Linux

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Linux is a family of open source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991 by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically packaged in a Linux distribution (or distro for short).

Distributions include the Linux kernel and supporting system software and libraries, many of which are provided by the GNU Project. Many Linux distributions use the word "Linux" in their name, but the Free Software Foundation uses the name GNU/Linux to emphasize the importance of GNU software, causing some controversy.

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Wanting to improve my Linux skills after 17 months of daily driving Linux (lemmy.world)

submitted 11 months ago by cogitoprinciple@lemmy.world to c/linux@lemmy.ml

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I've been daily driving Linux for 17 months now (currently on Linux Mint). I have got very comfortable with basic commands and many just works distros (such as Linux Mint, or Pop!_OS) with apt as the package manager. I've tried Debian as a distro to try to challenge myself, but have always ran into issues. On my PC, I could never get wifi to work, which made it difficult to install properly. I've used it on my daily driver laptop, but ran into some issues. I thought a more advanced distro, that is still stable, would be good overall. However, not getting new software for a long time sounds quite annoying.

I'm wanting to challenge myself to get much better with Linux, partitioning, CLI, CLI tools, understanding the components of my system, trying tiling window managers, etc. I've been considering installing Arch the traditional way, on my X220, as a way to force myself to improve. Is this a good way to learn more about Linux and a Linux system in general? I always hear good things about the Arch Wiki. Is there any other tips someone can give me, to sharpen my Linux skills? I was even considering trying out Gentoo on my X220, but the compiling times sound painful. I wouldn't daily drive Gentoo or Arch, just yet, but I would try to use them as much as possible for general use.

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[–] zhenbo_endle@lemmy.ca 23 points 11 months ago (1 children)

Find an open-source software that you're interested in, but your main distro doesn't provide it in the official repo. Be a packager for this software.
Open your distro's wiki, rewrite (or contribute, if already good enough) a page or section.
Try the bleeding-edge version (or very-early testing) of your favourite distro, and submit some test results, regarding to your hardware.

IMHO these tasks are interesting, could learn a lot from these tasks, and other linux users could benefit from these work

[–] cogitoprinciple@lemmy.world 7 points 11 months ago (1 children)

I really like these suggestions, I've always wanted to contribute to FOSS software, but always felt underskilled. I will add this to my list of things to do to challenge my Linux and basic programming skills.

[–] nickhammes@lemmy.world 3 points 11 months ago (1 children)

It's worth noting that the barrier to entry as a maintainer depends on which distro you're using at the time. It's not uncommon for a distro to have a community repository system, like PPAs in Ubuntu, AUR for Arch, MPR for Debian, etc. I'm not very familiar with Mint, and couldn't easily tell if it has its own or just uses PPAs from upstream.

It isn't especially taxing on programming skills, and if you don't pick too complex of a package, the Linux skills required shouldn't be wildly above your level, but may push you to learn some new things by digging a bit deeper. I haven't formally maintained public packages, but I've needed to build a few over my years using Linux, and it was easier than I'd expected to just build one. It may be easier than you think, too.

[–] cogitoprinciple@lemmy.world 2 points 11 months ago

Thanks for the additional info. I installed Arch, it was far less daunting then I anticipated. In fact, it was prettt straightforward. I'll look into your suggestion.