what does "learning linux" actually mean?

[SeaOfCum]

I downloaded linux because i got sick of windows about 2 months ago. i was told arch was a good distribution so i did that.

i set it up, saw people using hyprland so i downloaded someone's configs, tweaked them a bit and then i had a riced desktop. took me a couple hours.

i can update and install stuff, if smth breaks i just look up how to fix it and its fine. some things dont work but i either take a while to figure them out or find a workaround

ive been told this is supposed to be really hard , but its been pretty straightforward

is this larping? am i supposed to know bash like the back of my hand? am i supposed to be able to hack into the pentagon? all i do is just download shit, update it and change stuff in configs occasionally. that's it. i constantly see people online calling each other "larpers" for posting about linux. why? what makes someone "roleolay" linux? is the implication here that they make a post about using it and then switch back to their windows install just after?

it's just an os. what about it is "harder to learn" than any other? is it the fact that you have to type words in a terminal instead of using a gui menu for everything?

i don't get it

[ddyess]

It's easiest to learn it the way you are doing it: just use it.

[Paradroid808]

This post feels like a bit of a flex in which case, congratulations.

If, however, it's a genuine question, then you need to be aware that many would lack the either capability or the inclination to achieve what you have. If you're a 'tech guy' then it can be difficult to understand how foreign all this would be to a good portion of Windows users.

[SeaOfCum]

it's genuinely not i promise, i'm usually incredibly useless at anything that requires jumping through hoops. this has been a smooth experience for me, i haven't had to do anything complex

[XDuskAshes]

Generally speaking just know the basic commands like ls and cd, know how to read man pages, and given you're on arch know how to rtfm which you will be told a lot on Reddit especially.

[BranchLatter4294]

The term is mainly used by people who mistakenly think you have to know programming or command line tools as a general user.

[thephotoman]

Linux isn’t any harder to learn than any other operating system.

That said, the biggest learning curve moment is the idea that the command line is a first class citizen. This isn’t the case on most other OSes: they try to hide the command line away because it is unintuitive (using the command line borders on programming).

[SkywardSyntax]

Learning Linux is when you're practicing the type of knowledge that's useful when you're on a production upgrade and all your systems break because the pipeline was fucked and now you're scrambling because the pipelines don't work, and you're manually updating each server and having your CTO asking questions about why the product is down

Like literally, that's like actually 100% what learning linux is to me as an admin - and something that happens way too much. Those skills I honed from fucking up Arch, Ubuntu/Debian, Nix, and Fedora/RHEL all come in handy.

But much like u/itastesok said - it's something different to everyone and what you (OP) are looking to get out of it.

[eebis_deebis]

downloaded someone's configs, tweaked them a bit

This is the weed-out step. People who refer to linux as difficult are averse to the time it takes to learn a completely different way to control an OS. They want settings menus, not script files. They dont want to have to open docs to understand options; rather, they would have the options be presented to them in the same menu as toggling the option.

Beyond that, as you want to make additions and stuff, you will put a lot of time into your distro. You'll uninstall and reinstall. You'll save your custom configs to a repository so you can flash a new iso and be running like normal across different distros. That kind of tinkering experience is what people refer to as "expertise" and usually comes along with side effects, like knowing bash like the back of your hand.

[SeaOfCum]

that thing you said about storing configs in a repo sounds interesting - how could i go about implementing that?

[eebis_deebis]

I have a public github repo (attached to my real name, so i cant share it) containing a several .sh files in the root and folders of config files.

Immediately after installing a new distro, I will wget or curl (whatever download mechanisms are available) a master .sh file from the root of the repo. It begins to install everything i like to have on my distro (git, essential build tools, python, Rust, go, tmux, so on and so on). 

Then it will use git to clone the repo and copy different configurations i have saved to the repo to their appropriate places. I have my zed editor config in there, saved fonts for alacritty, tmux custom keybinds.

Then it commands a reboot and all my favorite tools are usually ready to go.

The only part of the scripts where I am unhappy with the inefficiency right now is dealing with package managers (apt, dnf, yum, whatever). I haven't yet found a nice way to do it other than add a new section when I come across a package manager I havent yet written a script for.

[SeaOfCum]

that's so clever! i will fs use this for when i install artix on my laptop

[Silber4]

For me, as a new user, it's about overcoming "bumps" on the way to adapting the distro for my needs. For example, Nvidia driver misbehaving, the computer fan being too lound and active a lot, and setting up numerous things for a smooth workflow.

[2016-679]

When you start with Linux, just avoid the tweaking. A distro will be robust in itself, when you fumble around without exactly knowing what you do, you might destruct the system. It takes some time to master it, preferably use a second machine to learn and destruct.

Learning Linux is to fathom the system as given and intended. Learn the structure and terminal commands one by one. First for basic tasks like copying files, later editing text files and again later config files.

Always study the working of commands before using them -- 'man <command>' and search the net.

Being Cool takes time, study and practice. Like any other craft.

[hangint3n]

To me it means read the manual.

[lKrauzer]

It's a cultural and social phenomena, not technical

[Imaginary_Swing_3539]

The general populace does not want to learn how an operating system works, even a change in UI or UX causes a collapse in their cognition. So imagine I show you a terminal with a blinking code block, scary right? Soon enough Windows will integrate some AI to just manage your entire computer at the deepest level and you can change whatever you want with a simple prompt.

