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+date = 2022-06-24
+title = "Rebooting My Love Affair with Linux"
+description = ""
+draft = false
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+
+# Leaving macOS
+
+As I noted [in a recent post](../foss-macos-apps), I have been planning
+on migrating from macOS back to a Linux-based OS. I am happy to say that
+I have finally completed my migration and am now stuck in the wonderful
+world of Linux again.
+
+My decision to leave macOS really came down to just a few important
+things:
+
+-   Apple Security (Gatekeeper) restricting me from running any software
+    I want. Even if you disable Gatekeeper and allow software to bypass
+    the rest of the device installation security, you still have to
+    repeat that process every time the allowed software is updated.
+-   macOS sends out nearly constant connections, pings, telemetry, etc.
+    to a myriad of mysterious Apple services. I\'m not even going to
+    dive into how many macOS apps have constant telemetry on, as well.
+-   Lastly, I just *really* missed the customization and freedom that
+    comes with Linux. Being able to switch to entirely new kernel, OS,
+    or desktop within minutes is a freedom I took for granted when I
+    switched to macOS.
+
+Now that I\'ve covered macOS, I\'m going to move on to more exciting
+topics: my personal choice of OS, DE, and various customizations I\'m
+using.
+
+# Fedora
+
+After trying a ton of distros (I think I booted and tested around 20-25
+distros), I finally landed on [Fedora Linux](https://getfedora.org/). I
+have quite a bit of experience with Fedora and enjoy the
+`dnf` package manager. Fedora allows me to keep up-to-date
+with recent software (I\'m looking at you, Debian), but still provides a
+level of stability you don\'t find in every distro.
+
+In a very close second place was Arch Linux, as well as its spin-off:
+Garuda Linux (Garuda w/ sway is *beautiful*). Arch is great for
+compatibility and the massive community it has, but I have just never
+had the time to properly sit down and learn the methodology behind their
+packaging systems.
+
+Basically, everything else I tested was unacceptable in at least one way
+or another. Void (`glibc`) was great, but doesn\'t support
+all the software I need. Slackware worked well as a tui, but I wasn\'t
+skilled enough to get a tiling window manager (WM) working on it.
+
+## i3
+
+One of the reasons I settled on Fedora is that it comes with an official
+i3 spin. Being able to use a tiling WM, such as i3 or sway, is one of
+the biggest things I wanted to do as soon as I adopted Linux again.
+
+I will probably set up a dotfile repository soon, so that I don\'t lose
+any of my configurations, but nothing big has been configured thus far.
+
+The two main things I have updated in i3wm are natural scrolling and
+binding my brightness keys to the `brightnessctl` program.
+
+1.  Natural Scrolling
+
+    You can enable natural scrolling by opening the following file:
+
+    ```sh
+    sudo nano /usr/share/X11/xorg.conf.d/40-libinput.conf
+    ```
+
+    Within the `40-libinput.conf` file, find the following
+    input sections and enable the natural scrolling option.
+
+    This is the `pointer` section:
+
+    ``` conf
+    Section "InputClass"
+            Identifier "libinput pointer catchall"
+            MatchIsPointer "on"
+            MatchDevicePath "/dev/input/event*"
+            Driver "libinput"
+            Option "NaturalScrolling" "True"
+    EndSection
+    ```
+
+    This is the `touchpad` section:
+
+    ``` conf
+    Section "InputClass"
+            Identifier "libinput touchpad catchall"
+            MatchIsTouchpad "on"
+            MatchDevicePath "/dev/input/event*"
+            Driver "libinput"
+            Option "NaturalScrolling" "True"
+    EndSection
+    ```
+
+2.  Enabling Brightness Keys
+
+    Likewise, enabling brightness key functionality is as simple as
+    binding the keys to the `brightnessctl` program.
+
+    To do this, open up your i3 config file. Mine is located here:
+
+    ```sh
+    nano /home/<my-user>/.config/i3/config
+    ```
+
+    ``` conf
+    # Use brightnessctl to adjust brightness.
+    bindsym XF86MonBrightnessDown exec --no-startup-id brightnessctl --min-val=2 -q set 3%-
+    bindsym XF86MonBrightnessUp exec --no-startup-id brightnessctl -q set 3%+
+    ```
+
+3.  `polybar`
+
+    Instead of using the default `i3status` bar, I have opted
+    to use `polybar` instead (as you can also see in the
+    screenshot above).
+
+    My config for this menu bar is basically just the default settings
+    with modified colors and an added battery block to quickly show me
+    the machine\'s battery info.
+
+4.  `alacritty`
+
+    Not much to say on this part yet, as I haven\'t configured it much,
+    but I installed `alacritty` as my default terminal, and I
+    am using `zsh` and the shell.
+
+# Software Choices
+
+Again, I\'m not going to say much that I haven\'t said yet in other blog
+posts, so I\'ll just do a quick rundown of the apps I installed
+immediately after I set up the environment.
+
+Flatpak Apps:
+
+-   Cryptomator
+-   pCloud
+-   Signal
+
+Fedora Packages:
+
+-   gomuks
+-   neomutt
+-   neofetch
+-   Firefox
+    -   uBlock Origin
+    -   Bitwarden
+    -   Stylus
+    -   Privacy Redirect
+
+Other:
+
+-   exiftool