Linux

On a beautiful day, I was minding my own business, tinkering around on my computer and suddenly… Pitch black! Power outage. All electronics go dark, and I have to resort to pre-digital-era distractions until the power’s back. No big deal. Some time passes and the power is finally restored. Back in my comfy seat, ready to pick up my digital wandering where it got interrupted, I press the power button and eagerly wait. Few seconds later, I’m greeted with an unfamiliar boot menu. It definitely isn’t Grub, to my surprise. It’s the Windows bootloader1… How? Why? Where did my beloved Arch installation go? And just like that, down the rabbit hole I dove in pursuit of a plausible explanation for this mystery. But before I take you down with me through this tortuous investigation, I think I need to lay down some foundational context first. ...

I’ve been on Arch Linux for years now and if there’s one thing I miss from the old Windows days, it’s got to be gaming. I’m not a professional gamer by any stretch of the imagination, or a gamer period, for that matter. I just like to check out some titles here and there, mainly for immersive experiences, and the occasional intellectual puzzle. If I were to guess, I’d put my average play time around the 2-to-3h-per-month ballpark. So, “sacrificing” gaming for the benefit of a better operating system was a no-brainer. I took the plunge the moment I could - no regrets there. That being said, gaming was always at the back of my mind. I’d see new games come out, or gameplay recordings of old favorite games of mine, and just wish I could whip out my Fortnite costume and sink one or two hours in an adrenaline-spiking FPS game. And no, I don’t actually have a gaming costume - it’s just an expression. I don’t even remember ever playing Fortnite, come to think of it. Do you think I should give it a try? ...