District Judge Sara Ellis said Thursday she was “startled” by images of law enforcement actions after she issued her initial order last week. “I’m getting images and seeing images on the news, in the paper, reading reports, where at least from what I’m seeing, I’m having serious concerns that my order’s being followed,” she said.
She then ordered agents to wear body-worn cameras during the so-called Operation Midway Blitz, “and they are to be [turned] on,” she told the court.
A lawsuit from press associations, protesters and faith leaders accuses federal officers with Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Customs and Border Protection of “a pattern of extreme brutality,” with agents “indiscriminately” firing on protesters, including an incident captured on video where officers defending an ICE facility struck the head of a Presbyterian minister with pepper bullets that knocked him to the ground.
I'm talking about like your mom if she started using Linux, and just needs it to be able to open a web browser and check Facebook or her email or something. A student that just needs a laptop to do homework and take notes, or someone that just wants to play games on Steam and chat on discord.
I'm working on a Windows - > Linux guide targeting people like this and I want to make sure it can be understood by just about anybody. A problem that I've noticed is that most guides trying to do something like this seem to operate under the assumption that the viewer already knows what Linux is and has already made up their mind about switching, or that they're already pretty computer savvy. This guide won't be that, I'm writing a guide and keeping my parents in mind the whole time.
Because of this there's some things I probably won't talk about. Do these people really need to know that it's actually GNU+Linux? No, I don't think so. Should I explain how to install, use and configure hyprland, or compile a custom gaming kernel? I dont think that's really necessary. You get what I'm saying? I don't want to over complicate this and scare people off.
That being said I also want to make sure that I'm not over simplifying by skipping on key things they should know. So what are some key concepts or things that you think even the most basic of Linux users should understand? Bonus points if you can provide a solid entry level explanation of it too.
Eh, go for something simple like Fedora KDE and teach them how to update and install stuff through Discover - it's like App/Play/Microsoft store + the System update all in one. I imagine Linux Mint and OpenSUSE has similar GUIs to introduce if that's more up your alley.
This was going to be my suggestion. Most noobs will be familiar with phone app stores. You can present a distro's software manager like an app store. People coming from another OS will probably be happy they don't have to find, download, and install their programs.
I don't think that's a guide... it's a hands on class. Maybe even a good idea to pitch to your local community college, community center, or adult edu department.
It'll shock you how low the average person's technical literacy is. And since you're talking about a guide for a lot of things that update independently, the guide will begin to be outdated before you even publish it. It's exceptionally hard to keep technical documentation in sync with software and hardware that you don't control, and when the users of your guide hit those spots where the doc doesn't match, they bail quickly.
What key concepts to cover probably depends on what you're trying to teach. If it's just how to use a web browser, the mainstream distros all do that pretty well out of the box once they're installed (although installation can still a bit of a challenge from one laptop to the next). Maybe the greatest communal benefit would be to teach foundational concepts of online security.
Hmm, I think that's where experiences will differ. I'm unable to search for files within file manager (thunar) easily, and use catfish file search instead.
IME, beyond the install, it's all distro- and desktop-specific.
How to find and install apps varies from distro to distro. IIRC, the Mint menu item is something obvious, like "Install software", but on Arch (you'd have to hate your newbie to throw them into Arch), it requires a chicken/egg finding and installing a graphical installer. If you know the distro, this would be good information - or if you're helping with the install, create a desktop launcher.
Showing them where settings are. Surprising to me, this has been super-not-obvious to my newbs. Even though the KDE Settings app is called "settings", I think Windows and Mac folks are used to looking for settings in a specific place, rather than an app name - and in Windows, there's can be several ways to get up different settings, like changing display stuff is always in a weird place. Again, maybe a desktop or panel shortcut would help.
One of my newbs used Mint for two years without opening a shell, so I don't think that's an issue. He even found and installed a piece of software he wanted, but I can't remember if I originally showed him how to the first time. But that's Mint. He did, however, need help setting up a printer, but that's because he couldn't find the settings program; he came from Windows originally.
Edge cases, like printers and other peripherals, can be hard, and I don't think any amount of extra documentation is going to help, because almost every difficulty is practically unique. There's a ton of online help for stuff like that already. And then, if they want to, eg, attach a game controller... well, that's very specific and again varies by controller. I don't think you can cover all of these edge cases.
Games can be hard only because of the indirection of having to install some other software, like Proton or Steam, creating an account, knowing how to check for compatability - there's a lot of moving parts. It's not just: go to the game's web site, buy, download, and install something and run it, like I imagine it is on Windows. So maybe that would be useful - or - again - pre-installing one of the game stores and (surprise) making a shortcut would eliminate that.
Network connections. Again, I always find figuring out how to get to network configuration in Windows to be hard, and bizarrely having multiple ways of accomplishing the same task, so I'd guess going the other direction would be confusing. Having a note about how to get to the configuration would be handy.
As I think about it, I realize that configuration under KDE of way more encapsulated and clear than on Windows, and people having learned the byzantine and myriad ways of Windows, KDE's relative simplicity is confusing. Windows people look for configurations in places they've learned to look, which aren't always where they are under KDE (I can't speak much about Gnome - I don't use it or set people up with it). MacOS isn't as bad, having a similar configure-everything-through-a-single-settings-program approach.
Hard to summarize, because it differs so much from person to person.
I installed Linux on my parent's computer. They don't need to know anything about Linux, because everything they use is identical to their old Windows PC. They click the icon for Chrome to open the browser. They Click the icon for LibreOffice to type up a "Word" doc and print it by clicking "file > print"
As far as they're concerned, they are still using Windows.
For a gamer, they will need to know a little about Proton, possibly Lutris and the Hero launcher. They might need to know about installing nVidia drivers or tweaking a few things in the Steam launch options to get games to run better.
It's tough to know exactly what a new Linux user will "need" to know in order to use Linux.
Graphics driver installation is pretty key on any system but AMD graphics systems.
For example if your parents want to watch any videos without them stuttering or being weird, whether Intel or Nvidia, they will need the non-free graphics drivers installed so it doesn't run like shit.
To my knowledge nearly every AMD chipset already works out of the box on Linux.
True, it still does vary even chipset to chipset. Some Nvidia and Intel cards do just work depending on the distro, others require more work.
It also depends on how "techie" the user is. My parents are 0% techie, so I have to do anything and everything for them if they have questions or issues.
But a Windows power user can handle some terminal use and other basic system modifications. And honestly now days, most of that stuff is super easy. Like Linux mint has a dedicated driver app that allows you to use a simple GUI to install Nvidia drivers, it's super easy.
What kind of programs there are: namely, differences between a daemon, a service, a server, a binary, a gui, a CLI, and what role do sockets play in all that. 101 on local ports and networking with firewall.
One thing that many guides tend to skip is how to install software. People coming from Windows might try to install software the "Windows way" by going to the website and downloading them. That is just likely to cause pain and suffering for a number of reasons.
Instead, every beginner friendly distro has its own flavour of software centre that users should be encouraged to use instead. Maybe even include a link to flathub in the guide or something.
Instead, every beginner friendly distro has its own flavour of software centre
And they generally run like dogshit, unfortunately. Bazar on Bazzite is the only one I've found so far that doesn't have me run for the terminal immediately
Just going to second this because I had to complain about the process being a pain here on Lemmy, which earned a lot of upvotes, before someone asked how I used the software center and I said the same as the Microsoft Store which was to say not at all. The number of downvotes told me I was way off and I needed to give it a fresh look.
At least a basic primer about finding your way around in Linux in command line, and where various configuration files live.
When shit goes wrong (and it likely will at some point) knowing how to dump to another tty and log in via the console and fix issues via command line is pretty key. This has saved my ass more times than I can count now.
Having trouble finding a CLI focused course, but this is a free course that covers a lot of basics:
As a Linux noob, this is not as basic as you think it is. It's probably cool to show them "sudo apt install [program]" as a neat trick to dip their toes into the command line. All the other things you mentioned would scare me away if it was presented as beginner essential knowledge. I legit have no idea what you're talking about.
It's basic in the sense that Linux is always a work in progress and no matter how hard you try, you're going to need it at some point.
When your system randomly turns on to a black screen and there is seemingly no way to log in, knowing how to switch to the command line and at bare minimum back up your settings and documents before you wipe and start over is pretty key. To be clear, I have been in that exact situation and even more confusing situations where the PC has basically become unusable but I was able to fix it via CLI.
Just imagine losing months or years of work because you don't know that you can probably fix it all from command line and likely don't even need to wipe your computer and start over if you can narrow down what is going wrong and remove it via the command line.
True, first time I ran into catastrophic problems (caused by entering in commands I copied from online, knowing damn well it was a bad idea), I got annoyed having to fish out corrupted files and shit, but I realized that anytime something had gone wrong with Windows I had no tools to fix it and could only check in on a loading screen that lasts hours. It was a learning experience
For me personally, I would remember none of that if taught to me. I'm stubborn and handy enough to figure it out during an emergency. For the kind of noob OP is describing that benefits from a handheld on-ramp, they will probably never be able to do what you're describing.
I think a good compromise would be mentioning a few things that you can do in case of emergency so a more savvy person would know what to look for in an emergency. You don't have to teach them so much as tell them there is something they can do. If there's a fire, idk where the fire extinguisher is but I know there is one and I can go looking.
I'm in the minority who thinks Linux isn't for everyone and that people who approach computing from that standpoint should really stick with macOS or Windows. Linux gives you more freedom to be in control, but that freedom to be in control also demands more knowledge and involvement to be able to be in control. "With great power comes great responsibility" kind of thing.
For an analogy Windows is like being a passenger in a car with someone else driving, and Linux you're in the drivers seat of the car. You simply are required to be aware and involved in driving more because you are in control, and that control requires knowledge. You don't get to sit back and go "I don't need to know what all this stuff does because I don't want to." Understanding how the pedals and steering wheel work is a requirement for driving, as is paying attention to what is going on around you on the road. As a passenger, you aren't required to know or pay attention to as much because you're not being given the freedom of control, you're just along for the ride. Linux is giving you that freedom of control of being the driver, but you have to know a lot more to do it than you need to know just being a passenger (Windows).
I know everyone else thinks Linux is ready for the prime time and ready for regular users who don't want to have to learn and just want something that works... but I personally don't. Simply because Linux is a lot less guaranteed to "just work" than the other options.
TBH, I agree with you. However a lot of people's PCs are no longer supported with no practical way to change that. For those people that are trying Linux out timidly and reluctantly, I'm fine with a little handholding. I wouldn't recommend someone switch to Linux unless I knew they were a bit savvy. But if they're worried about going behind on security updates and can't afford a new PC, I will suggest their one option, even if I know it will be challenging at times.
Agreed on that, it's not the best solution, but for people who need access to computing and whose devices have aged out of other support, it's pretty much the only option available.
I think the biggest fundamental concept for any computer regardless of operating system is filesystem hierarchy. The concept of nested folders is core to using a personal computer, but for the last two decades UI/X teams have done everything in their power to obscure and abstract it away. Many younger people conceptualize the storage on their device as just an amorphous blob that apps manage autonomously. Windows is starting to go this way as well with OneDrive being sold as the way to manage all your data, but on Linux the file system is still king.
Your mom is presumably old enough to have some experience with desktop PCs, so hopefully that basic hurdle is already cleared. And honestly once someone is at that level of base competence, along with basic interface concepts like how to use a mouse and keyboard, clicking on icons, use of a web browser etc, with the right distro you really don't need to explain much else. There might be a few quirks of the UI to explain depending on what you choose, but most of that can be handled by just watching them use the computer for a bit, and/or asking them to give you a list of questions and annoyances after they use it for a few days.
The biggest difference is one that most "I just want it to work" users will actually love, and that's relearning how to install software. Having one central location to install verified software from is a change from the wild west of downloading installers from the internet, but it shouldn't be a difficult transition. Most people these days don't even install software beyond maybe Zoom, so you can probably get away with just installing any third party software they need in the initial setup.
I recommend an immutable distro like Fedora Silverblue, at least if a) you're setting it up and are reasonably technical, and b) you don't want to go over and help them fix stuff often. I set my mom's laptop up with it 4+ years ago and she's only had one problem since then.
I'm talking about like your mom if she started using Linux, and just needs it to be able to open a web browser and check Facebook or her email or something.
Nothing. Just set up Elementary or Mint or something with a shortcut to Firefox and there's nothing else to do. Any apps they might need would come from an app store, so point that out.
A student that just needs a laptop to do homework and take notes
So how to open a text editor? Recommending an easy-to-use and standard one like Kate would be good, but a polished distro will have one preinstalled.
someone that just wants to play games on Steam and chat on discord.
They need concepts like filesystems (e.g. the concept of a root directory, mounting, and device files), software repositories (since steam comes from a non-default repo in many distros), an awareness of the whole graphics driver situation, and hardware both appropriate to their needs and to running Linux.
Linux isn't Windows. I know that is a no-brainer but it needs to be said so it won't be as 1:1 to Windows.
How to install software both in terminal and as well as software manger GUI. Bonus points about compiling software from places like GitHub.
Packages type and their pros and cons
Trying to run Windows application via Wine (or some manager like Bottles or Lutris) as well as comparing running same Windows Application from Linux and Windows.
Alteratives to popular software and list out what it can do and what it doesn't have so user can see if that feature it doesn't have would affect them. For example, GIMP doesn't have full CMYK support which for most users, it isn't a big idea but for people that want to edit images to be ready for printing, they might want to keep that in mind.
I have heard it does but it was generally just an example of "Try this software but note it may not have this feature if this means lot to you" and suggest others like maybe Krita then?
This may be a controversial inclusion, and it’s based on my relatively unsophisticated understanding of Linux. I believe the reason casual computer users hate Linux (generalizing here) is that “Linux” is not one thing.
Commercial operating systems are monoliths. Windows 11 is Windows 11. macOS is macOS. Apart from a few surface-level settings, all instances of them are the same. If you know how to use that operating system, you can go to almost any computer running that OS and start using it, just like you use the one you have at home.
“Linux” is entirely modular. There’s no single thing called “Linux.” You can pick and choose each component to build up your own customized OS from the ground up, and distros take advantage of this. I know just within my household, I have three Linux systems, and casual usage varies wildly across the three. One is a SteamDeck, which is a different kind of thing, but if I just take the two computers as an example, on one, you have an application menu in the top left where the other has an application menu in the bottom left. Also, those menus look completely different. That alone is enough to frustrate a casual user. Now take the fact that they each have different settings panels, different bundled apps, etc. and you have a recipe for making users always feel lost when moving from one system to another.
I don’t think this means you need to teach how to use every available desktop environment, window manager, or sound settings panel, but I do think it would be useful to introduce this concept as part of your curriculum. The sad part is that I think a lot of your audience will tune out at this point because they never had to know that on the commercials OSes, but I think it’s important to be forthcoming about it rather than having your audience blindsided by it.
This is something that I actually planned on explaining! A big reason I myself like to use Linux is because it's modular and can be customized and used in so many ways just to meet your needs which I think is ideal. An operating system shouldn't be a one size fits all kind of thing!
I think there's a certain kind of user who doesn't really learn concepts, but rote actions. They click the start menu and then excel to open excel, but they don't really understand that the start menu is an application launcher and Excel is an application that can be opened in other ways. It's very one dimensional.
Then when something changes, like the application launcher is moved, they freak out. They don't have a mental model.
That's how my mother is, anyway. It's all magic with no underlying coherent anything. Not sure how to fix that, because it usually comes up when they're mad or scared, and that's not a time anyone will learn.
Sorry to grin at you. But in OS theory Linux is known as a monolith kernal. So you choice of words would have given my lecturers a freakout.
But while your terminology is a bit crossed. The ideal you are explaining is fine.
Better Technical way to put it. Linux is just the kernal. Much of the interface you see is actually programs or apps running above that kernal. A d can be changed amd selected.
Windows is also started multipart. But has become less so over time. And it's single distributer makes it way less obvious. By preventing any competition within it's internal structure. The original monolithic kernal of Windows was the MS Dos command.com program. But I no lying those of us from the 80s and early 90 remember using it.
I'd just like to interject for a moment. What you’re referring to as Linux, is in fact, GNU/Linux, or as I’ve recently taken to calling it, GNU plus Linux. Linux is not an operating system unto itself, but rather another free component of a fully functioning GNU system made useful by the GNU corelibs, shell utilities and vital system components comprising a full OS as defined by POSIX. Many computer users run a modified version of the GNU system every day, without realizing it. Through a peculiar turn of events, the version of GNU which is widely used today is often called “Linux”, and many of its users are not aware that it is basically the GNU system, developed by the GNU Project. There really is a Linux, and these people are using it, but it is just a part of the system they use. Linux is the kernel: the program in the system that allocates the machine’s resources to the other programs that you run. The kernel is an essential part of an operating system, but useless by itself; it can only function in the context of a complete operating system. Linux is normally used in combination with the GNU operating system: the whole system is basically GNU with Linux added, or GNU/Linux. All the so-called “Linux” distributions are really distributions of GNU/Linux.
Package managers: - Repositories - Update mechanism. Many of my friends and family are used to updates being either automatic, nagged, or nonexistent. Not an issue on auto-updating distros, but could get ugly on vanilla Arch or Debian. - Resisting the urge to install loose executables from websites
File system: - Write caching. Windows doesn't do this for most USB drives so people get away without safely ejecting for years. On Linux, the safe eject button does matter. - File hierarchy and mount points. When I first used Linux, I was very confused by the lack of the Program Files and Users folders, My Computer page, and drive letters. - File permissions, especially executables - Partitioning and how to format drives in the absence of a format dialog in the file explorer
Bash shell: - It's not the incomplete mess that made cmd or Powershell so intimidating - Resisting the urge to paste in commands and scripts without knowing what they do
DO NOT download and install random programs from the internet. Not a deb/rpm file, not an elf binary, not an install script, nothing. Use your package manager or desktop environment's app store. At most use flatpak or snap packages.
Linux gets its reputation for not getting malware from the same place Mac does: It has a managed app repository where you get all your software from. Difference is Mac doesn't let you install arbitrary programs at all, while Linux expects you to know better than to do that. Someone who doesn't know what they're doing downloading Linux programs from random websites will inevitably hit one of the super rare Linux malware in the wild.
Even ignoring security issues, running an install script even from a reputable open source project's website can open you up to package dependency hell. And if you ever need to upgrade or modify it, you're in for a rough time because none of the existing tools built into your distro will help you. It's even worse than Windows when this happens because Windows at least expects for things like this to happen (because everything comes in its own installer and handles updates separately) and has UX elements to help non tech savvy users deal with their mess of apps, Linux expects anyone bypassing the normal package manager to know what they're doing and if you don't, it won't be a good day for you.
Also, for Arch folk: AUR isn't a traditional repo. Always be careful what you pull from there. Check pkgbuild files for weird shit and avoid unpopular bin files.
Now the KDE Discover store on Kubuntu needs to let me say no when an app asks for "Full Access: Can Access Everything on your System". It's a bloody text editor, what access could it possibly need.
As far as I know when you download a dmg, the OS checks its signatures against Apple's registry and only allows installation if it's approved. The developer would have submitted the app to Apple (for like $100) for them to inspect even if it's not on the "official" app store.
Not a Mac user so please call me out if I'm just talking out my ass.
In a better time, yes. These days it'll throw a warning that the application can't be trusted and offers to throw it in the bin. You have to run a command in the terminal now. Every time the app updates.
Yes it's impossible to do it fully now 🙁 but you can open programs from unapproved developers by going into settings > security > and select "open anyways". It's kinda a hassle when you like using open source software.
Came here to say drive letters. That's a weird one for converts. A guide for noobies should explain that drive is mounted somewhere in the file structure. Cover how to find it, and how to mount it where you want.
Honestly if you can install windows on a machine and use it then you can install linux on a machine and use it. especially if its an out of the box distro (like my favorite zorin). when downloading something from the web you have to choose linux instead of windows and its usually .debian so its good for it to be a debian based distro. if someone else install the linux for the person then they just need the same skills they needed to run windows. mouse moves the same. login is same. doubleclick is the same. etc. etc.
zorin has a free version though. the paid gives you the gui chooser basically which is not necessary to me. If I had a job I might pay but that would be just to support. Want to sign up for status coup news first though. Need that postive cash flow though so who knows.
I set up Mint for a non-techy relative on their old desktop. * Their use-case is almost entirely web browser, so there was no need to cover installing programs. Click the same browser icon and it should behave basically the same way. * No need to explain the terminal beyond "this is where you can type advanced commands, you don't need to worry about it". * If there's an error message, read it and try to understand what it's actually saying rather than just dismissing it. Do a web search if you're feeling confident, send me a photo of the screen if you're not. * Explain how to install updates (or just configure automatic backups and updates for them). * Explain when and why the computer will ask for a password (e.g. login and updates) and how that password is for the computer, not for their email or whatever. * Explain the basics of folders. This is your home directory, here's where downloads go, here's how to create a folder and drag your files into it. * Tell them not to panic. I've seen a lot of older people terrified of pressing the wrong button, make sure they know how to understand what they're doing and undo their mistakes. * Be patient!
