Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Linux guide for power users (2022)

xnacly.me

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

21–30 of 110 posts

Re: Linux guide for power users (2022)

#21

Post by Corsome »

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 have the same experience. In my case everything worked fine out of the box (after several test installs of Arch).

The best distro for a new Linux user is actually the same distro your best friend uses. When things get dire it's good to have a direct help (Arch Wiki is great but one needs to know how to extract most or its knowledge).

Re: Linux guide for power users (2022)

#22

Post by vdfs »

frfl wrote: post #11
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 I've only used Ubuntu for work, and typically the versions of things are quite out of date.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 fre…

Arch wiki is a great resource even if you are on an other distro, only difference is config file location in most cases.

Having up to date packages also mean having new bugs you have to deal with, for some users having a stable things outweigh having cutting edge.

Never understood people obsession with distro, whatever work for you is fine, they are all linux+open source tools

Re: Linux guide for power users (2022)

#23

Post by vdfs »

BillyTheMage wrote: post #10
31b3r3t7 wrote: post #6

Power users use Gentoo.

Can't remember the exact quote but: "People who use Ubuntu know Ubuntu, people who know RHEL know RHEL, but people who use Gentoo know Linux"

Are you even a Linux user if you haven't built your Linux From Scratch?

Re: Linux guide for power users (2022)

#24

Post by nateb2022 »

BillyTheMage wrote: post #12
nateb2022 wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

It's easier to maintain a very fine-level of control, but only if users are prepared to invest the time and effort to keep themselves up to date on the software that makes up their system. Sure, that is probably assumed to some degree as part of being a power user, however alternatives like Arch and nixOS are capable of providing similar levels of configuration with a little more ease, at least in certain places.

> but once you've got it setup it's easier to maintain.

In general, this is not the case compared to more out-of-the-box distros like Debian, where upgrading is simply a matter of "apt update && apt upgrade".

Re: Linux guide for power users (2022)

#25

Post by PrimeMcFly »

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?

If you want to become a power user, then using something as relatively bloated and dumbed down/obscuring as Ubuntu is not a good pick.

Re: Linux guide for power users (2022)

#26

Post by PrimeMcFly »

BillyTheMage wrote: post #15
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.

What are your reasons to avoid Arch, out of curiosity? For me it would only be System D, really, that and that I like Void and Alpine more.

Re: Linux guide for power users (2022)

#28

Post by captn3m0 »

vdfs wrote: post #22
frfl wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 fre…

Arch wiki is a great resource even if you are on an other distro, only difference is config file location in most cases. Having up to date packages also mean having new bugs you have to deal with, for some users having a stable things outweigh having cutting edge. Never understood people obsession with distro, whatever work for you is fine, they are all linux+open source tools

The Arch Wiki has the advantage of only having to manage documentation for (mostly) a single set of packages. Every non-rolling distro ends up maintaining separate websites for each releases.

Re: Linux guide for power users (2022)

#29

Post by fhduksbegd »

nateb2022 wrote: post #24
BillyTheMage wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

It's easier to maintain a very fine-level of control, but only if users are prepared to invest the time and effort to keep themselves up to date on the software that makes up their system. Sure, that is probably assumed to some degree as part of being a power user, however alternatives like Arch and nixOS are capable of providing similar levels of configuration with a little more ease, at least in certain places. > b…

Minor correction would be to use

sudo apt update && sudo apt dist-upgrade -y

Post reply on HN