digg

Join DiggAbout

Discover and share the best of the web!
Learn more about Digg by taking the tour.

See the original image at hehe2.net

The 7 Habits of Highly Effective Linux Users

hehe2.net — Over here I compiled a list of 7 habits that I feel someone has told me when I started out. I believe that getting into these habits will make the Linux experience more secure, convenient, educational, and ultimately more enjoyable.

Bury
show profanity settings
expand all
  • skazhy, on 04/17/2008, -3/+59dugg for the anime linux distros :D
  • ruiacp, on 04/17/2008, -14/+63Congratulations! Its good to see a "top xx" like article with good content instead of personal preferences.
    I would like to see one article about the 7 Habits of Highly Effective Windows Users. I would help but I only can find 2: Never install it and never boot it.
    • Onyxblaze, on 04/17/2008, -12/+5Or... Install it, boot it, use it, and enjoy your computer experience. I used to bash windows too... until I used linux. It's not just the being a totally new operating system aspect, it's the annoying bugs aspect of linux that I don't like.
      • jay019, on 04/17/2008, -0/+5At least submitting those bugs to the Linux developers will result in a fix. How often do windows developers get onto bug fixes immediately?
        • amirman, on 04/28/2008, -0/+1amen, i had a ***** up thing happen to my xorg.conf file, as a new linux user the experience actually turned out to be positive, linux users are generally very caring and will try to help you through a problem just because they care, not because it's their job. he actually wrote a new xorg.conf file for me and in the process taught me a lot about how my system works and how to do simple things in the terminal. you will never ever get a community with so much selflessness in the commercial software world.
      • vincentweber, on 04/17/2008, -1/+5What experience? Frustration (it crashes AGAIN!! ARG! I'll switch to Mac/Linux tommorow!)? Patience (Omg defragging takes sooo long! Omg anti-virus/mallware scans are taking hours! Why the ***** does it take Windows XP 2 freakin hours to format my 500GB super-fast-sata-disk?! Why is it that when XP booted to the desktop it takes another 2 minutes on my bleeding edge dell precision laptop to respond to me?! Answer me!)? Being lost (Why the hell is this option there and not just over there?! Why is there no single menu for settings, applications and places?! zomg!)? Etc.

        Seriously, Windows users, you have no idea what you're missing.
    • savantidiot, on 04/17/2008, -0/+8"...with good content instead of personal preferences."

      ............................... . . .
    • Cyber_Akuma, on 04/17/2008, -6/+2My my, the anti-Windows crowd is attacking full-force in this article....
    • tossayo, on 04/17/2008, -3/+1Wouldn't booting Windows justify that you have installed that OS?
      • ruiacp, on 04/17/2008, -1/+3Backup safety plan for pre-installed machines.
  • shadoweva09, on 04/17/2008, -30/+5Is the first one to bury anti Linux comments on digg?
    • maxpower2911, on 04/17/2008, -11/+6How dare you say that! You should use what OS the digg mob tells you to.
    • bot001220, on 04/17/2008, -2/+5Get a room, you two.
  • lpcustom, on 04/17/2008, -3/+16This would be pretty good if there wasn't that nasty number 6. "Play the field?" This is not exactly how you become a highly effective user. It is best to try a few, find one your most comfortable with, and then stick with it. A lot of new Linux users will run into a roadblock and then switch their entire distro out to fix it. If they had just taken the time to find out how to fix it, they would be better off. You may find that wireless doesn't automatically work with one distro so instead of just finding out how to fix it you install a different one. Then you find that you don't like the desktop theme for the new one. So you switch to yet another. You run into problems there because of your lack of knowledge with the package manager. It's a never ending cycle a lot of users find themselves in. Pick on e and go with it. They are all basically the same anyway. Sure, some are more optimized, some are easier for a n00b to use, and some have a better installer, but they can all do the same thing. They can all look the same. They can all use the same software. Number six on this list should be scrubbed.
    • benplaut, on 04/17/2008, -0/+7actually, I agree with point 6, but not in quite the way that the article phrased it. By starting with SuSE, moving to Ubuntu and then Gentoo and then Slack and then Arch, I learned more about Linux than I would have in twice the time on any one distro. The point is to reach a level of comfort and familiarity with the underpinnings, regardless of the package manager or DE on top of things.

