So I finally decided to join my university Linux group, and has I been helping people with simple problems in discord for a while they put me in the helpdesk....
Ask your Linux group. Seriously. They should know best what kinds of issues their ‘users’ frequently face and what kind of information there is.
I learned Linux by doing. Set up a webserver, set up a network share, assemble a RAID with 2 old HDDs. Install Steam and play around a bit. Try LaTex and write your next homework assignment with it. Set up a Python / R / C++ development environment. All of that is good practice and you’ll understand the concepts and specific issues once you do it yourself. Imho that’s better than a theoretical course. You can do this in VMs or find old hardware. Some people in such groups have good connections.
Also a university library should have some free (for you) material (books) on Linux.
Is Usenet always that expensive? Their recommended plan is $30 per month with a discount for the first three months. And the cheapest one is $10/month but that only gets you 20GB…
I’m not really a pirate so I don’t know much about paid pirating services. But I’m pretty sure I could get Netflix and Disney+ for that kind of money. Is Usenet access really worth that much?
Hehe. I think the majority of people (who haven’t stumbled here by accident) don’t really need that reminder.
I’m a bit unsure. I don’t really mind stealing from big companies. Even more so if they make all those stupid business decisions and start to become more and more greedy. I personally think it’s a bit unethical to pay for stolen goods. That is fencing. But I think everyone should decide for themselves how they’d like to handle this.
If Nextflix only licenses a show for temporary use by me, it’s more a license violation than a proper analogy to stealing that would apply. But maybe I shoud read a book and not watch that much TV anyways.
Yeah. Spotify really got to me. It’s so convenient to have everything available. At least it used to be that way except for the one-off obscure album or a few artists who still own their copyrights and can decide to not participate. But lately a few of the songs have become greyed out and unavailable. And the unavoidable enshittification has begun.
I still remember the times when I bought CDs and owned stuff. And the time when lots of series were available on Netflix and it was worth it’s (lower) monthly price. But as of now half the movies and series I like aren’t available. Like Star Trek, all the Disney movies…
And concerning Spotify: I read they pay an artist at most a third of a cent per streamed song. That is ripping off the artists anyways. I think I could just cancel my subscription, rip off the artists myself and cut out the middle man.
Well I got a Lenovo Yoga with a touchscreen and I somewhat disagree. I use the Gnome desktop. And it follows most of the design principles you’d have on other devices like Apple or Android. Sure, it’s not a 1:1 copy of Apple. And the high-dpi auto-configuration and -detection may not be there yet. So you’d need to configure it yourself. You can set the UI scaling in the settings app and all the buttons become (for example) twice the size. This works really well.
The on-screen keyboard has annoyed me to no end. But it got better and maybe most issues will be solved once we switch to Wayland and it’ll pop up at the right moment. (I advise against installing important system apps via Flatpak, this generally leads to issues and incompatibility. And it’s not Linux’s fault.)
The full disk encryption is a bit of an issue. You’d need to put the key into the TPM module and the tutorial to do it is really long. I don’t see a good solution there, aside from putting the device into standby and not rebooting it that often.)
I don’t think Gnome is clunky at all, given the on-screen keyboard pops up… Auto-rotate works, the button sizes are configurable, the stylus from Lenovo works out of the box. You have a full screen app launcher that is nice… And it’s super responsive on my device.
I agree that sometimes the experience get’s interrupted by software that isn’t adapted for touchscreens. Most of the desktop is. And some browsers are annoying and we’d be right to criticise that. But if Visual Studio Code lets you down if you start developing a Rust application… I’m not sure how that compares to an iPad, because you wouldn’t be able to do it at all on such a device. So I wouldn’t include desktop software.
Long story short, I have a desktop with Fedora, lovely, fast, sleek and surprisingly reliable for a near rolling distro (it failed me only once back around Fedora 34 or something where it nuked Grub). Tried to install on a 2012 i7 MacBook Air… what a slog!!! Surprisingly Ubuntu runs very smooth on it. I have been bothering all...
It’s relatively alright for something that’s called unstable. There is also testing which is tested for at least 10 days. And you can mix and match, but that’s not recommended either.
I wouldn’t put it on my server. And I wouldn’t recommend it to someone who isn’t okay with fixing the occasional hiccup. But I’ve been using it for years and I like it.
