It's Gee-nyoo

"It just does the job on any machine and good luck if you use a shared drive on a dual-boot system." would be my answer. I settled for Fedora KDE Plasma Desktop after using Ubuntu and Cinnamon for 3 years. Windows and MacOS remain my primary OS because my main workflow only works on those two. Using Linux just for normal and shady stuff.

We don't ask that question here

actually, it's lomi-lominux

There are also other socialist nerds who have decided they don't want to obligate the corpos to give them code because it sucks. Welcome to BSD.

Gnu like the animal

I heard BSD is solid as a server. The person I know had to compile everything but that was many years ago. I would assume you have binary packages as well nowadays?

I never really used BSD and I only know NetBSD a little. I'm actually curious about a NetBSD server but I'm lazy even for my desktop. And I was considering switching my Debian server to Alpine but I haven't touched that server since 2019 aside from occasional updates, so even that's a big step for me. I guess the more realistic standpoint is I will install Alpine when my netbook finally dies and have to replace it with another hardware. :)

Everything's a file.

It is something about all the files being wildebeests, right ?

The idea was that each component was supposed to do one thing really well and forward its output as text to the next component.

That's the neat part, you're gonna end up distrohopping before it matters.

Shared drive is actually not a problem with Linux. Linux is multiboot by default. You can share any number of systems in a single drive as long as they all play by the same ground rules. It is Microsoft and apple who decided they won't play nice with nobody else and that their users belongs entirely to them. Instead of, you know, the user owning the computer and doing whatever they deem fit with their drive.

Apple even went so far as to develop their own processors to try and stop people extending the life of their products using Linux.

It translates what you tell it to the hardware.

it's still present on a few distros but 10-15 years ago, some existing ip and new /iproute2 came along made better the interaction.

... And there are a lot more of those random guys around now.

Also: people trying to make a point out of whatever motivation.
Need a POC for a research paper? Do it in Linux.
Need an implementation to get investor funding? Do it in Linux.
Need to pressure a large commercial operating system to implement a security model as a state security agency? Do it in Linux! It'll only take a decade for them to start to trust it, but the company will be pressured by a free alternative have an implicitly endorsed security system!

Statistically yes, but also you're noticing a lot more because Lemmy creates those guys. Source: random guy. (Although I'm actually the low end "who the fuck knows" on the IQ chart version of this meme.)

because Lemmy creates those guys

I confess, I'm perhaps complicit in that.

You should be at the point where you just want simply and easy. Because you have reached the point "I'm tired Boss. So tired." When it comes to an OS.

So maybe Mint or a Fedora Atomic spin.

So close the lunatic then.

yes there are binary packages available, so i just use 'pkg install ...' like 'apt-get install'. NetBSD also has binary packages and is pretty good. it's all fun to use, but tbh i don't think there's many reasons to move away from a linux system because there's not many clear advantages

It's my belief that one day a bunch of nerds way smarter than you or I will figure out how to run Linux on Apple Silicon. As many Macs as there are out in the wild, there has to be a market for this kind of thing once all these Macbooks start becoming e-waste.

All I know is I survived the Debian installer. But at what cost?

And the user is a hippo...

... Wait...

honestly just installing Gentoo is a great way to learn various aspects of linux. It's a process, a lengthy one, but if you manage to install it successfully you can pretty much install any distro or BSD with absolute ease and not even think about it.

I think M$ has had a lot to do with it recently, although lemmy certainly offers a helping hand

We've cracked the code! Lol

I daily drive OpenBSD. I found it easier to set up than NetBSD which apparently is ass backwards as open is supposed to be harder. for the life of me I just couldn't wrap my head around getting the amdgpu drivers working on NetBSD.

I also found OpenBSD slightly better supported for various hardware than FreeBSD. Wifi works better on it, these old ass logitech headphones I have work flawlessly on OpenBSD when on FreeBSD they just didn't work at all and gave off horrible feedback or I couldn't turn the mic off. Also found setting up a Debian VM much easier on OpenBSD than FreeBSD (still a chore though)

Also OpenBSD for whatever reason probably has the most solid and decently sized gaming community than the other ones.

It's a great OS that just stays out of your way. really fun to tinker with. Just don't expect to do EVERYTHING on it. for surfing, certain dev work, etc it's great.

Well, there's Asahi Linux but that's pretty much your only option for Apple silicon. I have no idea how good it is as I've never had Apple hardware.

