me shily walking over to my timeshift snapshots after running

sudo chmod -R 775 /

Instead of with a dot...

I mean that's the whole deal for me. I can take it if I know I can fix it

There is no fixing microsoft

Tbf the biggest problems i had with linux were caused by some Windows partition so the first image may as well apply to the second case sometimes.

Other Linux users to you:
RTFM you fucking donkey!

Plot twist: Your snapshots were mounted when you did that and are now also very accessible.

We need to get over that for newbs. The experienced person already knows they're a donkey.

shudders

But no I use an externall HDD docked with a... Usb dock thing whatever it's called

That's accessible from a USB Ubuntu... Right?

Right?????

There is no fixing microsoft

But there is. People create their own fixes, configurations and utilities all the time.

Sounds to me like you haven't tested your backups suitably if you are asking.

By reverse engineering black box shit, then providing binaries everyone is just supposed to trust don’t also contain malware?

I never had issues on windows 11, but fuck that noise.

Ive since moved CachyOS, I’ve put in 30-60 mins a week fixing or setting up things. The recent was a random “a wedged CEF cache in the Steam client”. Im happy to pay it and i learn more of a system im part of. Im in awe of all the work already done in linux.

Still

I did test with a usb. I'm joking

People actually thought about that... so snapshots are read-only by design

"Oh maybe I could fix it by trying this thing."

"But what if it messes things up?"

"Ah it'll be just fine if I mess around here just this once."

"It'll work don't worry."

Hot take: user-friendly system shouldn't require the manual to operate normally.

Yeah every issue is basically a mystery that will lead you down a rabbit hole, be prepared to learn a lot of things and copy and paste code you do not fully understand, well if you are a layman like me

For desktop useage, fair enough; though, keep in mind that linux started and still is a server os primarily. DEs started out for the developers to have the ability to have some GUI on the side as well, no reason to hate themselves for no reason. I use arch for desktop useage, not server useage, and I'm aware that I'm the insane one, and linux being the even more insane one for actually working for what it's not even designed for. DE's are a GNU thing and all that, but still a bunch of packages made to be modular by default rather than well integrated for a specific experience. So while it is up to the developers to develop their packages, it's the distro maintainers to make it user-friendly for desktop useage; where if something is really needed, someone will make it - if noone makes it, the suggestions of popular demand will be enough motivation for someone to make it sooner or later. I often feel bad for relying on the "someone", which is why we donate, to show appreciation and support the things we love.

My Nvidia drivers broke on my old rig I'm using as a server. I got lucky and fixed it running akmods and not doing an 8 hour blood ritual.

Or just keep back ups and reinstall the OS.

Honestly I've been using Linux for like 15 years and there have been times that just reinstalling which takes 45 minutes would have been the fastest and easiest solution to a problem I will likely never encounter again.

One of the reasons I love Linux, actually.

Nobody to blame but myself, so let's start figuring this shit out I guess

I accidentally made my entire home directory executable and I only backup individual projects on my laptop since it doesnt have much valuable data. that was annoying to fix

I just moved my EXT4 home folder off of my old Cachy install onto my new NixOS install on a different drive before deciding to stick with just installing a fresh CachyOS on that same drive meaning a reformatting. I had meant to just copy the files so now I basically just nuked all my data :(

Mad at myself right now as I'm seeing if i can save any data using ddrescue and DMDE

TimeShift was probably one of the most important teaching aides I had when I first started on Linux.

I've been on Bazzite for a couple years now, so I have no need for it anymore.

But I learned sooooo much by breaking my EndeavourOS install and then rolling back.

I've only had to rollback with Bazzite once so far (it's hard to break), and it was literally just one rpm-ostree command. Love it.

Some things are just inherently complex. And especially if you're going to use CLI (not user unfriendly in any way imo), you're gonna want to make sure you're typing in the right stuff.

Linux has the manuals built-in, they're called "man pages"

Oh look the fstab command I didn't fully understand has written all the NTFS indexes over the partition tables on all my hard drives... Whelp time to learn data recovery.

Hotter take: Ease of access has ruined modern computing. The ideal desktop interface is the one they have in the Alien universe.

Yes, when something is forced on a person, that tends to lead to resentment. Meanwhile if a person freely chooses something, they may wonder if they chose properly.

You can dig as deep as you care to, all the way down to source code. And if you can't read code, you can learn to. If you don't want to spend the time, that's completely reasonable. But it's your choice.

Btw just a PSA: You don't need to manually edit fstab when there is Gnome Disks (gnome-disk-utility).

I feel like fucking up fstab is a rite of passage

Let's start learning with how to use man:

man man

Linux Inc. does not spend billions of dollars ensuring you have no options but Linux.

It also doesn't exist, so that helps too.

And those binaries are to fix the black box shit that is subject to alteration at any time, rendering them useless.

People in these parts will throw shade at macOS, and I get it. But whatever you think of Apple, they've traditionally done a pretty good job of making their OS such that you don't really need a manual unless you start doing more complex stuff. Someone who's not particularly computer literate can buy a cheap Mac and have it up and running in no time, without ever really needing to seek help.

cheap Mac

Where?

I recently switched to CachyOS. While I don't have the same hard-on for it that most users seem to have, I like how it's set up by default to create a btrfs snapshot of the root filesystem before and after each update. Grub can even boot into individual snapshots directly. I'm almost looking forward to the day it saves my ass after an update breaks my system.

When you go down the rabbit hole a debate starting from scratch again:

45 minutes to re-install the OS.

Another couple of hours to get all of the common programs you use downloaded and installed.

A full month or more of customizing everything to your preferences and downloading the programs you rarely use.

Yeah, because they usually don't. One reason I started using Linux was that I started caring more about security. However, Windows tweaking apps never burned me.

I weirdly got a problem after blowing away my windows partition

Shutting down the computer (mint) doesn’t fully shut down anymore, so I gotta physically hold down the power button til it goes off

Internet says something with grub is probs wack, but I’m lazy so I just made a shortcut to “shutdown -f 0” and called it good

You completely skipped the “keep backups” part which prevents most of this.

If you have things backed up well that shouldn't take more than a few minutes but yeah there is definitely an argument to be made depending on your preference.

My new go to plan. Thank you for the idea!

No, that's pretty typical even for an experienced Windows admin.

My favourite Corporations are the ones that don't exist

I didn't know you couldn't just move an encrypted partition a bit to the left. Ended up wiping out the headers without backing them up.

All my data is technically still there, I guess. ¯\(ツ)/¯

Hot take: oh, linux systems do operate normally. Until they get butchered by user

Years ago, coming from Windows 7, I decided Linux Mint was simple enough to dip my toes into Linux. Some jackass had posted a guide to manually install a cool looking desktop environment and I fell for it faster than an idiot born yesterday.

Sure, the DE worked and looked cool for a day or two. But it was massively borked after the first security update. Looking back, I wouldn't do anything different. I am grateful for that tough first lesson. After spending the subsequent days reading about the different distros, I picked one that was notoriously un-shiny and I read the documentation. Whenever I think about adding shiny, unsupported thingies, I think about how fast foolish decisions can tank the OS.

Buy used. Worked great for me.