      Awesome article... usually I don't read these, but this one was spot on.
      • schotty, on 04/17/2008, -0/+3Well said.
        For me, the "Playing the Field" really translated in "Learn the differences". Because once learnt, the little nuances that make each distro unique, shed alot of light on how it really works. Red Hat, Fedora, and SuSE I know are very similar in many ways. But then you get to the whole system management issue and Yast is a far different beast than sysconfig on RHEL/Fedora. Better? Dunno. Doesnt matter really. To each their own.
        I would add also knowing FreeBSD and OpenBSD. Free is a good learn on UNIX in general and Open is just a brick wall solid beast. I still have situations where using OpenBSD is superior to using Linux. But all in all this was a way different top 7 than I have seen float by. Most are all opinionated blather (sometimes amusing though). Nice to see some real meat for a change!
    • javaroast, on 04/17/2008, -0/+1Great advice. I never really understood the constant switching, for switching sake. Also if you have to work in other Unix environments be very careful using the killall command. Getting in the habit of using that might give you a surprise in other Unix systems.
    • svivian, on 04/17/2008, -0/+2I think that as long as you fix a few problems on each system before deciding to switch, you're more likely to learn more and find a better distro.
    • abhiroop, on 04/17/2008, -0/+1I think I could only afford to do this if I had a LOT of time. In ubuntu if I come across a problem I fix it and carry on working, etc. And thats the end of that.
  • mrtrevin, on 04/17/2008, -1/+30Great article. Especially keeping your /home directory on a different partition. Oh, and VirtualBox, it kicks ass.
    • ordago, on 04/17/2008, -0/+2I always keep /home separated even in both Linux and windows. Pretty useful.
  • kalel90, on 04/17/2008, -17/+3I agree with all points but the first one i don't like being asked for my password and having to type sudo all the damn time i have enough confidence in myself to be able to use a linux distro as root and even if i do screw up i know how to reinstall.
    • mossblaser, on 04/17/2008, -0/+5You really don't understand do you? Also, since when did reinstalling recover all your files?
    • SteveMax, on 04/17/2008, -0/+5Just wait until a "rm -rf /tmp/foo" becomes a "rm -rf / tmp/foo"...
      You can do basically everything on a well-configured distro without root privileges. Keep a terminal tab running as root (preferably with blue-on-red text, to keep you from using it too much) for the very rare things you need root, and you're done.
      • BoneheadFarker, on 04/17/2008, -1/+1"...preferably with blue-on-red text..."

