--- title: I switched to Linux for 286 days - I'm (still) all in description: A personal account of 9 months using Linux full-time, covering the journey from Linux Mint to Arch and CachyOS, motivations like fighting planned obsolescence... canonical: https://daily.dev/posts/i-switched-to-linux-for-286-days---i-m-still-all-in-xyl4oesnq twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:site: @dailydotdev og:type: website og:site_name: daily.dev og:title: I switched to Linux for 286 days - I'm (still) all in | daily.dev og:description: A personal account of 9 months using Linux full-time, covering the journey from Linux Mint to Arch and CachyOS, motivations like fighting planned obsolescence... og:url: https://daily.dev/posts/i-switched-to-linux-for-286-days---i-m-still-all-in-xyl4oesnq og:image: https://api.daily.dev/og/posts/xyl4oEsNQ.png og:image:alt: I switched to Linux for 286 days - I'm (still) all in og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 630 og:locale: en --- > ## Documentation Index > Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://daily.dev/llms.txt > Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. # I switched to Linux for 286 days - I'm (still) all in **[YouTube](https://daily.dev/sources/youtube)** · 13 min read · 0 upvotes · 0 comments ## Summary A personal account of 9 months using Linux full-time, covering the journey from Linux Mint to Arch and CachyOS, motivations like fighting planned obsolescence and avoiding big tech telemetry, favorite distros and desktop environments (KDE, Niri tiling window manager), challenges with NixOS and video editing on Linux, and practical advice for beginners including distro recommendations, terminal basics, and learning strategies. ## Full article daily.dev links to this article rather than hosting it. Read it at the original source: ## Questions this post answers ### What is the difference between Niri and Hyprland as tiling window managers? Niri is a scrolling tiling window manager, unlike Hyprland's traditional tiling approach. Instead of tiling windows into a grid, Niri opens windows in one long horizontal layout with vertical workspaces stacked on top, giving a distinct scrolling workflow paired with shells like Noctalia or Dank Material Shell (DMS). _Developers picking a tiling window manager can compare real workflow trade-offs like these on daily.dev._ ### What makes NixOS different from other Linux distributions like Arch or Fedora? NixOS is declarative, meaning instead of installing packages one at a time, everything is defined in a configuration file, making the whole system reproducible across machines. That reproducibility is powerful but comes with a steeper learning curve, especially when setting up newer tools like the Niri window manager that lack mature NixOS-specific documentation. _Anyone weighing declarative setups against traditional distros can track these comparisons on daily.dev._ ### What terminal commands are used to update the system and install apps on Arch-based distros versus Debian-based distros like Linux Mint? On Arch-based systems like CachyOS, updating uses 'sudo pacman -Syu' and installing an app uses 'sudo pacman -S firefox'. On Debian-based systems like Linux Mint or Ubuntu, the equivalent is 'sudo apt install firefox', where sudo grants superuser permission and apt is the package manager. _Developers switching between package managers can keep these command differences handy via daily.dev._ ## Similar posts on daily.dev - [I switched to Linux for unconventional reasons, and now I can't go back](https://daily.dev/posts/i-switched-to-linux-for-unconventional-reasons-and-now-i-can-t-go-back-a2h6kww8w) · XDA Developers · 0 upvotes · 0 comments - [Linux was supposed to be temporary, but these things made me forget about Windows entirely](https://daily.dev/posts/linux-was-supposed-to-be-temporary-but-these-things-made-me-forget-about-windows-entirely-1uhjkyftl) · XDA Developers · 3 upvotes · 0 comments --- Tags: [#open-source](https://daily.dev/tags/open-source), [#linux](https://daily.dev/tags/linux), [#self-hosting](https://daily.dev/tags/self-hosting), [#nixos](https://daily.dev/tags/nixos) [View this post on daily.dev](https://daily.dev/posts/i-switched-to-linux-for-286-days---i-m-still-all-in-xyl4oesnq) ```json {"@context":"https://schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180},"sameAs":["https://twitter.com/dailydotdev","https://github.com/dailydotdev","https://www.linkedin.com/company/daily-dev-ltd"]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https://daily.dev/#website","url":"https://daily.dev","name":"daily.dev","publisher":{"@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization"},"potentialAction":{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https://daily.dev/search?q={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}}]} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"TechArticle","headline":"I switched to Linux for 286 days - I'm (still) all in","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/i-switched-to-linux-for-286-days---i-m-still-all-in-xyl4oesnq","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://daily.dev/posts/i-switched-to-linux-for-286-days---i-m-still-all-in-xyl4oesnq"},"datePublished":"2026-07-20T16:07:49.535Z","dateModified":"2026-09-14T07:50:25.290Z","description":"A personal account of 9 months using Linux full-time, covering the journey from Linux Mint to Arch and CachyOS, motivations like fighting planned obsolescence...","image":"https://i.ytimg.com/vi/mSAObyAKVuY/sddefault.jpg","thumbnailUrl":"https://i.ytimg.com/vi/mSAObyAKVuY/sddefault.jpg","isAccessibleForFree":true,"articleSection":"YouTube","inLanguage":"en","publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180}},"author":{"@type":"Organization","name":"YouTube","logo":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/s--W5zMumpP--/f_auto/v1725350181/logos/youtube","url":"https://daily.dev/sources/youtube"},"commentCount":0,"discussionUrl":"https://daily.dev/posts/i-switched-to-linux-for-286-days---i-m-still-all-in-xyl4oesnq","interactionStatistic":[{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"LikeAction"},"userInteractionCount":0},{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"CommentAction"},"userInteractionCount":0}],"keywords":"open-source,linux,self-hosting,nixos","timeRequired":"PT13M","video":{"@type":"VideoObject","name":"I switched to Linux for 286 days - I'm (still) all in","description":"A personal account of 9 months using Linux full-time, covering the journey from Linux Mint to Arch and CachyOS, motivations like fighting planned obsolescence...","thumbnailUrl":"https://i.ytimg.com/vi/mSAObyAKVuY/sddefault.jpg","uploadDate":"2026-07-20T16:07:49.535Z","duration":"PT13M","url":"https://api.daily.dev/r/xyl4oEsNQ","embedUrl":"https://www.youtube.com/embed/mSAObyAKVuY"}} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https://daily.dev"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"YouTube","item":"https://daily.dev/sources/youtube"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"name":"I switched to Linux for 286 days - I'm (still) all in"}]} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"FAQPage","@id":"https://daily.dev/posts/i-switched-to-linux-for-286-days---i-m-still-all-in-xyl4oesnq#faq","mainEntity":[{"@type":"Question","name":"What is the difference between Niri and Hyprland as tiling window managers?","acceptedAnswer":{"@type":"Answer","text":"Niri is a scrolling tiling window manager, unlike Hyprland's traditional tiling approach. 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