Since some time ago i have been wanting to de-capitalize my life and transition to a life only consisting of open-source solutions.

This idea has been lingering because of my work at Worm Rotterdam, we use GNU/Linux to run most things and it forced me to understand GNU/Linux.

I got more and more comfortable with GNU/Linux and started doing some other projects. Like using a raspberry pi to mine crypto, or using my raspberry pi to block ads on my home network with pi-hole.

Seeing the power it could give me i got more and more invested into GNU/Linux and got me in a rabbit hole on different GNU/Linux distros and their pros and cons.

Later i had to make some old pc’s work ready for colleges, and could use this knowledge to my advantage by installing Linux Mint on them.

And because of other projects i also started installing Ubuntu Server on some pc’s.

All this made me realize how easy it is to just switch and it made me also wanna do it with my own devices.

The last push i needed was that i will start doing a minor in Barcelona where i will learn the programming language C and to use Unix.

The school told me i will probably have to dualbooth my windows laptop so i have GNU/Linux on it aswell.

Hearing this got me thinking: If i just already have GNU/Linux and get even more comfortable with it, it will probably give me a head start.

The transition

So i decided i would install a GNU/Linux distro on my own laptop.

The first step was to choose what distro would be best suitable for me.

After alot of research i decided to go with Arch + wayland.

Arch is for users that like to have full control and are willing to spend time on fixing things. It has a rolling release and ….

But before i could install it i had to:

• make a list of the applications i use on windows so i can reinstall it on GNU/Linux
• make a backup of my files and projects
• save the windows key and disable it

And now that i had done these things i was ready to install Arch.

Online i saw the horror stories of installing this distro and i was very nervous.

But it was actually quite easy, i did some research beforehand and saw that i could use archinstall which made it 10x easier.

I also did it while following a tutorial on youtube and having the arch installation guide right next to that.

In about 3 hours i had my laptop run arch without errors.