Ubuntu Once More

Trying Ubuntu 25.10

More than once a year, I get the itch to change the Linux distro I use daily. To make this easier, I bought a Lenovo IdeaPad Slim 3 to serve as my dedicated "distrohopper" laptop.

This time, however, I took a bigger leap and installed it on my main desktop PC. I had a spare SSD full of video games, which I formatted for the occasion. I downloaded the ISO, ran balenaEtcher , and hoped for the best.

My current PC setup has two displays: one 4K and one 2K. The 2K monitor is connected via HDMI, so most Linux distros default to it as the main display. However, my 4K IPS display, connected via DisplayPort, is my actual primary. It has a 144Hz refresh rate and vibrant colors, making it perfect for my needs.

Unfortunately, Linux installations often disagree. Whenever I tried to install Ubuntu with both displays connected, the installation would abruptly fail. I spent two hours debugging the issue, but error messages, error codes, and online forums offered no clear explanation.

Finally, I spotted the word "display" in an error message. Drawing on past experiences with Linux distros, I decided to disconnect my 4K display. It worked! Ubuntu 25.10 installed successfully on my main PC.

The NTFS support is fantastic, and the EXT4 support in WSL2 is also great. It's wonderful that Windows and Linux can finally read and write to each other's filesystems.

GRUB, however, is currently a disaster. I can't edit the entries for some reason, and I don't want to risk breaking my setup, so I'm leaving it alone for now. I might look into it tomorrow...

What to do after installation

The first thing I did was install zsh. For reasons I can't quite explain, I always install oh-my-zsh and git right away. Here's a list of my essential (not really) apps:

• Zen Browser (my current favorite)
• Zed
• CLion (Linux is the only platform I use for C++ development)
• VSCode
• Sublime Text (Zed has mostly replaced it for now)
• Insomnia (and Postman)
• Spotify
• Youtube Music (pear)
• VLC
• Obsidian
• dotnet
• go + golangci-lint
• node.js runtime
• GH CLI
• Gemini CLI
• GNOME Tweak Tool
• GNOME Extensions
  • Apps Menu
  • ISO Clock
• Grub Customizer (which doesn't seem to be working)

Why

I'm a Debian fan who loves using Fedora. I know it sounds weird, but it's true. Fedora has always been the only OS that works as seamlessly with my peripherals as Windows. I've tried to install Debian on every machine I've owned but could never get it to run properly. So, as a Debian enthusiast, I enjoy trying its different flavours. For some reason, Ubuntu just works. I'm currently very happy with my setup. :yay: