Toxic linux communities moment: - eviltoast
  • Pacrat173@lemmy.ml
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    6 months ago

    I’ve found Lemmy’s Linux community to be extremely helpful I hope it stays this way

    • SturgiesYrFase@lemmy.ml
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      6 months ago

      It’s one of the things that I like the most about lemmy over reddit. The reddit linux community was toxic, insular and gatekeepy, even as a moderately experienced linux user I had difficulty getting help.

      “Learn how to Google noob!”

      Fuck sakes, I just spent several hours deep diving forums and Web search results looking for an answer to my question, and the only thing I could find that was exactly my problem was concluded by OP editing their post to say “Ah, never mind, figured it out.” And not including the solution…

      • Liz@midwest.social
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        6 months ago

        It should be legal to hunt that person down and clamp a lobster to their nipples.

        • SturgiesYrFase@lemmy.ml
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          6 months ago

          Oh there’s a special place in hell, where Satan from the movie Little Nicky is, waiting for these people…with lobsters and a pineapple.

    • Jumuta@sh.itjust.works
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      6 months ago

      probably because lemmy’s pretty small compared to places like reddit and because everyone sees the same content with the same sorting, places like reddit make a few “help” requests visible and make them feel unimportant

  • Frostbeard@lemmy.world
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    6 months ago

    I installed Linux on my gfs (now wife) old laptop years ago when the beginner distros was way less user friendly. When I asked on a forum for help it was just the sound of crickets. When she made her first post starting with “my boyfriend installed Linux and I don’t understand how to…” They fucking fell out trees to answer her questions

  • JollyG@lemmy.world
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    Unhelpful Linux User Archetypes:

    The Configurator: All problems are configuration problems. The fact that a user has a problem means they configured their machine incorrectly. All help requests are an opportunity to lecture others about configuration files.

    The lumberjack: Insists on logs no matter how simple or basic the question. “How do I get the working directory in the terminal?” -Sorry, I can’t help you unless you post your log. “What does the -r flag do?” -You need to post a log for me to answer that question. “Is there a way to make this service start at boot?” -We have no way of knowing unless you post your log. When a user posts their log, the lumberjack’s work is done. No need to reply to the thread any further.

    The Anacdata Troubleshooter: Failed to develop a theory of mind during childhood. Thinks their machine is representative of all machines. If they don’t have an issue, the user is lying about the issue.

    The Jargon Master: Uses as much jargon as possible in forum posts. If a user doesn’t know each and every term, that’s on them. If you did not commit to mastering every aspect of a piece of software before asking for help, were you even trying to solve the problem?

    The Hobby Horse Jockey: All problems are caused by whatever thing the contributor does not like. Graphics driver issue? Snaps. Computer won’t post? Obviously, Snaps. Machine getting too hot? Snaps. Command ‘flatpack’ not found? Oh you better believe snaps did that.

    The Pedantfile: Gets mad because everyone asks their questions the wrong way. Writes a message letting the user know they asked their question wrong. Message usually appears within a minute or two of someone providing a solution to the user.

    • Buddahriffic@lemmy.world
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      6 months ago

      The Repeatophobic: If a question vaguely reminds them of a previously posted question, they become enraged and insist the new thread be locked.

      • MentorKitten@lemmy.world
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        6 months ago

        It’s infuriating how many times I’ve seen a locked thread with no answer linking to a similar yet different problem that doesn’t solve my issue.

    • MehBlah@lemmy.world
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      6 months ago

      These types exist for most any technical problem. The last one is the whiny one who also slams someone with a solution they don’t approve of. Even if the solution satisfies the person asking for help or perhaps because it satisfies them.

    • wick@lemm.ee
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      6 months ago

      Bonus points if the lumberjack doesn’t specify what logs they want or how to get them.

    • Phoenixz@lemmy.ca
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      6 months ago

      So you’re saying that there are some asshats out there? Those are everywhere.

      The open source community, and Linux community in specific mostly is a very positive and helpful bunch. I’ve been on IRC and fora for years and yes, yes, sometimes somebody says something negative, gee wiz.

      So far the most negative types out there seem to be in this post all complaining about how negative everyone is while in reality it’s not that bad

  • SGG@lemmy.world
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    6 months ago

    X is deprecated, you should have moved into systemd-Y

    You should change to Arch, I don’t use X but Arch is better.

  • Titou@sh.itjust.works
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    6 months ago

    It’s kind of stereotype, i’ve always find the help i needed on Arch, but yeah there’s bad guys everywhere

    • Veneroso@lemmy.world
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      6 months ago

      The quickest way to get the right answer in any community, in my experience, is to provide the wrong answer. People will come out of the woodwork to correct you.

            • chingadera@lemmy.world
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              6 months ago

              No. That’s the one where:

              7 cups green cabbage , finely shredded (Note 1) ▢1 medium carrot , shredded (1 1/2 cups) DRESSING ▢1/2 cup Hellman’s mayonnaise (or other whole egg mayo) ▢1/2 cup sour cream or yoghurt, full fat is best ▢1 1/2 tbsp apple cider vinegar (or sub with white wine vinegar) ▢2 tsp Dijon mustard ▢2 tbsp white sugar ▢3/4 tsp celery salt ▢1/4 tso black pepper

              You’re thinking of Cole’s Law.

      • Petter1@lemm.ee
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        6 months ago

        There is a single command on windows to install any software with using just words (like yay?)

        • Veneroso@lemmy.world
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          6 months ago

          There are administration tools available for system deployment but they’re generally closed source and limited to the software selection available.

          Unsure about command line, but PC Decrapifier is useful for removing preloaded software.

          Ninite is useful to install software in batch.

          Ninite can also install Malwarebytes, which is quite useful.

          Between Windows Defender and Malwarebytes I generally don’t recommend anything else. And then Malwarebytes, which is extremely effective for free, is the only security suite worth paying for if you want to “set it and forget it”.

          On the Microsoft side of things, a great deal of software can be deployed via command line.

          It’s possible to build an offline installer for Office and Office 365 for example via the office deployment tool.

          Additionally, it looks like if you pay for Ninite Pro, it supports command line.

          https://ninite.com/help/features/switches.html

          Hmm TIL.

        • nexussapphire@lemm.ee
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          6 months ago

          There’s winget but it has almost nothing on it and no matter how new the iso it typically doesn’t work out of the box and you need to update it through Microsoft store. Tried using it instead of downloading stuff off the Internet. Only the most popular apps and not even all of them are there which is pretty annoying. It’s also so much slower that most package managers and tries the Microsoft store first unless you specify.

          It’s an improvement but it’s not fixing any of the real issues with modern windows.

            • nexussapphire@lemm.ee
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              6 months ago

              That sounds like an interesting read. Before I switched to Linux I thought of making an app that watches driver websites and either notifies or pulls updates for you to install.

              Short of some sort of user maintained database of download links and support page links/product number (for database lookup), I don’t think I could have scaled it at any real capacity. I wonder if GitHub frowns on a project using it as a big database of yaml or json files.

              • Veneroso@lemmy.world
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                6 months ago

                There was a program called Secunia that did exactly this. It was amazing. Sadly they were acquired and ended the free offering.

              • redcalcium@lemmy.institute
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                6 months ago

                An important context that’s missing from the blog post is Keivan Beigi is one of the core contributor of Sonarr, a popular app in the *arr scene. Microsoft probably realized it late after offering him a job, got cold feet and ghost him.

    • buttfarts@lemy.lol
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      6 months ago

      Arch has the best documentation. Most documentation is either too dumbed down or too advanced. Arch documentation splits the difference and gives you basic information along with general context that opens your curiousity about other aspects of the system without overwhelming you.

