Back to Linux after 3 years

Reason for Moving (back) to Linux

After using Windows for many years, I decided it was time for a change. Here’s why:

  • My PC is too old, and Windows 11 is not available (no TPM 2.0 support). Even if it met Windows 11 hardware requirements, I wouldn’t want to upgrade — I’ve encountered too many bugs at work with Windows 11.
  • Why not stay on Windows 10? Windows 10 has its own share of problems: broken start menu search, missing icons, and a painfully slow right-click context menu. Despite multiple attempts, I couldn’t fix them.
  • Looking for something fresh After years on Windows, I wanted to try something new and refreshing.

Installation:

I chose Linux Mint, the same distribution I used three years ago. A quick search for installation guides showed that the process hasn’t changed much.

For the desktop environment, I picked XFCE — it’s lightweight but still provides a rich set of features right out of the box.

Installation Complete: Setting Up

First Login

Screenshot_2025-04-19_09-11-40.png It felt a bit nostalgic booting into Linux Mint after all this time.

First Problem: Taking Screenshots While Setting Up

I wanted to take screenshots during the setup process to document everything for this blog post. However, unlike Windows, pressing the Print Screen key didn’t immediately capture an image. Instead, it opened:

  • A dialog to confirm the window or region to capture Screenshot_2025-04-19_09-20-03.png

  • A dialog to confirm saving the file Screenshot_2025-04-19_09-20-08.png

This felt a bit clunky.

Digging into the Keyboard Settings, I found a way to tweak the shortcuts, skipping one of the confirmation dialogs: Screenshot_2025-04-19_10-04-09.png

I still need to figure out how to enable auto-save, but at least now it’s much less annoying.

Note: At work, I use Greenshot, which is super handy. My custom shortcuts there are:

  • Ctrl + Shift + G for region capture and auto-save
  • Ctrl + Shift + W for window capture and auto-save

Hit the shortcut, one more click to confirm — super fast workflow.

Browser: Firefox

I’ve been a loyal Firefox user for nearly 20 years, and I see no reason to switch. Linux Mint comes with Firefox pre-installed. Thanks to my Mozilla account, syncing settings and extensions was smooth.

Minor issue: All my bookmark icons were missing after sync. Luckily, using Checkmarks Web Extension, I could easily refresh them.

Taskbar (or Panel) Behavior

By default, Linux Mint XFCE’s panel sorts open windows differently than Windows — which can feel confusing.

Following this forum discussion, I changed the sorting to timestamp only, making the behavior just like Windows: Screenshot_2025-04-19_10-06-00.png

System Update

Before installing new packages, the package manager itself needed updating: Screenshot_2025-04-19_09-42-39.png

There were a lot of updates, but the process was quick and only required a few clicks: Screenshot_2025-04-19_09-44-36.png

Drivers

All basic drivers were installed automatically — even my Fiio X3k music player worked out of the box! Screenshot_2025-04-29_08-03-58.png

The VGA driver defaulted to the open-source version instead of NVIDIA. Fortunately, Driver Manager quickly detected my GTX 1650 LP and suggested the correct proprietary driver: Screenshot_2025-04-19_09-45-19.png Screenshot_2025-04-19_09-46-03.png

After a few clicks and a restart, everything was good: “This device is using the recommended driver.” Screenshot_2025-04-19_09-53-31.png

Japanese Input

Three years ago, using Japanese and Vietnamese input on Linux was a nightmare — switching between JP, EN, and VN was slow and awkward.

This time, however, the setup guide was straightforward: Screenshot_2025-04-19_10-16-42.png Screenshot_2025-04-19_10-19-25.png

After installing, all settings looked correct: Screenshot_2025-04-19_10-22-26.png

Testing:

  • Press Ctrl + Space to activate Fcitx
  • Press the Kanji key テストしましょう！ (Let's test!)

Works perfectly!

Now for Vietnamese input: Screenshot_2025-04-19_10-26-29.png

Switching input methods with Ctrl + Shift works smoothly:

  • test thử tiếng việt xem!

Both languages are fully functional!

Moving Away from OneNote

OneNote has been my go-to note-taking tool for years — I used it for:

  • Software engineering notes
  • Travel plans
  • Financial records
  • Studying economics

However, OneNote is not officially supported on Linux (and the web version UX is terrible). The Android app isn’t much better either.

So I decided to drop OneNote and migrate everything to Joplin — an open-source note-taking app that works great across platforms.

If you need to export your OneNote notes to Markdown, I highly recommend this tool: onenote-md-exporter

Other Software

Here’s a quick list of additional software I installed:

  • Anki: Flashcard studying tool. I use it almost daily to retain knowledge.
  • Sublime Text: My favorite lightweight and fast text editor.
  • JetBrains Mono: A beautifully designed font for coding — highly readable.
  • Cloud Services: Only Dropbox has an official Linux client. For Google Drive, I had to use third-party alternatives.
  • VLC: The best open-source video player out there.
  • FreeFileSync: A simple and fast file syncing tool, perfect for backing up to external drives or smartphones.
  • Hugo: CMS for my blog.

Conclusion

Switching back to Linux has been a fantastic experience. The installation was smooth, the setup was mostly painless, and everything I need for everyday use is working perfectly.

Of course, I’ll need a few more weeks of daily use to truly evaluate long-term stability and discover any hidden rough edges — but so far, I’m very happy with the decision.