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Linux guide for power users (2022)

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Re: Linux guide for power users (2022)

#61

Post by [deleted] »

akho wrote: post #53
orliesaurus wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What would you recommend instead of Ubuntu for beginners?

(not the person you’re asking, but I have an opinion) For beginners who want to learn how things work — Slackware. That distribution guarantees the beginner will soon graduate to a non-beginner status, or understand that it’s not for them. It’s a really quick result. Ubuntu et al. just make it so people stay beginners forever. I really like the Arch trend among beginners; it doesn’t quite have the educational value o…

[deleted]

Re: Linux guide for power users (2022)

#62

Post by flusensieb »

iueotnmunto wrote: post #58

My recent gripe is that I've used Linux for more than half my life and I'm well into my 30's. I feel like my ability to navigate a system has gone _backwards_, Debian no longer accepts 'init 0' as a command, ipconfig isn't a command anymore, systemd changed the whole subsystem from underneath me, ubuntu/snap decided not only to litter+bloat my filesystem with needless duplicates but also that not only would I prefer…

> I custom compile gtk+ to remove the 'search on type' behavior in file>open dialogs

> I'm not afraid of change

If that minor issue is a reason to recompile a whole ui-toolkit, then I guess you should just stop applying any os update at all...

Re: Linux guide for power users (2022)

#63

Post by Steltek »

iueotnmunto wrote: post #58

My recent gripe is that I've used Linux for more than half my life and I'm well into my 30's. I feel like my ability to navigate a system has gone _backwards_, Debian no longer accepts 'init 0' as a command, ipconfig isn't a command anymore, systemd changed the whole subsystem from underneath me, ubuntu/snap decided not only to litter+bloat my filesystem with needless duplicates but also that not only would I prefer…

User facing tools have always been changing in Linux but that doesn't mean a regression in functionality, usually quite the opposite. ipchains became iptables which became netfilter. chroot and su evolved into namespaces and capabilities (yes, I know these existed since forever but no one cared back then).

I would agree with you on Gnome. It aped+ the macOS UX poorly and as a result, it feels like several random efforts thrown together with no cohesion or plot.

+: Subtle pun for old timers

Re: Linux guide for power users (2022)

#64

Post by pxc »

flusensieb wrote: post #62
iueotnmunto wrote: post #58

My recent gripe is that I've used Linux for more than half my life and I'm well into my 30's. I feel like my ability to navigate a system has gone _backwards_, Debian no longer accepts 'init 0' as a command, ipconfig isn't a command anymore, systemd changed the whole subsystem from underneath me, ubuntu/snap decided not only to litter+bloat my filesystem with needless duplicates but also that not only would I prefer…

> I custom compile gtk+ to remove the 'search on type' behavior in file>open dialogs > I'm not afraid of change If that minor issue is a reason to recompile a whole ui-toolkit, then I guess you should just stop applying any os update at all...

unafraid of change ≠ happy with any particular change

It's very much possible to be unafraid of change and still have strong preferences.

Re: Linux guide for power users (2022)

#65

Post by Daneel_ »

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…

Windows 10 almost killed windows for me, and windows 11 has been the final nail in the coffin (tested 11, but I haven’t moved to 11).

It’s too dumbed down. Settings don’t exist or are buried. The interface has gone backwards. Cloud and internet spam embedded everywhere..

The only reason I was still on windows was for gaming, and even that is mostly a solved problem on Linux these days.

My next main install is old faithful ubuntu server.

Re: Linux guide for power users (2022)

#66

Post by pxc »

Corsome wrote: post #21
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).

> The best distro for a new Linux user is actually the same distro your best friend uses.

100%.

Although an experienced GNU/Linux tinkerer can probably easily help you with any distro unless you're using something really exotic (i.e., it's immutable, non-GNU-based, non-FHS, or something like that). I run NixOS but I support a Kubuntu system for an older relative, and it's not really a problem.

Re: Linux guide for power users (2022)

#67

Post by pxc »

accoil wrote: post #47
safety1st wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

Yeah, NixOS really benefits from you understanding what it's changing. Last year I wanted to make flatpak use a different partition. Some searches (and reading the docs) later, I decided to use /etc/flatpak/installations.d/ to add an extra location. I set up environment.etc to create the file, but flatpak ignored me. After some futzing around I eventually ran strace and realised that it was searching the nix store, a…

Most successful NixOS users— that is, people who enjoy running it!— tend to have a decent background with the usual GNU/Linux userland before they start.

I don't think it has to be this way forever, but it would take a special type of guide to help someone navigate learning the GNU/Linux userland and NixOS' take on it at the same time and we don't really have that.

Re: Linux guide for power users (2022)

#68

Post by claviola »

iueotnmunto wrote: post #58

My recent gripe is that I've used Linux for more than half my life and I'm well into my 30's. I feel like my ability to navigate a system has gone _backwards_, Debian no longer accepts 'init 0' as a command, ipconfig isn't a command anymore, systemd changed the whole subsystem from underneath me, ubuntu/snap decided not only to litter+bloat my filesystem with needless duplicates but also that not only would I prefer…

> Debian no longer accepts 'init 0' as a command

I'm not sure where this affirmation comes from. Do you have "systemd-sysv" installed? What happens when you do run `init 0´?

init(1)[0] says:

  For compatibility with SysV, if the binary is called as init and
  is not the first process on the machine (PID is not 1), it will
  execute telinit and pass all command line arguments unmodified.
  That means init and telinit are mostly equivalent when invoked
  from normal login sessions. See telinit(8) for more information.
telinit(8)[1]:

  The following commands are understood:

  0

  Power-off the machine. This is translated into an activation
  request for poweroff.target and is equivalent to systemctl
  poweroff.
> ipconfig isn't a command anymore

are you sure you're not mixing up the Windows command ipconfig[2] with the still ubiquitous ifconfig[3]? Even though it's considered deprecated in favor of iproute2's[4] "ip" command, I don't know any distro which has ceased making net-tools available, let alone unusable.

> systemd changed the whole subsystem from underneath me

I agree systemd has been pretty disruptive, but it has made me a lot more productive. Writing a unit file is dead simple, and it is capable of doing a lot of very interesting things. Hardening a unit is quite easy, for instance. You might already be aware of all that, but if not, I can drop some links on another reply.

Overall, from the one of your reply, I have the impression that you might be happier switching to a less opinionated distro like Void Linux or Gentoo. Something as curated as Ubuntu isn't a good fit for you.

  0. https://man7.org/linux/man-pages/man1/init.1.html
  1. https://man7.org/linux/man-pages/man8/telinit.8.html
  2. https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-server/administration/windows-commands/ipconfig
  3. https://sourceforge.net/projects/net-tools/
  4. https://wiki.linuxfoundation.org/networking/iproute2

Re: Linux guide for power users (2022)

#69

Post by firen777 »

artisanspam wrote: post #42
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.

> considering its history Can you elaborate?

https://web.archive.org/web/20230708070056/https://manjarno.... (original domain expired)

https://github.com/arindas/manjarno

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