggest dual-booting. That’s crazy talk to someone as impatient as me.
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