      If you pull on a thread you want to find a rope instead of getting blasted with a firehose.

    • nexussapphire@lemm.ee
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      6 months ago

      I try to help an be supportive to newcomers. There’s always someone who thinks shaming someone for using non free software or something like an Nvidia GPU will change their mind. There’s also people who disagree with you and respond to every comment but don’t offer a real solution in return. I love the people who say it works on mine without explaining what they did to make it work on their system.

    • overload@sopuli.xyz
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      6 months ago

      Ah yes, a perfectly normal thing to do after I’ve previously spent thousands on my NVIDIA GPU and am just getting into Linux. Love this comment when it comes up.

      • michaelmrose@lemmy.world
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        6 months ago

        This is complicated. Firstly outside of Wayland Nvidia works pretty great and has worked great for me 21 years on the other hand the amount spent is kinda irrelevant using different hardware is often actually the correct advice. Often though the logical move is use Windows on your effectively Windows only laptop and if you want to run Linux buy something compatible next go round.

        Some hardware just isn’t supported and given hostile to indifferent oems it will always be so

        • overload@sopuli.xyz
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          6 months ago

          I agree, and it’s been a fine experience with nvidia on Xorg. “Buy new hardware” is not what someone getting into Linux should hear though if we want to increase the number of Linux users.

          • michaelmrose@lemmy.world
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            6 months ago

            If your hardware isn’t supported what are people supposed to say? Gosh I’m sorry volunteers didn’t donate more free work to make that shitty laptop work let me now assemble a strike force of expert programs to crack that problem by next week? Labor is a finite resource especially free labor.

      • TimeSquirrel@kbin.social
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        6 months ago

        I mean, you wouldn’t buy a sports car and then a month later post to a forum asking questions about how to tow a 40 foot camper with it, would you? You would research this stuff beforehand, or deal with the fact that it’s not compatible for that job. We can’t put Nvidias thumbs into a thumbscrew and force them to offer more Linux support, so that’s what we’re stuck with.

        • TheHarpyEagle@lemmy.world
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          6 months ago

          The problem is that a lot of users aren’t building a new machine for Linux, but converting an existing Windows laptop or desktop. In my case, I’d already bought an Nvidia card about a year before I decided to switch to Linux for gaming. Not ideal, of course, but it work a good 95% of the time and I can’t really afford to get a different card right now. I’ll definitely keep it in mind for my next pc upgrade, though.

    • the_crotch@sh.itjust.works
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      6 months ago

      This has been a trope since Linux existed.

      "Linux doesn’t work with my hardware*

      “Well, just spend hundreds or thousands on new hardware so you can run this free OS!”

    • bolexforsoup@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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      6 months ago

      Dude I had a bunch of people tell me to install mint OS on an older intel MacBook Pro and no one told me that out the box your Wi-Fi doesn’t work, the keyboard doesn’t light up, the touch bar doesn’t work, etc. lol

      I don’t even like the Touch Bar but I need F keys so…

      Then when I asked what to do they all said “well that’s your fault for using a Mac.” Most unhelpful shit ever. One guy said “well use an external keyboard and Ethernet chord then. I’m on a tower what’s the issue here?”

      It’s a laptop. Sometimes I move around with it. I travel a fair bit too.

      Idk honestly it’s not just a Linux thing. Any technical community you’ll often find a lot of people who hand wave away very reasonable issues instead of either suggesting a solution or, I don’t know, just not saying anything? Like they have to chime in and call you a whiner.

      • Liz@midwest.social
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        6 months ago

        Did you ever get everything working? I don’t have a Mac, I’m just curious.

        • bolexforsoup@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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          6 months ago

          Not with mint no. I think I’m going to try and boot pop or mint on my wife’s old X1 carbon. Specs aren’t remotely as good but it’ll be sufficient for a Jellyfin server

  • Raxiel@lemmy.world
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    6 months ago

    The trick is to say “Linux sucks! It can’t even X!” Where X is what your issue is preventing. You’ll get the answer, to prove you wrong.

