NixOS’s documentation is dog. It’s not absolute dog, but it’s dog. The learning curve is brutal.
But… the (mostly) declarative management is its strongest feature. It’s very solid and you can easily unfuck you system if you haven’t done stuff like mess with partitions or delete files manually.
If NixOS had better documentation and GUI to manage the system, it would be a no-brainer, but unfortunately, it is about 5-10 years away from that. The community is very top heavy, but it’s easy to just do your own stuff.
“With the new Desktop Cube, you can switch between workspaces in 3D. Your app windows float off the desktop surface with a parallax effect, so you can see behind them,” said the Zorin OS team. “There’s also the new Spatial Window Switcher, which replaces the standard flat Alt+Tab and Super+Tab dialog with a 3D window switcher.”
It’ll really depend on your local job market. I was on a serious job hunt earlier this year and I couldn’t find a single Linux job which asked for LFCS certs. There were a couple which asked for Red Hat certs though. Of course, this could be specific to where I live, so I’d recommend looking at some popular job sites for where you live (+ remote jobs too) and see how many, if any, ask for LFCS, and you’d get your answer.
Should I focus more on dev ops? Security? Straight SysAdmin?
From what I’ve seen so far, the days of “traditional” Linux sysadmin roles are numbered, if not long gone already - it’s all mostly DevOps-y stuff. Same with traditional security, these days it’s more about DevSecOps.
As a modern Linux sysadmin, the technologies you should be looking at would be Ansible, Kubernetes, Terraform, containers (Docker mainly, but also Podman/LXD), GitOps, CI/CD and Infrastructure as Code (IaC) concepts and tools.
Some Red Hat shops may also ask for OpenShift, Ansible Tower, Satellite etc experience. IBM shops also use a lot of IBM tools such as IBM Could Paks, Multicloud Management, and AIOps/Watson etc.
And finally there’s all the “cloud” stuff like AWS, Azure, GCP specific things - and they have their own terminologies that you’d need to know and understand (eg “S3”, “Lambda” etc) and they have their own certs to go with it. I suspect a “cloud” cert will net you more jobs than LFCS.
So as you’d probably be thinking by now, all of the above isn’t something you’d know from just using desktop Linux. Of course, desktop Linux experience is certainly useful for understanding some of the core concepts and how it all works under the hood, but unfortunately that experience alone just isn’t going to cut it if you’re out looking for a job.
As I mentioned before, start looking for jobs in your area/relevant to you and look at the technologies they’re asking for, note down the terms which appear most frequently and the certs they’re asking for, and start preparing for them. That is, assuming it’s something you want to work with in the future.
Personally, I’m not a big fan all this new tech (I’m fine with Ansible and containers, but don’t like the industry’s dependency on proprietary techs like Docker Desktop, Amazon or Red Hat’s stuff). I just wanted to work on pure Linux, with all the all standard POSIX/GNU tools and DEs that we’re familiar with, but sadly those sort of jobs don’t really exist anymore.
Sorry, I guess I meant Docker Desktop, and some of their other proprietary business/enterprise tools (like Docker Scout) that companies have started to use, the stuff that requires a paid subscription. The Docker engine itself remains opensource of course, but a lot of their stuff that’s targeted at enterprises isn’t. These days when companies say “Docker” they don’t mean just the engine, they’re referring to the entire ecosystem.
Also, I have a problem with Docker itself. My main issue is that, on Linux, native container tech like Podman/LXD work, perform and integrate better (at least, from my limited experience), but the industry prefers Docker (no surprises there). As a Linux guy, naturally I want to use the best tool for Linux, not what’s cross-platform (when I don’t care about other platforms). But I can understand why companies would prefer Docker.
Ah I see what you mean, that stuff is pretty annoying.
Well at least the core tech remains open, though I agree, I would like to see more agnosticism from the industry in regard to the tool implementing the containers, since they’re pretty much all interoperable to a certain extent, as I understand
It’s an Ubuntu-derivative using Gnome, but with a large number of tweaks to make it very user friendly out of the box. They have a variety of pre-made layouts in a beautiful theme that can pretty well replicate Windows 7, 10, 11 and Mac layouts among others, as well as a clear option to include Nvidia drivers OOTB in install media, and a better WINE experience for example.
It supports wayland just fine.
In my view it has all the benefits of Mint without many of the drawbacks stemming from its custom DE.
I personally don’t use it, preferring Gentoo or Fedora, but I think it is a very good choice for beginners or those people who only use a computer for web browsing and home office use.
I would definitely recommend installing it in a VM or liveUSB and trying it out. It won me over, when I thought it would just be another themed distro.
It’s a very beginner-friendly distro, similar in goals to Linux Mint but more modern. It’s stable, comes pre-installed with graphics drivers and important apps like Wine, a custom clean version of Gnome or XFCE, and having a lot of UX improvements like explaining what Wine is the first time you open an exe file, and providing popular alternatives for the app you’re trying to install.
There’s nothing brand new about it, it’s just really solid and I do recommend it as people’s first distro.
This was the first I’d heard of it and from my first impression it seemed like it could be a solid beginner distributor.
Glad to see you do recommend it to beginners. This would probably be easier for my partner to get into compared to Pop!_OS (I’ll be testing this soon though!)
Second this. Zorin OS, and Mandriva Linux (before they went bankrupt, and the community picked up development) were my first exposure to Linux over a decade ago, and the ux familiarity really helps a ton.
A lot of the other distros had funny stuff going on with multiple docks, open apps showing in the top dock, others looked like a Stardock Special and it was just a little confusing for younger me lol
Does it ended? On all distros I know of, Fedora, Arch, Debian, Ubuntu, Mint, Zorin, we can swap the desktop environments like gloves. The only exception being immutable things like Fedora Kionite, but they are made to be untouchable and for specific users.
