I’m not a computer expert or planning to be. I’m just a computer user, a coder, a gamer, and I think I will get the opportunity to afford cheaper PCs if I use the Arch distro from Linux which is very lightweight and fast. I’ve heard Microsoft forces you to bloat your PC with win11.
For a programmer, learning the Unix CLI is quite recommended, because it gives you tools that you otherwise would have to find for each particular use-case. Once you get the hang of it, you see that Unix lets you combine a bunch of utils to do many unforseen tasks, while in Windows you’re expected to get a specific app to do any particular task.
PowerShell allows you to do some of that, but it’s woefully behind the times compared to Unix tools that were around for ages, and is simultaneously too complicated for its own good. Plus afaik it’s tied to the OS version, which sucks.
I advise reading through any oldstyle book on ‘learning the Linux CLI’. Even if you don’t remember most of it afterwards, you get the grasp on what utils are available to you, and can find them when the need arises.
Also, @CarlLandry357@lemmy.world, another factor in learning the CLI is that it gives you power in automating your desktop workflow. Using Bash with a bunch of Unix tools is the most basic automation script you can have, and Linux is very nimble about it (invoking processes is considerably more costly in Windows, so apps tend to do everything in a single process with threads).
For example, a file manager like Double Commander can have custom actions for files defined in the options, and you specify those as a terminal command to invoke.
A more advanced example is a launcher like Alfred (for MacOS) that can run scripts on custom keywords. I’ve had it doing stuff like connecting/disconnecting bluetooth headphones without mucking about with the mouse and tray menus, or handing the headphones over to the phone. Haven’t found anything like that for Linux yet.
Generally, a programmer that knows multiple languages and paradigms is better than one that sticks to a single one, because they’ve encountered different ways of doing things. Particularly, for desktop automation, learning Lua is a boon, because it’s small and fast as hell and finishes scripts before Python can start up. I’m in perpetual mourning for absence of anything like Hammerspoon for Linux, which allows scripting in Lua and has lots of APIs to interface with the OS.
Of course, one milestone in a programmer’s career is learning Lisp instead of the usual stuff.