Hi all, My name is Michel, i live in Hengelo (OV) in The Netherlands. I joined the forums a few years ago because i have read alot of good things back then but was a bit scared to install a rolling release. I am experimenting with linux since 2014. I started with Linux mint 17 Cinnamon, like it alot and changed some stuff too in the past (bootloader, startup screen, panel and so on). Then i started to hop to Elemantory OS 0.3 Freya, Zorin OS and Manjaro. I did not like Manjaro because i got issues with it (gnome issues) so i went to the Arch wiki and tried to install it. I have read a lot of stuff and i managed to get into the desktop and played around with it. The first feeling after i installed Arch was like “whoah i really build a OS from scratch”. I really loved it BUT always had 1 issue with all these distro’s, my old clevo notebook with a GTX 485m always loved to freeze the OS which was pretty annoying so i had to use windows.
Back in 2021 i suddenly got tired of the forced updates, force pop-ups, forced reboots and forced to buy a new machine because Microsoft decided my 3 years old notebook (Acer Predator G9-793-71SJ) did not meet the specifications for their bloatware os 11. I googled for a good Linux OS for beginners, years have passed so i lost all my knowledge . I found Zorin OS 16. First i was a bit blown away by their layouts, also how fast Linux has grown specially with Gaming. Games i could not play in the past where easy to install now. So i made the switch and ditched Windows aside, after a month i discovered Pop! OS 20.04 which i wanted to try. I installed it and actually never looked back. I like the OS, the customizations they made in gnome. It WAS the perfect os. Again i got 1 issue once in a month (or 2) during boot, my system booted but the screen stayed black. I tried to enter tty, but even that stayed black. I could type blindly my username + password and write reboot and the system rebooted. But sometimes it did not work and i needed to force shutdown. Which i hate to do because i am always scared of hardware damage.
After 2 years of using Pop! OS i changed that notebook back to Windows 10 for my wife and bought a new notebook for my self (MSI Crosshair 15 B12BUGSZ), upgraded it with 64 GB of ram and installed 2x 4TB Samsung 990 pro’s (everything maxed out). The only problem with this unit was, no Linux support so i had to use Windows 11. I have used it for 1 year, till i discovered kernel 6.x had fixes for MSI notebooks. I thought about it for a few months to switch back to Pop! OS because i loved it. Because i hate all the bloatware in Windows, the spyware that cannot be turned off because it will be forced enabled again and so on i made the switch. Since september 2024 i am back on Linux again and i have no desire to switch back to windows. Same as my wife because she transferred photos from one disk to another and Windows abruptly interrupted this and rebooted the machine to finish updates (without knowing it was updating).
Now after a few months of using Pop! OS i still was eager to try Endeavour OS. I did read on distrowatch alot and all i read was positive reviews so i made the live iso booting using ventoy. I already noticed how smooth the live session went so i tried Endeavour on our oldest notebook for testing purpose. I used the live installation with KDE and once installed i played a bit around. All eyes went away from Pop! OS and i got hooked behind Endeavour OS, the customizations the ease of use…just wow!. I showed my wife Endeavour OS and she also loved it. So 2 out of 3 machines are now running Endeavour OS.
HP Pavilion G7-2310ED and Acer Predator G9-793-71SJ are running Endeavour OS
MSI Crosshair 15 B12BUGSZ is running Pop! OS 22.04
The last machine will be upgraded too at a later time, just curious at Pop! OS 24.04 with cosmic.
Sorry for the long story, but this is my Linux journey. @BendTheKnee
-Forum 
