this post was submitted on 25 Nov 2023
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Linux

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Linux is a family of open source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991 by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically packaged in a Linux distribution (or distro for short).

Distributions include the Linux kernel and supporting system software and libraries, many of which are provided by the GNU Project. Many Linux distributions use the word "Linux" in their name, but the Free Software Foundation uses the name GNU/Linux to emphasize the importance of GNU software, causing some controversy.

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Wanting to improve my Linux skills after 17 months of daily driving Linux (lemmy.world)
submitted 2 years ago by cogitoprinciple@lemmy.world to c/linux@lemmy.ml
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I've been daily driving Linux for 17 months now (currently on Linux Mint). I have got very comfortable with basic commands and many just works distros (such as Linux Mint, or Pop!_OS) with apt as the package manager. I've tried Debian as a distro to try to challenge myself, but have always ran into issues. On my PC, I could never get wifi to work, which made it difficult to install properly. I've used it on my daily driver laptop, but ran into some issues. I thought a more advanced distro, that is still stable, would be good overall. However, not getting new software for a long time sounds quite annoying.

I'm wanting to challenge myself to get much better with Linux, partitioning, CLI, CLI tools, understanding the components of my system, trying tiling window managers, etc. I've been considering installing Arch the traditional way, on my X220, as a way to force myself to improve. Is this a good way to learn more about Linux and a Linux system in general? I always hear good things about the Arch Wiki. Is there any other tips someone can give me, to sharpen my Linux skills? I was even considering trying out Gentoo on my X220, but the compiling times sound painful. I wouldn't daily drive Gentoo or Arch, just yet, but I would try to use them as much as possible for general use.

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[–] netchami@sh.itjust.works 43 points 2 years ago (8 children)

I thought a more advanced distro, that is still stable, would be good overall. However, not getting new software for a long time sounds quite annoying.

Arch is actually not as bad as many say. It's pretty stable nowadays, I even run Arch on some servers and I never had any issues. It gives you the benefits that you can basically find any package in the AUR and everything is up-to-date. Try it out, if you don't like it, you can still switch to something else.

I’m wanting to challenge myself to get much better with Linux, partitioning, CLI, CLI tools

The best way to learn the CLI is to use it. Try not to use your graphical file manager for a while and only interact with the file system through the terminal, that teaches you a lot.

I’ve been considering installing Arch the traditional way, on my X220, as a way to force myself to improve. Is this a good way to learn more about Linux and a Linux system in general?

Yes.

I always hear good things about the Arch Wiki.

It is truly fantastic.

Is there any other tips someone can give me, to sharpen my Linux skills?

Use the system, don't be shy, try different things out. If you are scared that you might break something, try it out in a VM. Break your VM and try to fix it. That teaches you a lot.

I was even considering trying out Gentoo on my X220, but the compiling times sound painful.

I would not recommend that, updating packages will take ages, it's not a great experience.

[–] Max_P@lemmy.max-p.me 17 points 2 years ago (4 children)

Arch is actually not as bad as many say. It's pretty stable nowadays, I even run Arch on some servers and I never had any issues.

Not even just nowadays. My desktop is running a nearly 10 year old install. It's so old, it not only predates the installer, it predates the "traditional" way and used the old TUI installer. It even predates the sysvinit to systemd switch! The physical computer has been ship of thesis'd twice.

Arch is surprisingly reliable. It's not "stable" as in things change and you have to update some configs or even your own software. But it's been so reliable I never even felt the need to go look elsewhere. It just works.

Even my Arch servers have been considerably more reliable and maintenance-free than the thousands I manage at work with lolbuntu on them. Arch does so little on its own, there's less to go wrong. Meanwhile the work boxes can't even update GRUB noninteractively, every now and then we have a grub update that pops a debconf screen and hangs unattended-upgrades until manually fixed and hoses up apt as a whole.

[–] ayaya 5 points 2 years ago

Same here. Been going on 8 years with the same install and it has never let me down. The only time something "breaks" is when I'm the one who caused it, and it's always been easily fixable with arch-chroot from the iso. Although I haven't even had to resort to that in 3 or 4 years now.

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