However, mind that it’s not supported and they do not pay attention to security fixes.
Thanks for clarifying. Yeah I implied that but didn’t explain all the nuances. I’ve been scolded before for advertising the use of Debian testing. I’m quite happy with it. But since I’m not running any cutting edge things on my server and Docker etc have become quite stable… I don’t see any need to put testing on the server. I also use stable there and embrace the security fixes and stability / low maintenance. I however run testing/unstable on my laptop.
Nothing. My laptop has 8GB and while this is somewhat the limit, it’s enough to browse, do office stuff, a bit of development/programming and even a bit of CAD for my 3D printer, video editing, retro-gaming and all sorts of things. I’d prefer to have 16GB because Firefox likes to eat a lot of RAM, but the laptop is too old for me to upgrade anything at this point.
If you’d like to waste your resources, you could run 4 other operating systems simultaneously in VMs. Or try artificial intelligence chatbots and load one of the large language models. They can easily make use of 32GB of memory and more.
I was going through Pine64’s page again after I found the latest KDE announcement. With that said, I seem to see a lot of issues with firmware on the Pine, whilst the Librem is just plain out of budget for me. Was interested in how many people here run a Linux mobile as a daily driver, and how has your experience been?...
Forget the pinephone as a daily driver. It is nice to play around with and having linux on your phone is awesome. But you can’t really use it as a daily driver. You’ll try it and it’s going to end up in the drawer of unfinished projects. Trust me, I own a pinephone and I know other people who do.
There’s nothing wrong with it. Just like 50 mild annoyances with anything you’re trying to do with it and on top it’s super slow, compared to any other smartphone.
As I read, the phone by Purism isn’t much better and it’s really expensive.
Yeah, I think so, too. It doesn’t have to be this way. I mean this is mainly due to the way ARM hardware works, lack of good drivers, maintenance and dedication by the manufacturers of that hardware. And everything is quite fragmented. In theory we could have a hardware platform that has good open-source drivers and is well-supported. The Pinephone was an attempt to establish one platform that people could focus on. But it has quite some limitations and also hardware/design issues.
And Linux isn’t quite there yet. I mean I love Linux and it can run on embedded devices very well. But things like connected standby (for example receiving chat messages while the hardware sleeps and saves power) just isn’t implemented in a desktop environment that was made for computers. And also not in a chat application that was made for computers. So, set aside the hardware and driver issues, we have another issue with Linux software that wasn’t made to run on smartphones.
There is a way around that and that is to add those capabilities to the Linux kernel. And also give applications means to stay connected in the background, adapt to different screen sizes, rotate the screen and evict themselves from RAM. It’s kind of what Android is. It builds upon the Linux kernel and adds lots of stuff that is specifically useful on smartphones.
I hope someday some of those techniques get adopted into the mainline Linux kernel and also the frameworks the desktop software uses.
Thank you. I completely agree. We can’t do stuff ourselves, my Pixel 4a is End of Life now and all the proprietary parts of the system won’t be updated anymore, which is a shame because the hardware is still perfectly fine.
And I hate the business decisions Google makes. Android is built upon Linux and the core is supposed to be free software. But then they move more and more stuff into their proprietary Google services packages. Like the proper keyboard with swipe typing, the better calendar app, text to speech, push notifications and all of the payment stuff. I personally replaced everything on the phone with a custom ROM, and did not install the google services. But I had to find alternatives to all of that and some things really don’t work as well. It’s a hassle and some things just don’t work at all. Like some stuff that requires in-app payment. I don’t care too much, because I get most of my Apps from F-Droid anyways and they’re open-source. But I can’t pay with my phone in the supermarket, can’t rent those silly electric scooters and a few other things.
Yeah, paying with credit card also works for me. And I use the browser a lot for stuff like that. Just the added layers in the apps sometimes don’t work. Like when I tried riding one of those electric scooters. I was able to put in my credit card details and they got accepted, and I know my phone is capable of doing NFC, but somehow there is something else in that app that prevents me from doing the actual transaction and rent the scooter. Online-shopping and things like that work fine. I don’t need an App to use Amazon or PayPal… So I wouldn’t know either.
Thx. I’m going to look up the de-googled phones you mentioned. I think I will try to use my Pixel as long as it works, but in theory it isn’t supported anymore and I’m supposed to buy a new one now. At least that’s what Google and GrapheneOS tell me.
