edit: for anyone curious, the problem was Xorg wasnt loading or something (stuck on systemd 'graphical interface target reached' with no graphical interface). because of a typo in a config file.
Signed,
Windows users
this post was submitted on 24 Sep 2023
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ow, my [registry keys]
I question who these imaginary windows users are.
I set up Windows for my parents. The biggest challenges is them not not knowing how to log into their email. Every 2-3 years, I move their stuff to the cloud and throw in a fresh Windows. Did that for 15 years. Not once did I have to mess with any weird settings for them.
During the pandemic, hating windows 11, I switched them over to linux. Every month, there's a new problem. Audio stopped working. Had some DNS issues (that required me to zoom call my brother) They did some weird things where they downloaded two Google chromes (?). I'd have to run updates manually because I don't trust them to open up terminal.
Already Linux for my parents requires more support than anything else.
I still plan to keep encouraging them to use Linux, because I really don't like the new WIn11 updates.
Your parents have root or what?
It's probably best to use an immutable distro like NixOs or Fedore SilverBlue when installing for people who don't know Linux and don't want to learn
Honestly the worst part about Windows is the fact that sometimes it will restart to install updates through the night, closing everything you had opened. The preinstalled garbage is also annoying, but can be uninstalled easily.
Outside that, it honestly just works. It's great for old people.
My experience has been the same as yours. Trying to get WiFi, Audio, webcam, bluetooth, GPU, etc. working on a Linux distro is a nightmare. Then when you get it working somewhat, it'll just be randomly borked the next time you boot your system. Requiring another 5 hours and 600 tabs of research to figure out what you did to fix it the first time.
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My mom barely uses desktop anymore. Everything on iPad essentially. I'm chuckling thinking of what she'd do to me if I tried to migrate her to linux.
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I did that as a beginner a few times but now I'm able to resolve everything I need to with the good old terminal.
sometimes i just cant be bothered figuring out why systemd isnt starting a graphical interface, or whatever, and reinstalling doesnt take very long if you have a home partition
Figuring out? It's right there in the logs.
Fast disks are spoiling the next generation. Back in the day, 2 minutes reading could save you half an hour of reinstalling. But if reinstalling takes about the same amount of time, I guess there's no more incentive to actually learn something.
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I am new to desktop linux. It is a pain to not know certain troubleshooting steps as I do mostly for server linux.
For example, not knowing what the gui consists of, which applications are essential and which are not.
In that case I would like to recommend you install Arch at least once. Not to actually use in production, but it made a lot of things click for me that help me with server stuff too. Just follow along with the install guide on the wiki inside of a VM.
If you really want to know what applications are essential I'd install a window manager and not just install the gnome package. Though even just installing your favourite DE will work fine.
I've heard other people recommend Gentoo and Linux from scratch as well for this purpose since they go even deeper, but that may be too much to start off with and I haven't done that myself
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Haven't reinstalled a distro in probably a decade.
Same. And I never fucking will. I will learn how to fix it if it kills me.
The last time I reinstalled a distro to fix an issue was Ubuntu 6.06 Dapper Drake.
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- What distro?
- Are you hiring? If not, are you mentoring?
- I make a great [food]!
- Or have you just been stuck using Windows for the past ten years?
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Cannot relate to that. I modify the crap out of my Arch install and keep it in perfect condition all the time.
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In enterprise, this usually is the way. No sense wasting engineer hours troubleshooting something in prod when you can use Ansible to replace the system and restore data in 10 minutes (while your redundant system handles the load of course).
Who made this, a windows user? Friggin meme is backwards
I really had to chuckle when reading the comments.
Linux broke, had to reinstall: -"we do this in bussiness too!"
Windows broke. had to reinstall: -"LOL! Shitty Windows, install Linux!"
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my current install is 3 yrs old, if you select a decent distro and dont fuck with its internals it works pretty well.
i suspect most of the people complaining are either on a meme distro or they poke too much into the system
You seem to implying that doing anything other than using preinstalled apps like the web browser is "poking too much into the system" and are therefore idiots. As I have had a system break just by installing or upgrading packages on Ubuntu. Now I always use ZFS on root and make snapshots of everything beforehand.
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The only time I've ever done this on Linux was 20 years ago, trying to f with XF86 before I understood it.
Reinstalling is the Windows way of solving problems.
Additionally, going full Linux and then trying to install Windows again is a nightmare (but I guess that's not really what we're talking about here).
I learned the hard way to never trust windows to not destroy other disks. One time it decided to place the boot partition on a disk it saw having a unknown file system. Turns out it was a disk on a raid-array. After that I physically unpower all other disks before installing windows.
I mean, who doesn't use snapshots these days? BTRFS / ZFS has saved me days of grief.
As an Arch user, BTRFS has saved me SO much pain, suffering, and time. BTRFS is a LIFESAVER!
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You need to rethink your reinstall process. My root is on a separate drive from my home directory. My home directory has a script that installs all of my basic software, along with any specific config files that don't reside in my home directory naturally. I can reinstall the system in about an hour.
Yeah, I use NixOS so my whole system is defined in a couple config files, so when reinstalling I can just point the installer at my config and get (pretty much) the exact same system. Same packages, git config, aliases, package versions, firewall rules, kernel version, etc, only thing missing is a couple dotfiles I haven't switched over yet but those are synced using Syncthing anyways.
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Surprising to me so I must do some things right :
- dedicated /home partition
- OS on SSD, new OS on fast USB stick
- backup on another physical disk of important data (usually a subset of /home )
- other partition for OS testing
- other working device for instructions and search online (mobile phone is usually enough)
- documented setup for complex tools, e.g /home/Prototypes where you might have container setups, e.g docker-compose.yml
Usually if you have this in place its a matter of hour, at most. Sure in 1h you will not have ALL the apps you need perfectly configured but, for me at least, enough to feel at "home" again. It's usually about having ~/.bashrc or ~/.tridactilrc in place but if you do have /home on another partition, it's basically "free".
I have only really done this while i used windows, on linux i have always been able to find a solution that didn't require reinstalling; on windows on the other hand i had a time where it just started to bluescreen at every boot out of nowhere...
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It is normal for a beginner to only have 1 tool in their debugging toolbox 🤷♂️
Git good and solve the problems you create.
i only reinstall when it's a hard to fix issue and i wanted to try out another distro anyway, so about 0.8distrohops/year
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Goddammit I'm literally right now trying to decide if I want to spend an entire day wiping and reinstalling the OS in my main PC or if I can live with the current glitches for now. Full disclosure, in my case the glitchy behaviour is entirely on me trying to tinker with the OS and accidentally breaking stuff, not an issue with Linux or the distro.
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Fixing a small bug, then reinstall everything...
wiping my entire system once every 6 months or something because it just feels faster and "fresher"
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So true, I just had a bug and after reinstalling I go to find out it was just a driver issue. Screw nivdia.
When you install, partition your drive. /home goes on its own partition and will probably be the largest one. Then you can wipe the / partition and reinstall all you want, takes 15 minutes
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Snapshots
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