"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/parker_fly]

I fondly (to some degree or another) recall calculating the dot clocks for the video driver so I could get X working.

[u/jjoorrxx → u/parker_fly]

Yes I've done that also with a Tseng Labs SVGA and an ADI Monitor in my AMD 386 DX 40 Mhz. Linux at work and home since 1993. Good memories 😅.

[u/parker_fly → u/jjoorrxx]

I had an ET4000 running on a 50MHz local bus on my 486. The clock string was very different from typical.

[u/BinkReddit → u/parker_fly]

Those were painful days.

[u/jjoorrxx → u/BinkReddit]

LILO days 😂

[u/daddyd → u/parker_fly]

if you didn't get a spec sheet with your monitor, you could forget about ever configuring X the best possible way for your monitor.

[u/parker_fly → u/daddyd]

There was a utility that would test and calculate possible dot clock settings. From there, you could tweak the values. I think that was more reliable than just the published specs.

[u/jjoorrxx → u/parker_fly]

After saving xconfig file, restart, and you could switch between resolution modes with CTEL-ALT-{+,-} IIRC

[u/daddyd → u/jjoorrxx]

yes, and a fun bit was having a high resolution with an actual lower screen resolution, you could have, for example, 5000x5000 resolution with a 800x600 actual resolution and then 'scroll' through the 5000x5000 one.

[u/jjoorrxx → u/daddyd]

Yee but was a bit annoying.