Comrades, if I can install Linux, then you can too. I am the noobiest of noobs. The most advanced thing I can do with computers is write semi-complicated formulas in Excel; I can't even do SQL. I was struggling to get Linux installed and then on Friday I figured out what was wrong (bad USB stick) and the rest of the installation was pretty easy. Yes, unlike Windows you have to do weird things to install programs, it's not like Windows where you can download an .exe file and let the OS take care of the rest. You have to do weird shit in the terminal. But if you just search for stuff and then copy and paste into the terminal what people tell you to, it's really not that bad.
Actually installing apps on Linux is easier because you do it all from your package manager (app store) and you get to update them and the installation itself from there
yea typing apt install <app> in the terminal is much easier than searching around the internet for .msi files. Not sure why people dislike terminals so much
linux: dude we automatically applied some surgically precise security patches even tho nobody is targeting you and nobody is likely to hack you, unless you disabled that feature
windows/android: here's what's in today's slop: we re-enabled autoupdate and re-enabled surveillance, you must have turned those off by accident, the new versions of the apps now include more ads, we replaced the 5kb native app with a 150MB electron javascript app, we noticed users were confused (confused: noun in a state of not entering credit card) when software was discoverable, had hotkeys, and features, etc, so we deleted 90% of the options/features and moved the rest into DLC. BTW login is required to use the new calculator.
The only spooky thing is knowing what the package is called.
I remember when i was first playing with Ubuntu, I was like 14, pre unity. I knew I had to install an application via the terminal, but it felt like looking into a dark room. How does it work? where does it look? is it magic? can I just type "apt-get install firefox"? okay that worked, what about this other app, that didn't work, is that the right name? etc
My #1 thing I suggest to newbies is just practice your googling. Knowing how to google a question to find the right forum post makes the biggest difference. Also read the post to understand what you're doing. It's totally possible to copy and paste something nefarious into your terminal. Its rare but does exist.
Fast forward like 13-14 years. Linux is my primary OS, I screw around with internals, I can fix a lot of issues without googling because I know "oh this is broken, this is linked to this so lets just try "turning off and on again" this service.
My #1 thing I suggest to newbies is just practice your googling. Knowing how to google a question to find the right forum post makes the biggest difference.
this applies to all things computer, as well. a lot of the questions users ask i don't know the answer to, they're basically just submitting tickets to have somebody else google the answer for them.
Its impossible to know everything about computers. The most important skill is the ability to find the information. It can be simple like a stack overflow post, or advanced like looking into the kernel source to see what it does under the hood.
Most package managers have tab complete, just type something close and hit tab a couple times and it'll spit out a list of programs that match that search. Then just scroll through until you find the one you need and hit ctrl-c to exit the list and up arrow to reload the last command then type in until hitting tab once completes the command
I think as power users we forget when we first learned "up arrow" in the terminal. I learned that shit painfully late somehow. There's all these small usage things that are rarely explained. I learned tab complete and up arrow from a TA or someone in a club going "wtf are you doing, do this" and having my mind blown.
My favorite one, ctrl+r to search bash history, more ctrl+r to go through them. There's more to it but that's how I primarily use it.
yea typing apt install <app> in the terminal is much easier than searching around the internet
if you're a technocratic redditor maybe
The idea of doing mundane things via a terminal can be intimidating for people and we've to reassure them that they don't need to deal with the terminal at all
Except one is a robust, open source program that gives you access to the inner workings of your machine and the other is a user space abstraction that tracks and records you
And all these options do exist which is what's wonderful about Linux. If you want to search the internet then you can use AppImages and if you want a really easy experience then you've your package manger and the terminal fans got their easy commands.
What I think is important is that we emphasis the fact that the terminal isn't in anyway required because it scares people away
Yeah, and trust that that your package repository (or more accurately some random contributor) has properly repackaged the program instead of you just downloading it straight from the publishers and knowing it will work and be safe (well, as safe as the publisher is).
Yes, I definitely trust my distribution way more than some random programmer. I already trusted my distro with admin access, a video editor doesn't and shouldn't run as admin.
If you are downloading the program at all, that means you are trusting its programmer. Downloading it from a repo is adding another party to trust vs downloading it directly from the programmer.
If I
apt install kdenliveand then run kdenlive, the program has never ran as root and cannot make itself run a service in the background, or log keystrokes, or install other things.If I download a package or an installer from the Internet the publisher runs a program as admin on my computer and can do whatever it wants, bundle adware, start hidden services, whatever.
My distribution is not 'another party to trust'. It's the party I already trust the most. If I or someone else find something harmful in a program that's on the repo, I expect the distro to remove the program or patch out the harmful parts, while I don't expect the first-party installer to become better in any way.
The day I never have to interact with the terminal is the day I'll switch to Linux
Except you have to memorize commands, which in my experience I always forget if I dont use them for, like, a week. Whereas with a well made gui you can deduce what you should do. Maybe have both?
but then you have to memorize aliases that nobody else uses and you also don't remember what they refer to
Hmm, I should learn how to do that. But then I get used to it and then get annoyed when I format my pc or have to use a different one... Also with a gui it's usually poasible to have a combination of keys that navigate it (usually starting with alt), so that you can still feel like a super hacker who does everything with the keyboard
Honestly forgetting (lesser-used) commands and then looking them up is half of what I do when getting stuff done in the terminal, but it's pretty easy to use the --help flag or man pages - beyond that web searches are a gold mine of one-liners for nearly every situation.
I replaced windows 7 with arch/kde on my mum's laptop and she didn't even notice
It's actually way better because Linux has actual, useful command line tools.
What do you use your device for? Most use cases don't require a terminal whatsoever
My experience is with a RPi4 running raspbian/PiOS. You want to run most instances of software that doesn't have fully fleshed out port, whether it be a disk imaging software, running a Doom port and queuing up mods, or running a VPN, you gotta do it through terminal. I don't want to live in the pod, and don't want to eat the worms, but that's just how it is. Anything that doesn't have a pre-existing fully developed software relies on workarounds or partial builds which run exclusively through terminal
Using a desktop is a very different experience really, running a VPN doesn't require using the terminal. Why don't you try something like Kubuntu out in a virtual machine?
My Mac computer shit the bed last week so i ordered a new computer that I'm going to set up Linux on.
Partly because I've wanted to do it for a while. Mostly because this place made it seem way less intimidating.
And you call yourself CyborgMarx smh What do you think Marx would use? Bill Gate's spyware? :marx-joker:
:libretion:
Cyborg Marx has collectivised the means of cyber production into a Beowulf Cluster that runs Dragonfly BSD.
Computas are hard :sadness:
Besides I'm a lover not a hacker :monke-ruserious:
Say we make a Linux support room on Matrix ( a Discord alternative), would you be interested?
What is the game? Gaming on Linux has come a long way and you can run quite a lot of Windows games on Linux using a program called Proton (or WINE) Here's a database of tested Windows games that run on Linux via Proton
Just messing around lol. I checked out the link, and yeah, it does serm to have come s long way from the days of linux the penguin skiing games snd snake.
Late to the party but installed Mint on an old laptop last month as my first toe into Linux, and it's tight as hell.
Awesome! Always great to hear that someone switched and that we might've had a role in it cuz of all the negativity we got here
Don't forget to join the !libre gang
:rat-salute:
