The Linux Thread - The Autist's OS of Choice

  • 🐕 I am attempting to get the site runnning as fast as possible. If you are experiencing slow page load times, please report it.
I’m beyond frustrated with this.
“How do I do x?”
“Don’t do x, do y using flakes.”
“Okay, how do I do y using flakes?”
“Flakes are experimental, don’t use them.”

NixOS is an amazing concept that has the potential to solve so many problems with dependency hell but nobody wants to fucking touch the documentation with a ten foot pole, for anyone's benefit.

Even the best practices of the base configuration.nix file isn't up to date, so you can end up using the wrong field structure for something like setting up automatic startx after a TTY login.
 
Maybe don't get mad that people treat Linux like a Windows replacement if half of the Linux community shills it as exactly that.
People say a lot of retarded shit on the internet, maybe don't listen to them too much and form your own opinions. The documentation is there. The software is free. Just try using it. Maybe for you, maybe not. Nobody will be able to tell you. I know this sounds kinda flippant, maybe rude but is not meant that way. It's just the way it is.

Distro wars are absolutely fucking pointless.
I said this in this thread already so very often. Every distro offers the same software, mostly with different configuration defaults. That's mostly it. Distro-specific patches to kernels and userland software do happen, but honestly, they're rare and often not a good sign. Distros are primary software collections. Even the now just mentioned NixOS which does things in very different ways offers at the base the exactly same software every other distro offers too. In the Linux software landscape, you got the kernel which does the low level talking to your computer's firmware (if existent)/hardware and on top of that is already the userland software which can be whatever you want, for whatever purposes you want. Stallman tried to indirectly explain this to you with his whole GNU/Linux thing (yes I know that meme quote is not by him) for years but he did so in very poor words. I could compile a kernel that only runs reliably on machines that are almost exactly like mine and make this kernel boot directly into e.g. a text editor. No init system, no other processes, not even a shell. Not useful, but possible. Such simple linux systems are all around you though, from fridges to RGB Lightbulbs.

There's no magic to this. Distro maintainers do nothing else as combine all this software from various and often very different sources with some self-written (even that's not always true) package manager (usually aligned to some philosophy, just as the collection itself) with which to manage dependencies and updates and giving their packages some sensible or less-than-sensible defaults. Maybe the odd distro-specific installer/"app store" or two. The confusion comes because these fuckers do shit like attach *OS suffixes and general self-important mayhem like this:

It's out, mintbros.

View attachment 5740896

And Wayland keeps gaining more and more traction.

View attachment 5740899
and then people think it's some kind of "whole OS". It's not. You can make every other distro behave and look exactly like this, all by yourself. There's nothing in Mint you couldn't have in Debian, NixOS, Gentoo, Void or Alpine. Because they're all the same thing.

I mean it's obvious to many here but since distro discussions keep repeating, maybe not to all. Problem with blindly trusting distro maintainers is the same as with blindly trusting Microsoft/Apple to do the right thing. All these parties have as at least one goal to offer universal one-size-fits-all solutions for everyone, and if you ever had anything to do with one-size-fits-all solutions, for example as a conscript in the army, you know that usually just means "fits nobody quite right". Since distros and the developers of the underlying software (which sometimes but not even all that often are the same people) don't have nearly as deep pockets or manpower as Microsoft and Apple do, they mostly deal in bundling 3rd party software somebody else wrote and their solutions fall apart quicker as a result. That's where you come in! The nice thing about Linux and Linux software is that it actually lets you do that, creating a solution fitting you like a custom-taylored suit. The downside is that you need to know how to do that. The upside is that the documentation is there and if it isn't you can move on to software that's better documented because there's an actual selection, I'd say even a big one. That's also why some people tard rage when people try to push something like systemd as end-all solution for a specific thing to everyone. This versatilty and flexibility is like, the single best thing Linux has going for it.
 
You can make every other distro behave and look exactly like this, all by yourself. There's nothing in Mint you couldn't have in Debian, NixOS, Gentoo, Void or Alpine. Because they're all the same thing.
My experience with this is that although the vast majority of packaged software is available as packages for almost all distros, some distros give you the latest stable version and others give you some older version.