Try it with a Live USB stick. And maybe don’t listen to the people recommending Ubuntu. It’s somewhat okay, but they regularly do annoying business decisions that affect their users. I’d rather start with Mint or something.
There are many other websites dedicated to this question:
Well, Codeberg is a non-profit. I would say if it’s just a few kilobytes/megabytes of code, upload it and donate $10. That should be enough to store that for decades.
I sometimes look for small stuff. Boilerplate code, how other people configure stuff that isn’t well documented, niche interest stuff even if it’s not finished. Sometimes stuff like that is useful.
New to Linux, running Debian (if that matters), dot files are configuration files, yes? Do I need to explore each app/UI/program to figure out the possible options? Are there any universals in Linux? Across distros?...
If you use one of the standard graphical desktops (Gnome, KDE, …) you don’t need to explore all of the config files. The most important settings should be in a settings program.
And programs should (mostly) come with sane default settings anyways. Debian adds a few. So the usual way (for beginners) is to start with the defaults and change around stuff once you want to customize something, and starting with the software you use the most (like an text editor, …). The standard GUI software (like your browser, LibreOffice) has GUI settings dialogues anyways.
Now i’ve been considering moving to linux. I don’t have much of a history using a computer and find it tougher to use than my phone. But I also really appreciate the foss movement. I’ve currently got an old laptop running windows 11 I think and it would prolly speed up with linux too. But I’m afraid I’d fuck smth up...
I’d say so, too. I’ve seen at least 3 tech illiterate people (who gave it a chance) be really happy with Linux. You will probably face some annoyance at some point, as it is with everything. But I think Linux is a good choice. Get help installing it if you know someone who can. It’s not that difficult but that would speed up the process. The most important thing is to save your data so you don’t accidentally overwrite it.
Title. “lmao internet points” and all, but what is the point of participating in a community that sees assumptions and other commonly non-harmful commentaries/posts as “bad” this easily? Do folks in here are really that needy of self-validation, even if it means seeking such from something completely insignificant like...
Heavily depends on the community. I see lots of communities with few down-votes happening. But it’s definitely a thing in -for example- the political/news ones.
Come they told me, pa rum pum pum pum A new born King to see, pa rum pum pum pum Our finest gifts we bring, pa rum pum pum pum To lay before the King, pa rum pum pum pum, rum pum pum pum, rum pum pum pum,
So to honor Him, pa rum pum pum pum, When we come.
Little Bobby, pa rum pum pum pum I am a poor boy too, pa rum pum pum pum I have no gift to bring, pa rum pum pum pum That’s fit to give the King, pa rum pum pum pum, rum pum pum pum, rum pum pum pum,
Shall I play for you, pa rum pum pum pum, On my unsanitized database inputs?
Hello friends. I’d like to ask if any of you knows when/if Debian will finally include the nvidia-535 proprietary driver. It’s kind of a pain in the ass to install it manually and keep it updated. Thanks!
I think the easiest way is to take them from the ‘experimental’ branch of debian’s own repository. But read about the consequences of enabling experimental, first.
Yeah, you’re right. If you absolutely need the latest NVidia drivers, you kind of have to choose between the devil and the deep blue sea. You can pull it from some random place on the internet, or use whatever script NVidia provides you with and do it under your own responsibility… Or use experimental, but it may be not be tested or be incompatible with your kernel version. Neither option is recommended. I’ve had some success with experimental. Debian have high standards and at least it’s packaged and tied into the distribution at all. But there is no guarantee. (I’m not sure if you can mix that with the stable version of Debian, though. I use Debian Testing…) (Their Backports are a better option for Debian Stable.)
Maybe somebody else has an idea, I don’t know any better way to do it. The proper way is to wait until it’s tested and becomes available in Debian.
I don’t know when that’s going to happen. It usually takes quite some time with Debian. Probably some more months. You can have a look at the Package tracker
I’d say 4GB of RAM is barely enough. It’ll probably do for the things you mentioned. But opening a browser and surfing the web, or using modern Electron apps/software will quickly get you to the limit.
Another idea would be buying something second-hand / refurbished. It’ll get you better specs for roughly the same money. But probably not a Surface or a tablet, so YMMV with that approach.
