The existence of Desktop Environments. Would have saved me from distro hopping from one flavor to the next. If I would have known better, I'd have stuck with Linux Mint and just installed it with the XFCE Desktop Environment. Oh well. Now I know better and try to inform new users of them before trying other flavors.
@mrgrumpymonkey For beginners, I understand that the issue of whether it’s possible to install other desktop environments is important, provided it’s made clear that, as a rule, the distro’s default desktop environment is fine-tuned in a way that’s often difficult to achieve with desktop environments installed by the user.
@mrgrumpymonkey One thing that is not clear to me is how and if desktop environments affects how different apps work / or crash on Linux. Talking Xfce, if i change my Ubuntu Gnome DE to Xfce, should all my apps work the same?
Everything is a file. The usb stick you just connected is a file. Your network adapter is a file. There's a file to nullify files. Once you understand that and how to interact with the files it's MUCH easier to understand Linux.
Teaching yourself how to install and use Linux in the early 90's was very difficult, and there were few resources available to get answers. Today, many distros are practically a forehead install (smack keyboard with forehead and distro installed).
These tips would not be relevant to me when I was a beginner, rolling my own Gnu/Linux OS in the early 90s. Yet, these are the best tips to give a new user today.
1) There is no best distro (distribution) or best DE (Desktop Environment). There is only the one that is best for you. You will not find it if you do not try them out. It costs nothing to download Live distros and try them out. Do not take someone else's word for it, you choose what it right for you.
2) On a modern distro that would be appropriate for a beginner, one that has a simple installer such as Debian & Fedora flavors (which is quite a few options) you do not have to use the CLI. That is right, it is entirely optional. There is nothing a beginner with basic computer needs requires from the CLI. Modern DE are complete and can manage anything a basic user requires.
with that said yes the CLI can be an awesome tool. I have a terminal opened 99.99% of the time. I am not a beginner or a basic user. The things I do via the CLI are not anything a beginner or basic user would ever need to do. If 90% of your time on your computer is spent playing games, office software, or social media & the web you do not need the CLI. It is a shame that all to many users insist you must learn the CLI and that scares away a lot of users that believe that nonsense. I really wish they would stop.
That there are ways to run EVERYTHING you need and not use Windows as your primary desktop OS. I finally made the switch over to Linux both for work and at-home use several years ago.
For work, there are a few programs that only exist for Windows - for that I run QEMU/KVM and run Windows in a virtual machine. So I guess technically I still have to use Windows, but for 99% of my working day, I am using Linux. For home life? 100% Linux!
You can take your SSD or HD put it in another computer and it will just work*. (Windows won't and will likely notify you you're using unlicensed software).
*unless radically different eg, different processor type
Two things. The man pages are actually good. My experience with GNU/Linux improved tremendously when I learned to integrate man pages into my day to day.
Second, related to the first and generally good "tool" advice. Don't fight Linux. GNU/Linux wants you to use the shell and text centric workflows so lean into it.
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It is easy to record the audio playing on the computer. I used to manually move cables from the speaker jack to the microphone jack to record audio. Now I can do it easily from the command line with arecord, as shown in the video.
Use a distro with BTRFS and snapper making automatic snapshots so you can boot into a snapshot and rollback in case something goes wrong. Saved me so much trouble and time.
In a terminal shell, if you want to do a recursive operation on dotfiles only, don't do `.*` -- do `.[^.]*` for example, and test with a non-destructive command like `echo` beforehand. Reason: `.*` includes `..`
How to use aliases - they help so much and the alias (bash_aliases or sth) file (1) helps to look up my most liked commands (2) and can be copied from one linux system to the next.
MrGrumpyMonkey
in reply to It's FOSS • • •Pope Bob the Unsane reshared this.
It's FOSS
in reply to MrGrumpyMonkey • • •Rosa Luxemburgo
in reply to It's FOSS • • •For beginners, I understand that the issue of whether it’s possible to install other desktop environments is important, provided it’s made clear that, as a rule, the distro’s default desktop environment is fine-tuned in a way that’s often difficult to achieve with desktop environments installed by the user.
Ati
in reply to MrGrumpyMonkey • • •burns
in reply to It's FOSS • • •Pope Bob the Unsane
in reply to burns • • •@burns I learned that as `ps aux | grep -i <prog_name>` though I am trying to retrain it to `pgrep` with some flags.