    • kronisk @lemmy.world
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      6 months ago

      Or find a thread where someone else asked the same question, and give the wrong answer/solution.

      • Melvin_Ferd@lemmy.world
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        6 months ago

        I think we’re past this era honestly and moved into the “ask Chatgpt”

        There should be an AI trained just on linux questions.

  • Phoenixz@lemmy.ca
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    6 months ago

    Yeah, I keep seeing this and it’s never been my experience in 20+ years of desktop Linux.

    Yeah, every now and then there is the asshole and troll. Go to a supermarket and you’ll find them too, go to your job and you’ll find those too. I don’t call all supermarkets asshole conglomerates, it’s simply the world, there are asshats in the world.

    I’ve talked directly to main developers of many systems like LVM, PHP, and so on who spent time to help me fix my issues. Who ever got to talk directly to an Apple dev or Microsoft dev?

    It’s not just Linux, it’s like that with all open source. Yes, there are negative players everywhere, but mostly it has been a very welcoming and helpful group

    • nickwitha_k (he/him)@lemmy.sdf.org
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      6 months ago

      I’ll second this. Maybe they’re coming from Reddit? I’ve seen some pretty awful screenshots from there. And I’ll also second the helpfulness of the FOSS devs - I’ve reached out to the OpenSSH maillist to try to better understand the functionality of cert auth and they were super helpful.

      • Phoenixz@lemmy.ca
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        6 months ago

        Agian, I’m sure there are asshats out there, maybe even just people having a bad day, but generally people in the Foss community are helpful and super nice. Just my experience

        • nickwitha_k (he/him)@lemmy.sdf.org
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          Oh absolutely. Some people are just unpleasant (and as you say, sometimes it’s down to a bad day). And sometimes, it’s just personality clash/philosophy on OSS (ex. the former “benevolent dictator” of vim, RIP).

  • Deconceptualist@lemm.ee
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    6 months ago

    I love that this comic is already a meme.

    BTW which distro is best for running Adobe??? I really need Photoshop on my laptop. EDIT: /s, and also I guess the joke doesn’t actually work here lol

      • Deconceptualist@lemm.ee
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        6 months ago

        VMWare workstation is now free for Linux!!!

        Oh? That’s pretty cool.

        Just run windows 10 LTSB!

        Ew, no. I will never do that. I was completely joking about Adobe and expecting links to the GIMP repo lol.

        • sag@lemm.ee
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          Ew, no. I will never do that. I was completely joking about Adobe and expecting links to the GIMP repo lol.

          LOL, I was thinking you were serious and I started finding more guides and script to install Photoshop on Linux after replying to you. I was ready for your reply like “Can you give me more info about script? Or I want to install a *arrr version?”.

          • Deconceptualist@lemm.ee
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            6 months ago

            Haha. Well I appreciate that you and others are so willing to help! The old “get lost and RTFM” stereotype is really feeling antiquated here.

        • jelloeater - Ops Mgr@lemmy.world
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          6 months ago

          I mean, nothing beats the Adobe suite for doing creative stuff. I really wish they offered CC on Linux.

          Yeah… GIMP is a joke compared to Photoshop, just find a copy of CS6 😉

          • Deconceptualist@lemm.ee
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            6 months ago

            Oh I won’t dispute that. I have a close friend in the graphics and video field where Adobe CC is indispensable.

            But that’s not what I do. For anything I need to edit, GIMP and Pixlr are more than sufficient.

            My joke was that in the old days of tech forums, I feel like there was almost a kneejerk reaction among the GNU/Linux diehards to ditch closed source at any cost, and if you didn’t you weren’t worth their time or compassion (like the sharks in the comic here).

            Also, I’m not sure the comparison is entirely fair because I kinda doubt the budget and manpower behind GIMP are even in the same galaxy as Photoshop.

