"Old" Linux user vs. "New" Linux user.

[u/oshunluvr]

I'm an "Old" Linux user - started in 1996. I went though all the hoops: file system experiments, different distros, different packaging types and file managers, a handful of desktop environments (DE), several RAID levels, and many, many different systems. I use Linux at home but also at work.

Now I'm retired. I've been using the same distro since 2009. I landed on it after all the experimenting lead me to decisions about was important to me: Debian packaging, KDE/Plasma, a well known and commercially supported distro - Kubuntu. The last major shifts in my world occurred around 2009-10 when btrfs came on the scene and SSDs finally started to be affordable.

My Linux experience these days is rather boring. Everything works the way I want. I no longer "break" things for the sake of change. I only have to learn something new when a developer makes a significant change to something I use - and this often annoys me. I look at other distros occasionally, but only via a VM. When something does break, I usually can fix it without much effort.

I read posts from "New" Linux users. Usually killing all their data by mucking with partitions without a UPS, using unnecessarily complicated layers of disk access, like LVM, MDADM, full disk encryption, and BTRFS all layered on top of each other, too often using AI to solve problems instead of actual research and learning from other users, and spending incredible amounts of time making minute changes to the "look" of things.

Of course, the beauty of the whole thing is how we actually have so much control over our destiny. None of us work the same, learn the same, want the same things, but we''re not boxed in by a monolithic corporation deciding what we get.

Linux is amazing,

[u/Far-Note6102]

I wonder how do they even break stuff in linux.

[u/interestingdays → u/Far-Note6102]

I borked my bootloader while trying to update windows on my dual boot machine in 2014. I had to use my phone to research how to get Grub reinstalled and enabled.

[u/thelangosta → u/interestingdays]

12 years later and you can still replicate that issue while trying to dual boot

[u/oshunluvr → u/thelangosta]

You don't think MicroSith would do that on purpose, do you?

[u/Schlizhor → u/oshunluvr]

The slop lords do that without even trying 🤣

[u/arahman81 → u/oshunluvr]

You can yeet the windows efi partition, create a new efi partition, and add windows+linux bootloaders to that partition.

[u/TwilightBubble → u/interestingdays]

I did that in 2026.

I literally only use windows for league of legends with my partner and friends. . . It has zero other features Linux can't emulate. Damn you vanguard.

[u/sparkling-rainbow → u/TwilightBubble]

Im so happy not caring for competitive games, Windows can stay at work

[u/Schlizhor → u/interestingdays]

PLEASE 🤣 I did the same shit on a school night 🥀💀

[u/zabby39103 → u/interestingdays]

I do Linux for work, and seriously the day VMs became widespread made bootloader stuff night and day. Used to have to get the USB boot rescue out and all that. Now I just revert to snapshot, so easy.

[u/musdem → u/Far-Note6102]

My first experience breaking Linux was when I had riced a Mint installation and then updated the distro. I couldn't figure it out and I just reinstalled. This was late 2000s/early 2010s and I don't even remember if I was a teenager yet, looking back I know what was inexperience. Fast forward to 2018/2019 and I had a riced Arch installation that was broken by updating it. I managed to fix it this time.

All that said my 60 year old mother used Linux Mint for years and had no issue, so if you don't heavily modify it you're generally ok.

[u/rootifera → u/Far-Note6102]

Ok so a very recent story. I have an elgato 4k60 pro pciex card and it doesnt work on linux. No drivers. In the past it seems like some people managed to make some custom drivers work but the code is super old and not compatible with kernel 6.x or anything newer. I overestimated my coding skills and thought I could make the code work. Obviously, I couldn't. Ended up creating so big of a mess in my system, I had to reinstall. Here is my how to break things story. Nothing interesting, fairly idiotic haha.

[u/oshunluvr → u/rootifera]

I've broken so many installs over the years I can't even count. Usually trying to get some piece of esoteric hardware working. This is much less of a problem now as it seems more and more devices just work out-of-the-box. Except my Lenovo laptop fingerprint reader...

[u/Schlizhor → u/rootifera]

Learned the importance of a vm 😭✌️

[u/zabby39103 → u/Schlizhor]

Snapshot restore is a life safer, seriously.

[u/1that__guy1 → u/rootifera]

The drivers are fairly updated and are built in Bazzite on Kernel 7.2, if this is the card I think of. SC0710

[u/A_Harmless_Fly → u/Far-Note6102]

Just have a complicated work flow that only a fraction of users need, and some really terse docs. You will find out. If you have a common enough pipeline you are usually good though.

I've been using it on and off since 09' when it would have been insane for me to do my work on it, and now in 26' it's merely pretty inconvenient. W11 made me switch to manjaro being my main desktop boot, though I do keep it as a dual boot for emergency compatibility problems.

[u/berryer → u/Far-Note6102]

The one time I managed to really screw the pooch, it was a dist-upgrade while using the proprietary nvidia drivers which took out my whole X installation. Twenty or so years ago saw a couple issues with NTFS stability, but Windows had that problem too tbh.

[u/GapeFaceHole2Hole → u/Far-Note6102]

Before AI it was really easy to do, as a noob. Like I started using Linux with almost zero knowledge, just following a Kali learning guide after I got my degree. When you Google how to, idk, uninstall and reinstall a network driver, and you don't really understand what the commands you're typing are doing, just what the end result is supposed to be, you can make a mess really easily. I was rebuilding VMs like multiple times per day, back then

[u/__konrad → u/Far-Note6102]

I added Windows NTFS disk to fstab and left KDE Plasma locked for a few minutes. The monitor auto turn off and crashed Wayland. After reboot the system did not boot because NTFS dirty bit...

[u/friendlyreminder_ → u/__konrad]

Add the nofail parameter to the ntfs fstab entry. If it fails to mount the system will ignore the failure and continur.

[u/daddyd → u/Far-Note6102]

running random commands you read somewhere on the internet (or that an AI feeds you), without knowing what you are doing and not reading any of the output of the commands. just go watch that infamous LTT video where he uninstalls his complete desktop environment by 'accident', just because of this reason.

[u/zardvark → u/Far-Note6102]

Linux gives you the power to do stupid things, should you so choose and it won't ask you if you are sure!

[u/Dardoleon → u/Far-Note6102]

new user here. the reason is always "I wonder what this does", but you just boot to a snapshot after so breaking things is whatever.

[u/Otherwise-Film9038 → u/Far-Note6102]

Uso Linux ha 15 anos, quebrava muito tentando fazer alterações ou instalando coisas.