[ TIP ] How to get good at GNU/Linux

Gotta agree with this. A large portion of my day is spent supporting end-user types. These are supposedly technical people who are DBAs or coders etc etc…but they can’t handle fixing their own OS whether it’s Windows or Linux. The reason most of them use Windows is that there’s less of a gatekeeper attitude involved. Whether OP wants to be referred to as elitist or gatekeeping is irellevant. Telling someone how to “get good” at Linux is pointless for end users. They have as much interest at “getting good” at Linux as they do with “getting good” at Windows, or “getting good” at building a car. That is to say, no interest at all. Telling people that they need to “get good at Linux” if they ever expect to use Linux is the best marketing for Windows there is, and Microsoft got it for free.

The one thing technical people like us forget to easily and need to remember, is that the rest of the world is not like us, and has no interest in being like us, no matter how awesome we might think we are.

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Okay this is getting ridiculous. The post is only meant to advise users how to get better at using Linux. It’s meant as advice on how to gain experience.

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On the other hand, people expressing explicit interest in Linux most probably have some technical inclinations, even if the latter are limited with just pretending to be “cool” by using an alternative OS on their PC.

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God save us.

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Those feeding the troll are noobs, one may think. Yet I credit him with refraining from some of his initial aggression, reverting to more peaceful waters. Anyway, we all are such heros, aren’t we space explorers, astronauts and the like, riding on an Artemis-1 mission that has so far failed to launch, due to “mere technicalities”…

:rofl:

Warp Speed Mr Sulu…er, Mr Crusher…umm, Mr Paris…Mr Mayweather…Ms Detmer…Ms Ortegas…oh the heck with it, let’s rock and roll!

Statistics, statistics… The well known phrase “The average $WHATEVER wants…”, that anyone says, just to imply their personal opinion is what everyone else is thinking, is so old and used in so many cases…
Like:

WHATEVER="computer user"
WHATEVER="citizen"
WHATEVER="buyer"
WHATEVER="driver"
...

There is an important difference with Linux, in comparison to closed source OSes.
A “Linux user”, from the time he installs his system (whatever way), he is automatically becoming a System Administrator for his system. Thus, he has to learn how to do the job.

For other OS/vendors naming, it is just for fun, for those who can understand this kind of humor. Humor separates smart/intelligent people from the rest.

We could talk for hours, with evidence on human behavior (I have been experimenting on the subject all my life :smile: ), but it’s pointless.

Have fun, whatever OS you decide to use, whatever it might cost you (not only money :wink: )!

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:wink:

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Sorry but you’re wrong, that’s only a recent development with Windows 11, where a certain M brand wants to manage it for you (no thanks). Up to that point, the end user was (and in many ways still is) responsible for owning and admining their own system. But most of them do a terrible job, because again, they have little interest in the minutae of things like that. It’s another appliance like the fridge or the car or the phone. If it breaks you have your support person take care of it. No one has to learn that job, and if you try to tell them they do, then they’re as likely to walk away from you just out of spite. I fondly remember when using a computer automatically meant learning and having skills, but those days are long gone, and only a select few have the technical expertise required to do things like operate a C64 or a DOS machine, where you really DIDN’T have a choice.

I remember that, my first PC was an IBM-186 with a proprietrary IBM-DOS, a shelf full of printed handbooks, and a typewheel-printer, with exchangeable typewheels for different fonts. The printer had a color-ribbon (meaning only black color), if anyone remembers such a thing here (it was a true wonderwork of mechanics, before dot-matrix printers even appeared).

I got so all-hyped-up about it, until I tried entering format c:
Then my being-hyper was softly killed, very quickly, as I was missing the original floppy-discs to re-install the system, and meanwhile, the IBM-Dos had gotten out of fashion…

According to your perspective, that may be very true, while my parallel-statement to yours (uttered to someone else) was somewhere around Windows-NT’s E-O-L.

I really don’t know what’s happening here, people that spent some time in this forums already knows how @Kresimir mixes jokes with serious opinion on almost every post, so, my advice is:

image

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This thread surely drifted in some unexpected ways. But so did mine.