        That will sure as hell make you avoid that terminal...
        • SteveMax, on 04/18/2008, -0/+1You may also use green-on-orange or pink-on-green, whatever makes you the most uncomfortable.
    • stix213, on 04/17/2008, -0/+1On your home machine that is fine, but when you accidentally erase your team's file server at work and have 20 people all sitting on their thumbs waiting for a backup recovery + have to redo all work since the last backup, you will finally understand that typing "sudo -s" when you need to is actually a time saver compared to redoing the fileserver. But what do I know, maybe your boss will tell you that everyone actually needed a break for a few hours..... instead of telling you this is your last chance.
    • init100, on 04/17/2008, -0/+2Running as an ordinary user is not just to protect you from yourself, but also to protect the system from itself, i.e. bugs in the software. That's why some software simply refuses to run as root, while others display big warning dialogs about it.
  • maxpower2911, on 04/17/2008, -13/+438: Live in a dark basement with no windows, glass or not.
    • vincentweber, on 04/17/2008, -1/+1No Gates and no fences, no boundaries and endless freedom to do whatever _you_ want to do.
    • HrafnGeirsson, on 04/17/2008, -0/+0No Windows, no Gates ;)
      • init100, on 04/17/2008, -0/+1I think the original saying is "In a world without walls or fences, who would ever need Windows or Gates?".
  • digitallysick, on 04/17/2008, -3/+5I really like the home partition idea, never thought of it before
    • PJBovoNox, on 04/17/2008, -12/+0You never thought of putting your personal data on a separate drive or partition? No offense sir, but you're a moron of the highest order!
    • SteveMax, on 04/17/2008, -1/+4Ten years ago, that was on every single Linux installation tutorial ("you will need at the very least three partitions: one for /boot (~10MB), one for / (100MB-1GB, depending on what you plan to install), one for swap (1.5*your RAM), and one for /home (the rest of the disc)". Today, the trend is to keep everything in a single place, which is not healthy at all.
      • abhiroop, on 04/17/2008, -0/+3um thats 4...
        • SteveMax, on 04/17/2008, -0/+1Swap doesn't count :p
          • abhiroop, on 04/18/2008, -0/+2True but if the reader of that post had just made three, swap would've been missed out, during installation!
          • SteveMax, on 04/18/2008, -0/+1How so? At the time, you'd create the partitions at the same time as you'd assign them their mount points, and only after confirming everything the new partition table would be written.
            Anyway, I hope nobody read that as recommendations for a current system, since the average size of a total system has grown a lot. Today, I'd recommend at least 1-10GB for "/", at least 50MB for /boot, and enough swap to keep what you might want to use (for a home user, a good rule of thumb would possibly be "keep RAM+swap around 4GB").
  • lilbugleboy09, on 04/17/2008, -17/+9[Unoriginal comment involving Linux user stereotype]
    • Smegzor, on 04/17/2008, -4/+2You can use that. Its patented.
    • c0baltfish, on 04/17/2008, -1/+1[Unoriginal comment questioning digger's sexual orientation]
  • Vileputrid, on 04/17/2008, -29/+3I'd use Linux if there was a distribution that guaranteed I'd NEVER had to use a command line interface.
    • Jacob, on 04/17/2008, -1/+9how can you guarantee something like that? For the most part any mainstream distro is going to be able to handle everything you would be doing as a general user in GUI. But if there is hardware incompatibility you may have to step into command line. Then again it's the same way on any OS you choose be it windows or osx, in general they work without command line but there are times when you need to get in and use command line.
      • Vileputrid, on 04/17/2008, -6/+0CLI is primitive. I never had to use it in XP (for over 5 years) or Vista (1 year)
        • OrangeSoda31, on 04/17/2008, -0/+6Because the command line in windows sucks and can't do anything anyway. In linux, you can actually do things with it. Chances are, if you can do it visually in windows, there is a way to do it visually in linux.
        • javaroast, on 04/17/2008, -0/+4If you haven't used the CLI in Windows in the last 6 years, I can guarantee that you won't have to in Linux either. Now I've had to use the CLI in Windows because sometimes it just works better. Anyone who has ever had to copy muliple gigs of data between network drives and transfer the security as well will know what I mean when I say that robocopy is much faster, efficient, and easier than attempting to do it in the gui.
        • mossblaser, on 04/17/2008, -0/+3The CLI is not primative. That is like saying that C++ is primative when compared to javascript.
        • SteveMax, on 04/17/2008, -0/+4Really? Remember that Start->Run is a CLI, even if you use it to run graphical apps. If you've never used either cmd or the "run" interface in six years, you'll probably never use any CLI at all in any OS, be it Windows, Linux, OS X or *BSD.
        • init100, on 04/17/2008, -0/+2Okay, but did you ever edit the registry? I'd say that it is at least as complicated as using a CLI.
        • init100, on 04/17/2008, -0/+2By the way, if the CLI is so primitive and archaic, why has Microsoft recently spent time and money to develop a powerful command-line shell (Windows PowerShell)?
      • witchdoctor117, on 04/17/2008, -0/+3And if you had the opportunity to use a proper CLI in windows maybe you could have done a lot of things you never thought you could do. But I guess you don't know what you don't know.
    • Remmy, on 04/17/2008, -2/+18Translation: I am a lazy person who can't be bothered to type something in a CLI, but I can type this ***** on Digg.
    • pendrachken, on 04/17/2008, -1/+12Good god why? Did your fingers fall off or something?


