Why I Quit Linux as a Creative After 4 Years

It hit my productivity and held back my dreams

Image by Ajubola Okubanjo on Flickr / CC-2.0

I began my writing career as a Linux user. My most persistent productivity hacks, which I still use over a decade later, were forged in Linux.

Thanks to Linux, I tried out many types of writing software for free. This eventually allowed me to settle on a system that worked for me.

In Linux, I started using:

• A plaintext editor beside a web browser for research
• Markdown to make formatting simple
• Distraction-free writing software when I wanted 100% focus

Linux — a brief introduction

For those of you that aren’t familiar with Linux, it’s an operating system, like Windows, or macOS. More accurately, Linux covers a whole ecosystem of operating systems. Each different version of Linux is known as a distro.

Linux is open-source, meaning it’s developed mostly by volunteers, and it’s free.

There are Linux distros for:

• Newbies to Linux or even newbies to computing, who just want a working computer system (Linux Mint)
• Making old computers run really fast (Puppy Linux)