EDIT: I am thrilled with so many awesome responses! I’m taking notes and looking into all the recommendations. Again, thank you so much for taking the time to help me out (and many others, i’m sure), i’m glad i asked!...
I’m not so sure if taking screenshots of exact settings is the correct mindset. Sometimes you have a different selection of software available and you might for example want to change your email-client or learn a new video editor because some other software works better on linux or is tied into the system better. You also need to adapt a few workflows to be maximally effective. Because some things just work differently on Linux.
I think your approach is quite good. All I want to say is: I’ve seen people get very disappointed with Linux. Especially if they try to recreate their Windows-experience closely. Be prepared to let go of your now perfectly configured software and start fresh with more things than you currently anticipate.
But Linux is awesome. I think the most important thing is to do a backup first. In case something goes wrong and you accidentally wipe your harddrive or you need to go back.
Fair enough. Yeah I see you’re getting lots of good advice here. I think you’re pretty well set. Wish you the best, and hope the switch works out smoothly and you’ll have some fun.
(And you’re right. Tweaking LibreOffice and things like that is more work than a fun activity. I too would take every shortcut available and focus on more interesting things. And your experience won’t be annoying at all if you already use the same free/libre office suite and other stuff. And already had a look at everything…)
Need Some Help Troubleshooting Ubuntu Surround Sound
I had sound working fine with one problem: the center and rear right channel were swapped....
Captain guinea pig at your service (i.redd.it)
Recommendations
So I finally decided to join my university Linux group, and has I been helping people with simple problems in discord for a while they put me in the helpdesk....
Looking for good USENET primer
I used to spend a lot of time on news:// protocol back in the 90s, but haven’t touched it for good 20 years or so....
deleted_by_author
Is Ubuntu deserving the hate? (lemmy.ml)
Long story short, I have a desktop with Fedora, lovely, fast, sleek and surprisingly reliable for a near rolling distro (it failed me only once back around Fedora 34 or something where it nuked Grub). Tried to install on a 2012 i7 MacBook Air… what a slog!!! Surprisingly Ubuntu runs very smooth on it. I have been bothering all...
As a normal, boring user that does nothing special other than browse the internet and the occasional "casual coding" -- what am I supposed to do with 32GiB of ram?
Title. Besides setting tmpfs to use 10GiB of it to store downloads.
How many of you run a Linux phone (Pine64, Librem etc) as your daily driver?
I was going through Pine64’s page again after I found the latest KDE announcement. With that said, I seem to see a lot of issues with firmware on the Pine, whilst the Librem is just plain out of budget for me. Was interested in how many people here run a Linux mobile as a daily driver, and how has your experience been?...
Looking to switch to Linux in the somewhat distant future
Any distro I should use?
Me and my new GitHub repository (programming.dev)
[Request] Where to start with dot files?
New to Linux, running Debian (if that matters), dot files are configuration files, yes? Do I need to explore each app/UI/program to figure out the possible options? Are there any universals in Linux? Across distros?...
Is linux good for someone tech illererate.
Now i’ve been considering moving to linux. I don’t have much of a history using a computer and find it tougher to use than my phone. But I also really appreciate the foss movement. I’ve currently got an old laptop running windows 11 I think and it would prolly speed up with linux too. But I’m afraid I’d fuck smth up...
Alright, I'm gonna "take one for the team" -- what is with the "downvote-happy" users lately?
Title. “lmao internet points” and all, but what is the point of participating in a community that sees assumptions and other commonly non-harmful commentaries/posts as “bad” this easily? Do folks in here are really that needy of self-validation, even if it means seeking such from something completely insignificant like...
It's that time of the year again! (nerdica.net) en-gb
files.mastodon.social/media_at…
nvidia-535 and Debian
Hello friends. I’d like to ask if any of you knows when/if Debian will finally include the nvidia-535 proprietary driver. It’s kind of a pain in the ass to install it manually and keep it updated. Thanks!
Surface Go 2 with 4GB Ram and 4425Y worth it?
Hi! There’s no Surface on Linux Lemmy community (yet), but I didn’t feel like asking on reddit, so I thought that this community is my best bet....
Noob question: what to arrange before switching to linux
EDIT: I am thrilled with so many awesome responses! I’m taking notes and looking into all the recommendations. Again, thank you so much for taking the time to help me out (and many others, i’m sure), i’m glad i asked!...