Hello other newcomers! It’s been decades since I’ve participated in open source discussions/forums. So fun! I joined the fediverse the other day but decided to try out PieFed on several recommendations from Reddit users.

I have been trying to make my phone dumb, not be tracked by advertisers or surveilled by government, increase digital privacy and get off of big, addictive social media with mindless scrolling & algorithms.

I hope to install Linux Mint on an old computer soon. I’m not very tech savvy and old, so for tech purposes, I’m going to try using AI to install Linux and hopefully to try out self-hosting, eventually. Seems like a better use of my time than doomscrolling! I don’t want to use AI and will avoid it for frivolous or personal uses because it goes against my environmental morals. My spouse says AI may become less energy, resource intensive in the future. Hopefully so. But for now I don’t want to use it unless I have no other options.

I look forward to more interactions as this noobie learns more. Thank you for this platform.

  • CMLVI@piefed.socialEnglish
    2·
    vor 1 Tag

    You won’t need AI to install Linux Mint! I feel like I’m decently tech saavy, but not on the order of any kind of coding or that, and Linux always seemed insurmountable. Any issue you run into is swiftly answered with terminal speak, usually, and that ends up just being the equivalent of “just copy and paste this in and it’ll work”, it’ll invariably not work, and then you’re at square 1 still and more disheartened. However, the channels to help (Linux Discords, here if you’re patient) where you can get more tailored help is great. I got juuuust about everything moved over and working on Linux from Windows in 2 weeks, and I had some pretty specialized stuff to set up. If I was just going to use it as a standard computer, light gaming and just internet usage, I’d have been up and running in under 2 hours. It’s way easier than you expect.

    • peaknik@piefed.socialOPEnglish
      3·
      vor 2 Tagen

      Sure! Thanks for the tip and links! I suspected but when one doesn’t know any tech savvy people, it’s hard. My dad used to self-host and had Linux in its infancy but he has passed on (2014), so I have no connections.

      • INeedMana@piefed.zipEnglish
        2·
        vor 1 Tag

        Yeah, I figure it might be daunting and hard when you venture into Linux completely alone

        I just remembered: there were also some Linux groups on Matrix. It’s been a while since I’ve visited one but there was help also happening there

    • wjs018@piefed.wjs018.xyzEnglish
      3·
      vor 2 Tagen

      Protip: you can link feeds in an instance-agnostic way with the ~. For example:

      • ~linux@piefed.social
      • ~selfhost@piefed.social
  • AlexSage@piefed.socialEnglish
    4·
    vor 2 Tagen

    AI as we have it now can’t become less energy and resource intensive. They are literally only scaling through brute force that’s why it’s destroying the computer parts industry for everyone but AI.

    As for linux it’s pretty easy these days. Once you get it to boot off a USB I would be surprised if you need help at all. Been rocking it for awhile personally on CachyOS.

    As INeedMana said there are some communities here as well that can probably help.

    • peaknik@piefed.socialOPEnglish
      1·
      vor 2 Tagen

      I went and bought a USB today! I have to back everything up tomorrow before I can attempt, though.

      Yeah, we have a data center getting ready to be built near us and am worried about our water resources. :( I didn’t know about the computer parts issue.