There is an attitude towards life called Linux

My Linux journey started three years ago. At that time, I ended my high school career and began to focus more on computer and network security. Learning about this field is what really fascinates me, there are so many new things to learn. I was immediately drawn in.

First of all, security and Kali Linux always go hand in hand. It’s hard to be a security researcher without it. Therefore, I started by implementing a dual operating system of Kail Linux on the Windows operating system.

At that time I had not studied GNOME in depth. Due to my personal taste, everything looks too big on my tiny monitor (1366X768 resolution). And my laptop is often hotter than normal (85 to 90 degrees Celsius). At that time, I figured that everything in that field on Kali Linux would be everything I needed. What I needed to know was the Metasploit framework, which can actually be installed on other Linux-based operating systems.

It happened to be the first time Edward Snowden released secrets. It was the first time we found out about the PRISM Act and that there were companies involved in that act. Microsoft was one of them, and I didn't really feel comfortable using their operating system at that time. As a European citizen who at that time was almost entirely using services and products from the United States, I was personally deeply touched. I care about my privacy on the Internet, so the revelations from the Snowden incident directly influenced me to want to change.

So I started trying different distributions. I've tried Fedora, Linux Mint, and OpenSUSE. Every previous experience was quite similar. I installed the system, used it for a month or two, realized that the laptop's heating issues were still there, and eventually the system crashed while trying to fix those issues. I've used open source drivers for AMD graphics cards and they didn't work well at the time. AMD support has been very helpful to me. The proprietary drivers for the graphics card I was using were only compatible with ancient versions of the Linux kernel, so every time I installed them, I couldn't see anything on the screen after restarting the laptop.

But I am stubborn. I didn't want to give up. Because using Windows makes me insecure. So I decided to give Arch Linux a chance. Installing it was a mind-blowing experience. I learned a lot in the process. But the problem of fever is once again in front of us. While trying to resolve them, I once again rendered the system useless.

I got a little discouraged after this. I was ready to admit that I was defeated. I think my laptop is not really compatible with Linux and I use Windows. But soon I felt uncomfortable. I can't change something I don't like (like the Ribbon interface in the file browser). And as Snowden revealed more information about the NSA’s bill to the public, my negative feelings only grew. After that, I started reading about the base OS.

ElementaryOS Open like a beautiful, well-designed operating system. I burned it to an empty CD I had lying around, but I wasn't going to give Linux another try. Then one night I got drunk at a friend's place and I came home and said to myself: Oh, what the hell!

So I installed it, and once installed it seemed light enough to make my laptop heat up less when in use. I installed and configured the tlp package according to my needs, and the problems are much smaller than before. Of course, it still doesn't beat my Windows system in terms of power consumption, but it's much better than the Linux distributions I've tried before. And the system actually looks pretty good. I've enjoyed every minute of using it, and it has some little features that I can't find on Windows (like multiple workspaces).

A few months later, Elementary OS released a new Beta 1 version codenamed Freya. I immediately installed it and I've been using Elementary OS ever since. I felt like a part of the Elementary OS community and became increasingly active on their social networks. Soon thereafter I was reporting bugs I encountered, translating the system into my native language (Bosnia and Herzegovina), and even contributed once or twice to the new look of the ElementaryOS project website. Being able to watch the Freya release grow from Beta 1 to stable is a life-changing experience. And I'm one of them. I was part of an effort to create something new, something awesome!

During this period, my family received two new laptops and a new desktop computer, but I have not used them. I have a special relationship with my old friend because we have been through so much together. Try it, I'm still using it now.

About three months ago, the power consumption performance has improved significantly. My laptop no longer overheats. In fact, the temperatures are much cooler now than they were when I was using Windows. I still don't understand what happened to make the power performance improve so significantly, but the battery life did increase from half an hour to an hour and a half (compared to two hours and fifteen minutes on Windows).

I am a volunteer at the Dutch Conference in April this year, and I am also a part of the European Volunteer Service. Our team used my notebook to create a presentation that was shown to other volunteers to coordinate our volunteer projects. We used Microsoft PowerPoint so that we could easily share the presentation with others using OneDrive. But then the Windows guy actually decided to update. My laptop restarted right at the beginning of the presentation. The update took too long (more than 15 minutes) and I had a job to do and needed to make a quick decision. I had to force-close my laptop despite the warning "Don't turn off your computer." I then booted up my sweet Elementary OS, mounted the Windows drive, found the presentation on that drive and opened it in LibreOffice Impress. The presentation continues to play without any issues. LibreOfficeImpress fully supports the presentations we create!

After that experience, I never checked whether my Windows system had completely crashed. Because I never have to worry about that again. ElementaryOS completely replaced it as my primary operating system. I never see myself using any system outside of that sexy Pantheon desktop environment again. After a long and painful transition, I finally feel completely comfortable using my laptop. I installed it on every other computer device in my house. My whole family now uses Elementary OS on a daily basis and they love it. My family is now completely Windows-free, and all of our smartphones run Cyanogenmod.

I’m not going to lie to you, my transition wasn’t easy. This is a long and painful process. But finally I finished it and it felt like nothing. Thanks to my stubbornness, I can truly embrace open source in my life. I have made small contributions to some world-renowned open source projects, such as Reddit and the Tor project. I also often blog about my experiences with open source. I started submitting articles to Opensource and Free Software magazines, in Serbian language. I even became a regular guest blogger on two blog sites related to open source and IT.

Contributing to open source software was my first volunteer experience, but it wasn’t the end. I actively expanded my volunteering experience in different settings in my local community and also had the opportunity to participate in a month-long volunteer trip to the other side of Europe, which was a life-changing experience for me. Open source has allowed me to accomplish so many things, and I would have accomplished nothing without that first trial. Open source has allowed me to embrace openness and collaboration, and I apply these principles to other areas of my life.

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