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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Anyone else able to "sense" whether a solution on a forum will work before fully reading it through? Especially the long-winded ones. (lemmy.ml)

submitted 3 days ago by monovergent@lemmy.ml to c/linux@lemmy.ml

16 comments fedilink hide all child comments

Searching gives me the impression there's a million ways to solve the same problem on Linux, and I find myself profiling answers into about four categories at a glance:

Succinct: one or two-liner, a single config file, or just a few clicks
Long-winded song-and-dance: Full train of thought interspersed between various commands and logs, several config files (some of which don't already exist), or installing an obscure package that is no longer maintained
Specific to a desktop environment or version I don't have
Just looks wrong

I'll usually just take solutions from the first category, which almost always works, save for differences between updates and versions. Solutions in the second category also seem to end with a 50% chance of the OP unable to solve the problem. If I'm desperate, I'll try the second one, but it often ends up not working, eventually leading me to come up with a much cleaner solution of my own.

Curious if anyone else does this too and if those one-liners are really better solutions or if it's just confirmation bias.

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[–] GenderNeutralBro@lemmy.sdf.org 13 points 3 days ago (2 children)

Kind of funny how quickly we've flipped from "you should treat LLM output like advice from a random stranger" to "you should treat advice from a random stranger like LLM output".

Either way, it's the right idea. If you can't understand what you're doing but you do it anyway, you're going to create all kinds of problems for yourself.

[–] slacktoid@lemmy.ml 4 points 3 days ago

Lolol yes, it's a weird straight circle indeed.

However applying those fixes and then learning to fix it is a great way to learn how to troubleshoot and unb0rk your system.

[–] Mordikan@kbin.earth 3 points 3 days ago

In a round about way, that does fix the problem you have, though. Just randomly changing things or installing/uninstalling packages until the whole OS is borked and you have to reinstall thereby clearing the problem.

Doesn't teach how to fix the problem, but at least they'll get real proficient with setting up new system partitions.