Becoming A Linux God

It's been a long time goal of mine to become proficient at using Linux, but for the longest time, I've never had the need to do it. Windows was good enough. MacOS was good enough. There wasn't a huge incentive outside of privacy or curiosity for me to use Linux on the day to day, but things have changed over the past few years. I've since launched two new personal servers, each with a proxmox linux backend. I've deployed over 200 docker containers. I bought a Steam Deck. The need to git gud using Linux was here if I wanted to know what I was doing.

Over the past two servers, I've had to do a lot in the terminal. So much, that I've grown to understand why the Linux community is so passionate about their platform. It's fast, it's powerful, and it's fun to use once you get the hang of it. It's the "getting the hang of it" part that's intense. I'll say it now- ChatGPT has been a HUGE resource for me. I'll ask "how do I copy files from a remote server via SSH using RSYNC" and it'll just tell me. It's so useful to figure out how things work. Sure, I could be reading the manuals lol but man is ChatGPT good at just giving you what you're looking for.

I also started using Zellij. It's a "terminal workspace" which I didn't see a purpose to using- at first. Now, it's something I can't live without. I've created a few different workspaces. One of them is kinda like a dashboard, with three BTOP instances running for system monitoring. You can see it in the Featured image of this article. The other is another workspace for just normal usage. It allows me to split the terminal window into pieces whenever I want. I love it because I can send out a command that takes forever (chmod -R 777 /nas/) and then open up a new terminal window to keep on going while that's going. Before, I'd have to open a whole new terminal window. It's just busted. Plus, commands seem to run faster believe it or not. Maybe I'm crazy. If I had time, I'd justify my reasoning, but let's leave it for now.

It's getting me more and more interested in using Linux on the desktop. I'm talking full blown. Using Zellij makes me want to build a riced up Linux desktop environment with a tiling window manager. Since Zellij works just like one, I figure I'll be right at home. But my quest in that direction is tough. I've been trying to find the perfect laptop for it, but nothing has caught my eye just yet. I won't do it at the desktop since I'm not ready to drop Windows on my main gaming PC just yet. Someday, but not yet.

So I want my daily "on the go" driver to be Linux. I'm looking for a laptop for this purpose. The System76 and Framework laptops are interesting, but also not. I guess there's no getting around it- I can't expect Macbook Pro levels of quality out of most of these. I'm still trying to find hardware I can be happy with, all while allowing me full linux customizability. The Steam Deck is great, but I want more.

MOAR SERVERS, but Smoll

That's right. I want more servers. I have two proxmox / docker god tier servers chilling in my house, but I want to explore the idea of the small baby server. There are a ton of really cool mini-PCs out there now. Some very very small, and power efficient.

Look at it. Powerful, yet small. I'm considering the possibilities with these little guys. If I could get one with two m.2 slots for a ZFS mirror, and with enough ram (hopefully ECC) I could have a really useful platform here. I'm honestly looking at putting one at a friend's house for an off-site server. I could run my uptime monitor on it for my services. I could also use it as remote storage. So many options. If I'm cleaver, it could configure it to provide redundancy to many of my services. I could have a second mail server... So many possibilities!

These are things I'm thinking about on my step to Linux godhood. It feel great to dive further down the free and open source route. The further I go, the better I feel from a privacy, security, and technical perspective. It just feels like the right thing to do.