@Kresimir was being quite serious in his OP, and so was I in my thread’s OP.

If @moderators allow, why not chit-chat some? I think it is somewhat vital to this forum at the current state, and socializing is also important, next to main issues and seriousness, when it comes to troubleshooting linux, or hw-issues.

YMMV

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That’s exactly how I did it back then. And I had no one in my environment who could help me, all only Windows disciples … So it was all the more liberating for me when I was finally able to get Ubuntu running.

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I remember at the beginning of being here I was seriously :rage: @Kresimir, but didn’t know the frog personality. Now I know, and take these posts with a grain of :broccoli: He has contributed nicely, so can’t be upset against his posts. It is objectively impossible. :innocent:

That’s for sure. However, the longer I use Linux the more I despise windows. Just having to install it, update it, or abide by any of Microsoft’s terms of agreement or login with one of their accounts, it just drives me nuts. I find it strange overall how people can still use it, particularly the file explorer and application launcher with ads, these are the same for every users and it is a mess. Most every day users think they have no choice. Crazy stuff…

However, I can live with people who use windows or mac’s, it’s their choice.

But this discussion doesn’t have a place here, I guess, one doesn’t get better at Linux by despising another OS :smirk:

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I objectivvely disagree with your subjective supposition.

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The methodologies explained by @Kresimir is quite simple and sufficient for new users.


What he told basically is made up of following steps :

  1. Remove windows.
  2. Install any Linux OS without dual booting in order to avoid complications.
  3. Get to know how that OS works. If one needs simple GUI based OS, use Mint. If not, use EndeavourOS.
  4. Learn basic system commands for daily use. Study the Wiki, roam in forum in order to enhance the knowledge.
  5. If got comfortable and had acquired knowledge, try to make some scripts.
  6. Don’t rush…

If we look at these steps, it is clear that nothing can be simpler than these if someone wants to use Linux for day to day tasks.

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No. Though to be honest i probably wouldn’t recommend EOS to most first timers or beginners anyway, so the point is moot in an EOS forum. It’s not QUITE easy enough to use for someone who hadn’t gotten their clue yet, though i think if they adopt Pacseek by default it would make it just barely easy enough for some beginners who are interested in being more than professional end users.

The “point” is established by the original topic author clearly enough.

Mind the but.
It is targeting those that complain about linux being unfamiliar (to their previous experience and habbits), because they think what they are familiar to, is the normal way of how computers work. We need a psychiatrist to explain it better, if anyone finds it difficult to. Obviously, some cannot understand this, but it is not a crime :person_shrugging: .

Hopefully not. If there is anyone new to linux here, then you are proven wrong, suggesting new users don’t try to learn Linux (or anything else), because they are professional lazy, or have very important things to do, if I interpret properly your description of them. Are you starting to realize your completely mistaken perception?

In fact, the topic is targeting those that are going to be called for assistance from those actual super-new Linux users, so that they can pass them the message (some tips to try feel comfortable with a different Operating System, than what they have experience with). Practically, it helps actual readers to cope with the frustration of being insulted for completely wrong reasons from people with inability to learn something new (which is not a crime, but blaming something/someone else instead of yourself, is a kind of crime against yourself).

You are welcome! :wink:


Edited: Nevertheless, trying to be fair, we should not pretend that everything is fine in the Linux world, so I suggest this excellent video (apart from the vulgar language :confounded:) that could hopefully help (a few or a lot of) happy Linux users step down of the horse/cloud. :cloud_with_rain: .

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Definitely Yes.

I am the new user who had directly converted from Windows without any prior knowledge about EndeavourOS or any other distribution just on the basis of the points kept by EndeavourOS in its homepage.

And my experience with Linux starts with this year’s February only, and at that time I had joined EndeavourOS.

I had came year here with nothing, was even not aware of the termininologies used in Linux, not even know how to download software, update system, etc. But by reading Wiki, and most importantly by asking and lookong in the forum. My first ever topic here was about to know the basic commands which new user should be aware of.

And I managed to stay on Linux without any need to look for Windows just because of the steps explained in this topic by @Kresimir .

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