[HN Gopher] Linux Guide for Power Users ___________________________________________________________________ Linux Guide for Power Users Author : yarapavan Score : 127 points Date : 2023-08-07 17:19 UTC (5 hours ago) (HTM) web link (xnacly.me) (TXT) w3m dump (xnacly.me) | frantathefranta wrote: | > As said before, in this tutorial we will be using Manjaro due | to it: | | > * containing a fully configured system (yes bloat, idc its a | beginners tutorial) | | So is it for beginners or power users? Or can that be the same | person? Choice of Manjaro is also curious, considering its | history. | artisanspam wrote: | > considering its history | | Can you elaborate? | heavyset_go wrote: | It's amateur hour over at Manjaro. They've pushed breaking | updates, insecure settings, etc. Their infrastructure is | poor, as well. | tenacious_tuna wrote: | I don't know everything, but I do know they've let their | HTTPS cert expire a few times [1], and they apparently delay | package updates from upstream for like 1wk for "stability" | reasons... which doesn't really add any stability, and just | slows down releases. | | [1]: https://www.reddit.com/r/linux/comments/wr2dps/manjaro_l | et_t... | bil7 wrote: | You can drop in replace Manjaro with EndeavourOS to achieve | Arch on easy mode these days. | pxc wrote: | Arch has easy mode built in1 these days. | | -- | | 1: https://github.com/archlinux/archinstall | ArisakaDJB wrote: | I must've used this a dozen times in the last few months | helping friends. It never fails to amaze me. Has options | like a btrfs layout with sane defaults, choice of DE and | Tiling, etc. | | I'm writing this from an installation I made today using | it. | dingnuts wrote: | it's for power users of proprietary OSes who are beginners to | Linux | freedomben wrote: | > _So is it for beginners or power users? Or can that be the | same person?_ | | Reasonable and good question. I tend to see that as orthogonal | (but with some overlap) as "power user" is more of a mindset to | me. | benbenolson wrote: | I see it as "power user" meaning "a power user of Windows." | iueotnmunto wrote: | My recent gripe is that I've used Linux for more than half my | life and I'm well into my 30's. I feel like my ability to | navigate a system has gone _backwards_, Debian no longer accepts | 'init 0' as a command, ipconfig isn't a command anymore, systemd | changed the whole subsystem from underneath me, ubuntu/snap | decided not only to litter+bloat my filesystem with needless | duplicates but also that not only would I prefer Firefox be a | snap package (which broke my workflow), but that it would require | me to go well out of my way to solve that, Gnome decided that I | wanted a touchscreen layout (I custom compile gtk+ to remove the | 'search on type' behavior in file>open dialogs, most major | packages seem to default to nouveau which while a great movement | seems to totally break critical path regularly. | | How the hell have we gotten to a point where Linux closely | reflects the instability of the Windows ecosystem. I'm not afraid | of change, but I feel like the large majority of changes that are | made cause me problems to the point where I now fear upgrading my | distro to latest. | cumshitpiss wrote: | [dead] | vcg3rd wrote: | "This guide is meant as a loose inspiration for a poweruser | looking to switch to Linux." | | It's your guide, but as a non-technical Linux power user of over | 2 decades, I don't think I would recommend Windows or Mac power | users make the immediate shift to the (Neo)vim and i3 "metaphors" | (if that's the right way to express it). I'd recommend KDE for | Windows PUs and Pop? Peppermint? (I forget which disto aspires to | the MacOS look and feel. | | I started using Emacs for Org because I don't program, and I | gradually added email, file management, irc, gopher, roam, and | other "functionality" as I became more proficient. I finally | switched any key binding I could anywhere to Emacs, but I would | never suggest Emacs to a Windows or Mac PU unless they already | used it, let alone modal editing if they never used it and didn't | live in a text editor. | | When I started using Org there were not many decent open source | plaintext information managers that could also do agendas, to- | dos, etc. I mostly used Zim prior. Not all PUs live in text | editors, program, or edit configuration files in a modal editor. | Why would someone who uses a text editor primarily to edit | configuration files do so in a modal editor unsteady of Gedit or | Kate or even nano or micro? | | Today, I would likely recommend Joplin for a PU who wants open | source plain text information management plus a multitude of | plugins on any platform and any GUI text editor with good syntax | highlighting and customization and a Desktop Manager. It would | allow for more gradual transition because being a PU on Windows | or Mac means making