A 50-something French dude that’s old enough to think blogs are still cool, if not cooler than ever. I also like to write and to sketch.
https://thefoolwithapen.com
edit: typos
Imho, the best way to help a beginner should have happened many years before they put their hands on any Linux distro. It should have happened when they were still a small child, at school. In the way they were taught how to… learn and how to get better… aka, by expecting difficulties and by expecting to fail, often.
Failing should be expected as a beginner learning anything new. Like, say, we all learned to walk as toddlers. It was not by being told we walked perfectly but by falling on our diapered butt. Failing at outing one foot in front of the other and falling, over and over again.
That sounds obvious but, to my old eyes at the very least, it also sounds almost like an heresy when compared to what I see kids being taught nowadays. That things should be frictionless and that nobody should fail at anything, ever. That’s such a poor choice that doesn’t prepare them much. Well, imho.
When I switched (from 35+ years being an Apple user) to Linux, it was frustrating.
Even when where things went smooth, it could still be frustrating and it often was. If only, because it required me to change 35 years old habits. And when it wasn’t going smooth, even when I was using the best docs and guides, at times it could be incredibly and utterly frustrating, when not completely maddening. Either nothing on my machine was ever exactly like described in the doc, or the app version was different and some setting had changed, or my issue was a somewhat different, or the solution simply did not work, or I missed a tiny detail or a word somewhere in the guide. Whatever. Frustration was a constant.
That’s what people should be taught to expect and to be fine with. And not just with Linux, btw ;)
I am not a US-citizen nor am I a woman (if I was, I would probably be a little too old to need that kind of help) but, very naively I’ll admit it, this is really not the kind of guide I would have imagined would become so urgently needed.
It seems a very well made guide, with a lot of very useful suggestions.
Which makes me feel even more sad to realize this is indeed useful and very much needed.
like for example, one time i was browsing through some neofetch screenshots and i found out that a lot of them have anime or furry stuff as their wallpaper or profile picture, but they use linux.
younger me would’ve freaked out by the idea of having proprietary files, but i still enjoy linux. what do you think?? please
What should they use in order to not freak younger you? A screenshot of some lines from the kernel source code? A picture of Stallman and Torvalds tenderly embracing (quite unlikely)?
On my Debian and Mint computers, I have countryside pictures (I live in Paris, I miss seeing some real country landscape, mind you) and paintings (oil and watercolors, all works I admire) and some illustrations (comics, manga, whatever I appreciate enough to be wanting to look at it from time to time).
Sorry for younger you but I don’t have a single image related to Linux nor to GNU philosophy, no matter how much I appreciate them.
freaked out by the idea of having proprietary files
I would suggest you read a little more about what the four essential freedoms are and how they relate to code and the user rights, not so much to do with art and wallpaper choice.
I understand. Maybe two things to consider:
I have no idea how those settings are portable between two completely different distros, but I have once reinstalled my system and got most of my settings instantly back just by copying my home folder over to that fresh install. That plus the single line ‘sudo apt list-of-all-my-apps’ I was almost completely operational in mere minutes, including all my customer menus, panels, text size, themes,… The one thing I remember not working from that backup was my SSH keys. No idea why.
Wow. I hate that.
Well, it’s not like Debian hides it in any way or form. Quite the contrary.
It’s positively terrible but it explains so much.
Depends what you’re looking for in your distro. I love that stability and lack of updates outside of security issues.
And worst of all, I am in far too deep to switch distros at this point.
May I ask why you don’t think you can change distro? It’s just a matter of installing Linux (which takes a few minutes) and, if it’s not done already, of backing up your personal files and settings (most of them probably in your home folder, already).
The rule is that apps are only updated for security reasons. Not because of new features.
So, new versions of apps may (or may not) be added to the next version of Debian.
Hi. I’ve been thinking about trying out Linux for a while now (haven’t used it before).
Welcome :)
I have 1 PC which I share with my son. I mainly use it to browse the web, listen to music, watch movies and TV shows, Office for work, etc.
Depending your 'MS Office ’ expectations, you should have no issue using LibreOffice. 100% compatibility doesn’t exist, though, but for most users it should work more than fine. For the most part, it is only a few advanced features and tools that are lacking, and some layout stuff. I write books under Linux as easily as I wrote them under, well, not a Windows PC in my case: it’s a Mac.
I am not a gamer. So, for that I can’t help much, but you have the ability to dual boot your PC and chose between Windows and Linux when it starts. Maybe that would let you use Linux while keeping a small Windows partition for your son games?
