Linux in 2026
I've always loved Linux. It's a great operating system to learn and has real benefits over Windows and sometimes even Apple. I shared this love with my good friend Jon, who sadly passed away last year. I've only recently started to come to grips with the loss, and so recently started thinking about all the great conversations we would have. We would chat for hours about Gentoo Linux, the OS that had you build your system from almost scratch and compiling the kernel itself. So it was with freshly unlocked memories that I decided to spend a weekend clean installing Linux on my then Windows workstation. No more unwanted windows live login, no more random apps installing, no more bloat, begone enshitification!
Here is the AI generated story of my return to Linux in 2026 made from notes taken during the weekend long re-acquaintance. I chose Fedora 43.
The install
Two choices at install time that set the tone for everything after:
- Enable Third Party Software repos, so hardware drivers, codecs, and the like Just Work.
- Enable Full Disk Encryption — non-negotiable on a machine that ever leaves the house.
A couple of quirks I'm still chasing: my USB keyboard doesn't always reconnect after a sleep cycle, and Steam throws a bwrap sandbox crash on boot (a known issue that doesn't actually stop it from running).
Making GNOME mine
Stock GNOME is close, but a few extensions and tweaks get it the rest of the way. The essentials:
- Dash to Dock
- AppIndicator and KStatusNotifierItem Support
- App Menu
Then gnome-tweaks for the fiddly bits:
sudo dnf install gnome-tweaks
Two changes I make every time: boot straight to the desktop (in Dash to Dock → Appearance, uncheck "show overview on startup") and kill that weird hot corner in the top-left. Under Tweaks I turn the Maximize and Minimize title-bar buttons back on.
I also keep COSMIC, System76's new Rust-based desktop, around to play with:
sudo dnf install @cosmic-desktop-environment
Terminal and theming
I'm a sucker for a good color scheme. Gogh is a quick way to try a bunch — my rotation lives around Monokai (Pro Ristretto, Pro Spectrum, Soda) and Moonfly. For system-wide, consistent theming I use tinty, which applies a base16 scheme everywhere at once:
cargo install tinty
tinty apply base16-monokai
Font is Fira Code (I test-drove a pile of others at programmingfonts.org first):
sudo dnf install fira-code-fonts
In the terminal itself: XTerm palette and an underline cursor.
The shell: fish
The one non-negotiable. I install fish, make it the login shell, and build the prompt out with fisher and hydro:
sudo dnf install fish util-linux-user powerline-fonts
chsh -s /usr/bin/fish
# fisher (plugin manager) + a few plugins
curl -sL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/jorgebucaran/fisher/main/functions/fisher.fish | source && fisher install jorgebucaran/fisher
fisher install jorgebucaran/hydro jorgebucaran/spark.fish
My ~/.config/fish/config.fish sets the editor and kicks off theming:
if status is-interactive
set -gx EDITOR nvim
tinty init
end
The best thing I picked up this round is funcsave — write a function interactively, then persist it to your autoload directory. That's how my custom prompt and a little ll helper stick around between sessions.
The dev toolchain
Languages, build tooling, and the CLI I can't work without:
# build essentials
sudo dnf group install c-development development-tools
sudo dnf install clang clang-tools-extra golang dotnet-sdk-10.0
# everyday CLI
sudo dnf install git htop tmux fzf
Rust goes through rustup, and Python through uv:
curl --proto '=https' --tlsv1.2 -sSf https://sh.rustup.rs | sh
curl -LsSf https://astral.sh/uv/install.sh | sh
Node lives in fish via fisher install jorgebucaran/nvm.fish. Containers through Docker CE:
sudo dnf -y install dnf-plugins-core
sudo dnf config-manager addrepo --from-repofile=https://download.docker.com/linux/fedora/docker-ce.repo
sudo dnf install docker-ce docker-ce-cli containerd.io docker-buildx-plugin docker-compose-plugin
sudo systemctl enable --now docker
For editing I run Neovim (lazy.nvim + nvim-lspconfig, occasionally NvChad when I want batteries included) and keep VS Code installed for the days I want a mouse. To actually get faster at all of it, Keypunch for touch-typing drills.
sudo dnf install neovim luarocks
Creative and CAD
This is where Linux in 2026 genuinely delights me — the whole pipeline is one dnf install away:
sudo dnf install blender krita gimp inkscape
sudo dnf install kicad openscad openscad-MCAD
sudo dnf install audacity ardour7 lmms
Blender 5.0, KiCad for circuit boards, OpenSCAD and FreeCAD for parametric CAD (FreeCAD from Flathub), and the Krita/GIMP/Inkscape trio for 2D.
Local AI
Running models locally is finally painless. I manage LM Studio as an AppImage via Gear Lever, and lean on ROCm + PyTorch for GPU compute:
sudo dnf install fuse-libs
My current go-to is Magistral Small (24B, Q4_K_M) — vision, tool use, and reasoning in a size that fits comfortably in VRAM.
Media and everyday apps
sudo dnf install vlc chromium steam
Plus the flatpaks: Spotify, Bitwarden for password management, and a few others. Steam is home to Monster Hunter and Liftoff (my FPV drone sim — which pairs nicely with tinkering in Betaflight).
System and networking
A few finishing touches: mDNS/avahi so my machines find each other by name on the LAN, and OpenSSH for getting between them. One small habit worth keeping — reach for sudo -i rather than su - when you need a root shell.
And because idle silicon is wasted silicon, I donate spare cycles to Folding@home and BOINC.
Wrapping up
That's the workstation — a fresh Fedora 43 install turned into something that's equal parts dev box, CAD bench, studio, and playground. There are a few deeper rabbit holes I went down that didn't make it into this post, but those are a story for another day.
Written with AI assistance. AI icon by Flaticon.