significant changes would actually be more | difficult. | | But you can have my Emacs when you pry it from my cold, dead | hands. | ulkesh wrote: | So it's a tutorial where the goal is to be able to take a | screenshot, post to Reddit, and feel cool. There are a few pieces | of good information, but it's for people learning Linux (how to | install, run a package manager, etc), not power users, which I | would define as someone who understands a lot of the OS and takes | as much advantage of the system at hand. | | I feel as if I'd qualify as a power user, who has used Windows | since the 3.1 days, who has used MacOS since the Tiger days, and | who has been using various Linux distributions since 1999 -- I | definitely wasn't the intended target audience of this article. | | With a title of "Linux Guide for Power Users," I was hoping for | some interesting scripts or relatively unknown applications that | might be fun to tinker with. I always love to learn something new | that I didn't know before (an example: recently I discovered | TimeShift which is really a fancy wrapper around rsync and BTRFS, | but it's a pretty nice GUI to help create and restore snapshots | that I wasn't aware of before). | koito17 wrote: | Your first paragraph is spot on. A quick look at the ToC made | me think it's a "how to reproduce every r/unixporn screenshot | ever" rather than teaching something interesting about Linux | for people well-versed in administering or using other Unix- | like systems (e.g. Mac OS, FreeBSD, ...). | | This may be oddly specific to myself, but I hate having to | memorize internal IPs and like to address my computers with | their hostnames. This article makes no attempt to tell me | _anything_ about hostnames, mDNS, DNS-SD, etc. on Linux. Is | mDNS configured OOTB on most Linux distros like it is on Mac | OS? If not, which implementations should I consider using? So | on, so forth. | | I also find it a bit amusing NeoVim is automatically chosen for | the reader. I'll stick with Emacs, and I know many others will | stick with VS Code or just plain old Vim. :) | [deleted] | Given_47 wrote: | > This guide is meant as a loose inspiration for _a poweruser | looking to switch to Linux_. | | Yea the title and the intro sentence have a subtle, but very | important difference. | | And I appreciate the effort but I'm ultimately still confused | who the target audience is. I've only ever used macOS (like ~9 | years computer experience) but currently setting up Gentoo, and | being a "power user looking to switch to Linux" myself, I | would've found it more helpful to summarize the Linux | equivalents and added optionality to macOS "power user" things. | | Eg u use yabai on mac, well here's i3 and [other options]. | Desktop environment? You actually can choose and here's an | overview. Like it went from "eli5 what's a distro" to vim | keybindings so there was that inconsistent definition of "power | user." | | I'm obviously biased in terms of what I wanted _to see_ but my | larger point is the inconsistency | user6723 wrote: | A "power user" is definitively someone not hacker minded. | orliesaurus wrote: | Why would you install Arch-based Manjaro? Why not just go with a | flavor of Ubuntu to start becoming productive from like minute 5? | And if you're really trying to become a super-user why not NixOS? | nateb2022 wrote: | Manjaro can be just as productive out of the box as Ubuntu can. | frfl wrote: | Personally, the biggest appeal of Arch is the great wiki, a | large number of up to date packages without snap/ppa whatever | else Ubuntu makes you do, and the AUR for anything else that | isn't available in the regular package repos. | | I've only used Ubuntu for work, and typically the versions of | things are quite out of date. Where as Arch, for all it's warts | and costs (setup, maintenance etc) gives you those things for | free. | | I haven't found Arch that much more difficult to work with. For | 2 years I used it on a work laptop without issue. Only recently | messed up something while updating firmware drivers which | requires more than 5 mins/week/month to diagnose. | vdfs wrote: | Arch wiki is a great resource even if you are on an other | distro, only difference is config file location in most | cases. | | Having up to date packages also mean having new bugs you have | to deal with, for some users having a stable things outweigh | having cutting edge. | | Never understood people obsession with distro, whatever work | for you is fine, they are all linux+open source tools | captn3m0 wrote: | The Arch Wiki has the advantage of only having to manage | documentation for (mostly) a single set of packages. Every | non-rolling distro ends up maintaining separate websites | for each releases. | Adverblessly wrote: | Personally, if I'm recommending something for daily use (as in, | you plan to do more than just work on this device) I could