            • jelloeater - Ops Mgr@lemmy.world
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              6 months ago

              Yeah, I really wanted to like GIMP. I’m a huge Debian / Ubuntu fan and love OSX as well. Like for dev work, Linux is amazing, best tool for that job hands down.

              I might try DaVinci resolve, cause running Premiere in a VM, I don’t think will work well.

              And yeah, the Linux community can be super elitist unfortunately, nerds that gatekeep their niche…

              Like, when did a operating system become a core personality trait? Folks treat it like a sports team. 🤔

              I get flack for liking Ubuntu and Mac 😑

    • neo@lemy.lol
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      I don’t know, but I would try a distro that is also recommended for gaming, because you will likely need an up to date version of WINE or something similar.

      So maybe endeavour or Pop!_OS?

      From my personal (very noobish) experience, it might be necessary to run a virtual machine with Windows. However, this experience is from before the Steam Deck and Proton, which improved the whole software biotope by a lot.

      • Deconceptualist@lemm.ee
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        6 months ago

        I already run Endeavour and don’t actually need any proprietary Adobe software, but thanks :)

        • neo@lemy.lol
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          6 months ago

          I was wondering if you were joking :D
          but apparently I guessed wrong.

  • CheeseNoodle@lemmy.world
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    6 months ago

    One way or another I’m moving to Linux for my next PC. but damn I finally think I understand enough to decide Debian would be a good ‘it just works’ distro and then Linux users out the woodwork telling me its actually a pain in the ass and to use XYZ (all disagreeing) distros instead. I’m like 90% sure its going to be Debian, Ubuntu or Mint but beyond that its more uncertain than the inside of a black hole.

    • barsquid@lemmy.world
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      6 months ago

      Debian does just work and is a good choice. I think people typically have good experiences on Mint also. Ubuntu is becoming like the Windows of Linux distros, I used to use it on everything but I won’t be installing it on another machine because of Snaps.

      If you plan on using Linux to do gaming you might want a more up-to-date distro tho.

    • WFH@lemm.ee
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      6 months ago

      Very good choice going with Debian. It is simple, clean, can be as minimal or as “bloated” as you wish, and once you’ve worked out the kinks it will happily run for years without maintenance (except updates of course).

      There’s a steep learning curve because as a user you’re expected to configure stuff yourself (although defaults are most of the time very sensible), but if you’re willing and able to truly learn Linux and the terminal and you’re familiar with your hardware, it’s one of the best platforms out there.

    • TheHarpyEagle@lemmy.world
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      6 months ago

      I know this is just adding to your problem, but I wanna add to the majority and say go with Mint. It’s based on Ubuntu, which in turn is based on Debian, so most anything you can do on Debian, you can do on Mint. This is handy to know whenever you see a “.deb” file.

      One of the things that makes it an easier transition from windows is that it’s a lot less strict about including proprietary drivers and codecs (though apparently Debian now includes a few by default). It also includes a few more GUI tools by default, like the package update manager.

      I also have found Mint’s Cinnamon desktop environment to be the easiest transition from a Windows environment. KDE is also a good choice in that regard and it’s what I use now, but its plethora of options can be overwhelming for new users.

      The distro wars can be pretty overwhelming, but I’d say pick whatever appeals most and go with it. If you get to a point where you can’t do something that you want to do, you can always come back and ask for advice and maybe switch up a different OS.

    • MonkderDritte@feddit.de
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      6 months ago

      Better leave out Ubuntu if you don’t want to be bothered with Snap.

      Debian is a bit more “naked” per default, as a beginner maybe go with Mint.

    • raspberriesareyummy@lemmy.world
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      6 months ago

      Been using debian for more than a decade and “it just works” has become truer every year. It’s a good distro, if you have no principle objections against systemd (which I do, but am too lazy to do anything about).

