Linux guide for power users (2022) • Hacker News Board

Re: Linux guide for power users (2022)

#11

Post by frfl » Mon, Aug 07, 2023, 6:01 PM UTC

orliesaurus wrote: post #3

Why would you install Arch-based Manjaro? Why not just go with a flavor of Ubuntu to start becoming productive from like minute 5? And if you're really trying to become a super-user why not NixOS?

Personally, the biggest appeal of Arch is the great wiki, a large number of up to date packages without snap/ppa whatever else Ubuntu makes you do, and the AUR for anything else that isn't available in the regular package repos.

I've only used Ubuntu for work, and typically the versions of things are quite out of date. Where as Arch, for all it's warts and costs (setup, maintenance etc) gives you those things for free.

I haven't found Arch that much more difficult to work with. For 2 years I used it on a work laptop without issue. Only recently messed up something while updating firmware drivers which requires more than 5 mins/week/month to diagnose.

Re: Linux guide for power users (2022)

#12

Post by BillyTheMage » Mon, Aug 07, 2023, 6:03 PM UTC

nateb2022 wrote: post #7

31b3r3t7 wrote: post #6

Power users use Gentoo.

Not if they don't want to spend a third of their time maintaining their system.

That's a bunch of propaganda. Sure it takes longer for the initial setup, there's no "click this button to install Gentoo" menu, but once you've got it setup it's easier to maintain.

Re: Linux guide for power users (2022)

#13

Post by bil7 » Mon, Aug 07, 2023, 6:04 PM UTC

frantathefranta wrote: post #9

> As said before, in this tutorial we will be using Manjaro due to it: > * containing a fully configured system (yes bloat, idc its a beginners tutorial) So is it for beginners or power users? Or can that be the same person? Choice of Manjaro is also curious, considering its history.

You can drop in replace Manjaro with EndeavourOS to achieve Arch on easy mode these days.

Re: Linux guide for power users (2022)

#14

Post by frfl » Mon, Aug 07, 2023, 6:05 PM UTC

thatcherthorn wrote: post #4

As someone who switched from Windows to Linux in college, I have no regrets. All of the rough edges I've encountered (usually) have resulted in a better understanding of how software actually works.

I feel exactly the same. Not going down this route around the same time I probably would've gone Windows 7 -> Windows 10 -> Windows 11 and had to deal with all that brings with it.

Instead going fully Linux had its pain points, but the learning, exposure to everything and the experience was well worth it. Looking back, so many of the issue I ran into ~10 years ago barely exist today - at least I rarely run into those kind of hurdles either due to more experience or the ecosystem just being quite stable and mature now.

Re: Linux guide for power users (2022)

#15

Post by BillyTheMage » Mon, Aug 07, 2023, 6:05 PM UTC

orliesaurus wrote: post #3

Why would you install Arch-based Manjaro? Why not just go with a flavor of Ubuntu to start becoming productive from like minute 5? And if you're really trying to become a super-user why not NixOS?

I think there are just as many reasons to avoid Manjaro and Arch as there are to avoid Ubuntu, maybe even more for Ubuntu. Ubuntu is a mess.

Re: Linux guide for power users (2022)

#16

Post by safety1st » Mon, Aug 07, 2023, 6:08 PM UTC

orliesaurus wrote: post #3

Why would you install Arch-based Manjaro? Why not just go with a flavor of Ubuntu to start becoming productive from like minute 5? And if you're really trying to become a super-user why not NixOS?

NixOS is not an obvious choice if you want to become a "Linux super-user." It takes a very unconventional approach to package management, building and configuring your system. All great for what it is but not going to teach you the conventional Linux way of doing things.

I don't know if this is still the case but when installing Arch, it used to be that you would start with a very basic set of essential packages and then build everything up from scratch. That is a great way to become a power user. However I thought the whole point of Manjaro was that it's an Arch variant which does a bunch of that for you, so Manjaro's a weird choice for this guide.

Edit: Looks like doing a vanilla Arch install is still pretty gangsta: https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/installation_guide#Install_...

Re: Linux guide for power users (2022)

#17

Post by freedomben » Mon, Aug 07, 2023, 6:13 PM UTC

frantathefranta wrote: post #9

> As said before, in this tutorial we will be using Manjaro due to it: > * containing a fully configured system (yes bloat, idc its a beginners tutorial) So is it for beginners or power users? Or can that be the same person? Choice of Manjaro is also curious, considering its history.

> So is it for beginners or power users? Or can that be the same person?

Reasonable and good question. I tend to see that as orthogonal (but with some overlap) as "power user" is more of a mindset to me.

Re: Linux guide for power users (2022)

#18

Post by benbenolson » Mon, Aug 07, 2023, 6:15 PM UTC

freedomben wrote: post #17

frantathefranta wrote: post #9

> As said before, in this tutorial we will be using Manjaro due to it: > * containing a fully configured system (yes bloat, idc its a beginners tutorial) So is it for beginners or power users? Or can that be the same person? Choice of Manjaro is also curious, considering its history.

> So is it for beginners or power users? Or can that be the same person? Reasonable and good question. I tend to see that as orthogonal (but with some overlap) as "power user" is more of a mindset to me.

I see it as "power user" meaning "a power user of Windows."

Re: Linux guide for power users (2022)

#19

Post by freedomben » Mon, Aug 07, 2023, 6:15 PM UTC

frfl wrote: post #14

thatcherthorn wrote: post #4

As someone who switched from Windows to Linux in college, I have no regrets. All of the rough edges I've encountered (usually) have resulted in a better understanding of how software actually works.

I feel exactly the same. Not going down this route around the same time I probably would've gone Windows 7 -> Windows 10 -> Windows 11 and had to deal with all that brings with it. Instead going fully Linux had its pain points, but the learning, exposure to everything and the experience was well worth it. Looking back, so many of the issue I ran into ~10 years ago barely exist today - at least I rarely run into those…

Likewise. I think moving my whole life to Linux has also benefitted my career greatly. Because of the time I've spent hacking on my personal system, squeezing out performance, fixing common issues, etc, I'm pretty damn good at doing so for Linux servers. Those skills have come in really handy for me many times.

Re: Linux guide for power users (2022)

#20

Post by pxc » Mon, Aug 07, 2023, 6:18 PM UTC

bil7 wrote: post #13

frantathefranta wrote: post #9

> As said before, in this tutorial we will be using Manjaro due to it: > * containing a fully configured system (yes bloat, idc its a beginners tutorial) So is it for beginners or power users? Or can that be the same person? Choice of Manjaro is also curious, considering its history.

You can drop in replace Manjaro with EndeavourOS to achieve Arch on easy mode these days.

Arch has easy mode built in¹ these days.

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1: https://github.com/archlinux/archinstall