only | recommend a rolling release where your software is always up to | date. You'd usually want and expect software to be up to date | (at least for software that isn't trying to screw you ;)) and | if something you are using has a bug, waiting for the next | Ubuntu release is unreasonable. Also, if your packages update | regularly (and you update them regularly :)), it is much easier | to debug when things go wrong since you can more easily keep | track of recent changes. | | Similarly, I wouldn't recommend Ubuntu to beginners because the | dist-upgrade process is very scary and unreliable (in fact, I | don't think I've ever seen dist-upgrade succeed fully without | errors or manual intervention), so I wouldn't want to have that | unpleasent surprise waiting for them when they aren't ready for | it. The situation around snap is also likely to leave a sour | taste in their mouth ("Why am I being nagged to close Chrome 2 | weeks from now? And why am I _still_ nagged after I just closed | and reopened it?! " not to mention "Why can't I open this file | in Chrome?"). | orliesaurus wrote: | What would you recommend instead of Ubuntu for beginners? | akho wrote: | (not the person you're asking, but I have an opinion) | | For beginners who want to learn how things work -- | Slackware. That distribution _guarantees_ the beginner will | soon graduate to a non-beginner status, or understand that | it's not for them. It's a really quick result. Ubuntu et | al. just make it so people stay beginners forever. | | I really like the Arch trend among beginners; it doesn't | quite have the educational value of Slackware, but at least | they try. | | For people who just want to use a computer for normal | things I'd recommend an immutable distribution that doesn't | break (Fedora Silverblue / openSUSE Aeon) and a friend who | can help (ideally -- with remote access). The second | component is essential with any OS. | frfl wrote: | Can you explain more about Slackware, in what sense does | it help you graduate quickly and provide educational | value? | MountainMan1312 wrote: | I think there are just as many reasons to avoid Manjaro and | Arch as there are to avoid Ubuntu, maybe even more for Ubuntu. | Ubuntu is a mess. | PrimeMcFly wrote: | What are your reasons to avoid Arch, out of curiosity? For me | it would only be System D, really, that and that I like Void | and Alpine more. | PrimeMcFly wrote: | If you want to become a power user, then using something as | relatively bloated and dumbed down/obscuring as Ubuntu is not a | good pick. | _jal wrote: | I still don't know what a "power user" is supposed to be, after | seeing the term for like 30 years. Seems to describe a range | from "able to leap tall spreadsheets in a single bound" to "the | person in the office who knows how to fix things". | | In my experience, most long-term unix nerds today seem to end | up using (a) whatever is in front of them or (b) vanilla | Debian. | Given_47 wrote: | The articles definition of it was certainly opaque but | personally, I consider it a relative term. | | "[Insert random AI tool] will make all users become power | users!" | | By my framing, that's literally impossible. There's always | people that can do/get more value out of _the thing_ than the | majority, ie power users | bluefishinit wrote: | Yay/AUR pretty much always has what I'm looking for. Apt-get, | not so much. I also never want snaps or whatever they're | called. Ubuntu is a mess. | safety1st wrote: | NixOS is not an obvious choice if you want to become a "Linux | super-user." It takes a very unconventional approach to package | management, building and configuring your system. All great for | what it is but not going to teach you the conventional Linux | way of doing things. | | I don't know if this is still the case but when installing | Arch, it used to be that you would start with a very basic set | of essential packages and then build everything up from | scratch. That is a great way to become a power user. However I | thought the whole point of Manjaro was that it's an Arch | variant which does a bunch of that for you, so Manjaro's a | weird choice for this guide. | | Edit: Looks like doing a vanilla Arch install is still pretty | gangsta: | https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/installation_guide#Install_... | accoil wrote: | Yeah, NixOS really benefits from you understanding what it's | changing. | | Last year I wanted to make flatpak use a different partition. | Some searches (and reading the docs) later, I decided to use | /etc/flatpak/installations.d/ to add an extra location. I set | up environment.etc to create the file, but flatpak ignored | me. After some futzing around I eventually ran strace and | realised that it was searching the nix store, and not /etc. | So I wrote an overlay to have it create the file during build | so it existed in the store. | | Being