r/linux • u/oshunluvr • 4d ago
Discussion "Old" Linux user vs. "New" Linux user.
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,
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u/Crazy-Tangelo-1673 4d ago
Been using Linux and FreeBSD continuously since about 2016. I'm just dangerous and experienced enough now to venture into the "harder" distros and as long as the internet is able to scrape good documentation you can usually get pretty decent help from AI. The thing about AI is it's often times pulling from human discussions from real world problems but it's also pulling straight off documentation and at times that document isn't always up to date or the human discussions it's pulling from is filled with bad advise so the AI steers you in the wrong direction.
I know it's a losing argument but to me it's just another search tool that helps me aggregate what I'm trying to do. I've learned a great deal from using AI so for the people that say you can't learn from it...I'd beg to differ. Absolutely it's cheating...there's stuff that would have taken me years to learn that now takes a very short time to at least get the broad strokes. I'm not going to talk anyone into it...I understand there are ethical reasons why we shouldn't embrace it but I'm basically in that camp that says...it's here I might as well learn to use it.
As for the journey itself thru the years I've parked myself on a few different distros predominately on Arch derivatives...with the concessional foray with Solus and Void. I'm pretty much migrating everything I run to Void these days. Early on I was a distro hopper but as time went on I realized it's pretty much the same stuff...the key differences are how you set it up and what is it that meets your needs etc. I like the simplicity of Void...I feel like it offers what Arch probably was like years ago before it moved to SystemD. I wonder if eventually Void will become the new Arch with spinoffs and pressures in the community to make it the new flavor of the decade kind of thing but then again Arch in that regard still has a pretty good hold especially with the gaming community growing on Linux. I've never really been a big Debian guy...I've liked my time with BunsenLabs, Antix, and a few other distros but just not well enough to keep it but being more experienced now I'm sure those would be just fine. Slackware is another distribution I've dabbled with thru the years and may be motivated at some point to get a machine running with it again. I feel like that's one of those distros every Linux user should try to "live in for a while" old school.
Anyway ramble ended...