I find that one of the biggest differences is the file ownership/group design, and the non admin user. Sure, it might not come up in a straightforward manner, but it will.
Why do I need to put in a password all the time? How come I can't just move this file to another drive?
This might be too "advanced" for what you're looking for, but I think even basic usage comes across this.
i came here to say this. I was really frustrated for a while figuring this out and understanding how it really makes things more secure, even if you're the only one using the computer. At first it drove me nuts when my server would auto create a folder for media and I'd attempt to change some files within and not have permission, like, my account should have access to everything.
Changing access permissions without understanding how/why completely borked my first install by setting a user without sudo privileges as primary (or something, I still don't know what I did haha) but I couldn't sudo anything and was locked on that profile.
I started by just using Nautilus but this is not good practice so I learned the basics and it finally started making sense.
Yeah, I always bring this up because it's what I dealt with. Mind you, it was amplified because I set up a media server right away and got seriously confused.
What? Permissions don't get inherited? OK fine, so how do you set permissions? This site says 755 and this site says drwxr-xr-x. Can't I just get a straight answer?
It's a fundamental functioning difference between the OS's that not a lot of people talk about when talking about switching.
Even my Windows machine that is set up with an admin/user structure (as God intended) doesn't give me any fuss with file access.
Honestly the biggest thing is just READ WHAT IS ON THE SCREEN. So many people just refuse to read when the computer is literally telling them exactly how to resolve a problem
Yep. And also for bonus points, learn the basics of asking for help. Even simple things like writing a useful subject for a post, being respectful and how to share useful error codes or logs.
Communication is the key. And the problem is most Linux users aren't able to grasp how the language they use is opaque to new users who don't share their knowledge base. Just the word distro is already a barrier to new users cuz they don't know what it means and yet Linux users throw it around as if everyone knows what it means. These basic terms are the biggest barrier I think. Most people who just use a computer check their email don't know what a bios is. They don't know how to boot from a flash drive. That's going to be your biggest barrier. Language and the basic stuff you don't think of as remarkable.
I've been using linux for years, but in limited contexts. With switching my primary desktop over this year I've found it helpful to stop by my local library and checked out some books on linux. I'm combining that with chatting with a locally running LLM. I've also setup an extra Raspberry Pi I had laying around with Ubuntu Lite as a sandbox OS to tinker with.
Maybe consider a portable sandbox setup like this you could quickly demonstrate or share?
It's fundamental because instead of saying "It doesn't work!" and get no useful help, people must think of it as an investigation (or whatever get them going) looking for clues. Until you get the right message and can provide the right context (e.g. what computer are you using, what OS version, etc) then you get generic help which is like looking for a needle in a haystack. Sure it's not entirely impossible if you are both lucky and patient but you are doing yourself and others a huge disservice.
Before Linux maybe they were used to black boxes but here, nobody is intentionally trying to hide away anything from you!
PS: bonus, notes are basically free. Jolt down notes about anything and everything you are learning. Don't just "use" a computer, LEARN how to use a computer.
I'm not sure this is great advice. In principle it is. But you can't tell a windows user "yes. You know how many of the programs you used to use are not available because they don't make a Linux version? Well a lot of the ones that do you shouldn't use even though the distro supports it for reasons you don't understand"
That is better advice for an intermediate used learning about the dangers (or lack there of) sideloading.
In general o disagree with your stance on a basically semantic reasons: the definition of a trusted source. If I trust a software manufacturer and they tell me to use their flatpak, it's fine because they are trusted, regardless of the format. What I do not like are things like the AUR
How to get thumbnails working in the file manager.
Adding cloud storage to the file manager.
How to make libre office save files with MS office filetypes by default (depending on work / school requirements)
Maybe samba shares if they have another computer in the house.
For truly casual users (grandma or a student taking notes) there isn't a lot to learn. Here's your browser, here's your office apps, this is like "notepad". This is the software center for updates or any other applications, press the "windows key" to get your menu.
It depends on the distro and how it feels about shipping non-free software.
Wait, what codecs (commonly used by Linux distros) aren't free software?
As far as I know the original issues back in the day was with patents, not licenses, especially with MPEG. And because it was patents (which I think aren't even valid in most jurisdictions except the hell-hole called USA), the issue was mostly with what commercial distros wanted to ship to their customers, not what the end-user could legally use. These days I thought we're using mostly patent-free codecs or people realized they aren't really enforceable anyways. Fedora maybe kind of makes sense, since its users are basically free beta-testers for RHEL, which is mostly US-based and commercial, so would be the most likely to be affected by patent-trolls.
H.265 is a pretty major one. E-AC-3 for audio. Ideally, for a desktop user, you want to be able to play anything. So you need know if your distro includes those codecs. Then how to install them if it doesn't. Then you need to delete your thumbnail cache to fix the thumbnails.
It's not hard. You just have to know that that's a task you need to do. Coming from windows, a user is likely to just assume linux doesn't support video properly and it's thumbnails are broken.
With regards to patents or not being free software? Because ffmpeg includes those and is definitely free software. You also need x265 for encoding I think, but that's also free software.
It’s not hard.
Sure. I was just surprised it's still a thing at all. None of the distros I use have this problem (Gentoo, Arch, Ubuntu, Libreelec).
H.265 is royalty free for non-commercial use. It's ownership is kind of complicated with a bunch of patents and it is commercial licensing is controlled by a few groups.
If I understand correctly (and I'm no lawyer) FFMPEG is completely non-commercial so they don't have an issue. Although I think anyone using FFMPEG for commercial applications (streamers, professional productions, etc...) should be paying a license.
I guess some distros felt that was legally murky for them and others aren't comfortable with non-libre software.
I really wish Fedora would figure out a legal workaround and bundle in the codecs, but for now I just have to remember to set it up before I add any media.
I guess some distros felt that was legally murky for them and others aren’t comfortable with non-libre software.
Let's get something completely straight: ffmpeg is completely, 100%, no-restrictions, free as in libre software. This has nothing whatsoever to do with "not being comfortable with non-libre software". That's just FUD at best.
Legal considerations about patent/license trolls in corrupt neoliberal hell-holes might be justified for commercial projects. Most distros however seem to be getting away just fine by assuming end-users get their license for the codec/patents somewhere else if they even need one.
That's not an attack on ffmpeg. It's 1,000% not fud. I'm not disputing its libre bonifides. H265 is not libre. It's also not part of the ffmpeg code. But they can be distributed together because it's non-commercial.
My apologies if I worded something in a way that wasn't clear about that.
Separate from that issue.
There are distros that do not want to incorporate any non-libre elements into their OS for ideological reasons. They won't have h265.
Then there are distros that have commercial elements, or for which their parent company has some kind of commercial interest in the distribution. If they don't want to pay for licensing they may have legal limitations on their ability to incorporate h265.
But any completely non-commercial software that wants to bundle h265 in has cart blanche to do so.
H.265 is also not software but a specification that ffmpeg implements, and the implementation is libre. Additionally there's also x265 a decoder/encoder that also implements it, that ffmpeg can use, but that is also FOSS.
But they can be distributed together because it’s non-commercial.
To be clear: ffmpeg does not ship any proprietary blobs in order to decode H.265. It's implementation of H.265 is fully FOSS as well.
They won’t have h265.
This is plain wrong and repeating it doesn't make it any better. A libre distro with only libre software can decode H.265 just fine. In multiple ways.
But any completely non-commercial software that wants to bundle h265 in has cart blanche to do so.
I'm trusting your claim here, that that's the case, but even then, it would be more like: Any completely non-commercial software can ship a FOSS H.265 implementation with a bundled royalty free license.
If you don't want to bundle a license, you don't have this problem to begin with, you can let the user worry about that, which the user can then just dismiss without legal consequences (in any sane legal system).
Contrary to what others write*: Yes, the terminal.
It's not that you can't get by without it on many distros, for most things. But for even for medium and non-techy users, getting the fear of the terminal out of the way early will make their journey much, much smoother. It doesn't have to be much, no shell scripting or anything, just the basics, conceptually what a terminal is, what the shell is, how to execute stuff, maybe chmod +x to execute, other utilities like ls, cp, mv, mkdir. maybe symlinks/ln. That'll be enough to take away the fear if they see any "Now do this in the terminal" advice online (which they absolutely will, let's not delude ourselves), and maybe enough to get them to notice that "huh, sometimes the terminal is more convenient, they weren't bullshitting when they said that".
*) Since you asked about "beginner Linux users" and not users that "just want to use their computer and not think about the OS at all", I'm pretty confident about that assertion.
PS: I really think that's not too much too ask. I remember my mother learning DOS commands back in the day for a regular desk-job. Everyone can do this, it's not difficult, people just have to let go of a few false preconceptions drilled into them by the industry (MS, Google and Apple).
True, especially the part about your mom and others that had to use PCs in the 90s and 80s. I suck with a lot of CMD/PowerShell/Terminal stuff and get really in my head about whatever I am doing. Though a lot of it is due to things like switches and formatting order. Can be very very frustrating if there are a lot of them and having to constantly look at what they mean since they aren't just regular words (which would obviously make the amount of typing get out of hand). The other main issue for me is dealing with moving or copying things around. GUI is much easier to get due to being able to see it in the same way I would move/copy things IRL. Especially frustrating if using USB drives, since they don't just auto-mount/assign a letter if only using something without a DE. That part is (for me) a headache to have to deal with since the same OS will just do that if a DE is used. But also not something I do every day (or very often as I mostly use Linux when messing with my Pi).
But your core point of just doing it is very true. The reason that folks in offices in the 90s and 80s were able to get used to it was because they had to, and that there was a reason to at least know the things to do what they needed. They didn't have to get bogged down with all of it (or even need most commands). So it would be best to focus on the things that are needed to get daily things done. Then it makes a lot of other bits easier to handle later on. And a lot of common things can be printed/written on cheat sheets or getting stickers with common commands to put on the side of the case or stuck to a desk in easily glanced at locations.
The other main issue for me is dealing with moving or copying things around.
