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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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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Also taking your own notes that you can update as you trial and error, can repeat later on
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.
You could try these:
!linux4noobs@programming.dev
!linuxquestions@lemmy.zipForums 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.
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?
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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I understand I’m going to get downvoted and hated for this, but AI.
It’s amazing. Basically I started with Linux, set up everything, gamed, set up a server, jellyfin, torrents, nextcloud ( fantastic btw, so so happy with this), all over cloudflare ( didn’t even know what that is before), webserver. I host a bunch of stuff now for my climbing club. I moved all my services to some open source stuff that ai helps me install and use.
I have zero time to research this stuff on me own with the family and work, bit I did All this stuff. It’s amazing.
Next I’m buying a bunch of sensors and connecting them to the server and I want to have an app that shows what’s going on with temperature and humidity and microwave movement sensor,… I have no idea how any of this will work, but I’m confident I will do it which is just bizarre really.
Linux is awesome, ai is awesome too help me do all this stuff.
The downvote ratio here is comical. This is a solid answer, if not the answer, in 2026.
LLMs (“AI” is quite the misnomer, IMHO) can be useful when its source material is well vetted, or at least made up of mostly reliable input. In the rush to dominate the market, “AI” purveyors have been far less judicious in what they provided as input to their LLMs, and in the end shot themselves in the foot by doing so. Validate what it’s telling you against actual sources, and it can indeed be helpful.
ETA: Also check for information it leaves out as you’re doing that validation - especially when it involves server administration, because missing details can be quite fatal to your server security.
@WhoIzDisIz @PixelatedSaturn Even then it can produce utter nonsense. Do not trust!
Oh, okay - on your absolutely minimalist say-so the world will stop using LLMs.
🙄
If you’re going to make an assertion, at least try to back it up with an explanation or example if you want to be taken seriously. Otherwise you’re just wasting everybody’s time - including yours (and potentially diminishing your reputation).
In the meantime, I’ll just point out there’s a reason I said to validate what it’s telling you.
@WhoIzDisIz Explanation: Even then it can produce utter nonsense.
The name ai has been used to describe many things. We called Chess engines ai, we still call video game opponents ai. Even the guy who coined the phrase intended it to describe something that is simulating inteligence. I think LLMs are something that completely fit the bill. When we invent something better, we will probably stop calling LLMs ai, but I think it’s completely fair to do it until then. It’s a simulation, I think the general public understanding is that this is not a living intelligence we are conversing with.
Validate what it’s telling you against actual sources, and it can indeed be helpful. Yes, but… I don’t have to do this anymore, because I ask it to explain each command to me and while I would still struggle without it, right now I call already understand the commands. It can’t delete everything or something epic like that. I don’t use agents for this stuff, that would be more risky.
However… I often wonder when I do cli commands and paste them back to llms, how stupid that is. Maybe it’s still necessary to keep control? But when I extrapolate into the future and let’s say llms get just a bit more reliable, doing all the stuff I did would take no effort at all.
I think of it sort of like soup. You don’t need soup to be extremely well defined to work. Sure you can mess it up, but it’s not that likely and if that situation doesn’t hold a big financial penalty then why not risk away?
Also, I’m not some ai evangelist. I’m more like extremely pragmatic.
As they say, “it’s your funeral, do what you want.” Sooner or later you will wind up trusting it a bit too much, and it will bite you. Also bear in mind who’s behind those “AIs” - control freak tech magnates who can and will abuse their power over them to manipulate the masses.
I don’t really think it’s my funeral, since I’m not that invested. It could destroy everything and I’d still have a backup. Worst case scenario, I’d lose… not sure id lose anything really. Best case scenario I’m not sure, but realistic scenario I can do stuff I’d normally need a ton of effort while still having a bunch of quality time with my family.
I’m not to worried about the tech magnets, they look quite incompetent to me.
“(Arrogance and) Pride goeth before a fall.”
As I said, do as you wish. Don’t say you haven’t been warned. Adios.
Thank you, wise man, for warning me about something AI is telling me to check each time anyway, thank you about warning me about something Id have almost no issues with us it happens. Very wise words 😀.
Sorry, I don’t mean to be so sarcastic. I understand many are triggered hard with even a mention of ai. I sort of try to understand. But like I said, I’m a very pragmatic man with not a lot of time and AI has helped me do little projects that I only dreamed I could do.
Btw: I already ordered an Arduino kit, I was thinking of building a light controlled alarm clock set in three oak wood cubes. Cause I do very basic woodworking too and ai is going to do the Arduino part! Fantastic people. It’s just fantastic!
@PixelatedSaturn @TexNox For the sensors, you may want to get them connected to Home Assistant.
This is sooo amazing. Everything already exists! It’s like nextcloud. Why is this not a household name?
I can’t wait to get a couple of hours of time to get into this! Thanks!
The only real way to learn is by repetition, just like anything else.
Find a goal, read up on it, make a goal, and get cracking.
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.
