Linux isn’t the nightmare people make it out to be—but my mistakes definitely made it feel that way. It took me years to figure out what not to do—and you can learn it in minutes.
5
Picking the wrong distro too quickly
I was exploring Linux for freedom and assumed any distro would do
Windows 7 is the OG of operating systems. It was simple, gave me real customization options that mattered, and I felt like I was in control of my computer and not the other way around. I could easily tweak system settings, remove whatever apps I didn’t want without jumping through hoops, and I never felt like I was being watched.
A lot of this changed with Windows 10 and now Windows 11, so much so that I decided Windows could no longer be my daily driver. However, my mistake was jumping straight into the first Linux distro I could lay my hands on. This was Ubuntu, and I quickly realized it was not the freedom I had been hoping for.
With Ubuntu, I was only trading Microsoft’s telemetry for Canonical’s obsession with Snap. My goal was to have fewer gatekeepers, but this was not the case. I was getting updates that were out of my control, the very thing I had left Windows for.
Within three months, I had tried Ubuntu, Fedora, and then Manjaro, and all three distros defined freedom differently. None was what I wanted. Ubuntu decided what packaging systems I should use. Fedora pushed too many bleeding-edge updates, and Manjaro gave the kind of freedom that allowed a newbie to break things and troubleshoot rather than enjoy the computer. In retrospect, more research before jumping to a distro would have done me a world of good.
4
The trap of distro hopping
I was moving through the distros too fast it became tiring
One of Linux’s biggest selling points is also its biggest curse: there are so many distros, almost one for every kind of user. The problem is that you may not have enough guidance to steer you toward your perfect distro, and you could burn out before you get to learn Linux.
After using Ubuntu, Fedora, and Manjaro and feeling dissatisfied, I assumed Linux was just not worth it, and it took me a year before trying Linux again. However, the issue with distro hopping is that you assume the problem is with the distro and not with your own understanding.
You spend a lot of time pulling in new desktop environments, package managers, and installers, and very little time actually learning Linux. In reality, you are only learning how to set it up over and over again, and it becomes so tedious that it wears you down after just a few rounds.
Mastery of Linux comes less from finding the perfect distro and more from building competence. I made the common mistake of chasing comfort rather than building competence.
Researching a distro’s design goals and guiding principles, as well as understanding how it is maintained and presented to users, before trying out the distribution will reduce the chances of distro hopping.
3
Relying only on GUI package managers
Treating the GUI as the only way is limiting
Windows has tools like WinGet, which are very handy for installation and app management, but you typically default to the traditional graphical app installer. It is likely you will carry over this habit when you start Linux. This is fine but very limiting. The biggest issue was that when anything broke, I had no clue how to fix it because the GUI abstracted it away.
The real power in learning the command line is that you start to understand what happens under the hood. So, if there is a dependency pop-up, you get to see it in plain text rather than a vague error window. If a specific package disappears, you can build from source or check mirrors rather than waiting on the software center to work.
As soon as I learned to use command-line installers, I was using apt search to look for packages, using apt policy to check versions, and rolling back bad updates with dnf downgrade. I could also script my setup and rebuild machines in minutes.
2
Customizing too early
Tweaks without understanding maintenance will cost you
During my early days in Linux, it almost felt like the goal was to make my desktop look like a Reddit screenshot. This felt like real freedom to me. I went from stock Ubuntu to i3 and later to dwm. I spent a lot of time theming the terminal, tweaking Polybar and carefully selecting fonts.
It all looked great until it didn’t. All it took was a package update, a missing dependency, or a tiny typo in the config file, and I was toast. My screen would boot to a black void.
What I did not know at the time was that the customization detail I implemented required me to understand where configs are loaded from, how sessions start and a mastery of how to recover my WM when it fails to launch. I did so much to make my computer look and feel a certain way without first learning how to maintain it, and it often bricked my system.
1
Misusing sudo commands
Running random sudo commands will eventually break something
With Linux, there is always a lingering temptation to go on forums, copy commands, and try them out. Most of the time, this is fine, but there are exceptions when it can ruin everything. I’ve accidentally wiped bootloaders, deleted partitions, and locked myself out of my own system.
Sudo is loaded. If you ever feel tempted to run any command with these elevated privileges, confirm you know what every part of the command does before hitting Enter. You may use –help to check what a flag does, and if you are not sure, it is safer to run it with echo first. This way, you see what will happen without committing to it.
Linux is powerful and will give you the kind of freedom that may ruin your very setup. You must be careful to dip your toe in first and get used to how it feels, before taking the plunge. Now, I do not think everyone will make these same mistakes, but it’s good to have them at the back of your mind when you explore the ecosystem.