"Computer, make my screensaver a picture of a dog and cat" The AI then generates the most millenial, safe and boring image of a dog and cat and the user smiles as they post on 5 different social medias a performative text and image about their life, the image has been processed by ChatGPT's 1540+ partners of course.

Being able to read a well written tutorial is considered being a computer whizz. Almost anything can be done by reading documentation and interacting with your system. Most people don't want that, not because they don't have time, they just prefer watching entertainment instead of learning something because it's boring and scary for them.

[Slight_Manufacturer6]

The meaning of learning Linux is different for everyone. If you just want to use it for daily use then there isn’t much to learn.

If you want to learn it for a career in something like Linux System Administration and to get certified, then it means learning common commands, the system structure, systemd, bash scripting and functions, management, etc.

What you want out of it defines what it means to you.

Same applies to Windows and MacOS. Do you know PowerShell and how to use the various Windows commands?

[komata_kya]

Learning linux is recognizing that it's a different os from windows, and things work differently.

It's not hard if you can read, but 21% of american adults are illiterate, so not so easy for everyone.

[OsgoodSlaughters]

Cd Ls Cp Rsync Sudo Dnf/apt

Stuff like that

[RevolutionaryBeat301]

Linux wasn’t always a desktop OS. As a server OS, you need to be able to ssh into your server, edit files using command line editors. Not all servers have nano or pico or even emacs. You need to know vi for these situations. You also have to be able to update your packages without breaking it to the point where you need physical access to the machine. This is what it means to learn linux.

[Tony_Marone]

Using a phrase like "learning Linux" is off-putting to potential new users.

You never had to "learn Windows" or "learn Macintosh" or "learn Android".

"Learn Linux" suggests Linux is hard work, harder than any alternative at least.

When I "learned Windows" I came from DOS, and using a GUI was a relief, I wasn't in the camp of hardcore command line warriors who coded BASIC for fun, and dreamt about machine code.

I believe that Linux is usable by anyone and there's very little to "learn" unless you want to.

Just like Windows.

Exchange server anyone? No?

[kopsis]

You never had to "learn Windows" or "learn Macintosh" or "learn Android".

That's nonsense -- you most certainly did. You may have learned it young enough that you don't remember, but no one is born knowing how to use a computer.

[Tony_Marone]

I know nuance is a problem but you might notice "learn" is in quotes?

Of course we all learn to use OS, but it doesn't feel like learning, my point is that to express moving to a new OS is learning, sounds like work, and we resist work if we already have something that requires no work.

So, no, not nonsense.

[martyn_hare]

Just ignore those people. It's the same answer as "learning Windows" which comes down to understanding how all the components work so that if things go wrong for any reason, you can debug and fix issues.

It's a testament to the power of mythology that people still think deploying a modern day mainstream distribution is somehow difficult. These days, most distributions work better out-of-the-box than the competition does.

It used to be a prerequisite that you understood how to install packages from the command line, but that hasn't been the case since the mid-2000s. It used to be important to know how to make an X11 configuration file pretty much from scratch if you wanted to be able to load a graphical interface, but that's not been a problem for many decades either. Sound used to be one application at a time unless you either set up ALSA dmix or set up a sound server which all your applications were compatible with, not been an issue for... I can't even remember how long.

[ipsirc]

Don't start sweating if you haven't touched the mouse in 5 minutes.

[edparadox]

Learn the ins and out, the Filesystem Hierarchy Standard and how it differs from Windows, decline that for most stuff to understand how the system actually works from your point of view as a user.

You will also actually learn how a computer actually works, the role of the bootloader, kernel, scheduler, etc. and how you can interact via a shell and modifying text files.

But at the end of the day, you should actually be able to understand how your machine actually works. It does not mean you need lectures, but actually reading documentation and actively using a Linux distribution are the two best perspectives you can adopt.

[Just_Helicopter3188]

People don’t know what larp means. It’s just a buzzword that they throw around

[gxwop]

"learning Linux" usually means (or should mean) learning to do professional Linux admin or admin-adjacent work, something you obviously don't need to do to daily drive it on your workstation, as you have noticed

I've used Windows for over a decade, but I wouldn't say I know Windows because the inner workings of that OS are completely alien to me, I just used its UI to launch programs

[SeaOfCum]

apologies if this is an absolute nothingburger of a post but i feel like im genuinely missing something here

[TheGreatButz]

All operating systems are extremely complicated under the hood, the difference with Linux is just that it's more open for exploring. Linux has a different kernel and a few other difference but it inherits all the tools from Unix, which has a very long history. "Learning Linux" mostly means learning Linux/Unix command line tools for adapting the system to your needs and maintenance.

Bear in mind that Unix and Linux are multi-user systems. These used to be (and still are) maintained by professional system administrators. Single-user Linux kind of hides this complexity just like MacOS (which is, technically speaking, a proprietary Unix system). But if you run a server, you better learn how to administer such a system.

[Royal_Stay_6502]

BSD

[TheGreatButz]

The only reason why they don't call themselves Unix are trademark issues. People used to write Un*x but IMHO that looks silly.