Hopefully we can make progress on the “getting people started” front instead of the “I hate UI and am superior to others” circlejerk
I haven’t personally encountered any of that myself. I personally don’t use GUIs (UI could also refer to a terminal) for anything other than apps that implemented one for their own settings and unless they use the same terminology as the terminal commands or files I wouldn’t be able to guide anybody through one. So if people are just unwilling to learn how to use a inferior yet simpler way to do something just because somebody who asked for help finds it simpler that seems totally reasonable.
I’ve tried my hardest to use Linux but gave up. I want to like it, but the hurdle is too high to get everyone on board. At the end of the day, the computer is a tool. Maybe a hand made walking stick is better than a manufactured one - someone who is not versed in the ergonomics and construction of walking sticks is going to opt for the stick that enables them to walk today. I use computers enough to see learning Linux as an investment, it’s just not something I have time for today.
I like that analogy. A walking stick you buy from a store can never fit you as perfectly as one you make yourself, but if you don’t know how to make a walking stick, you’re gonna make a shitty walking stick. I’m happy that I’m in a position to walk with a shitty stick until I get better at carving, so to speak
Over the years of using Windows (2010-2023), I don’t remember learning anything at all, only using the command line twice, once to check the hard disk and once to clean the registry… I’m in love with Linux terminal.
Over the years of using Windows (2010-2023)
I switched to Linux full time in 2011 👴. Was fed up with Windows 7’s bullshit.
But I must say, I leaned a tone while I was using Windows XP,. This is during this time I would build my first PCs, setup local network at home and for LAN parties, setup file sharing and damn printers 🤬, start to learn programming.
Did you not learn anything because you simply did not need to, perhaps? Because you can do a lot if you need to.
My gosh if it was easier I would have done so much with Windows before switching to Linux. Instead I was stuck with bad performance and annoying pop ups from my device manufacturer.
What popups? Am I doing something wrong/right that I do not get those? What could you not do but now can?
HP had a thing that popped up in my task bar that in order to hide I had open their preinstalled software that didn’t work.
Also less common were the Microsoft account things after updates and other Microsoft fullscreen things that caused serious difficulties as they wouldn’t even render right in some cases (I got something telling me to install windows 11 which wasn’t even possible for some reason and the close button was off screen, that happened the last time I used that computer after not having touched it for a couple of weeks).
Edit: Things I couldn’t do but can do now that I use Linux and learned how to:
- bind my own system key combinations
- select the right (GPU) driver version (though the newest has been fine for months now)
- use a launcher that doesn’t open bing in ms edge when I spell something wrong and just generally is quicker.
I guess so.
I’m still gonna have to dual boot for the foreseeable future, but I force myself to usually boot mint unless I want to play any vr/multiplayer/racing games (which is often, unfortunately). But I do really enjoy how much you can do in linux and learning it.
That’s why sausages are better than Linux: you can start using them on a professional level right from the start. And as a bonus sausages don’t use Nvidia!
…and this was before April…
This timeline is so fucked 😂😂😂
Do you guys also keep a notepad file on your desktop with all the usual commands and shortcuts on it? I can’t imagine remembering them all otherwise… and I kind of cringe at the non stop DDG ing I have to do to do some basic liux stuff.
Sometimes I’m searching for a recipe to some obscure Linux tool and finding my own answers on Stackoverflow from ten years ago.
I’m using my companies’ mediawiki personal user page to keep snippets and one liners that took me some time to cobble together. I export that regularly to a personal device, so, yes. I’ve found that I never look at it because once I’ve hammered something together I usually got the concept so next time it takes me a fraction of the time.
Just go up arrow til you dont need to anymore lol, i sometimes keep a sticky note, wish gnome had a sticky note in the topbar extension
Doesn’t gnome have that sticky app?
Yup
I use the up key for that
I use obsidian to make notes of how to install and setup applications from a fresh install, for example to install mariadb-libs when I install digikam so that I can use the mariadb database on my nas, and the way to mount my nas shares in fstab
No. Stuff I use more than once I just put in a shell file. I don’t really run much on the terminal besides those files and using it to update my system.
Yes.
Source: Am Systems Admin (engineer/architect/your mom)
This guy’s lucky to have such a good mum.
Remember to share your notepad with them, even if they’re all like, “mom, your bash usage is like from the '90s, so cringe!” Behind all the fuss, they’re still learning from you.
No never even crossed my mind but ig I was also in a competition for Linux that required me to memorize basically every single command and option
Which is bullshit tbh, which in turn is why I don’t like LPIC. Even RedHat exams give you VMs with full manpages. Know concepts and know what to expect from which tool, everything else is wasted resources.
I ctrl-r my history and set the histsize to some ludicrous value
History is documentation enough.
I’ve got things that need to run periodically set up in crontab, and create menu launchers for things that I run as needed.
I press up key in terminal to find my commands, as for shortcuts I only use a few so I already remembered all of them
Try a different shell, like fish or zsh, maybe. Something with really intense command auto-completion and history.
I personally use fish, it is amazing for this kind of thing.