Here is one guide among many others (I have not used it myself, it’s just an example there are plenty more): https://opensource.com/article/18/5/dual-boot-linux
FYI, you can try Linux directly from a live CD (or a USB stick) without even have to install it on the computer. It’s really cool.
As for the distro I was considering Ubuntu.
You can use whatever distro you fancy, you can easily try a few different ones either by using the live CD/USB I mentioned, or by running them in a virtual machine — something I have never done myself as it’s a bit too intimidating and techy to old-and-not-much-of-a-geek me :p
I use Debian (on my desktop) and Mint (on my laptop). Ubuntu is based on Debian, and Mint is based on… Ubuntu (from which it has removed stuff I’m not happy with in Ubuntu and added a few others I like). There is no good and bad distro, only those that you like and those that you… like less ;)
Edit: to a beginner, probably more than Ubuntu I would suggest Mint, at least if I can judge on my own personal experience: everything worked out of the box, including my stubborn Apple Airpods.
Thx for the clarification.
I’m one of those persons that (tries to) shut their computer off every time they’re not using it — waste less energy, you know, stuff like that ;)
I hope you won’t mind my beginner question: would that have any advantage for a single home user like myself? I mean would it help to do backup easier (I backup my home folder already) and accelerate a restore in case I have to reinstall Linux? Or is it just a seemingly great tool for sysadmins, for some specific use cases?
And then… I also started using analog tools much more in the last two years. This helps a lot maintaining one’s privacy. Amazon can’t track my reading habits when I read a printed book (even less if I do not buy it from them), Goofle cant’" track my writings when I use pen and paper instead of their apps, Apple (or Google or Microsoft) can’t track my paper agenda or my paper notebook. And the NSA or whomever is playing that role in my country can’t ask any corporation to install backdoors in my IRL encounters with people so they could spy on me. At least, they cannot do that for now ;)
What are ways to minimize that besides not using Google?
My journal is paper-based and so are most of the stuff I write, my agenda is paper-based (ok, they still can track the agenda of the people I have appointments with :p), my sketches are seldom shared online, the few photos I value are printed and not stored online. Most people I interact with, I meet them IRL.
I mean, they want our data. Why make it easy for them to get that while also giving them money to do it?
After 35+ years being their customer, I’m slowly but definitely switching from Apple to Linux. Not because Apple sells bad products (they’re great working tools, I used to earn a decent living working with Mac and iOS) but because I don’t want anything to do with them and their greed (making unfixable/unrepairable device on purpose) and their overarching ability and self-entitlement to destroy every ounce of privacy we once took for granted, as citizens of free and democratic countries.
Even GNU/Linux, I’m starting to wonder if it’s not just a stopgap for me as I really do not agree with the ‘moralization’ of everything that I see happening in FLOSS. Freedom as I define it means people should be allowed to think and speak freely, no matter how much I disagree with them, their ideas and even their fundamental values.
Edit: That may not be much but here is a few of the things I have changed (beside re-using analog a lot more)
edit: clarifications and some details.
Debian (desktop) and Mint (laptop), because I don’t need to use the latest version of every app I use and because it works so well.
If I had to chose a single one, it would be Debian but I don’t have to chose ;)
Well, Debian has a 32-bit ISO, and since Ubuntu is based on Debian you may consider giving it a try?
My bank offers both an app and a website which is nice, but the app is mandatory for doing any kind of operation involving money (which is not that uncommon when logged-in in your bank accounts ;) even when connecting through their website, as the app is used for some ID-ing process.
Then, there are a few not-mandatory but such-an-effing-pain-to-not-use apps, say to ID oneself with some (public) services.
I use a dumbed down iPhone (like, really: no social, no games, no whatever not even email is configured on it) just so I can access those few apps.
I am going to quote myself here:
Allow me to quote myself too, then:
That’s not the point.
I do not disagree with your remarks (I do not use Telegram), I simply consider it’s not the point or that it should not be.
Obviously, laws should be enforced. What those laws are and how they are used to erode some stuff that were considered fundamental rights not so long ago is the sole issue, once again, im(v)ho ;)
Well, except Telegram isn’t a good tool for privacy.
That’s not the point. The hunting down on tools and their creators (and on our right to privacy) is the issue here. At least, imho.
I’ve seen lmde mentioned on Mint website but if I recall correctly they also presented it like a somewhat experimental version?