      The one thing I am not happy about: Audio drivers on a Desktop computer

      • works out of the box, but then messes up when selecting input devices from:
      • line in
      • headphones in
      • USB camera microphone
      • Audio in “sinks” - I believe those are channels allowing for active noise cancelling / preventing Audio feedback loops I had a whole lot of trouble with pulseaudio selecting the correct source when trying to use my mic in the browser.

      On a Laptop, I’ve never experienced such issues, as all devices are integrated (apart from the headphones jack, I guess).

      Just when I got familiar enough with pulseaudio, they replaced it with “pipewire”, which fucked up output devices:

      • works on boot
      • when I plug in headphones: it messes up the Audio output to HDMI and I have to manually re-select (on desktop environment) the headphones
      • when I then touch the volume control (GUI), the output goes silent again and I have to select the “Port” headphones for the “Built-in Audio Analog Stereo” under “Output Devices”

      drives me crazy since the last update - but it’s only an issue when using headphones, so for now I am living with it.

      • maniii@lemmy.world
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        6 months ago

        Im on openSuse Leap 15.5 and I moved to Pipewire back when I had 15.3 I believe. I had that issue where all output devices/input devices got smashed together. I stuck with it for couple of months and I believe the later versions fixed that. Now I am painfree and never bother with audio ever again. I used to have frequent pulseaudio crashes which is why I switched over to pipewire.

      • Pilferjinx@lemmy.world
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        6 months ago

        I use an external usb dac/amp to handle all my audio switching and has been working flawlessly on debian. Could that be an option for you?

        • raspberriesareyummy@lemmy.world
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          That seems like an ugly workaround - using external hardware to pretend that internally there’s only 1 device. Not my preferred method, to be honest.

          • Pilferjinx@lemmy.world
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            6 months ago

            I mainly use the external hardware as a workaround for unwanted noise from the pc. It bothers me to no end to hear the mouse cursor scream into my headphone/speakers.

    • TimeSquirrel@kbin.social
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      The only way to truly make a determination if a distro works for you is to actually try it out and use it. I’ve never listened to those people because they all have a favorite distro they will push on you for various reasons. I actually find Debian a breeze to use, and the vast majority of stuff meant for Ubuntu or Mint will work on fine on Debian, since it’s the base of both those distros.

    • bluewing@lemm.ee
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      6 months ago

      Best advise I can give after 20+ years of distro hopping is to be ready to try a few different ones to see which one might resonate the best with you. Because not all of them will feel right. But you will find one that fits you best. It might be Debian or Ubuntu or Fedora or Suse or Mint or even Arch. (I don’t run Arch BTW)

      In the long run, it don’t matter which distro you use - they are all Linux under their petticoats anyway. Just choose the one that works for you and makes YOU happy. And if you decide to change your distro of choice at any point for something different, that’s all good too.

    • AWildMimicAppears@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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      6 months ago

      i know what you are going through, i am going to install linux on my current pc (when i worked up enough bravery… well at least i already created the boot media). I have already experience selfhosting services with Debian (in the time before Docker), but since gaming is what this PC is built for and i have a NVidia card that´s a pretty poor choice from what i gathered here.

      Over the last few months i was thinking about going with Pop_OS (“i really really didn’t like Gnome the last time i had to deal with it”), then Arch (“Do i really want to shoot myself in the foot? There’s archinstall, but i really don’t want to tinker too much on this machine…”), and now i settled for Nobara (the “gaming” Fedora so to speak, using KDE per default).

      I’m now 99% sure that it should be the right one for me, but the thought of doing it makes me quite nervous.

      i’m still looking for alternatives for a few windows programs; the main one i will miss dearly is Playnite. There seems to be nothing that offers the integration of all my libraries, my ROMs and emulators, automatic downloading of metadata and boxart, achievements, start scripts for games … i could go on forever :-(

    • Pete90@feddit.de
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      6 months ago

      I know exactly what you mean. I’d also prefer Debian, Mint or Fedora. Each has its weaknesses, but you got to start somewhere. Go for it, then decide for yourself. It’s not that hard to switch again.

