As a Senior PHP developer (and kind of a geek), I’ve always tried my best to do things efficiently. Let me tell you a little story.
When I started programming, I was using Sublime Text in a Microsoft Windows 8. I was happy back then, because I had a few simple Wordpress projects that I was working on. But as I grow as a developer, I felt the need to change my environment.
I think many developers still have the same setup that are happy with (and I know a few of them!). The problem was that, I outgrow that setup and it didn’t work for me anymore.
So I had to make some changes, But what I was supposed to do at that time?
Changing OS
When you hear “Changing Environment” in the IT world, the first thing that comes to mind is changing the OS and breathing new life into your setup.
At the time I heard about Linux and liked the things that I was hearing. But lots of the tools I was using belonged to Windows. And of course I was a PC gamer that didn’t like the thought of not playing.
At the moment, I was working on a C# application and couldn’t just abandon the whole project. Although I had the urge to try Linux and feel the free world… Be free of Microsoft.
I already tried to install two different versions of Windows on my PC. So why shouldn’t I dual-boot a Windows and a Linux?
Installing My First Linux Distribution
My first choice for a distro was Fedora. Because I felt good about Redhat, didn’t like easy things and didn’t like Ubuntu. Not that anything is wrong with Ubuntu.
I don’t know why, but I feel safe when I hear Redhat or see their logo, which is beautiful. But when I hear Microsoft… Well… You know!
Installing Fedora was hard for me. I was coming from Windows world where everything was easy. For installing a Windows, you just had to select a partition and that’s it.
But what is this / and /home and swap that I’m seeing here?!
The First Step is Always the Harder
First time installing a distro, like lots of other people in that time, I wiped my hard drive clean and almost lost everything!🤦♂️
After installing Fedora, I really liked the environment, but it was really hard for me. Everything I’ve touched, would broke my distro completely and made me install it again.
No fear, because I already lost everything.
Of course, that’s Fedora! In my experience, it’s really fragile and you have to be careful with it.
I don’t remember the first version of Fedora that I’ve installed on my PC, But it had GNOME 3 as it’s desktop environment (DE). It was really elegant and beautiful and was so different. I fell in love at the first glance. But every love has an expiration date. More on that for later.
How Should I Install My Precious Editor?
Well, installing the distro was only the first step. Now how should I install my tools? There comes the package manager.
Before this, I didn’t know you can install everything you want from the internet. I’ve always bought DVDs (I’m too old, I know) or downloaded EXE installers. But this package managers are pure magic! Just tell them what you want and they go and find the packages and their dependencies all by themselves! It’s magical!
Last Words
I’ve installed my first Linux distro successfully and was really excited about it. I did something that none of my friends and family didn’t think of. I had a new environment, a completely new OS that wasn’t Windows.
Now as a developer, I live in my editor. So you know what’s gonna happen next!