Izimani | Shorts in privacy

The centerpiece of my privacy efforts is my new home server (or homelab, if you’re a fan of those white coats). It’s a cute little Chuwi Larkbox X that’s running CachyOS (I really wanted to give Proxmox a try, but I had to accept defeat).

Now, I’ve been a full-time laptop nerd for ages. As I’m frequently on the go, I’m pretty used to a laptop-only setup, with no external displays and no keyboard/mouse combo. However, if I wanted to set up my glorious home server, I needed some peripherals.

Fortunately, I had a beautiful Keychron K2 keyboard lying around (from my mechanical keyboard masterrace days), and I borrowed my girlfriend’s corporate mouse. All fine, all dandy to get the pre-installed Windows superseded by my new friend, CachyOS.

If you want to install a new OS from a USB stick, you have to enter the boot menu, of course. For whatever reason, manufacturers cannot agree on a standard key combo to open this menu, so you have to look it up on the interwebs. Been there, done that, no worries: it’s just a quick search.

Well, a quick search revealed that it might be F7. Or F2. Or F2+Del. Maybe only Del. No, it’s Esc.

For me, however, it was none of the above. I just kept smashing through all the key combos I found on the internet with no success, and an ever-increasing fear that I might be stuck with Windows 11 forever. The horror!

That’s when I noticed my Keychron was in Bluetooth mode.

While some folks in the software engineering community have relatively strong opinions about their operating systems ("I use Arch, btw"), I’ve never really cared. If the OS doesn’t get in my way, and I can do my thing on my computer, I’m just fine.

And believe it or not, even for software development (especially with the introduction of WSL2), Windows was just fine! Once I got used to the eye-rolling from fellow devs, I had no issues.

Recently, however, Windows started to get in my way. The bloatware. The AI crap. The telemetry. And consequently, the poor performance and even poorer privacy.

I just want to do my thing on my computer. For that end, I must have an OS installed. But that’s no longer Windows.

Good riddance, Windows! Welcome, CachyOS!