I don't think anyone needs to do a lot of file-management on the command-line. GUI file-managers are perfectly fine for home-directory stuff, USB-drives, network directories etc., but you'll run into problems when accessing system files. There's also TUI file managers like Midnight Commander which some would probably consider the best of both worlds. I personally prefer dired on Emacs (and Emacs in general to most terminal based applications).
As I said in the beginning of my comment, you can do 99% of your daily Linux desktop usage in the GUI, and you don't have to be used to or fast with the terminal. I just want new users to get rid of that fear, so that when they need to do something with it, they're not giving up or putting it of, but read and try their way through it and maybe learn something cool. Every Linux user (managing their own system) will need it once in a while and that's probably not going to change in the near future.
And a lot of common things can be printed/written on cheat sheets or getting stickers with common commands to put on the side of the case or stuck to a desk in easily glanced at locations.
I'm a developer and pretty experienced with the terminal, but I still do this. Not printed out or anything, but for each program with complex switches (like ffmpeg, qemu, docker, git, curl) I have an entry in my personal Wiki (also Emacs: org-roam) giving me a quicker overview over things I've already figured out in the past than a man-page can provide (it doesn't hurt though that Emacs has a pretty great man-page viewer too).
su/sudo -Why you will need to use it and how not to use it.
-I still don't think it's wise to rely on the various stores like Discover or Pop!_Shop to do basic updates as they are bloated and slow to an alarming rate while running.
Something I don't think is mentioned because someone who knows how to use windows can figure it out: what to do when a window freezes, the keyboard command to reboot, other common things that go wrong and how to get around them. I use a gui task manager and it's basically just like windows, but if the computer freezes on someone who doesn't know what to do you will be receiving a phone call.
everything is a file lol, unlike on Windows where a lot of things are GUI based:
Want to change your grub font size? Heres a file.
Your python gives dependencies errors? Well, because the libraries (aka files) are in a different directory.
want to change your password and username? Heres a file to change .....so on and so forth
On Linux you have a lot of power, can use sudo to make changes to a file. If you know what youre doing, great. If you dont, system can break. Even without sudo, a misplace / mistype of files in the /home directory can cause weird stuff.
So TLDR is: be careful when make changes to files on Linux. Dont listen to stranger on forum who gives out command to paste and run. Do your research what the command does.
::: spoiler spoiler The best advice is don't be an autistic retard. Learn pragmatically by experience. Take your time and have fun. Don't do (or not do) something just to fit in with losers on the internet. :::
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“According to maritime law, if you see a boat, you are supposed to stop the boat and intercept it, not just blow it up. That’s our Trinidadian maritime law and I think every fisherman and every human knows that,” she said.
Burnley said her son was planning to return to Trinidad and Tobago after spending three months with family in Venezuela, just 6.8 miles (11km) away.
Local media reported another Trinidadian victim from Las Cuevas, known as Samaroo to locals.
We compiled and reviewed every case we could find of agents holding citizens against their will, whether during immigration raids or protests. While the tally is almost certainly incomplete, we found more than 170 such incidents during the first nine months of President Donald Trump’s second administration.
Among the citizens detained are nearly 20 children, including two with cancer. That includes four who were held for weeks with their undocumented mother and without access to the family’s attorney until a congresswoman intervened.
Immigration agents do have authority to detain Americans in limited circumstances. Agents can hold people whom they reasonably suspect are in the country illegally. We found more than 50 Americans who were held after agents questioned their citizenship. They were almost all Latino.
The government does not track how often immigration agents grab citizens. So ProPublica did. Our tally — almost certainly incomplete — includes people who were held for days without a lawyer. And nearly 20 children, two of whom have cancer.
Greetings to the Activitypub.space community. I have a question. Is it possible to use Activitypub protocol to define a unique identity on a single account across the various federated platforms, valid for the entire Fediverse?
phi yes! It is very much possible in theory, but in practice it is less of a given.
What you're thinking of is having the "various fediverse platforms" — Mastodon, Pixelfed, WordPress, etc. — allow you to use your existing fediverse account, and for your interactions there to be done by that account, which might not be on the server you're on.
A lot of sites (this one included, for now) doesn't support that, but the base techniques are there.
We know we can achieve fediverse single sign-in through OAuth2, and the ActivityPub API can theoretically accomplish the latter. It's a matter of support, and it's something I want to focus on soon!
julian Thanks. I think there's some confusion among the protocols for defining a single identity for the Fediverse. I've heard about the Nomad, Zot, and Streams protocols for defining a nomadic identity on Activitypub, but I'm a bit confused.
Initially nomadic identity was only possible in Zot and Nomad protocols, but not in ActivityPub. But we figured out how to do it in ActivityPub too. Streams is a software that implements both Nomad and ActivityPub protocols, and supports nomadic identity. It is not the only such project though, there are a couple of others that support ActivityPub-based nomadic identity:
silverpill@mitra.social I think it's important to define a feature within ActivityPub that "allows users to freely move from one server to another without losing their identities and content." Obviously, the servers don't have to be part of the same platform.
phi maybe this is a social layer problem rather than a technical problem.
Your issue means a lot in a world where we have amateur hobbyists setting up social network servers and allowing the general public to join. Those hobbyists get overwhelmed or bored after a while, or they do a bad job and your server gets defederated.
In this case, it makes a lot of sense to move from one server to another. But this is not the only way we could organize the Fediverse.
Email isn't like that. You (probably?) don't use an email address from a server you found on a list on joinemail.org. You probably, instead, have an email address from your employer or university, and maybe a personal one from a well-known and reliable cloud service. If you're very clever, you may use your own domain for email, and share it with your household or family.
In those cases, you rarely change email addresses. We have some ad hoc ways to move from one to the other, but they aren't built into the SMTP or IMAP specs. And yet we have a lot of email going around, even after 50 years.
I think we should be putting our efforts into getting Fediverse services from organizations we have a lot of affinity with, like employers or universities or the city you live in or the post office.
Another option is using the extremely portable identity system we already have -- domain names. It should be a lot easier to bring your own domain name to a Fediverse server, and to move your data between servers by backing up and restoring and then repointing your domain name to the new server, like you do for blogs. This is really hard right now.
I think LOLA is doing a good job with online moves, but we should also be encouraging more server developers to support BYOD, and we should encourage Fediverse users to get a domain.
> We have some ad hoc ways to move from one to the other, but they aren't built into the SMTP or IMAP specs
yes they are, though? in IMAP, you can just copy your messages and folders from one inbox to another. in SMTP, we have email forwarding.
using your own DNS name can make things easier, but the main challenge in fedi is that we don't have a common storage/access abstraction (equivalent to IMAP folders), and we don't recognize HTTP redirects (equivalent to SMTP forwarding).
Flock has built a nationwide surveillance network of AI-powered cameras and given many more federal agencies access. Senator Ron Wyden told Flock “abuses of your product are not only likely but inevitable” and Flock “is unable and uninterested in preventing them.”
ICE, Secret Service, Navy All Had Access to Flock's Nationwide Network of Cameras
A division of ICE, the Secret Service, and the Navy’s criminal investigation division all had access to Flock’s nationwide network of tens of thousands of AI-enabled cameras that constantly track the movements of vehicles, and by extension people, according to a letter sent by Senator Ron Wyden and shared with 404 Media. Homeland Security Investigations (HSI), the section of ICE that had access and which has reassigned more than ten thousand employees to work on the agency’s mass deportation campaign, performed nearly two hundred searches in the system, the letter says.
In the letter Senator Wyden says he believes Flock is uninterested in fixing the room for abuse baked into its platform, and says local officials can best protect their constituents from such abuses by removing the cameras entirely.
The letter shows that many more federal agencies had access to the network than previously known. We previously found, following local media reports, that Customs and Border Protection (CBP) had access to 80,000 cameras around the country. It is now clear that Flock’s work with federal agencies, which the company described as a pilot, was much larger in scope.
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inb4 the wEll yOu hAvE nO eXpEcTaTiOn oF pRiVaCy iN pUbLiC comments
I hate this argument that people use. Technology has fundamentally redefined what it means to be observed. Someone casually glancing at you in public is a completely different thing to having your movement tracked, permanently stored, and linked to you wherever you go. People absolutely have a right to expect a degree of privacy even in public settings
I don’t know about the particulars of other countries, but in America you’re mistaken.
The goal of my comment was not to “well actually” but instead to point out that, relevant to the post topic and concurrent with your recognition that technology has fundamentally changed in our lifetimes the understanding of privacy and anonymity we apply in everyday life, if you want privacy you have to take active steps to ensure you can go in public and maintain it.
That doesnt mean using graphene and libreboot, it means covering your face in public.
Apologies I must've replied to your comment accidentally, I was meaning to post it as a general comment in the thread. It's interesting though, there's a middle ground somewhere but people shouldn't need to take extreme steps to not be recorded everywhere they go. The only thing we can be certain of is that the government and companies aren't going to give us privacy back. We have to be proactive ourselves. I just wish it didn't have to be this way
One thing I’ve been thinking about is the historical circumstances around traditional dress in the Arabic speaking world, Muslim religious proscriptions about clothing and how those could converge with outcomes in the present day.
Giant wraparound shades with a punisher skull veil dangling off em.
"No expectation of privacy in public" is a legal doctrine. I do have an expectation of privacy in public. Stop filming me and shit, mind your own damn business.
Former GOP operative Scott Leiendecker just bought Dominion Voting Systems, giving him ownership of voting systems used in 27 states. Election experts have concerns.
The author’s opinion is worthless, because she is just a ruzzian shill who runs around giving talks about how Ukrainian decolonisation from ruzzian imperialism is wrong, how it’s fake and devastating, she strongly suggests that Ukrainian nation building cannot happen without thousands of monuments to Lenin across the country and without streets named after ruzzian generals. Pathetic. By the same logic, China and India must speak English and fill their cities with monuments to the queen of Britain. And in this article she is just crying that an ex mayor of Odesa, ruzzian supporter who ordered assassination of Ukrainian activist and constantly tried to obstruct people’s will to dismount imperialist shit across the city - finally got what he deserved.
The least deranged liberal has logged on. The best part is the sheer historical illiteracy on display. Wait till you find out who actually lives in Odessa.
The idea that Jews and Ukrainians were always the main population is counterfactual. The truth is, Odessa's founding was founded by Russians. Catherine the Great, after taking the land from the Ottomans, decided to build a shiny new warm-water port from scratch. To get people to move there, Russia offered all sorts of incentives, and a lot of the initial settlers were indeed Russians imperial officials, soldiers, and merchants. Since the first good chunk of its existence, like throughout the 1800s, ethnic Russians were consistently the largest single demographic group in the city. But hey why let facts get in the way of your braying.