I can get on just fine with an older version of EOM whereas an older version of kvm/QEMU or Wine is unusable to me. Getting newer versions of software onto a distro that only packages older versions in a manageable way is a painful process and a big reason why I left Ubuntu for Arch and also the reason why I don't use Debian even though it's objectively a good distro.

That Arch Linux is well documented helps, too.
 
I tried running this program:

Code:
sudo apt-get clippy

I don't think it worked but I just got a new monitor so I think maybe I typed the letters too big?
 
Maybe I should try Arch Linux for my next desktop

I have laughed at, and circulated a few Arch memes myself for a few years and now I need to make use of a tool written by a turboautist that only uses BlackArch and bleeding edge will only run on it so now I gotta eat crow and learn it. Certainly better to learn it by choice rather than waiting to be blindsided by autism.
 
I have laughed at, and circulated a few Arch memes myself for a few years and now I need to make use of a tool written by a turboautist that only uses BlackArch and bleeding edge will only run on it so now I gotta eat crow and learn it. Certainly better to learn it by choice rather than waiting to be blindsided by autism.
I just should try to use the most generic system possible for my first real Arch Linux attempt, not my old ThinkPad laptop that's hooked up to a Onelink+ dock.as that's just asking for trouble
 
I just should try to use the most generic system possible for my first real Arch Linux attempt, not my old ThinkPad laptop that's hooked up to a Onelink+ dock.as that's just asking for trouble
If it's old enough to have true S3 Sleep and not "Connected Standby" "Modern Sleep" or whatever the fuck Microsoft is calling it now, and you don't care about the fingerprint reader possibly being unsupported, it'll probably work okay.

I don't own a USB dock, but my Thunderbolt 10GBe network adapter worked flawlessly after I added something to my grub config.
 
If it's old enough to have true S3 Sleep and not "Connected Standby" "Modern Sleep" or whatever the fuck Microsoft is calling it now, and you don't care about the fingerprint reader possibly being unsupported, it'll probably work okay.

I don't own a USB dock, but my Thunderbolt 10GBe network adapter worked flawlessly after I added something to my grub config.
Onelink+ is a proprietary connection and I don't know what's in it and don't want to find out.
 
Onelink+ is a proprietary connection and I don't know what's in it and don't want to find out.
Oh I see, that thing is from 2016?

I'm guessing logically the video ports show up as if they were built-in, and would probably be listed by xrandr even with the dock disconnected (this is how it works on old X series docks) and everything else on that is likely provided by one or two USB3 connections, except the power button which probably has dedicated signalling.
 
Oh I see, that thing is from 2016?

I'm guessing logically the video ports show up as if they were built-in, and would probably be listed by xrandr even with the dock disconnected (this is how it works on old X series docks) and everything else on that is likely provided by one or two USB3 connections, except the power button which probably has dedicated signalling.
The power button is hardware level as it turns on the laptop when it is fully off. It's a feature I really wish usb docking stations had.
 
I’m beyond frustrated with this.
“How do I do x?”
“Don’t do x, do y using flakes.”
“Okay, how do I do y using flakes?”
“Flakes are experimental, don’t use them.”

Nix documentation:
170705208747649218.png
 
You should use punch cards, which is what the one true god intended. Not the false idol of the command line.
download.png


I wonder how hard it would be to build a punch card reader nowadays. When you think about it QR-Codes are just fancier, inks-instead-of-holes punch cards with extra rows and smaller holes so as to pack more data.
 
View attachment 5742955

I wonder how hard it would be to build a punch card reader nowadays. When you think about it QR-Codes are just fancier, inks-instead-of-holes punch cards with extra rows and smaller holes so as to pack more data.
These days? 3d-print a feed mechanism that pushes the cards past a $20 webcam, hook the cam up to a raspberry pi, then ask chat GPT to generate the code needed for a pi-based card reader.
The code will be made of spaghetti and sadness, but it will be cheaper and easier than doing it properly.
Then spend a week making a 12 minute YouTube video about it, and get a job with Linus Tech Tips.

God that's depressing. I need a drink.
 
Back