I thought I’ll make this thread for all of you out there who have questions but are afraid to ask them. This is your chance!
I’ll try my best to answer any questions here, but I hope others in the community will contribute too!
Why does it feel that Linux infighting is the main reason why it never takes off? It’s always “distro X sucks”, “installing from Y is stupid”, “any system running Z should burn”
There’s no infighting. It just feels that way because you picked an inferior distribution.
I installed Debian today. I’m terrified to do anything. Is there a single button backup/restore I can depend on when I ultimately fuck this up?
timeshift is pretty good, but bootable btrfs snapshots are even better
Why do programs install somewhere instead of asking me where to?
EDIT: Thank you all, well explained.
Someone already gave an answer, but the reason it’s done that way is because on Linux, generally programs don’t install themselves - a package manager installs them. Windows (outside of the windows store) just trusts programs to install themselves, and include their own uninstaller.
OP. Gotta say that this thread is a brilliant idea!
Is there an Android emulator that you can actually game on? I’ve tried a number of them (Android x86, Genymotion, Waydroid), but none of them can install a multitude of games from the Google Play store. The one thing keeping me on Windows is Android emulation (I like having one or two idle games running at any given time).
Waydroid works, but there’s three main things you need to get things going to replicate a typical Android device:
- OpenGapps: For GApps/Play Store. You’ll also need to register your device to get an Android ID.
- Magisk: Mainly to pass SafetyNet / Play Integrity basic checks.
- libndk / libhoudini: For ARM > x86 translation. libndk works better on AMD.
- Widevine: (optional) L3 DRM for things that need it, eg Netflix
There are some automated scripts that can set this all up. I used this one in the past with some success.
Also, stay away from nVidia. From what I recall, it just doesn’t work, or there are other issues like crashes. But if you’re serious about Linux in general, then ditching nVidia is generally a good idea.
Finally, games that use anti-cheat can be a hit-or-miss (like Genshin Impact, which crashed when I last tried it). But that’s something that you may face on any emulator, I mean, any decent anti-cheat system would detect the usage of emulators.
Is it difficult to keep your leg shaved and how many pairs of long socks do you have?
Subjectively: it is hard to keep my legs shaved
Objectively: there’s never enough programming socks
NixOS. I don’t get what it really is or does? It’s a Linux distribution but with ceavets or something
It’s a distribution completely centered around the Nix package manager. This basically allows you to program how your system should look using one programming language. If you want an identical system, just copy that file and you’re set.
On Android, when an app needs something like camera or location or whatever, you have to give it permission. Why isn’t there something like this on Linux desktop? Or at least not by default when you install something through package manager.
Android apps are sandboxed by default while packages on Linux run with the users permission.
There is already something like this with Flatpak since it also sandboxes every installed program and only grants requested permissions.
What is the system32 equivalent in linux
/bin, since that will include any basic programs (bash, ls, cd, etc.).
Mods, perhaps a weekly post like this would be beneficial? Lowering the bar to entry with some available support and helping to keep converts.
Agreed. @cypherpunks@lemmy.ml, I think this would be a great idea - making a weekly megathread for Linux questions, preferably also stickied for visibility.
Ok, I just stickied this post here, but I am not going to manage making a new one each week :)
I am an admin at lemmy.ml and was actually only added as a mod to this community so that my deletions would federate (because there was a bug where non-mod admin deletions weren’t federating a while ago). The other mods here are mostly inactive and most of the mod activity is by me and other admins.
Skimming your history here, you seem alright; would you like to be a mod of /c/linux@lemmy.ml ?
Please feel free to make me a mod too. I am not crazy active, but I think my modest contributions will help.
And I can make this kind of post on a biweekly or monthly basis :) I think weekly might be too often since the post frequency here isn’t crazy high
Ok, you and @d3Xt3r@lemmy.nz are both mods of /c/linux@lemmy.ml now. Thanks!
Any word on the next generation of matrix math acceleration hardware? Is anything currently getting integrated into the kernel? Where are the gource branches looking interesting for hardware pulls and merges?
How do symlinks work from the point of view of software?
Imagine I have a file in my downloads folder called movie.mp4, and I have a symlink to it in my home folder.
Whenever I open the symlink, does the software (player) understand «oh this file seems like a symlink, I should go and open the original file», or it’s a filesystem level stuff and software (player) basically has no idea if a file I’m opening is a symlink or the original movie.mp4?
Can I use sync software (like Dropbox, Gdrive or whatever) to sync symlinks? Can I use sync software to sync actual files, but only have symlinks in my sync folder?
Is there a rule of thumb to predict how software behaves when dealing with symlinks?
I just don’t grok symbolic links.
A symlink works more closely to the first way you described it. The software opening a symlink has to actually follow it. It’s possible for a software to not follow the symlink (either intentionally or not).
So your sync software has to actually be able to follow symlinks. I’m not familiar with how gdrive and similar solutions work, but I know this is possible with something like rsync
So I guess it’s something like pressing ctrl+c: most software doesn’t specifically handle this hotkey so in general it will interrupt a running process, but software can choose to handle it differently (like in vim ctrl+C does not interrupt it).
Thanks.
Fun fact: pressing X (close button) on a window does not make it that your app is closed, it just sends a signal that you wish to close it, your app can choose what to do with this signal.
Considering switching to Linux, but don’t know what to choose/what will work for my needs. I want to be able to play my steam games, use discord desktop application, and use FL Studio. I need it to work with an audio interface and midi controller too. I am not interested in endless tweaking of settings, simple install would be nice. What should I go for?
Mint would probably work for you. Some stuff is outdated, but it has flatpak which is a package manager with more up to date apps. If you’re willing to put in the time though, I’d recommend trying some of the more common distros out (Mint, Debian, Ubuntu, Fedora). You can use a liveusb to test them without installing.
Steam is available anywhere so that’s not a problem.
Discord officially only has a .deb package, so that’s only for Debian based distros (Debian, Ubuntu, Mint). There are other options for almost all distros though - I personally use Webcord
Fl studio might be tricky - supposedly it runs through wine but you might have to do a bit of work. I’ve personally used Reaper and I works great.
I am still blowing up my install pretty often.
Other than the user folder, what else should I back up for a fast and painless reinstall next time I get too adventurous?
What should I break next?
Dose Nvidia hate me?
How do I stop Windows from fucking up my BIOS boot order every time?Timeshift will save you soooooo much pain. Set it up to auto backup a daily image. You can also manually create as many snapshots as you want.
Timeshift has turned system-destroying mistakes I’ve made into mere 5-10 minute inconveniences. You can use it in the command line, so even if you blow up your whole desktop environment/window manager, you can still restore back to a known gold state.
I create a snapshot before any major updates or customizations.
Does Nvidia hate me?
Yes
Linus has succinctly told nvidia what to do
with which finger.
Why in Linux, Software uses a particular version of a library? Why not just say it’s dependent on that library regardless of version? It become pain in ass when you are using an ancient software it required old version of newer library so you have to create symlinks of every library to match old version.
I know that sometimes newer version of Library is not compatible with software but still. And what we can do as a software developer to fix this problem? Or as a end user.
Software changes. Version 0.5 will not have the same features as Version 0.9 most of the time. Features get added over time, features get removed over time and the interface of a library might change over time too.
As a software dev, the only thing you can do is keep the same API for ever, but that is not always feasible.