Of course some ruzzians lived there at some point in the past, when Ukraine was occupied by imperialist tzar regime. But that doesn’t prove anything, because if you want to follow the same logic - citizens of Hong Kong should respect British colonisers and install monuments praising the glory of British empire.
If we follow the same logic then Odessa would become part of Russia the same way HK was returned to China. Even British media is now admitting that people of Odessa are rebelling against the fascist regime you support.
Sure, right, HK was returned to China and great for them! Empires suck ass, but for some reason you like ruzzian empire, while disliking western empires. It’s dishonest, pathetic and hypocritical. At least Ukrainians have the integrity to hate all of them, even though we have to side with western powers to avoid being occupied by ruzzia.
Viral ‘Cheater Buster’ Sites Use Facial Recognition to Let Anyone Reveal Peoples’ Tinder Profiles
A number of easy to access websites use facial recognition to let partners, stalkers, or anyone else uncover specific peoples’ Tinder profiles, reveal their approximate physical location at points in time, and track changes to their profile including their photos, according to 404 Media’s tests.
Ordinarily it is not possible to search Tinder for a specific person. Instead, Tinder provides users potential matches based on the user’s own physical location. The tools on the sites 404 Media has found allow anyone to search for someone’s profile by uploading a photo of their face. The tools are invasive of anyone’s privacy, but present a significant risk to those who may need to avoid an abusive ex-partner or stalker. The sites mostly market these tools as a way to find out if their partner is cheating on them, or at minimum using dating apps like Tinder.
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Videos demoing one of the sites have repeatedly gone viral on TikTok and other platforms recently. 404 Media verified they can locate specific peoples' Tinder profiles using their photo, and found that the viral videos are produced by paid creat…
"App store" means a publicly available Internet website, software application, or other electronic service that distributes software applications from the owner or developer of a software application to the user of a mobile device.
This sounds like it could apply not only to F-Droid but also to any website distributing APKs, and actually, every other software distribution sysem too (eg, linux distros...) which include software which could be run on a "mobile device" (the definition of which also can be read as including a laptop).
otoh i think they might have made a mistake and left a loophole; all of the requirements seem to depend on an age verification "under Section 121.021" and Section 121.021 says:
When an individual in this state creates an account with an app store, the owner of the app store shall use a commercially reasonable method of verification to verify the individual's age category
I'm not a lawyer but I don't see how this imposes any requirements on "app stores" which simply don't have any account mechanism to begin with 😀
(Not to say that this isn't still immediately super harmful for the majority of the people who get their apps from Google and Apple...)
Right, so basically they'll have a database of who has (had) what app, when, and where...
Which could include apps like Grindr (way to target the LGBT community), or like Signal (way to target Journalists, activists, and other privacy minded people). You can find out a lot about someone's app choices and in a state like Texas, which is conservative and authoritarian, that can be used to go after certain demographics.
On Tuesday, here in Chicago, America caught a glimpse of its possible future, and it was terrifying. Federal agents, dressed like soldiers and armed with the weapons of war, rammed a civilian vehicle on 105th Street, using a maneuver outlawed by Chic…
In a shock poll, the Green Party under its new leader Zack Polanski has pulled ahead of Labour (just).
According to the pollsters Find Out Now, the Greens are on 15%, the same level as Labour. But as economist James Meadway notes, if you look at the detailed results, the Greens are on 15.31%, compared to 15.23% for Labour.
This is being a bit mischievous, because polling has a margin of error. But the trajectory is clear - the Greens are surging, and Labour is falling back. The Greens are enjoying their best polling in their history. Just 13 months after winning the election, Labour is on its worst polling recorded in the post-war period.
The headline claim is nonsense, as partly acknowledged by Jones. A single poll means very little, less still when you just ignore margins for error, as he does here. If there are other polls showing similar numbers, the Greens can get reasonably excited.
Now, having said that, this does fit the overall pattern of absolutely dire polling for Labour. As such, we can use it as further evidence that they need to drastically change course before they get totally hammered in 2026.
"What we will not accept is for the ACA premiums to skyrocket on the American people," said Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. "And what we will not accept is allowing the teetering of this system to collapse."
Ciao a tutti, sto provando a passare in modo definitivo a Linux. al momento utilizzo un mac book pro (fine 2008) con Lubuntu e sono molto, molto soddisfatto. Sto' cercando un alternativa non troppo complessa a Camera Raw, ho provato (e sto' continuando a provare) DarkTable ma ... è veramente macchinoso ... consigli ?
non so se mi leggerai, comunque io per le foto ho provato CameraRaw e RawTherapee, e uso quest'ultimo dal 2020, da quando ho preso la macchina bellina che ho ora, e mi ci trovo benissimo, meglio che con CameraRaw. L'unico punto un po' dolente è che il setup iniziale per la tua macchina può essere un po' complicato (il più delle volte è automatico, ma a volte, come nel mio caso, no), però comunque se segui le istruzioni sul wiki non lo è, rawpedia.rawtherapee.com/; e che comunque devi impararlo (ma gli strumenti sono un po' gli stessi su tutti i programmi di "sviluppo" RAW, solo che in RawTherapee mi sembrano organizzati meglio che in CameraRaw); e che ha una visuale di anteprima sempre un po' sgranata rispetto a come potrebbe essere (mi pare ci stiano lavorando, a migliorarla; comunque dopo un po' ci fai l'occhio).
On his Reddit, Platner didn’t identify himself by name, but he shared biographical details, including his military service, age, occupation and residence in Maine. While the account dated back to 2009, many of his most incendiary comments reviewed by CNN were posted around 2021.
A senior Hamas official on Thursday accused Israel of flouting the ceasefire by having killed at least 24 people in shootings since Friday, and said a list of such violations was handed over to mediators, Reuters reports.
He said:
The occupying state is working day and night to undermine the agreement through its violations on the ground.
The Israeli military did not immediately respond to the Hamas accusations. It has previously said some Palestinians have ignored warnings not to approach Israeli ceasefire positions and troops “opened fire to remove the threat”.
...the recovered data included user SMS and voice call contents, user internet traffic, and cellular network signaling protocols... the team was able to collect unencrypted satellite data “from sea vessels owned by the US military,” along with traffic from multiple organizations within the Mexican government and military, including personnel records, narcotics activity, and military asset tracking...
I come for amusing memes. All I see is American politics. Isn't there some other place for political memes to keep this shit separate? Or maybe some tagging system to help with using a keyword blocker?
Mods haven't added much to the sidebar rules. Any opinion from the mods or community?
President Donald Trump has said Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi has agreed to stop buying Russian oil, as the US seeks to put economic pressure on the Kremlin as part of efforts to end the war in Ukraine.
Trump told reporters he had received assurances from Modi that India would halt its purchases "within a short period of time", which he called "a big stop".
The US president has sought to leverage India's purchases of Russian oil in his trade war, but Delhi has so far resisted.
I’m guessing India either doesn’t actually stop, or starts buying a very similar quantity of oil from Kazakhstan that definitely isn’t Russian, no, don’t think too hard about it.
I don't think the government will risk significant increases in fuel prices on the eve of the Bihar elections. On the other hand, it is quite possible that they agree to stop buying Russian oil from Russia as a compromise - it could be bounced off a third country so we can technically agree to the US demands.
I’ve been thinking about discovering underappreciated Lemmy instances. GitHub’s awesome-lemmy-instances used to serve a similar purpose, but it hasn’t been updated in a long time, and I haven’t found anything else like it.
I got the idea from this post about finding decentralized communities in the Fediverse. I’m thinking of a Lemmy bot that tracks Lemmy instances, calculates the average number of active users and standard deviation, and identifies instances with activity below the average plus two standard deviations. It would then rank these underutilized instances by performance metrics like uptime and response time, and periodically update a curated list on Lemmy to guide users toward instances that could use more participation.
I'd love feedback on how you would go about doing something like this. And specifically how to rank by performance.
If someone wants a regional instance they usually figure it out by themselves, also the Piefed instance chooser can help and has a latency indicator: piefed.social/post/1337079
You don't need to calculate the average number of active users. If you do, it will be wasted resources and you probably will miss a few dozen.
Simply request the instance's NodeInfo.
NodeInfo 2.1 (which Lemmy does implement) and I think 2.0 as well require implementors to provide correct user usage statistics. So you have total users and average active users per month/half year calculated on request.
This also means you can provide this service for other platforms that support NodeInfo.
Making a GET request to /.well-known/nodeinfo will give you the links to the instance's NodeInfo documents.
In fact, you can recursively begin from some random known instance, get a list of other instances it is federated with, get their NodeInfo and repeat the process. NodeInfo also provides the name of the software (check schema).
Choose which sections in the Tab Button popup are visible from the Display Options menu.
You may find some sections in the Tab Button popup irrelevant to your workflow. If that’s the case, hide them and enjoy using a Tab Button that fits your needs perfectly.
To hide sections you don’t use.
Open the pop-up menu.
Open the Display Options menu by clicking on the 3-dot menu button in the top right corner.
Click on the section names on the menu to toggle their visibility off or on.
anamethatisnt
in reply to bpt11 • • •I imagine Linux Mint and OpenSUSE has similar GUIs to introduce if that's more up your alley.
JillyB
in reply to anamethatisnt • • •arox
in reply to bpt11 • • •SethranKada
in reply to bpt11 • • •illusionist
in reply to SethranKada • • •chillpanzee
in reply to bpt11 • • •I don't think that's a guide... it's a hands on class. Maybe even a good idea to pitch to your local community college, community center, or adult edu department.
It'll shock you how low the average person's technical literacy is. And since you're talking about a guide for a lot of things that update independently, the guide will begin to be outdated before you even publish it. It's exceptionally hard to keep technical documentation in sync with software and hardware that you don't control, and when the users of your guide hit those spots where the doc doesn't match, they bail quickly.
What key concepts to cover probably depends on what you're trying to teach. If it's just how to use a web browser, the mainstream distros all do that pretty well out of the box once they're installed (although installation can still a bit of a challenge from one laptop to the next). Maybe the greatest communal benefit would be to teach foundational concepts of online security.
Mactan
in reply to bpt11 • • •file manager works pretty much the same on Linux as it does on windows. you really can search for files yourself
text editor really does work the same on Linux as it does with notepad on windows, you really can just open files and read them
burntbacon
in reply to Mactan • • •𝕽𝖚𝖆𝖎𝖉𝖍𝖗𝖎𝖌𝖍
in reply to bpt11 • • •IME, beyond the install, it's all distro- and desktop-specific.