    • bitwolf@lemmy.one
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      6 months ago

      The best thing you can do is separate your home and be unafraid to try something new until you know your preferences.

      I used Ubuntu for years, played with other distros but always thought I’d remain there.

      I tried Fedora one day because it had a newer package and now I can’t find a more perfect distro.

      Maybe I will in the future and die on that hill who knows.

  • andros_rex@lemmy.world
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    6 months ago

    This kind of behavior mystifies me. I get that it can be frustrating to deal with lazy folks, but especially with how shit google/ddg are nowadays, when people are looking for help and are met with this kind of treatment it’s pretty discouraging! I’ve been an Arch user for about a decade, and sometimes I run into problems that should be googleable but aren’t.

    It’s especially concerning, considering how tech illiterate the next generation is. They’re very used to walled gardens, and if they can barely manage a MacBook, they’re going to really struggle starting with things like the command line.

    Lighting a candle leaves you with two lit candles. There’s no reason to gatekeep knowledge.

    • buttfarts@lemy.lol
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      6 months ago

      If 10% of newb questions were just answered plainly in forums then google would index those and these easy solutions would be actually google-able. Nerds gatekeeping basic info by forcing people deep into man pages to find the needle in the haystack argument that is used for 99% of commands surrounded by a bajillion arguments that are basically dev-tools used for bash scripts make adopting to a CLI mega frustrating.

      Most forum advice is about obscure driver issues for some random piece of hardware or “help! update broke my shit” type of posts.

        • mojo_raisin@lemmy.world
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          6 months ago

          True but people need to know to look to the documentation, it’s not something we’re born with. People learn to ride a bike, to drive a car, use their TV, etc without reading much documentation. We should educate people on how to figure things out rather than shame them for not knowing as much as you.

          Don’t assume everyone can learn as easily as you can or has a background that would facilitate their grasping of the topic. Here you are casually saying “just read the man page” and referencing gcc, it would take my mom a week of education to get to the point where she’d be able to understand what gcc even is and why it has a man page.

          And if you don’t want to help them, ignore the noobs, don’t push them away.

          • Verat@sh.itjust.works
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            6 months ago

            to be fair, the documentation that came with products used to be alot better, Ive had plenty of “manuals” come with products now that just say how to start the device and follow a setup wizard.

        • Venia Silente@lemm.ee
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          6 months ago

          I mean, if you are already know you’re using GCC, knowing to browse the manpage for info is easier.

          The problem with manpages is, in my experience, they are vastly ill-suited for the “modern” / desktop-like workflow of the distros. They’re point is they’re not the tool for that, they are reference manuals focused on the tool, not training pamphlets focused on the use. Like, what is the manpage for “my desktop icons disappeared”? Even assuming there’s one. Or for “my desktop is in Italian but my start menu is in Swahili”? Or for “after video driver update and reboot my screen is monochrome”? Heck, for most of those even figuring out a proper info page (the “competitor” of man page) would be next to impossible.

          So, there is of course merit to reading the documentation. But for that someone has to first isolate the workflow and write that documentation. I’m not interested in the man page for “steel” or for “lacrimals”; I need the usage pamphlet for “Slicing onions with a kitchen knife”.

        • bluewing@lemm.ee
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          6 months ago

          There is a lot of merit in reading man pages - as long as you understand what they are talking about. Something most newcomers lack. I’ve read more than one man page that was so poorly written that unless you were a top developer, I was worse off than before I started.

          Technical writing is an art form and very few in the FOSS world, (and even the rest of the world), are really good at it. It always pays to be mindful of just how unskilled your audience is.

