I would class myself as reasonably computer literate but have always used windows (since win95 so that dates me). I’m looking to get used to Linux and have stuck mint onto an old notebook to get used to the system.
We’ve been up and running for a couple of months now and I’ve got the basics going but I’m starting to collect questions on how to do this, best ways to achieve that etc, in times past there would probably be a good forum community I could start posting on to learn but I don’t know where to go these days.
Where do you take your open questions to, to learn and improve.
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Reading up on Linux filesystem structure or reading manpages has done wonders for how I understand Linux. Also, keeping up with big security vulnerabilities usually helps because they talk about internals or parts of Linux that you may have never heard of or it’s in a unique way that you haven’t heard of before.
I don’t do crazy stuff on Linux, but I know the basics. If you ever have a question, feel free to reach out if you’d like!
For me, the Linux community at the programming(dot)dev instance is very helpful!
Always check the relevant wikis. Yes, some of them aren’t very well-written, but most are very good. Look at the wikis for your distro, the software you want to use, etc. Even if you don’t use Arch, the ArchWiki is a very good source with steps that can apply for most distros!
You might also want to check out the channel “LearnLinuxTV”, they make fantastic tutorials for setting up various distros and self-hosted services.
I will also recommend installing “tldr”, which is basically manpages for dummies, showing you the essential commands and their parameters. “Tealdeer” is a Rust-based client for tldr that is available on Arch (unsure about other distro families)
And of course, many forums are good too, but note that many of the bits could be outdated (always check the date of the posts and the version number!)
Anywhere on the fediverse. You just start your question with “windows was much easier than Linux because …”
XKCD called this geek sniping. Its like a glitch in the minds of Linux dweebs.
You’re describing Cunningham’s Law. Which the relevant xkcd doesn’t call anything in particular.
Nerd sniping is unrelated.
Amazing.
What’s the name of that method where you post the wrong answer and wait for the thousand corrections to roll in? There’s gotta be an xkcd for that as well.
(Yes I know, click the link)
That’s the one. Thanks!
GeekNerd sniping was Hat Guy sitting with signs to show to trained geeks that got them to think about the problem in the middle of a crosswalk so that they get hit by a truck.I do agree that it should be Geek sniping, as geeks are highly trained nerds.
It’s honestly the same as with Windows - search engines and manuals.
When you get stuck explain what you want to do, what you’ve tried and what guides/manuals you’ve used and you’ll get good responses from most of the linux communities.I find people often rely too much on guides which just tell you the steps, and you never learn how it actually works. So I would emphasize the manual bit to understand what that thing the guide told you to do actually does.
The other big hurdle is not being able to assess information for accuracy. If you have no prior knowledge, you have no clue whether that blog post with a guide you found is written by someone clueless or a genius. I’ve had that problem before on a topic I was unfamiliar with, and literally had to just ask an experienced person whether this looked okay or not. They were happy to correct all the misinformation I almost followed.
On a related note, it’s always easier to make people give corrections than tell you everything from scratch. Just human nature.
Also taking your own notes that you can update as you trial and error, can repeat later on
The other big hurdle is not being able to assess information for accuracy. If you have no prior knowledge, you have no clue whether that blog post with a guide you found is written by someone clueless or a genius.
That’s definitely a thing in programming tutorials. When I’m unfamiliar with a library or something it’s hard to tell if a tutorial is actually following best practices or if it’s “tutorial code”, distilled and technically working but missing edge cases or not scalable.
You could try these:
!linux4noobs@programming.dev
!linuxquestions@lemmy.zipOr chat via https://matrix.to/#/%23p.d-linux:matrix.org
The single best technical resource (aside from man pages) I know of is the Arch Linux Wiki which despite it’s name has a lot of stuff applicable to any distro.
They’re using Mint, the Mint forums should have all the answers they will need with a community that (hopefully) remembers what it’s like to NOT know something “basic”, and I second man pages as they will lead to deeper knowledge of the OS, especially to understand the why/how of flags and syntax.
Just have fun with your machine, learning is better when you are not forced to read the fucking manual. Of course you might need to do it but do it when you have the time on something you need to.
Of course distro-related forums are a great place to start, the legendary Arch Linux Wiki is a great place (even for other distros) and I know this might be contreversial but LLMs nowadays can be useful at explaining these kind of stuff to you, especially if you feed them the adequat ressources.
how to do this, best ways to achieve that etc
Often there is multiple best ways to achieve stuff and people are not agreeing on how. Of course there is often consensus on how NOT to do but doing and learning is better in my opinion than not doing because you’re scared it’s not the best way. Just do it!
Also, Linux Mint forums, Ubuntu forums and other close distros’ forums - for questions that are likely to have been answered before. I prefer reading the thread myself rather than getting a summary, for it’s a part of the fun - knowing there are lively communities and watching users suggest different approaches, good or bad, arguing, mentioning other topics that can come up later. It’s not a systemic knowledge, rather case-by-case one, but it can be a path to some wider understanding of the OS.
Forums got replaced by reddit and stackoverflow, which both turned to shit after gaining dominance.
Stackoverflow still can answer most of the Linux administration questions that do not involve writing a custom piece of software.
I don’t ask open questions unless I’m really really stuck. I utilize man pages ( manuals for a particular command) to get a feel for the surface level options then use my search fu. Doesn’t have to be Google. There are plenty. And there is a plethora of sites out there with answers for just about any newbie questions you may need. The sometimes difficult part is deciphering what works and what doesn’t (see below) Personally being able to RTFM and read what others have done I feel more accomplished than asking someone out there to help every time. What works for one user may or may not work for you.
One strong suggestion. For the particular task you are learning, keep a journal of what works and what doesn’t . There are lots of ways to customize your system IF you want to. That being said there are plenty more ways to mess your system up. So having a log of what works allows you to do a fresh install and get you back to before you messed things up. OR make a back up of your current config, something like timeshift or the like, so it’s even easier to get back to tinkering.
This helped me a lot. Install a RSS reader on your Linux, and start following Linux blogs. They explain everything and you will learn about the newest technologies from people who work on Linux
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Its Foss - they focus on becoming better Linux/privacy user
and many more.
If you see interesting information, look if they have a RSS feed and add them to your list.
You will learn and become knowledgable over time. They will do the effort and try to explain everything, you just have to read what they write
This is actually a good idea. For some reason I’d never thought to use an RSS reader on a desktop PC
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Here might not be a bad place. If nothing else, be pointed in the right direction. Any specifics of what you want to know about?
Honestly, I used to seek out Linux for beginners, Linux for dummies, and Linux+ guides. It’s all relatively similar information. The first two may start a little lower and the Linux+ guide should dig a bit deeper.
Do web searches for terms that you don’t understand, and feel free to ask when you have conflicting information. We love to answer questions where you already tried solving it yourself and bicker about the answer.
I started with Ubuntu 7.10. I could not believe you just “apt-get install vlc” and then its done. Everything else was not that easy, but still somehow possible. I never participated in a community, but I mostly used two wiki’s. The German ubuntuuses wiki and of course Archlinux. Even with FreeBSD I looked up Archlinux Wiki often. I don’t use Arch since longer time, but their wiki is great to learn and get questions answered. So try using it often. Gentoo wiki is also great.
Also, Lemmy should be fine for questions.
