Don’t get me wrong. I love Linux and FOSS. I have been using and installing distros on my own since I was 12. Now that I’m working in tech-related positions, after the Reddit migration happened, etc. I recovered my interest in all the Linux environment. I use Ubuntu as my main operating system in my Desktop, but I always end up feeling very limited. There’s always software I can’t use properly (and not just Windows stuff), some stuff badly configured with weird error messages… last time I was not able to even use the apt command. Sometimes I lack time and energy for troubleshooting and sometimes I just fail at it.

I usually end up in need of redoing a fresh install until it breaks up again. Maybe Linux is not good for beginners working full time? Maybe we should do something like that Cisco course that teaches you the basic commands?

  • Avid Amoeba
    143·
    1 year ago

    Ubuntu LTS almost never does the things described without user intervention. E.g. breaking over time, apt not working. The most important thing I learned about Linux and Ubuntu was that I was breaking it. Once I drilled that into my head and began learning what not to do, it stopped breaking over time. My main system hasn’t been reinstalled since 2016. And that’s only because I was bored and reinstalled it at the time. Friends have Ubuntu LTS systems that they’ve had woking for over a decade, moved over several hardware configs during that time.

    With that I have this advice for the newer users:

    • Use Ubuntu LTS. Almost everything else has an extra level of complexity or several that aren’t obvious when you first start using them. Yes even user-friendly Ubuntu derivatives. Ubuntu LTS has an extremely large test base so defects are few. It’s also stable so the number of defects generally declines over time for a given release.
    • Use the canonical sources of information for Ubuntu. Askubuntu.com, the Ubuntu wiki, the Ubuntu forums, man pages. The Debian wiki can be useful too. Arch’es wiki becomes useful when you begin to know what you’re doing so you can translate what’s there to Ubuntu.
    • Don’t use YouTube for that or random sites that have SEOd themselves to the top of Google. Or ChatGPT.
    • The first question you should ask when something breaks is “What did I do wrong?”. Trace your steps. Answer it. Fix it and don’t do it again. E.g. something that should work without sudo doesn’t, so you run it with sudo. A true classic.

    I know many here won’t like me suggesting Ubuntu, but the reality is that throwing new users elsewhere is often a disservice to them. Even Debian, which I use too. The proliferation of “Ubuntu bad” across the newer slivers of the community has been just “bad” for those new users. There’s a lot of us that can help support new users but we can’t do that in places where the “Just try X distro instead” comments outnumber us 10 to 1. In addition there’s so much misinformation thrown around as fact that we just can’t compete. The D-K level is too damn high.jpg

    Source: I’ve used Linux for 19-years and professionally since 2012, for more use cases than I can count.

    • Rentlar@beehaw.org
      5·
      1 year ago

      Yeah, to sum up my experience as a Linux and Ubuntu user for 10 years in 2 short sentences:

      With Windows I’m fighting against my computer and Microsoft’s bullshittery.

      With Linux I’m fighting against my own incompetence.

      • Avid Amoeba
        2·
        1 year ago

        And the second is just a matter of reading and experience which tend to increase with use over time. For me the result is these days my OS experience is boring AF. The good kind of boring.