Ubuntu: Comfortable but Cracking

I installed Ubuntu back in October 2023 for The Odin Project bootcamp. It sat perfectly between hand‑holding Windows and pure terminal life. I felt productive. Installing editors, uninstalling with ease, exploring commands – life was good for months. For a programmer, Windows isn't even comparable.

But I didn't stop there. I watched videos about other distros, thinking the only difference was the GUI. I was too afraid to try them. So I just riced my Ubuntu – extensions, themes, etc using youtube tutorials from Ksk Royal channel. Enjoyed the ride.

The Package Manager Headache on Ubuntu

As the packages I wanted grew, I started fighting Ubuntu's package manager.

Examples of missing packages or pain points:

• neofetch? In the repo, fine. But btop (a modern resource monitor)? Not in default repos – had to add a PPA or build from source.
• yay or any AUR helper? Impossible without manual compilation.
• jetbrains-toolbox? Download tar.gz, extract, run script, create desktop entry manually – every time.
• obsidian? Only via Snap or Flatpak. Both heavy and slow.

I used Flatpak and sometimes Snap for desktop apps. Both felt bloated. Startup times increased. My Ubuntu slowed down noticeably – boot time and response time both degraded.

I wanted a centralized package manager with everything I need. I saw that Fedora had .rpm packages for many tools I wanted. So I decided to give Fedora a try.

Fedora: A Short Romance

First I made sure Fedora's GUI (GNOME) looked almost like Ubuntu – because I was still afraid of change. I installed Fedora and used it for about two months.

Then… my laptop was stolen!.

That hit hard. I gave up on coding for several months.

New Laptop, New Courage: Arch Linux

I bought a new laptop. Watched more videos. Learned that Arch Linux works with almost every Desktop Environment (DE). Ubuntu and Fedora default to GNOME – but Arch lets you choose anything.

So I installed Arch Linux with GNOME DE and started coding again with fresh energy.

I USE ARCH BTW.

I tried Manjaro briefly – removed it after a few minutes. Went back to pure Arch with GNOME.

Pacman and AUR: A Package Manager Heaven

Arch's package manager pacman is the best I've ever used. Almost every package I want is there. And with yay (AUR helper), I have an ocean of packages.

Examples that were painful on Ubuntu but trivial on Arch:

yay -S btop
yay -S jetbrains-toolbox
yay -S obsidian
yay -S visual-studio-code-bin

No PPAs. No Flatpak. No Snap. Just one command. I also configured zsh with oh-my-zsh, made my terminal beautiful. Life was good.

The Hyprland Awakening

But my drive couldn't rest. I still found GNOME heavy. Then I saw Hyprland videos on YouTube – people flying through windows, opening apps with keyboard shortcuts, laying windows side by side like a game. I was hooked.

I installed Hyprland one day. Configured it using videos on youtube channels like typecraft and saneAspect. It was nice, but raw Hyprland requires a lot of manual setup.

HyDE: Heaven on Earth

While skimming hyprland docs, I discovered some pre‑configured Hyprland setups like ML4W, JaKooLit, end_4 and HyDE. I installed ML4W first, but I didn't like it. Then I installed HyDE and I felt like I was in heaven on Earth:

• Smooth animations
• Pre‑configured shortcuts for everything
• Utilities pre‑setup: oh-my-zsh, yay, waybar, rofi, dunst
• Lightweight – my laptop has never been faster

Window management became magical: opening, closing, resizing, navigating – all under my fingertips. I used to change windows, now I run through them like a fish in the ocean. I feel like a pilot.

My Current Stack

• OS: Arch Linux
• DE/WM: Hyprland + HyDE
• Package managers: pacman + yay (AUR)
• Shell: kitty(terminal) + zsh(shell) + oh-my-zsh(zsh framework)
• Editor: Zed + Vim (story for another post)
• Browser: Zen (story for another post)

My tool is customized for peak performance and efficiency. I love Arch Linux, Hyprland DE, and HyDE configuration.

✍ Related Blogs

• How I started Coding
• My Browser Journey (coming soon)
• My Editor Journey (coming soon)
• The Todo List Project: Building My Own React-like Library (coming soon)

I have stories about my code editor journey (VS Code → Neovim + Zed) and browser journey (Chrome → Vivaldi → Firefox → Zen). Stay tuned!