As I think about it, I realize that configuration under KDE of way more encapsulated and clear than on Windows, and people having learned the byzantine and myriad ways of Windows, KDE's relative simplicity is confusing. Windows people look for configurations in places they've learned to look, which aren't always where they are under KDE (I can't speak much about Gnome - I don't use it or set people up with it). MacOS isn't as bad, having a similar configure-everything-through-a-single-settings-program approach.
Anyway, that's my experience.
Auster
in reply to bpt11 • • •cd command.
No joke, when I started, it was the thing I stalled on the most as it's so basic no one explains
Lettuce eat lettuce
in reply to bpt11 • • •Hard to summarize, because it differs so much from person to person.
I installed Linux on my parent's computer. They don't need to know anything about Linux, because everything they use is identical to their old Windows PC. They click the icon for Chrome to open the browser. They Click the icon for LibreOffice to type up a "Word" doc and print it by clicking "file > print"
As far as they're concerned, they are still using Windows.
For a gamer, they will need to know a little about Proton, possibly Lutris and the Hero launcher. They might need to know about installing nVidia drivers or tweaking a few things in the Steam launch options to get games to run better.
It's tough to know exactly what a new Linux user will "need" to know in order to use Linux.
Snot Flickerman
in reply to Lettuce eat lettuce • • •Graphics driver installation is pretty key on any system but AMD graphics systems.
For example if your parents want to watch any videos without them stuttering or being weird, whether Intel or Nvidia, they will need the non-free graphics drivers installed so it doesn't run like shit.
To my knowledge nearly every AMD chipset already works out of the box on Linux.
Lettuce eat lettuce
in reply to Snot Flickerman • • •True, it still does vary even chipset to chipset. Some Nvidia and Intel cards do just work depending on the distro, others require more work.
It also depends on how "techie" the user is. My parents are 0% techie, so I have to do anything and everything for them if they have questions or issues.
But a Windows power user can handle some terminal use and other basic system modifications. And honestly now days, most of that stuff is super easy. Like Linux mint has a dedicated driver app that allows you to use a simple GUI to install Nvidia drivers, it's super easy.
jesale
in reply to bpt11 • • •101 on local ports and networking with firewall.
SavvyWolf
in reply to bpt11 • • •One thing that many guides tend to skip is how to install software. People coming from Windows might try to install software the "Windows way" by going to the website and downloading them. That is just likely to cause pain and suffering for a number of reasons.
Instead, every beginner friendly distro has its own flavour of software centre that users should be encouraged to use instead. Maybe even include a link to flathub in the guide or something.
Damage
in reply to SavvyWolf • • •And they generally run like dogshit, unfortunately. Bazar on Bazzite is the only one I've found so far that doesn't have me run for the terminal immediately
bridgeenjoyer
in reply to Damage • • •Kiuyn
in reply to Damage • • •Damage
in reply to Kiuyn • • •Godnroc
in reply to SavvyWolf • • •Snot Flickerman
in reply to bpt11 • • •At least a basic primer about finding your way around in Linux in command line, and where various configuration files live.
When shit goes wrong (and it likely will at some point) knowing how to dump to another tty and log in via the console and fix issues via command line is pretty key. This has saved my ass more times than I can count now.
Having trouble finding a CLI focused course, but this is a free course that covers a lot of basics:
training.linuxfoundation.org/t…
Introduction to Linux (LFS101) - Linux Foundation - Education
The Linux FoundationJillyB
in reply to Snot Flickerman • • •Snot Flickerman
in reply to JillyB • • •It's basic in the sense that Linux is always a work in progress and no matter how hard you try, you're going to need it at some point.
When your system randomly turns on to a black screen and there is seemingly no way to log in, knowing how to switch to the command line and at bare minimum back up your settings and documents before you wipe and start over is pretty key. To be clear, I have been in that exact situation and even more confusing situations where the PC has basically become unusable but I was able to fix it via CLI.
Just imagine losing months or years of work because you don't know that you can probably fix it all from command line and likely don't even need to wipe your computer and start over if you can narrow down what is going wrong and remove it via the command line.
I dunno seems pretty important to me.
mistermodal
in reply to Snot Flickerman • • •JillyB
in reply to Snot Flickerman • • •For me personally, I would remember none of that if taught to me. I'm stubborn and handy enough to figure it out during an emergency. For the kind of noob OP is describing that benefits from a handheld on-ramp, they will probably never be able to do what you're describing.
I think a good compromise would be mentioning a few things that you can do in case of emergency so a more savvy person would know what to look for in an emergency. You don't have to teach them so much as tell them there is something they can do. If there's a fire, idk where the fire extinguisher is but I know there is one and I can go looking.
Snot Flickerman
in reply to JillyB • • •I'm in the minority who thinks Linux isn't for everyone and that people who approach computing from that standpoint should really stick with macOS or Windows. Linux gives you more freedom to be in control, but that freedom to be in control also demands more knowledge and involvement to be able to be in control. "With great power comes great responsibility" kind of thing.
For an analogy Windows is like being a passenger in a car with someone else driving, and Linux you're in the drivers seat of the car. You simply are required to be aware and involved in driving more because you are in control, and that control requires knowledge. You don't get to sit back and go "I don't need to know what all this stuff does because I don't want to." Understanding how the pedals and steering wheel work is a requirement for driving, as is paying attention to what is going on around you on the road. As a passenger, you aren't required to know or pay attention to as much because you're not being given the freedom of control, you're just along for the ride. Linux is giving you that freedom of control of being the driver, but you have to know a lot more to do it than you need to know just being a passenger (Windows).
I know everyone else thinks Linux is ready for the prime time and ready for regular users who don't want to have to learn and just want something that works... but I personally don't. Simply because Linux is a lot less guaranteed to "just work" than the other options.
JillyB
in reply to Snot Flickerman • • •Snot Flickerman
in reply to JillyB • • •verdigris
in reply to bpt11 • • •I think the biggest fundamental concept for any computer regardless of operating system is filesystem hierarchy. The concept of nested folders is core to using a personal computer, but for the last two decades UI/X teams have done everything in their power to obscure and abstract it away. Many younger people conceptualize the storage on their device as just an amorphous blob that apps manage autonomously. Windows is starting to go this way as well with OneDrive being sold as the way to manage all your data, but on Linux the file system is still king.
Your mom is presumably old enough to have some experience with desktop PCs, so hopefully that basic hurdle is already cleared. And honestly once someone is at that level of base competence, along with basic interface concepts like how to use a mouse and keyboard, clicking on icons, use of a web browser etc, with the right distro you really don't need to explain much else. There might be a few quirks of the UI to explain depending on what you choose, but most of that can be handled by just watching them use the computer for a bit, and/or asking them to give you a list of questions and annoyances after they use it for a few days.
The biggest difference is one that most "I just want it to work" users will actually love, and that's relearning how to install software. Having one central location to install verified software from is a change from the wild west of downloading installers from the internet, but it shouldn't be a difficult transition. Most people these days don't even install software beyond maybe Zoom, so you can probably get away with just installing any third party software they need in the initial setup.
I recommend an immutable distro like Fedora Silverblue, at least if a) you're setting it up and are reasonably technical, and b) you don't want to go over and help them fix stuff often. I set my mom's laptop up with it 4+ years ago and she's only had one problem since then.
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slacktoid
in reply to verdigris • • •Yo mama so old she has experience with desktop computers.
Was not expecting a yo mama joke in this 🤣🤣
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QuazarOmega
in reply to verdigris • • •black_flag
in reply to bpt11 • • •Nothing. Just set up Elementary or Mint or something with a shortcut to Firefox and there's nothing else to do. Any apps they might need would come from an app store, so point that out.
So how to open a text editor? Recommending an easy-to-use and standard one like Kate would be good, but a polished distro will have one preinstalled.
They need concepts like filesystems (e.g. the concept of a root directory, mounting, and device files), software repositories (since steam comes from a non-default repo in many distros), an awareness of the whole graphics driver situation, and hardware both appropriate to their needs and to running Linux.
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SuperDuperKitten
in reply to bpt11 • • •brax
in reply to SuperDuperKitten • • •SuperDuperKitten
in reply to brax • • •RadDevon
in reply to bpt11 • • •This may be a controversial inclusion, and it’s based on my relatively unsophisticated understanding of Linux. I believe the reason casual computer users hate Linux (generalizing here) is that “Linux” is not one thing.
Commercial operating systems are monoliths. Windows 11 is Windows 11. macOS is macOS. Apart from a few surface-level settings, all instances of them are the same. If you know how to use that operating system, you can go to almost any computer running that OS and start using it, just like you use the one you have at home.
“Linux” is entirely modular. There’s no single thing called “Linux.” You can pick and choose each component to build up your own customized OS from the ground up, and distros take advantage of this. I know just within my household, I have three Linux systems, and casual usage varies wildly across the three. One is a SteamDeck, which is a different kind of thing, but if I just take the two computers as an example, on one, you have an application menu in the top left where the other has an application menu in the bottom left. Also, those menus look completely different. That alone is enough to frustrate a casual user. Now take the fact that they each have different settings panels, different bundled apps, etc. and you have a recipe for making users always feel lost when moving from one system to another.
I don’t think this means you need to teach how to use every available desktop environment, window manager, or sound settings panel, but I do think it would be useful to introduce this concept as part of your curriculum. The sad part is that I think a lot of your audience will tune out at this point because they never had to know that on the commercials OSes, but I think it’s important to be forthcoming about it rather than having your audience blindsided by it.
bpt11
in reply to RadDevon • • •jjjalljs
in reply to RadDevon • • •I think there's a certain kind of user who doesn't really learn concepts, but rote actions. They click the start menu and then excel to open excel, but they don't really understand that the start menu is an application launcher and Excel is an application that can be opened in other ways. It's very one dimensional.
Then when something changes, like the application launcher is moved, they freak out. They don't have a mental model.
That's how my mother is, anyway. It's all magic with no underlying coherent anything. Not sure how to fix that, because it usually comes up when they're mad or scared, and that's not a time anyone will learn.
HumanPenguin
in reply to RadDevon • • •Sorry to grin at you. But in OS theory Linux is known as a monolith kernal. So you choice of words would have given my lecturers a freakout.
But while your terminology is a bit crossed. The ideal you are explaining is fine.
Better Technical way to put it. Linux is just the kernal. Much of the interface you see is actually programs or apps running above that kernal. A d can be changed amd selected.
