vv's (b)log

Preamble

After a decade of having macOS as my one and only OS for all of my home computing needs, I decided that it was time for me to tinker a bit with GNU/Linux too.

The decision was also influenced by the fact that after joining the fruit company, the amount of work that I do on GNU/Linux systems has dropped considerably (as one can imagine), but there is a part of me that deeply enjoys hacking around Linux systems, or as someone would say,

[..] exploring the limits of what is possible, in a spirit of playful cleverness [..]

Full build

Here are some hardware specs:

CPU: Intel Core i5-124000F 12th Gen (ships with 12 cores and it's good enough for what I need)
RAM: Corsair Vengeance LPX 2x16GB
GPU: Originally a ASUS Phoenix GeForce GTX 1050 Ti, replaced with a MSI GeForce RTX 3050 so I could reach above 20 fps in Age of Empires 4 : )
Hard Disk: 1TB SSD, Crucial P3 Plus: https://uk.pcpartpicker.com/product/chzhP6/crucial-p3-plus-1-tb-m2-2280-nvme-solid-state-drive-ct1000p3pssd8
PSU: EVGA SuperNOVA 650GM 650W : https://uk.pcpartpicker.com/product/Fq8j4D/evga-supernova-650-gm-650-w-80-gold-certified-fully-modular-sfx-power-supply-123-gm-0650-y1
Motherboard: ASRock Z690M-ITX https://uk.pcpartpicker.com/product/2PYmP6/asrock-z690m-itxax-mini-itx-lga1700-motherboard-z690m-itxax
Case: Fractal Design Ridge (Black) https://uk.pcpartpicker.com/product/y2t9TW/fractal-design-ridge-mini-itx-tower-case-fd-c-rid1n-01

OS

Arch Linux (currently)
Desktop manager: KDE Plasma
Window Manager: KWin
screenfetch:

                   -`                 
                  .o+`                 
                 `ooo/                 OS: Arch Linux 
                `+oooo:                Kernel: x86_64 Linux 6.4.2-arch1-1
               `+oooooo:               Uptime: 4d 9h 43m
               -+oooooo+:              Packages: 1462
             `/:-:++oooo+:             Shell: bash 5.1.16
            `/++++/+++++++:            Resolution: 2560x1080
           `/++++++++++++++:           DE: KDE 5.107.0 / Plasma 5.27.6
          `/+++ooooooooooooo/`         WM: KWin
         ./ooosssso++osssssso+`        GTK Theme: Breeze [GTK2/3]
        .oossssso-````/ossssss+`       Icon Theme: Mondrian
       -osssssso.      :ssssssso.      Disk: 265G / 926G (31%)
      :osssssss/        osssso+++.     CPU: 12th Gen Intel Core i5-12400F @ 12x 5.6GHz [41.0°C]
     /ossssssss/        +ssssooo/-     GPU: NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3050
   `/ossssso+/:-        -:/+osssso+-   RAM: 17988MiB / 31930MiB
  `+sso+:-`                 `.-/+oso: 
 `++:.                           `-/+/
 .`                                 `/

Notes: Yes, I tried i3 as a window manager, but my impression was that it only works fine for when I'm doing dev tasks that only require a terminal a browser; if I am doing anything that requires a floating window (like using Houdini or other DCCs) then it starts to be confusing instead of helping.

First boot:

My first SFF build with Arch linux

Preamble

Full build

OS