Wtf. My files are dolphins. Did I do something wrong?

After a dozen of those stressful weeks I decided to write down everything new I learn if I can.

There is a book called how Linux works.

But the short answer is. Linux provides the kernel that includes a lot of functionality out of the box. Drivers so all hardware can be abstracted away, scheduling of tasks, a filesystem with privileges, processmanagement etc.
This lives in the kernel.

In userland, there is more or less the GUI stuff (not entirely true). You can interact with higher privileges if you have the rights / sudo.

Linux makes you hardware run and abstracts it away in Operating System.

Long answer. Read the book. It is very good.

Those weeks were a lot more stressful, and longer than a week, when I used Slackware and started installing stuff that wasn't packaged for Slackware. I would dread new software. It was the Unifi controller that finally put me over the edge: I wasn't even willing to give it a shot. I ran the controller on my Kubuntu desktop for a few weeks until I switched the server to Debian.

It felt like a house of cards. Nudge one of those cards by, say, updating a library, and you could easily break something else.

"If you want to know how Linux works, ask a Slackware user," is the old saying. It's true...we had to know, because we didn't have a choice not to know.

Microsoft makes you want to leave, Lemmy tells you it's not so bad and pushes you to do it.

Well, to be fair I don't really have time to learn whole another system, even though there are many similarities. I'm just interested, as a hobby. :)

It's good to know they have package managers like Linux though.

Totally agree. I installed Gentoo a couple times before (last time maybe 10 years ago though, all were stage3). I tried stage1 once and my Linux knowledge was not even good that time, so there is that. :)

Even installing it will teach you a lot of things.

This is a very dewey answer. Yes, you can have the glasses.

I guess it's been about 16 years for me! Seeing as I first rolled up my sleeves to Linux as a Mac native around 2010. Though it's been my personal PC daily driver for only about 3. It was all work and projects stuff until then. I learned Linux nuts and bolts on the job in-person from a very good mentor.

Linux: You're a file.
Windows: No! You're a file!
*Linux smiles maliciously*

I tried slackware when win 3.1 was hot. I would have went a lot further a lot sooner if I could have gotten my modem working

I see, I thought FreeBSD has the most users so I would guess a better hardware support but apparently not. I was only interested in NetBSD because of backwards hardware compatibility and that's pretty much it, because some stuff has problems even with small Linux distros.

It's quite interesting to see people who also game on BSD by the way. Rock on!

It seems he got it correct without knowing.

It's like asking "How does toilet paper work?" Meaning to say you don't have to know all the details about how it comes to be but can just use it and appreciate it does work. And you also know it would be really messy and with poor hygiene without.

I don't really understand how software translates to hardware.

Like, I do... I understand that a driver takes a software value of {0,1} and converts it into a concrete voltage for that device... I just don't understand how a voltage rail can just be fiddled with like that without someone mechanically restricting the flow.

Like, I do... I understand how a transistor can regulate the flow of electricity to another circuit, by using a base to restrict the emitter to collector flow.... I just don't understand how that "switch" mechanism isn't pre-determined from some beginning sequence. A timing sequence instead of an event-driven one.

Like, I do... I understand how a simple ratchet / flip flop works in terms of constructing chaotic or aperiodic cyclic flows.... I just don't see how they were initialised in the first place to force them into specific branches of computation.

Like, I do... I understand how a CPU is made up millions/billions of such devices, reacting off external device voltages to drive software paths, all initialised in such a way to allow for any number of configurations.... I just don't understand how we can do it in such a formalized relatively error-free way that appears to defy entropy

Great comment, took me back to computer architecture. Not sure I can answer. Just a postulate, is it because the electric forces are a billion times stronger than gravity so they both neutralize quicker, but also can more reliably and precisely cause electricity to flow because when you do disturb that balance, it's much stronger than the interactions with massive systems we're used to visualizing?

That, as well as how computers will run the same computation multiple times and select output bits by majority rules to correct errors from say cosmic rays causing some bits to flip part way through one (but not all) of the fault tolerant circuits?

Maybe not the best metaphor but I approve your message

Lots of things are files. See Plan9.

My last one was more of a joke, but my other statements hold. I think what I'm essentially asking is:

I understand how a pendulum works, I understand how a Newton's swing works, I understand how Newton's swing can start off another swing elsewhere... I'm just not clear on the nature of the finger that started off the first swing

What I tell people: "When you get used to using an operating system that respects your rights, you don't wanna go back."