Windows is also started multipart. But has become less so over time. And it's single distributer makes it way less obvious. By preventing any competition within it's internal structure. The original monolithic kernal of Windows was the MS Dos command.com program. But I no lying those of us from the 80s and early 90 remember using it.
fox [comrade/them]
in reply to HumanPenguin • • •Durandal
in reply to fox [comrade/them] • • •monovergent
in reply to bpt11 • • •Package managers:
- Repositories
- Update mechanism. Many of my friends and family are used to updates being either automatic, nagged, or nonexistent. Not an issue on auto-updating distros, but could get ugly on vanilla Arch or Debian.
- Resisting the urge to install loose executables from websites
File system:
- Write caching. Windows doesn't do this for most USB drives so people get away without safely ejecting for years. On Linux, the safe eject button does matter.
- File hierarchy and mount points. When I first used Linux, I was very confused by the lack of the Program Files and Users folders, My Computer page, and drive letters.
- File permissions, especially executables
- Partitioning and how to format drives in the absence of a format dialog in the file explorer
Bash shell:
- It's not the incomplete mess that made
cmdor Powershell so intimidating- Resisting the urge to paste in commands and scripts without knowing what they do
HiddenLayer555
in reply to bpt11 • • •DO NOT download and install random programs from the internet. Not a deb/rpm file, not an elf binary, not an install script, nothing. Use your package manager or desktop environment's app store. At most use flatpak or snap packages.
Linux gets its reputation for not getting malware from the same place Mac does: It has a managed app repository where you get all your software from. Difference is Mac doesn't let you install arbitrary programs at all, while Linux expects you to know better than to do that. Someone who doesn't know what they're doing downloading Linux programs from random websites will inevitably hit one of the super rare Linux malware in the wild.
Even ignoring security issues, running an install script even from a reputable open source project's website can open you up to package dependency hell. And if you ever need to upgrade or modify it, you're in for a rough time because none of the existing tools built into your distro will help you. It's even worse than Windows when this happens because Windows at least expects for things like this to happen (because everything comes in its own installer and handles updates separately) and has UX elements to help non tech savvy users deal with their mess of apps, Linux expects anyone bypassing the normal package manager to know what they're doing and if you don't, it won't be a good day for you.
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brax
in reply to HiddenLayer555 • • •Nemoder
in reply to HiddenLayer555 • • •Tenderizer78
in reply to HiddenLayer555 • • •4am
in reply to HiddenLayer555 • • •HiddenLayer555
in reply to 4am • • •As far as I know when you download a dmg, the OS checks its signatures against Apple's registry and only allows installation if it's approved. The developer would have submitted the app to Apple (for like $100) for them to inspect even if it's not on the "official" app store.
Not a Mac user so please call me out if I'm just talking out my ass.
rabidhamster
in reply to HiddenLayer555 • • •djdarren
in reply to rabidhamster • • •In a better time, yes. These days it'll throw a warning that the application can't be trusted and offers to throw it in the bin. You have to run a command in the terminal now. Every time the app updates.
LibreWolf has updated?
Gotta do the dance again. Every. Fucking. Time.
hexagonwin
in reply to djdarren • • •catmandogmanfishman
in reply to hexagonwin • • •rabidhamster
in reply to djdarren • • •I'm still running 14, has it changed since?
Does this still work to disable it system-wide?
sudo spctl --master-disableericheese
in reply to 4am • • •procapra
in reply to HiddenLayer555 • • •The average day of a "computer wiz" on debian (me):
sudo apt install ./randomshitfromgithub.debsudo nano /etc/apt/sources.listpastes stuff in"Oh no something isn't working right!" Pastes some slop from chatgpt into the terminal
9 months later
"This shits fucked beyond repair, time for a clean install!"
Honestly? Not much different than my experience with windows. ;P
JustEnoughDucks
in reply to HiddenLayer555 • • •Sadly, just the store doesn't work for many professional programs and non-free software.
Segger j-link, renesas go hub, Nordic tools, etc... (though AUR solves this on arch distros)
deathbird
in reply to bpt11 • • •The bottom level of your file system is /, not C:, and other drives or partitions you have will be represented in subfolders like mnt or something.
Everything is represented as a file, even things that are not strictly speaking a file on your primary hard drive.
The part that you interact with the most, your graphical user interface, has a particular name, like gnome, kde, xfce, icewm, etc.
When you have to open a terminal, you might be interacting with different shells as well, but it will usually be bash.
Always install from the repos unless your nerdy friend who helped you get set up says it's okay to download this or that particular app.
Maybe include a bit about how to run regular backups automatically.
And also list out different alternative programs relative to what they might be used to in a Microsoft environment.
obsoleteacct
in reply to deathbird • • •SlartyBartFast
in reply to bpt11 • • •BlackVenom
in reply to SlartyBartFast • • •cy_narrator
in reply to BlackVenom • • •HubertManne
in reply to bpt11 • • •Tenderizer78
in reply to HubertManne • • •HubertManne
in reply to Tenderizer78 • • •smeg
in reply to bpt11 • • •* Their use-case is almost entirely web browser, so there was no need to cover installing programs. Click the same browser icon and it should behave basically the same way.
* No need to explain the terminal beyond "this is where you can type advanced commands, you don't need to worry about it".
* If there's an error message, read it and try to understand what it's actually saying rather than just dismissing it. Do a web search if you're feeling confident, send me a photo of the screen if you're not.
* Explain how to install updates (or just configure automatic backups and updates for them).
* Explain when and why the computer will ask for a password (e.g. login and updates) and how that password is for the computer, not for their email or whatever.
* Explain the basics of folders. This is your home directory, here's where downloads go, here's how to create a folder and drag your files into it.
* Tell them not to panic. I've seen a lot of older people terrified of pressing the wrong button, make sure they know how to understand what they're doing and undo their mistakes.
* Be patient!
individual
in reply to bpt11 • • •Broken
in reply to bpt11 • • •I find that one of the biggest differences is the file ownership/group design, and the non admin user.
Sure, it might not come up in a straightforward manner, but it will.
Why do I need to put in a password all the time?
How come I can't just move this file to another drive?
This might be too "advanced" for what you're looking for, but I think even basic usage comes across this.
Jack_Burton
in reply to Broken • • •i came here to say this. I was really frustrated for a while figuring this out and understanding how it really makes things more secure, even if you're the only one using the computer. At first it drove me nuts when my server would auto create a folder for media and I'd attempt to change some files within and not have permission, like, my account should have access to everything.
Changing access permissions without understanding how/why completely borked my first install by setting a user without sudo privileges as primary (or something, I still don't know what I did haha) but I couldn't sudo anything and was locked on that profile.
I started by just using Nautilus but this is not good practice so I learned the basics and it finally started making sense.
Broken
in reply to Jack_Burton • • •Yeah, I always bring this up because it's what I dealt with. Mind you, it was amplified because I set up a media server right away and got seriously confused.
What? Permissions don't get inherited? OK fine, so how do you set permissions? This site says 755 and this site says drwxr-xr-x. Can't I just get a straight answer?
It's a fundamental functioning difference between the OS's that not a lot of people talk about when talking about switching.
Even my Windows machine that is set up with an admin/user structure (as God intended) doesn't give me any fuss with file access.
Jack_Burton
in reply to Broken • • •just_another_person
in reply to bpt11 • • •If it's just Desktop usage, not much difference than using anything else. Make sure to install updates when asked, and that's about it.
Just be clear that downloading anything for Windows will not be compatible.
AbouBenAdhem
in reply to bpt11 • • •TurboWafflz
in reply to bpt11 • • •comfy
in reply to TurboWafflz • • •ISolox
in reply to bpt11 • • •Understanding the proper way to install apps is the biggest one. Make it clear that .exe files are for Windows only.
I wouldn't try to go further than that, I feel that's the biggest thing a general user really needs to know.
njm1314
in reply to bpt11 • • •refreeze
in reply to bpt11 • • •BitsAndBites
in reply to bpt11 • • •I've been using linux for years, but in limited contexts. With switching my primary desktop over this year I've found it helpful to stop by my local library and checked out some books on linux. I'm combining that with chatting with a locally running LLM. I've also setup an extra Raspberry Pi I had laying around with Ubuntu Lite as a sandbox OS to tinker with.
Maybe consider a portable sandbox setup like this you could quickly demonstrate or share?
utopiah
in reply to bpt11 • • •It's not just for Linux but :
It's fundamental because instead of saying "It doesn't work!" and get no useful help, people must think of it as an investigation (or whatever get them going) looking for clues. Until you get the right message and can provide the right context (e.g. what computer are you using, what OS version, etc) then you get generic help which is like looking for a needle in a haystack. Sure it's not entirely impossible if you are both lucky and patient but you are doing yourself and others a huge disservice.
Before Linux maybe they were used to black boxes but here, nobody is intentionally trying to hide away anything from you!
PS: bonus, notes are basically free. Jolt down notes about anything and everything you are learning. Don't just "use" a computer, LEARN how to use a computer.
answersplease77
in reply to bpt11 • • •corsicanguppy
in reply to answersplease77 • • •answersplease77
in reply to corsicanguppy • • •yeah you have to carefully hightlight the command without the $ sign, then with caution right-click on mouse to copy it, paste, then enter
I've over 10 yrs experience with linux. this process gets everything I want done
/s lol ok jk
Corridor8031
in reply to corsicanguppy • • •MonkderVierte
in reply to bpt11 • • •pinball_wizard
in reply to MonkderVierte • • •I used to feel that mattered, but today websites will detect my OS when it matters and just pick the right page (i.e. downloading something).
Then I double click the download to install it.
I, a tech nerd, forget what distro I'm running and eventually have to look it up, when I'm doing something weird enough that it matters.
For day to day stuff, I'm not sure that knowing my OS comes up anymore.
monocles
in reply to bpt11 • • •Jankatarch
in reply to bpt11 • • •pinball_wizard
in reply to Jankatarch • • •What version of Linux are you talking about?
I haven't been recycle bin free in...any recent distro or desktop environment that I can remember.
Ⓜ3️⃣3️⃣ 🌌
in reply to bpt11 • • •Trusted sources, only.
Same as Windows, Android: sideloading (tarballs, flatpaks, snaps whatever) is a no-no.