ETA: also read up on rc files for whatever shell you are using. Creating aliases and functions based on what you do all the time is essential IMO.
I use KDE, and I put a sticky note widget on my top bar, so when you click it, it drops down (and then disappears when you click off of it). Whatever is on it is saved between sessions.
Works great for this kind of thing.
Edit: I also put a webbrowser widget up there that points to this handy site: https://linuxcommandlibrary.com/
Same deal, click the icon and the site drops down.
And the less you use Windows, the worse you get at using it. Luckily the bar for Windows competency is pretty low, just basic critical thinking skills and Google get you far.
basic critical thinking skills
My great-aunt would like a word with you.
You can make that point for any operating system, basic critical thinking could mean anything
You could but you’d be drawing a false equivalency.
I got an equivalency for ya
Pb(s)+2 HCl(aq)→PbCl2(s)+H2(g)
/triggered/
Oh hell no. My basic critical thinking applied to googling has got me to a forum with the solution to wi-fi not working in the form of “meh, it happens. reser all network settings and reboot”. Which became my personal turning point of “fuck this shit, I’d rather have actually debuggable software”
/cooled down/
Well, your point read as “look at the problem, search for solutions and you probably will find them” stands, it is the low competency bar that triggered me: to even know where crash logs etc might be on Windows is far beyond even “power user” level
What? It’s easy to find a solution to WiFi problems, come on.
Usually, sure, but mine was just that. It helped, so kind of solution anyway
If you’re searching online for how to fix the problem… Couldn’t you also search online on how to find the crash logs? I fully get sometimes not having enough knowledge in a subject to even know where to begin searching, but “well, the first result wasn’t helpful, guess I’ll stop looking for an answer” and “it says to check XYZ, but I don’t know what that is. Too bad I don’t have a way to search for what things are” aren’t exactly difficult hurtles to overcome.
I could, if only I knew they existed :)
I only learned windows had system-level crash logs by reading someone’s post about many programs ignoring that and thus it being way less helpful than one might expect it to be, while on Linux it seems something that gets picked up quite early: the system can write “check logs using journalctl something-somethng”, vast number of posts asking to provide system logs with the commands to get them, various troubleshooting guides mentioning system logging. Though in the end this difference can be traced to difference in philosophies: neither microsoft, nor most authors of online guides have a habbit of troubleshooting things this way
Honestly, potentially the more you use Windows the worse you get at it. You come to accept the garbage, but the more you try to fix it the more it fights you and the less stable it becomes. A user who just doesn’t touch anything is probably better off.
Windows I just got used to my issues and didn’t try to fix them if I couldn’t find similar issues online, with linux ill actually check for the issue and usually find and fix it (with the help of the internet, but the initial phase of finding what I need to search and what the issue is, I do better on linux)
But I use Linux all the time and am still horrible at it!
Fr, GitHub may as well be written in wingdings
Thank Linus for nerds that write proper readmes
You can actually go through the motions for years and learn nothing if the software allows for it.
That was me for a while, then I decided I was done learning computer. 💩
Meanwhile, when, as a little more than a basic user, I look at my system, feeling as if I’m dealing with a dumpster fire just to have that nagging recurrent insight: “I actually have a brain and can learn!”
Me when I realize the more I use Termux, the better I get at using Debian
This is why you have to switch to more and more difficult distros over time, to keep yourself on your toes
It’s a bell curve. Eventually you switch back to ez mode for your main machine and have alternative or niche distros on spare kit
Me going from Mint to Ubuntu to Kubuntu to Neon to Arch. My experience with the Arch installation process is just the command
shutdownSomeday I’ll be comfortable enough with this nerd shit to trust myself with unsupervised access to a CLI. Until then I’m happy just knowing what a DE is
next step is nixos! holy fuck transitioning from arch to nixos was hell, i did like 10 years of arch.
Or Gentoo? I haven’t used nixos yet so cant speak on it but Gentoo has been awesome to tinker and learn with.
Wow, in that way it’s almost like Linux is the same as every other thing.
Same with arson
What’s the Venn Diagram of “childhood pyromaniacs” and “Linux users” look like?
Can confirm. Made many sparkler/aerosol can boom.booms
Too fuckin real.
It’s just 1 circle with both labels in it.
Can confirm, I nearly burnt down my house twice and the car we were driving in down a busy highway once when I was a kid, now I use Linux.
You ever seen a really bad hemorrhoid?
Ok. Thank you. That’s enough internet for today.
God damn, dude! (☝︎ ՞ਊ ՞)☝︎
I only mean to say that the diagram would be one circle packed tightly inside a slightly larger one.
Hmm. Sounds like the Orange Orangutan fucking up the government: a hemorrhoid inside a hemorrhoid. 😎
Boom! Gottem.
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See, this is why you Linux users have a bad rep.
/s
If you are the “computer person” in your family, you probably have experience screwing with, breaking, and fixing whatever OSes you have used over the years.
The refreshing difference with Linux is that the software and the people who created it are not trying to prevent you from doing what you want with your computer.
