Who would have guessed?!

Over the years of using Windows (2010-2023), I don't remember learning anything at all, only using the command line twice, once to check the hard disk and once to clean the registry... I'm in love with Linux terminal.

I'm sure this will draw some criticism but I've found duck.ai to be extremely helpful in troubleshooting minor issues with my Linux mint installation and recently with accessing and understanding SMART hard drive diagnostic data. It's very helpful in figuring out which commands could be useful in the terminal and in understanding exactly what each terminal command is doing. Of course finding answers in forums and manuals is still relevant and important but as a beginner, this has been a fast and easy way to get advice.
- Just be careful to think twice before doing what it says. (That goes for any advice from the internet too!)
  Like all the old stories of people's GPS steering them into a lake. Let the GPS help you, but still, like, actually look at the road!
  ETA: It's probably quite reliable at explaining what terminal commands do, since it's drawing from many manuals. But sometimes it might completely make up the answer, in a way that's almost right but terribly wrong. You think the command does one thing, so you use it 'appropriately', but really it does something else so your carefully thought out use goes completely wrong.
- Good point. I don't know why I didn't think about this sooner, i literally use it for other programming stuff.
- That makes sense. It cuts through the RTFM bullshit, and gets you a clear answer without unnecessary ego.

Do you guys also keep a notepad file on your desktop with all the usual commands and shortcuts on it? I can't imagine remembering them all otherwise... and I kind of cringe at the non stop DDG ing I have to do to do some basic liux stuff.
- I'm using my companies' mediawiki personal user page to keep snippets and one liners that took me some time to cobble together. I export that regularly to a personal device, so, yes. I've found that I never look at it because once I've hammered something together I usually got the concept so next time it takes me a fraction of the time.
- I use obsidian to make notes of how to install and setup applications from a fresh install, for example to install mariadb-libs when I install digikam so that I can use the mariadb database on my nas, and the way to mount my nas shares in fstab
- Yes.
  Source: Am Systems Admin (engineer/architect/your mom)
  
  This guy's lucky to have such a good mum.
  Remember to share your notepad with them, even if they're all like, "mom, your bash usage is like from the '90s, so cringe!" Behind all the fuss, they're still learning from you.
- No. Stuff I use more than once I just put in a shell file. I don't really run much on the terminal besides those files and using it to update my system.
- Try a different shell, like fish or zsh, maybe. Something with really intense command auto-completion and history.
  I personally use fish, it is amazing for this kind of thing.
  ETA: also read up on rc files for whatever shell you are using. Creating aliases and functions based on what you do all the time is essential IMO.
- Yup
- Sometimes I'm searching for a recipe to some obscure Linux tool and finding my own answers on Stackoverflow from ten years ago.
- I ctrl-r my history and set the histsize to some ludicrous value
  
  History is documentation enough.
- No never even crossed my mind but ig I was also in a competition for Linux that required me to memorize basically every single command and option
  
  Which is bullshit tbh, which in turn is why I don't like LPIC. Even RedHat exams give you VMs with full manpages. Know concepts and know what to expect from which tool, everything else is wasted resources.

Same with arson
- What's the Venn Diagram of "childhood pyromaniacs" and "Linux users" look like?
  
  It's just 1 circle with both labels in it.
  
  Can confirm. Made many sparkler/aerosol can boom.booms
  
  You ever seen a really bad hemorrhoid?
- See, this is why you Linux users have a bad rep.
  /s

it's a good os. on the other hand everytime i learned anything in windows it would get invalidated by new ux and new bugs...

And the less you use Windows, the worse you get at using it. Luckily the bar for Windows competency is pretty low, just basic critical thinking skills and Google get you far.
- Honestly, potentially the more you use Windows the worse you get at it. You come to accept the garbage, but the more you try to fix it the more it fights you and the less stable it becomes. A user who just doesn't touch anything is probably better off.
- You can make that point for any operating system, basic critical thinking could mean anything
  
  You could but you'd be drawing a false equivalency.
- basic critical thinking skills
  My great-aunt would like a word with you.
- /triggered/
  Oh hell no. My basic critical thinking applied to googling has got me to a forum with the solution to wi-fi not working in the form of "meh, it happens. reser all network settings and reboot". Which became my personal turning point of "fuck this shit, I'd rather have actually debuggable software"
  /cooled down/
  Well, your point read as "look at the problem, search for solutions and you probably will find them" stands, it is the low competency bar that triggered me: to even know where crash logs etc might be on Windows is far beyond even "power user" level
  
  If you're searching online for how to fix the problem... Couldn't you also search online on how to find the crash logs? I fully get sometimes not having enough knowledge in a subject to even know where to begin searching, but "well, the first result wasn't helpful, guess I'll stop looking for an answer" and "it says to check XYZ, but I don't know what that is. Too bad I don't have a way to search for what things are" aren't exactly difficult hurtles to overcome.
  
  What? It's easy to find a solution to WiFi problems, come on.

That was me for a while, then I decided I was done learning computer. 💩

Meanwhile, when, as a little more than a basic user, I look at my system, feeling as if I'm dealing with a dumpster fire just to have that nagging recurrent insight: "I actually have a brain and can learn!"

Wait, you guys are getting better? /j
- im still stuck in vi hell... help... cannot exit program
  
  Have you tried standing up from your computer and going outside? It's the only 100% reliable way I've found to exit vim.
  
  That's why you install Emacs and never look back. Everything you need in one program. No need to exit at all.
  
  There's no exiting vi, gotta buy a new computer
  
  Dude, just reboot the machine, as long as vi is not autostarting you should be good
  
  The only thing i know about vi is how to exit it lol.
  
  All jokes aside, why do people even bother with vi?
- Absolutely! I never break my system the same way twice.
  
  Real :3
  Though actually most of the stuff I had not work on my system was cause of flatpak permissions x3
- I'm getting better at finding new ways to break my installation. Now I don't mess with things and just use it as is. Might start messing with stuff on my laptop rather than PC so I can mess up there instead.
- Not me! It’s been too reliable and everything that I need works fine without much effort at all, so I never get any experience troubleshooting or using the command line.
  
  Based linux stability /hj

You'll get to the point where you can't use windows anymore XD
- I had to troubleshoot some windows problems for family a bit back, and it was the worst x3
- Nah, even a kid can handle Windows. But after becoming a Linux user, I don't even want to look at Windows, that's for sure.
  
  A young enough kid can handle just about anything put in front of them at the same rate. When you are learning from zero there isn't a ton of difference.
  I mean early 2000s? Oh windows easier 100%. But today? Both are easy im different ways and to a child just starting out on computer it won't matter
- I'm about at that point. I had to set up a Windows VM last year to do some testing. It was more of a struggle to install than I expected.
  
  I stopped using it regularly several years ago, then I come back to help someone install it and it took me more time than I want to admit to figure out how to make a local account that wasn't attached to a Microsoft cloud account.
- Joke's on me, I still have to use windows at work!

You can actually go through the motions for years and learn nothing if the software allows for it.

But I use Linux all the time and am still horrible at it!
- Fr, GitHub may as well be written in wingdings
  Thank Linus for nerds that write proper readmes