able to recognize that NixOS may be looking at an | unconventional location was what allowed me to make that | work. | wetpaws wrote: | [dead] | renewiltord wrote: | This appears to not be for an audience of software engineers. | | When I was young, I had a Compiz-enabled cube desktop (maybe with | conky running) and it was super cool and stuff and I enjoyed it, | so this is in that realm. | | Nice of author to share his setup, though. It's often the case | that explicit instructions like these help me when I'm searching | for something so I always support the writing of them. I don't | think this should have been posted here, though. | jasoneckert wrote: | I really couldn't understand the information, purpose, or | audience for this article until I read it in the voice that | announces John Cena. | thatcherthorn wrote: | As someone who switched from Windows to Linux in college, I have | no regrets. | | All of the rough edges I've encountered (usually) have resulted | in a better understanding of how software actually works. | Corsome wrote: | I have the same experience. In my case everything worked fine | out of the box (after several test installs of Arch). | | The best distro for a new Linux user is actually the same | distro your best friend uses. When things get dire it's good to | have a direct help (Arch Wiki is great but one needs to know | how to extract most or its knowledge). | soraminazuki wrote: | Can't agree more, looking at what Windows has become from | Windows 8 and onwards. It used to be that Windows users chose | Windows over Linux because they saw it as the OS that "just | lets them get their work done." No one can possibly say that | about the Windows of today, the OS that gets in the way at | every turn and corner to squeeze profits out of users who | already paid. | frfl wrote: | I feel exactly the same. Not going down this route around the | same time I probably would've gone Windows 7 -> Windows 10 -> | Windows 11 and had to deal with all that brings with it. | | Instead going fully Linux had its pain points, but the | learning, exposure to everything and the experience was well | worth it. Looking back, so many of the issue I ran into ~10 | years ago barely exist today - at least I rarely run into those | kind of hurdles either due to more experience or the ecosystem | just being quite stable and mature now. | freedomben wrote: | Likewise. I think moving my whole life to Linux has also | benefitted my career greatly. Because of the time I've spent | hacking on my personal system, squeezing out performance, | fixing common issues, etc, I'm pretty damn good at doing so | for Linux servers. Those skills have come in really handy for | me many times. | nektro wrote: | > Manjaro is not superior or inferior to any other Linux | distribution | | quite the contrary, https://github.com/arindas/manjarno | 31b3r3t7 wrote: | Power users use Gentoo. | nateb2022 wrote: | Not if they don't want to spend a third of their time | maintaining their system. | MountainMan1312 wrote: | That's a bunch of propaganda. Sure it takes longer for the | initial setup, there's no "click this button to install | Gentoo" menu, but once you've got it setup it's _easier_ to | maintain. | nateb2022 wrote: | It's easier to maintain a very fine-level of control, but | only _if_ users are prepared to invest the time and effort | to keep themselves up to date on the software that makes up | their system. Sure, that is probably assumed to some degree | as part of being a power user, however alternatives like | Arch and nixOS are capable of providing similar levels of | configuration with a little more ease, at least in certain | places. | | > but once you've got it setup it's easier to maintain. | | In general, this is not the case compared to more out-of- | the-box distros like Debian, where upgrading is simply a | matter of "apt update && apt upgrade". | fhduksbegd wrote: | Minor correction would be to use | | sudo apt update && sudo apt dist-upgrade -y | MountainMan1312 wrote: | Can't remember the exact quote but: | | _" People who use Ubuntu know Ubuntu, people who know RHEL | know RHEL, but people who use Gentoo know Linux"_ | vdfs wrote: | Are you even a Linux user if you haven't built your Linux | From Scratch? | [deleted] | seanw444 wrote: | Meh, I'll stick to binaries for 95% of my stuff. | PrimeMcFly wrote: | No, masochists use Gentoo. | HybridCurve wrote: | We use gentoo because a linux system without problems is | boring. | whalesalad wrote: | If I wanted a rolling release I would use vanilla Arch or | Tumbleweed. I would go with EndeavorOS over Manjaro. | | I am quite happy with Debian 12, though. | waithuh wrote: | > for Power Users | | > Manjaro | | well, acceptable i guess... | | > (yes bloat, idc its a beginners guide) | | huh ___________________________________________________________________ (page generated 2023-08-07 23:00 UTC)