@itsfoss
Pope Bob the Unsane
in reply to It's FOSS • • •sen
in reply to It's FOSS • • •Daniel Maksymilian
in reply to It's FOSS • • •webhat
in reply to It's FOSS • • •John Q
in reply to It's FOSS • • •nop2net 💛💙
in reply to It's FOSS • • •Tanya
in reply to It's FOSS • • •It's FOSS
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in reply to It's FOSS • • •Thomas Boom
in reply to It's FOSS • • •Mark Gjøl
in reply to It's FOSS • • •David Chisnall (*Now with 50% more sarcasm!*)
in reply to It's FOSS • • •adingbatponder 👾
in reply to It's FOSS • • •tuxta
in reply to It's FOSS • • •It's FOSS
Unknown parent • • •Joan AM
in reply to It's FOSS • • •Once you understand that and how to interact with the files it's MUCH easier to understand Linux.
webhat
in reply to Joan AM • • •BoloMKXXVIII
in reply to It's FOSS • • •Unus Nemo
in reply to It's FOSS • •@It's FOSS
These tips would not be relevant to me when I was a beginner, rolling my own Gnu/Linux OS in the early 90s. Yet, these are the best tips to give a new user today.
1) There is no best distro (distribution) or best DE (Desktop Environment). There is only the one that is best for you. You will not find it if you do not try them out. It costs nothing to download Live distros and try them out. Do not take someone else's word for it, you choose what it right for you.
2) On a modern distro that would be appropriate for a beginner, one that has a simple installer such as Debian & Fedora flavors (which is quite a few options) you do not have to use the CLI. That is right, it is entirely optional. There is nothing a beginner with basic computer needs requires from the CLI. Modern DE are complete and can manage anything a basic user requires.
with that said yes the CLI can be an awesome tool. I have a terminal opened 99.99% of the time. I am not a beginner or a basic user. The things I do via the CLI are not anything a beginner or basic user would ever need to do. If 90% of your time on your computer is spent playing games, office software, or social media & the web you do not need the CLI. It is a shame that all to many users insist you must learn the CLI and that scares away a lot of users that believe that nonsense. I really wish they would stop.
Have a great day!
Michael Micko likes this.
https://mastodon.social/users/rd98
in reply to It's FOSS • • •Rick Kenobi 🇨🇦
in reply to It's FOSS • • •That there are ways to run EVERYTHING you need and not use Windows as your primary desktop OS. I finally made the switch over to Linux both for work and at-home use several years ago.
For work, there are a few programs that only exist for Windows - for that I run QEMU/KVM and run Windows in a virtual machine. So I guess technically I still have to use Windows, but for 99% of my working day, I am using Linux. For home life? 100% Linux!
#Linux #OpenSource #FOSS #LinuxMint
SamuelJohnson
in reply to It's FOSS • • •You can take your SSD or HD put it in another computer and it will just work*. (Windows won't and will likely notify you you're using unlicensed software).
*unless radically different eg, different processor type
Cytro
in reply to It's FOSS • • •Unus Nemo likes this.
Jan Bonekamp
in reply to It's FOSS • • •Unus Nemo likes this.
It's FOSS
in reply to Jan Bonekamp • • •https://mastodon.social/ap/users/116319993706522241
in reply to It's FOSS • • •GnosticStreetSweeper
in reply to It's FOSS • • •Two things. The man pages are actually good. My experience with GNU/Linux improved tremendously when I learned to integrate man pages into my day to day.
Second, related to the first and generally good "tool" advice. Don't fight Linux. GNU/Linux wants you to use the shell and text centric workflows so lean into it.
Earl
in reply to It's FOSS • • •It is easy to record the audio playing on the computer. I used to manually move cables from the speaker jack to the microphone jack to record audio. Now I can do it easily from the command line with arecord, as shown in the video.
#Linux #LinuxMint #arecord #music #Jesus
Philipp
in reply to It's FOSS • • •kyub
in reply to It's FOSS • • •ottoflux
in reply to It's FOSS • • •> chmod u-rx .
and log out.
It's FOSS
in reply to ottoflux • • •https://pixelfed.social/users/Sewingbear
in reply to It's FOSS • • •