Linux Distros &
Full Stack Currents.
Part 4 — Arch and NixOS as daily drivers, why Linux RAM works completely differently to Windows, and the full minimalist tool stack that runs this whole operation.
Arch & NixOS — two different disciplines.
I am still constantly learning the Linux ecosystem. My next steps have landed on two daily driver distributions: Arch Linux and NixOS. Both are for the kind of person willing to go deep. Neither is a casual recommendation — but both reward the effort in different ways.
Arch is my primary learning environment. It runs fast and efficient on bleeding-edge rolling releases — meaning software is always at the latest version, updated through a single command: pacman -Syu.
Think of it as a system that is always in motion. No waiting for version upgrades. No stale packages. The discipline of maintaining it is the point.
NixOS is a completely different approach. You write what you want in a configuration file, then run nixos-rebuild switch. The system only builds exactly what you wrote — nothing more, nothing less.
Each rebuild creates a "generation" — a complete, saved snapshot of your system. If something breaks, you roll back to the previous generation instantly. nix-collect-garbage removes all obsolete files cleanly, with nothing left behind — unlike pacman -Rns on Arch, which can still leave trace files from old versions.
Imagine taking a complete photograph of your entire operating system at a moment in time. Every program installed, every setting configured, saved as one snapshot. NixOS calls this a generation. If you install something new and it breaks things, you simply select the previous generation from the boot menu and your system is exactly as it was before — instantly, completely, with zero manual recovery. It is undo for your entire operating system.
This does sound complex to newcomers, or even intermediate Linux users who have been on more mainstream platforms like Ubuntu or Zorin — where most of this is handled through a GUI (Graphical User Interface — the visual, clickable menus you are used to). But the discipline of doing the extra work, of checking in on your system regularly and keeping it clean, is exactly the point. Any system can accumulate proprietary bloat or leftover files from older versions that cost you hard drive space and slow you down over time.
Why Linux RAM works differently.
This is one of the most misunderstood things for anyone migrating from Windows. Your RAM — the short-term memory your computer uses while it is running — behaves completely differently between the two systems. And once you understand it, you realise Linux is doing something much smarter.
The Linux kernel operates on a simple but powerful philosophy: if memory is sitting empty, put it to work. So Linux fills unused RAM by caching the programs and files you use regularly. The next time you open your browser, terminal, or any frequently used application — it launches noticeably faster because Linux already held it in memory, ready to go.
Spare RAM is used as a disk cache. Programs you use regularly are kept in memory. They load fast. The moment an application actually needs that RAM, the kernel hands it back instantly — no disruption, no slowdown.
RAM tends to sit idle between active use. Each time you reopen an app, Windows reloads it from scratch — reading from the disk again, from start to finish. This gets progressively slower the more you run simultaneously.
So if you open htop or any system monitor on Linux and see most of your RAM "used" — that is not a problem. That is Linux working exactly as intended. The memory will be released immediately if any running application needs it. Empty RAM is genuinely wasted potential on Linux.
Learning this after decades as a Windows user is a real shift. It also explains why Linux tends to feel snappier for daily workflow once you have been on it for a week — the system builds a memory profile of how you work, and your regular tools stop feeling like they are loading from zero every time.
Five tools. The whole operation.
I am a pretty simple person when it comes to software. No subscription bloat, no cloud lock-in, no thirty tabs of settings to configure before I can start working. Here is the current stack:
Helium is a de-Googled, open-source Chromium browser built privacy-first from the ground up. Ads, trackers, and third-party cookies are blocked automatically. uBlock Origin comes pre-installed — notably important now that Google has been restricting uBlock Origin on standard Chrome. It also proxies your Chrome Web Store extension installs through Helium's own servers, so Google cannot correlate your extensions with your IP or account. The browser itself is fast and light because it has no crypto, no AI widgets, no feature bloat eating background resources.
LibreWolf takes the same philosophy to the Firefox side — a hardened build of Firefox that strips telemetry from the start, based on the Arkenfox privacy philosophy. If you prefer the Firefox engine and its self-hosted sync infrastructure, LibreWolf is the cleaner version.
Heads up: Helium is currently in active beta. DRM (the tech that lets streaming services like Netflix verify playback) and browser sync are not yet fully supported. Keep a backup browser for streaming until that lands.
Ghostty is the most modern terminal I have used — GPU-accelerated, meaning it uses your graphics card for rendering text and colours rather than the CPU. The result is noticeably smoother scrolling, complex colour themes that actually render correctly, and zero lag even on long outputs.
It supports split windows and tabs natively, without needing extra plugins like tmux. It sits in the right middle ground: more capable than bare-bones terminals like foot or alacritty, but much lighter than heavy setups like kitty with its plugin ecosystem.
Zeditor (the Arch package name for the Zed editor — renamed to avoid a collision with the system's ZFS daemon) gives a clean graphical feel with a visible file tree, strong customisation through config files, and a familiar layout for anyone migrating from VS Code or Vim. It handles multiple file types cleanly and stays fast.
Micro is the terminal-based fallback — a complete replacement for nano with keybinds that actually make sense to a modern user. When your system goes sideways and you need to edit a config file in the terminal without a GUI, Micro is what you reach for.
An absolute gem. OnlyOffice handles nearly every document format imaginable — Word files, PDFs, spreadsheets, presentations — and opens them all inside separate tabs in a single window. Need to cross-reference a Markdown draft while reviewing a PDF? One window, two tabs, done. The Microsoft Office compatibility is solid, and it runs entirely locally with no cloud subscription required.
Claude remains the undisputed king of AI agents and assistants in my workflow — both in the browser and in Claude Code in the terminal, where it handles troubleshooting and vibe coding for the things I love building. The memory system and query handling take the cake in comparison to Gemini, GPT, and others for my specific use case.
Note: I may be wrong in the broader comparison — tools like more specialised multi-agent frameworks exist for larger team workflows. Claude just works for what I need, both in-browser and in the terminal. It is a tool. I use it as one.
The full Zeditor / Ghostty / NixOS setup was documented live in SQ05 — The Arch Ascent, including real screenshots of the rig running. This entry extends that foundation with NixOS now added to the daily driver rotation.
The why.
A lot of people are just straight lazy about this — out of comfort and complacency. I am not here to be mean about how people want to live their lives. This is just a demonstration of what could be more productive in small ways, and of reclaiming the lost focus that could be used to build genuinely great things.
I am just a man who learned to let go of many things that did not serve me personally — because I never liked adhering to the same thing as everybody else. Being abnormal is my ethos when it comes to learning things I could have picked up a decade ago.
The message is simple: if you have even a shred of self-awareness to question the why, you will find your way to the how.