My Linux experience, part 1

16 June, 2026

Now that I've actually used desktop Linux for a few months, and university isn't trying to screw me over with assignments, I can finally write about my experiences with desktop Linux.

Current Linux adoption

As of writing, I currently only have one device with Linux on it (all others have Windows 10 LTSC on them): my 2012 MacBook Pro.

I also used to run Linux Mint on my even older 2010 MacBook, but stopped using it for the following reasons:

My main laptop (the MSI laptop that I wrote YAMDCC for) also used to have Linux Mint for a bit, but I didn't end up using it much for a few reasons (which I'll get into later), and eventually uninstalled it to free up disk space for other things.

Trying Linux Mint again

Around November 2025 (I forgot the exact date), I installed the Cinnamon variant of Linux Mint on my 2012 MacBook Pro. This was very quickly replaced with the XFCE variant due to performance problems, and is what I'm currently running on this Mac as of writing.

The installation went smoothly enough. The only thing I had to do was install the proprietary Wi-Fi driver using the Driver Manager app before I proceeded with replacing the laptop's previous Windows install.

Configuration

I had to manually configure Linux Mint's mouse settings, as XFCE's mouse settings UI didn't expose everything I wanted (mouse acceleration, touchpad right-click type, and touchpad scroll speed and direction). I've provided my full config below (save it at /etc/X11/xorg.conf.d/50-mouse-settings.conf if you're following along at home):

# Disable mouse acceleration
Section "InputClass"
	Identifier "libinput pointer catchall"
	MatchIsPointer "on"
	MatchDevicePath "/dev/input/event*"
	Driver "libinput"
	Option "AccelProfile" "flat"
EndSection

# Use virtual button areas for touchpad clicks.
# This also sets a couple of other settings that can be changed in the
# settings GUI, but they get overwritten because of this config.
# Additionally, "NaturalScrolling" and "ScrollPixelDistance" don't appear
# to have equivalent settings in the XFCE variant of Linux Mint for some
# reason, so they're set here too
Section "InputClass"
	Identifier "libinput touchpad catchall"
	MatchIsTouchpad "on"
	MatchDevicePath "/dev/input/event*"
	Driver "libinput"
	Option "Tapping" "off"
	Option "NaturalScrolling" "false"
	Option "ClickMethod" "buttonareas"
	Option "DisableWhileTyping" "true"
	Option "ScrollPixelDistance" "30"
EndSection

This will do the following:

Adjust the settings above as needed, if you choose to copy this. Also note this will not work if you use Wayland sessions, and you should complain to your desktop environment maintainers to get the settings you want implemented if you can't find them.

Installing applications

Okay, now I can finally install all the apps I need:

TODO: mention docklike taskbar

There were also other apps here (VLC, VSCodium, etc.), but they are the same as their Windows counterpart, just installed through the Software Manager application instead of downloading and running an installer.

Wi-Fi Woes

I then proceeded to not use the laptop for a couple of months, booting it up again not long before the start of university to update it. However, because Debian/Ubuntu don't provide fixes to ensure the Broadcom Wi-Fi drivers work on the latest kernel straight away, I ended up without working Wi-Fi.

The solution (once I'd plugged in to Ethernet) is simple: downgrade to the 6.6 LTS Linux kernel. On with the uni semester I went.

TL;DR: If you're having issues with your Wi-Fi card after a kernel update, try downgrading to an LTS kernel. Make sure to remove the newer kernels, as otherwise your computer will try to boot the newer one again.

Insomniac Mac

For some reason (this may be my fault), after ~30 minutes of uptime, my MacBook will refuse to sleep (or "suspend", as Linux calls it). I have no idea why this happens, but I suspect it's because there's about 2-3 power management programs fighting for control over the display and suspend state of the laptop.

Smaller problems

Apart from the above issues, I didn't have any more major issues with Linux Mint. The only ones that come to mind are to do with XFCE in particular, for example window focus stealing prevention seemingly not working (which let Zoom steal the focus of other windows I was typing into, for example). All in all, a decent experience, but I wanted more from my DE.

Moving on to Arch

Okay, I'm actually going to be installing CachyOS on the MacBook Pro, but it's effectively the same thing as Arch Linux with more performance optimisations (particularly for gaming) and an easier to use installer. I'd be using Alpine Linux instead, but its usage of OpenRC (which you might recognise from Gentoo if you're in the Linux space) and musl libc mean that proprietary (and sometimes open-source!) programs have a harder time running well. I was also told that desktop Alpine installs can be a bit flaky at times.

Anyways, I wanted to give a rolling-release distro a try mainly for faster updates. Basically, Debian (which Ubuntu and Linux Mint are based on) only makes a new release once every two years, after which only security and bug fixes for all programs included for that version are accepted.

This release model leads to programs getting out of date very quickly. For example, LibreOffice on Linux Mint 22.3 (latest as of writing) is stuck on version 24.2.7.2, which is nearly 2 years old now, and even within its own yearly release branch is about 7 months out of date (I could be wrong, though - not quite sure how LibreOffice's version numbering works).

For some reason, this also extends to some drivers, which is how I ended up with a configuration which broke my Wi-Fi drivers. The patch exists for later Linux kernels, Debian just... didn't backport it, for some reason?

Another benefit of rolling-release distros is faster security updates. Debian is supposed to receive security backports for its programs, but this doesn't always happen (limited developer resources, etc. cause developers to only target their latest release).

As of writing, I haven't installed CachyOS yet, but by the time uni starts up again in about a month, it'll be up and running if nothing goes wrong. Maybe I'll even put it on my main computer (which is still running Windows 10 LTSC as of writing).

Until next time.

Wait, what's happening with the AUR– oh crap