    • zcd@lemmy.ca
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      6 months ago

      It’s a really good, slightly bare bones initially but completely modular/customizable. If it’s your first foray into Linux something like Debian, Mint or PopOS would be a slightly more comfortable starting point

    • Perry@lemy.lol
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      6 months ago

      Depends on your use case. Arch is a DIY distro but is well maintained and has the latest packages on their repo. Its user centric, unlike many distributions that are user friendly. You could read the archwiki to find out if its for you

    • onlinepersona@programming.dev
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      6 months ago

      For beginners, don’t go with Arch. Debian or Linux Mint for normal stuff, Bazzite if you’re going to game. Once you want to get to know the internals of a linux distribution, you can go for an unstable distro like Arch, Gentoo, or way lower with Linux From Scratch (LFS).

      P.S Arch is a meme because it was hard to use and required the terminal, but it lost that spot to NixOS.

      Anti Commercial-AI license

    • Jack Riddle@sh.itjust.works
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      6 months ago

      Arch is great, but not very beginner friendly. It might be better to start with somethin debian-based like linux mint, and install arch once you get used to using the commandline and know where to find answers to your questions etc.

    • neo@lemy.lol
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      6 months ago

      I’m using Ubuntu derivatives since many years. I’ve looked at Arch in virtual machines and was very much lost. Even with Manjaro I didn’t get along. I’m still testing EndeavourOS, which looks promising.

      So to me, Arch is too much hands on for my lazy ass. However, if you like to nerd yourself into it, it’s awesome (I think).

    • eskimofry@lemmy.world
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      6 months ago

      You can start with Endeavor OS KDE… it’s an arch system with Endeavor OS package managment added on top. So the Arch experience is the same… without the pain of installation.

      Plus it has some cool wallpapers.

    • ayaya@lemdro.id
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      6 months ago

      It is genuinely amazing, there’s a reason us Arch users never shut up about it. The setup/configuration in the beginning will seem daunting but once you have everything the way you want it is a smooth and enjoyable experience.

        • ayaya@lemdro.id
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          6 months ago

          If that’s the case it should be a much easier transition. I also came from Ubuntu originally.

          You will notice the difference right away. Everything is always up to date so you’re not waiting half a year for updates and there’s no big upgrade transitions between major versions. And pacman is a lot faster than apt in general.

          Plus with the AUR you’ll never touch another PPA again. Almost anything you could possibly want is in there, even some of the most obscure/specific things.

          I do recommend doing everything from scratch if you have the time, but if not EndeavourOS is literally just preconfigured Arch (and I do mean literally, it uses the same repos) so that’s also a solid option.

    • FiniteBanjo@lemmy.today
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      6 months ago

      If you’re on Windows currently and it supports Hyper-V then I recommend using it to try a few distros out. I liked using Kubuntu 23 recently.

    • MehBlah@lemmy.world
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      6 months ago

      Use something easier to get started with like Ubuntu or Debian. Arch isn’t that great. I’ve installed it a few times as a VM but to me it brings nothing new to the mix. I kinda view Arch fanatics like apple fan bois or beer snobs. Kinda fun to laugh at for being so pretentious. After a while though you wish they would quit hot boxing their own hubris.

      • ayaya@lemdro.id
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        6 months ago

        It brings nothing new to the mix until you want something that’s up to date or something that’s not in the main repos and now you have to track down a PPA or manually install a deb file and keep it updated yourself instead of being able to use the package manager.

    • bitwolf@lemmy.one
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      6 months ago

      Heh, i like that take more, I interpreted it as X as in a placeholder for any subject

    • nexussapphire@lemm.ee
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      6 months ago

      Isn’t that that thing that always broke and made me feel like Linux wasn’t very good for personal computers. I remember playing a game that took me hours to get running just for my computer to lock the screen and soft lock the whole computer. The lock screen captured the input after the game already captured the inputs and neither one of them worked.

      Also as a kid running a script to fix screen tearing from online that happens to break the whole desktop or the weird things happening when you plugged in a second monitor.

      Don’t ask me how xorg works I’ve tried. I say good riddance, the king is dead long live the king.