Like
bash curl install.shbadnotarobot
in reply to Ⓜ3️⃣3️⃣ 🌌 • • •I'm not sure this is great advice. In principle it is. But you can't tell a windows user "yes. You know how many of the programs you used to use are not available because they don't make a Linux version? Well a lot of the ones that do you shouldn't use even though the distro supports it for reasons you don't understand"
That is better advice for an intermediate used learning about the dangers (or lack there of) sideloading.
In general o disagree with your stance on a basically semantic reasons: the definition of a trusted source. If I trust a software manufacturer and they tell me to use their flatpak, it's fine because they are trusted, regardless of the format. What I do not like are things like the AUR
obsoleteacct
in reply to bpt11 • • •Little quality of life stuff.
For truly casual users (grandma or a student taking notes) there isn't a lot to learn. Here's your browser, here's your office apps, this is like "notepad". This is the software center for updates or any other applications, press the "windows key" to get your menu.
Obin
in reply to obsoleteacct • • •Is that really still a thing on modern distros? I haven't had to think about that in literally decades (on Gentoo).
LeFantome
in reply to Obin • • •Obin
in reply to LeFantome • • •Wait, what codecs (commonly used by Linux distros) aren't free software?
As far as I know the original issues back in the day was with patents, not licenses, especially with MPEG. And because it was patents (which I think aren't even valid in most jurisdictions except the hell-hole called USA), the issue was mostly with what commercial distros wanted to ship to their customers, not what the end-user could legally use. These days I thought we're using mostly patent-free codecs or people realized they aren't really enforceable anyways. Fedora maybe kind of makes sense, since its users are basically free beta-testers for RHEL, which is mostly US-based and commercial, so would be the most likely to be affected by patent-trolls.
obsoleteacct
in reply to Obin • • •H.265 is a pretty major one. E-AC-3 for audio. Ideally, for a desktop user, you want to be able to play anything. So you need know if your distro includes those codecs. Then how to install them if it doesn't. Then you need to delete your thumbnail cache to fix the thumbnails.
It's not hard. You just have to know that that's a task you need to do. Coming from windows, a user is likely to just assume linux doesn't support video properly and it's thumbnails are broken.
Obin
in reply to obsoleteacct • • •With regards to patents or not being free software? Because ffmpeg includes those and is definitely free software. You also need x265 for encoding I think, but that's also free software.
Sure. I was just surprised it's still a thing at all. None of the distros I use have this problem (Gentoo, Arch, Ubuntu, Libreelec).
obsoleteacct
in reply to Obin • • •H.265 is royalty free for non-commercial use. It's ownership is kind of complicated with a bunch of patents and it is commercial licensing is controlled by a few groups.
If I understand correctly (and I'm no lawyer) FFMPEG is completely non-commercial so they don't have an issue. Although I think anyone using FFMPEG for commercial applications (streamers, professional productions, etc...) should be paying a license.
I guess some distros felt that was legally murky for them and others aren't comfortable with non-libre software.
I really wish Fedora would figure out a legal workaround and bundle in the codecs, but for now I just have to remember to set it up before I add any media.
Obin
in reply to obsoleteacct • • •Let's get something completely straight: ffmpeg is completely, 100%, no-restrictions, free as in libre software. This has nothing whatsoever to do with "not being comfortable with non-libre software". That's just FUD at best.
Legal considerations about patent/license trolls in corrupt neoliberal hell-holes might be justified for commercial projects. Most distros however seem to be getting away just fine by assuming end-users get their license for the codec/patents somewhere else if they even need one.
obsoleteacct
in reply to Obin • • •That's not an attack on ffmpeg. It's 1,000% not fud. I'm not disputing its libre bonifides. H265 is not libre. It's also not part of the ffmpeg code. But they can be distributed together because it's non-commercial.
My apologies if I worded something in a way that wasn't clear about that.
Separate from that issue.
There are distros that do not want to incorporate any non-libre elements into their OS for ideological reasons. They won't have h265.
Then there are distros that have commercial elements, or for which their parent company has some kind of commercial interest in the distribution. If they don't want to pay for licensing they may have legal limitations on their ability to incorporate h265.
But any completely non-commercial software that wants to bundle h265 in has cart blanche to do so.
I hope that clears things up.
Obin
in reply to obsoleteacct • • •H.265 is also not software but a specification that ffmpeg implements, and the implementation is libre. Additionally there's also x265 a decoder/encoder that also implements it, that ffmpeg can use, but that is also FOSS.
To be clear: ffmpeg does not ship any proprietary blobs in order to decode H.265. It's implementation of H.265 is fully FOSS as well.
This is plain wrong and repeating it doesn't make it any better. A libre distro with only libre software can decode H.265 just fine. In multiple ways.
I'm trusting your claim here, that that's the case, but even then, it would be more like: Any completely non-commercial software can ship a FOSS H.265 implementation with a bundled royalty free license.
If you don't want to bundle a license, you don't have this problem to begin with, you can let the user worry about that, which the user can then just dismiss without legal consequences (in any sane legal system).
obsoleteacct
in reply to Obin • • •pinball_wizard
in reply to bpt11 • • •This thread is largely just basic computer skills advice that is necessary on Windows and Mac as well. (And that is great!)
So I'll add the ones we skipped that have nothing to do with OS at all, but are the usual issues for new PC users:
And as others have said:
Obin
in reply to bpt11 • • •Contrary to what others write*: Yes, the terminal.
It's not that you can't get by without it on many distros, for most things. But for even for medium and non-techy users, getting the fear of the terminal out of the way early will make their journey much, much smoother. It doesn't have to be much, no shell scripting or anything, just the basics, conceptually what a terminal is, what the shell is, how to execute stuff, maybe
chmod +xto execute, other utilities likels,cp,mv,mkdir. maybe symlinks/ln. That'll be enough to take away the fear if they see any "Now do this in the terminal" advice online (which they absolutely will, let's not delude ourselves), and maybe enough to get them to notice that "huh, sometimes the terminal is more convenient, they weren't bullshitting when they said that".*) Since you asked about "beginner Linux users" and not users that "just want to use their computer and not think about the OS at all", I'm pretty confident about that assertion.
PS: I really think that's not too much too ask. I remember my mother learning DOS commands back in the day for a regular desk-job. Everyone can do this, it's not difficult, people just have to let go of a few false preconceptions drilled into them by the industry (MS, Google and Apple).
d-RLY?
in reply to Obin • • •True, especially the part about your mom and others that had to use PCs in the 90s and 80s. I suck with a lot of CMD/PowerShell/Terminal stuff and get really in my head about whatever I am doing. Though a lot of it is due to things like switches and formatting order. Can be very very frustrating if there are a lot of them and having to constantly look at what they mean since they aren't just regular words (which would obviously make the amount of typing get out of hand). The other main issue for me is dealing with moving or copying things around. GUI is much easier to get due to being able to see it in the same way I would move/copy things IRL. Especially frustrating if using USB drives, since they don't just auto-mount/assign a letter if only using something without a DE. That part is (for me) a headache to have to deal with since the same OS will just do that if a DE is used. But also not something I do every day (or very often as I mostly use Linux when messing with my Pi).
But your core point of just doing it is very true. The reason that folks in offices in the 90s and 80s were able to get used to it was because they had to, and that there was a reason to at least know the things to do what they needed. They didn't have to get bogged down with all of it (or even need most commands). So it would be best to focus on the things that are needed to get daily things done. Then it makes a lot of other bits easier to handle later on. And a lot of common things can be printed/written on cheat sheets or getting stickers with common commands to put on the side of the case or stuck to a desk in easily glanced at locations.
Obin
in reply to d-RLY? • • •I don't think anyone needs to do a lot of file-management on the command-line. GUI file-managers are perfectly fine for home-directory stuff, USB-drives, network directories etc., but you'll run into problems when accessing system files. There's also TUI file managers like Midnight Commander which some would probably consider the best of both worlds. I personally prefer dired on Emacs (and Emacs in general to most terminal based applications).
As I said in the beginning of my comment, you can do 99% of your daily Linux desktop usage in the GUI, and you don't have to be used to or fast with the terminal. I just want new users to get rid of that fear, so that when they need to do something with it, they're not giving up or putting it of, but read and try their way through it and maybe learn something cool. Every Linux user (managing their own system) will need it once in a while and that's probably not going to change in the near future.
I'm a developer and pretty experienced with the terminal, but I still do this. Not printed out or anything, but for each program with complex switches (like ffmpeg, qemu, docker, git, curl) I have an entry in my personal Wiki (also Emacs: org-roam) giving me a quicker overview over things I've already figured out in the past than a man-page can provide (it doesn't hurt though that Emacs has a pretty great man-page viewer too).
LeFantome
in reply to bpt11 • • •The biggest “Linux” skill would be package management. It is one of the biggest differences.
Most of the rest of the advice here stems from desktop environment choice.
gray
in reply to LeFantome • • •prole
in reply to gray • • •The Arch wiki is king wiki.archlinux.org/title/Main_…
I've never browsed it from the homepage, but if you have any questions, it has so much information even if you don't have Arch.
Also, man pages are clutch.
In case you don't know about man (this works in all Linux not just Arch): wiki.archlinux.org/title/Man_p…
ArchWiki
wiki.archlinux.orgNauticalNoodle
in reply to bpt11 • • •su/sudo -Why you will need to use it and how not to use it.
-I still don't think it's wise to rely on the various stores like Discover or Pop!_Shop to do basic updates as they are bloated and slow to an alarming rate while running.
ace_garp
in reply to bpt11 • • •Backing up a copy of that config file, before editing it.
If you brick or break anything, rolling back to a working-state is much easier.
--//--
You can manually cp a 2nd version of the files, or there are tools to automatically backup for you.
the_robot_from_planet_danger [comrade/them]
in reply to bpt11 • • •mazzilius_marsti
in reply to bpt11 • • •everything is a file lol, unlike on Windows where a lot of things are GUI based:
.....so on and so forth
On Linux you have a lot of power, can use sudo to make changes to a file. If you know what youre doing, great. If you dont, system can break. Even without sudo, a misplace / mistype of files in the /home directory can cause weird stuff.
So TLDR is: be careful when make changes to files on Linux. Dont listen to stranger on forum who gives out command to paste and run. Do your research what the command does.
doubtingtammy
in reply to mazzilius_marsti • • •Your keyboard, and every other USB device? That's a file.
Random number? this file here
Ned some Zeroes? That's this file
thepompe
in reply to bpt11 • • •(nsfd)
::: spoiler spoiler
The best advice is don't be an autistic retard. Learn pragmatically by experience. Take your time and have fun. Don't do (or not do) something just to fit in with losers on the internet.
:::