Wayland does not change anything there, only that the desktops with less developers must take more time to adapt. What makes desktop interoperable are FreeDesktop standards, which are now in full swing to Wayland.
Yeah I really don’t know what they mean, in the past couple months I’ve used Plasma, Gnome, NsCDE, i3, Sway, Hyprland, Enlightenment, WindowMaker, Mate, Trinity, Xfce, and probably others I forgot
As far as I know, other distributions just don’t show these errors, but Ubuntu choose to show them.
Most of them are just due too a BIOS implementation that is not entirely up to standards, from what I understand. It seems some manufacturers have chosen to make their system easier to use with Windows instead of strictly enforcing standards.
I just ignore the errors. As long as everything works properly, I feel fine with that.
This is mostly down to desktop environment rather than distro, but I had the same experience as you with gnome on Ubuntu, and switching to fedora it was a lot better. Still some problems with the on-screen keyboard but it at least works. I guess having a more up-to-date version of gnome helps, or ubuntu’s additions to gnome mess with it.
I haven’t tried KDE but I’ve heard it’s been getting better touch support, so it might be worth trying out too.
As a KDE fanboy I will agree, I installed regular Ubuntu on an old Surface tablet and the touch interface is better than most Android tablets I’ve used
Tried to search for ZFS and just hit a lot of different stuff. I’m a senior CS/programmer person, slowly(since quite some time) but steadily floating/flowing/jumping from ms and all their obligatory stuff to a more personal small world. ❤️. Linux & al.
In that smaller world (with FOSS, Lemmy and so on!) I’d love having some sort of hard drive security, where I can chuck in an old drive, or replace another, but, hear me out, change the motherboard controlling all that too.
Today home is a mix of Linux (ThinkPad, ThinkCentre, Dell) Windows (kids playing + the little box for the “windows only” stuff), Mac (Adobe 🥲), and an old old Synology NAS (3TB+2TB backup).
All mixed up on ethernet and WiFi.
I am not going to be able to change this infrastructure very much (cables everywhere already).
Can I set up something so, for example if my ThinkPad crams(drive or mobo or say I just lose the laptop) I can like get it back in working conditions buying another ThinkPad and like switching out a burned out harddrive in a RAID system?
I wonder because Linux seems to separate “your things” and the “os things” very well, but there are obviously lots of other things, can you safeguard those things too?
That's a great setup. Until someone breaks in and steal all the hardware, of the house burns down.
I would add regular backups from the NAS to an archiving cloud like Backblaze, Amazon Glacier, Azure Archive... Doesn't eat too much bandwidth and it cost very little (until you need to recover the data, but hopefully you won't). :)
You're a senior CS person and you are asking if you should have a backup system in place? o_O
Sorry if this sounds like a personal attack but it's something you should have though of a long, long time ago, as a CS person. Even when still using Windows.
Assuming you are serious, then yes there are ways to save your data under Linux, with different levels of complexity and privacy.
The bare minimum is some basic cloud backup. Not ideal for privacy, but at least if your drive dies you won't lose your files.
Local backup in the form of a NAS or home server is also an option, and allows different systems (Windows, Mac, Linux) to save a copy of their files. Way better from a privacy perspective if setup properly BUT your are one fire or one burglary away from losing everything.
If you want to reconcile privacy AND safe storage then to me there are a few options :
End to end encrypted cloud storage if you trust the third party (Proton drive, Tresorit, etc)
End to end encrypted cloud storage that you control (requires very high skills and a lot of work and money. And a lot of maintenance)
Local network storage (NAS/homeserver) with an encrypted backup regularly sent to the cloud
Hybrid end-to-end encrypted cloud using a non encrypted cloud solution (like Google Drive) with Cryptomator or equivalent (if you trust them).
So many options, depending on your sensibility to privacy and your technical knowledge. You can also mix. For example most of my personal files are hosted on Microsoft OneCloud because it's stable and fast enough. I mean almost my entire home folder (excluding configuration) is replicated there. But some of the sensitive files, mostly scans of official documents like tax returns, healthcare receipts, etc, are end to end encrypted using Cryptomator. Also my passwords are saved in an shared encrypted Keepass database. And all my drives are encrypted (with LUKS) including my external drives.
Anybody who has dug that topic long enough knows that total privacy and total security are a myth. It simple doesn't exist. You need to find the balance between privacy, security and practicality that suits you. If you are paranoid, then getting to a reasonable level of all three is going to be a LOT of work and money. If you are just cautious, and are willing to trust reputable third parties, then it's quite possible to have a working solution without spending too much time and money. And the very bare minimum is to chose between a backup with little privacy, or more privacy with the acceptance that you may lose everything.
Uh no, I have a distinct backup system with Amazon glacier. My question was about day to say stuff, so that when a drive goes, or a mobo fries, I don’t have to go through all the hassle reinstalling and reconfiguring everything.
I run PopOS on my IdeaPad Flex, which is one of those flip all the way around type laptop tablet hybrids, and it handles tablet stuff pretty well with the touchscreen, on screen keyboard, and stylus input.
Employer here (UK)! I’m probably not normal being the MD and running Arch (actually) on my gear. I had to switch from Gentoo because I kept on burning myself.
For me, something like the LFCSA is something I respect because it is practical. Back in the day I did something similar (Novell I think). I’ve also grabbed a VMware … whatever … and that was a memory test and a waste of money. Who cares if you can quote the maximums?
When I’m hiring, I want to see application and knowledge and not a plethora of industry “quali-wankery”! You can always search for facts but knowing how to apply them is what I want to see.
Be flexible but do try to develop what sort of direction you want to take. What floats your boat out of dev ops, sysadmin etc?
You could also consider self employment/consultancy. I sort of fell into it 23 years ago …
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