Linux offers many operating system options, but this variety can also make it difficult for newcomers to start.
Linux offers many operating system options, but this variety can also make it difficult for newcomers to start.
I'm not all about open source or anything. Commercial software has its role too, especially when it comes to attracting top talent for critical projects like enterprise systems and exploit analysis. It's crucial to have skilled people on important tasks, and over time those improvements benefit everyone. Running Windows or macOS is fine for me, but I prefer Linux since I'm Arch user. Keeping a Windows copy on another drive makes sense—you never know when things might fail, and sometimes you need a backup fast.
I store the newest Ubuntu LTS version on a USB drive; the install scripts are available in Ubuntu's repository, which is handy for quick fixes. For Arch, I wonder why you haven't adopted Btrfs yet? I'm using Gentoo and its Btrfs snapshots have helped me recover installations several times—something you might discover by working with a system like that.
I'm using btrfs but haven't taken snapshots lately. The installation has been very stable for over six months now. Most important files are on other drives or my NAS, and I keep backups of scripts and configurations. The OS is holding up well, so data loss isn't a major concern. I really want to switch from ext4 to btrfs in my lab/webserver, but if anything goes wrong it could take hours to recover and I'd lose everything. I think the best approach would be adding a second SSD, replacing the original drive with a DDD, and keeping it as a backup. I'm also planning to install the btrfs grub module (I've seen the /boot/grub/grub-btrfs file) but haven't checked yet. My server is running smoothly, so unless it breaks, I'll stick with what works.
Only when you need to start from snapshots and have a trustworthy method to change Btrfs to ext4 is it useful. That said, it’s wise to keep backups safe. I organized my backups long before setting up my lab.