I got my tax refund yesterday, and decided that it was finally time to get a new laptop. Well, a refurbished laptop at any rate. So now I’m trying to decide, do I want to return to nerdy roots and install Linux once it arrives? I’m leaning very heavily towards yes.

So the next question is, do I want to nuke Windows or dual boot? This laptop is going to have half a terabyte of storage, so I think I can share a dozen or so GB for Windows so that if I ever need to return to Linux, it’s easy to do. I’m thinking I’ll just shrink Windows down to just enough to hold all the files, and then install Linux on the rest of the partition. Should it come down to me needing to return to Windows, I can just divide the drive more evenly between the two OSes.

So now the question is, what OS do I want to use? Here’s is where I’m stuck. I’ve used many different distros over the years. I used to be an Arch bro, back before the I use Arch btw meme. But I’ve also had good experiences with Debian, Ubuntu, Fedora, Linux Mint, and others.

I do know I want to use Wayland, as it’s generally seen as the future whereas Xorg is seen as a legacy component that is going to be phased out. Beyond that though? I don’t know.

Gaming is important, so good support for Steam and Proton is important as well. And I think as far as Steam/Proton goes, I’ve had the best experience with Manjaro Linux. I’m not sure why, to be honest, as I don’t think it bills itself as a gaming distro. In fact, the gaming distro I tried (PopOS!) bricked itself when I tried to install Steam, back a couple years ago.

So maybe that’s the solution. Manjaro Linux, running on top Wayland preferably.

I’ll keep you updated. Until next time, stay nerdy.