      Hell I even use the CLI on windows machines for a lot of tasks, it is just plain simpler and faster.
    • BlackAdderIII, on 04/17/2008, -2/+10""" I'd ride a motorbike if there was one with four wheels and a steering wheel. ""
    • tj111, on 04/17/2008, -1/+11Why is a CLI is so popular on Linux? You can do almost anything from a command-line that you can do with a GUI. Linux offers the GUI for people who prefer it, but doesn't nerf it's command line to bolster the GUI.
      Example, I want to install Amarok in Ubuntu. I can open Add/Remove, search for Amarok, check the box next to hit, then hit install. Or I can just open a terminal and type "sudo apt-get install amarok". Much more efficient.
    • schotty, on 04/17/2008, -1/+3Well Ubuntu and Linspire are there. Fedora isn't totally from what I have noticed, then again, I like the CLI, so I don't try to avoid it at all. Maybe SuSE. But really, other than a few things, the CLI is not needed. I just like to use yum and some traceroute and ping stuff from the CLI myself. Plus some system file editing I am in the habit of just editing the raw file. So although a GUI tool exists, I just choose not to use it.

      The nice thing that the CLI offers, is since most things can be modified there, instructions are simple for doing repairs or instructions on installing things -- copy and paste it.
    • vincentweber, on 04/17/2008, -0/+2What is so bad about the command line? It's ten times better than a GUI. The only 'problem' is that you need to learn it. It takes a little time to learn, but when you master it, it saves you ages of time. Looking for your Firefox directory to install flash? Simply type 'whereis firefox' and you get the answer.
    • Cyber_Akuma, on 04/17/2008, -0/+6I don't see how that is is possible, from Windows 3.11 to Vista I still use Window's command prompt quite extensively, I can't imagine how aggravating it would be for me if it was removed, and Windows is designed to be almost completely GUI in mind.

      It would be incredibly annoying if there was no command line in Linux.
      • vincentweber, on 04/17/2008, -2/+0That is because X is build upon bash. No wonder... the GUI would be nonexistend than.
  • ArmchairAthlete, on 04/17/2008, -4/+490. Google, google, and more google whenever something is being a pain in the ass.
    • Smegzor, on 04/17/2008, -0/+10IRC what you did there.
    • Onyxblaze, on 04/17/2008, -4/+2Unless you are trying to get a wireless card working. That took me weeks lol.
      • jay019, on 04/17/2008, -2/+3Mine was working by the end of the install. Sorry your hardware is not so good.
        • Zaggynl, on 04/17/2008, -3/+3Hardware sucks because it's not supported by Linux? HAH.
          • schotty, on 04/17/2008, -1/+4yes. if that is the OS of choice, then the computer isnt working due to hardware deficiencies. Sorry but if the hardware doesn't work as needed it sucks. Regardless of the OS. I recall some rather evil older Compaq drivers that were Satanicly evil to get working in Windows. You _had_ to use the custom ones off their website. Of course normal mortals wouldnt guess this ... The owner said the same thing jay019 said - this sucks!
          • Onyxblaze, on 04/21/2008, -0/+1It was the Airlink 101. I had to wait almost a year for the ZD1211RW driver :(
        • init100, on 04/17/2008, -0/+1A lack of a (good) driver doesn't necessarily imply that the hardware sucks. The hardware manufacturer may suck though (since it doesn't provide a good driver or specifications so that others can do their job for them).
      • Cyber_Akuma, on 04/17/2008, -0/+1Been trying to get my sound and wifi hardware working in Ubuntu for months now, most people in chatrooms or web forums have given up on ever getting it to work on my laptop...
    • yodasama, on 04/17/2008, -0/+2You, sir, forget ubuntuforums.org
  • lollypopz, on 04/17/2008, -14/+58. Furious masturbation
    • Smegzor, on 04/17/2008, -2/+3You're confusing Linux with OSX (Mac users can't spell SEX).
  • Borgcube636, on 04/17/2008, -19/+3I bet gaming isn't one of them. At least not pc games. At least thats what keeps me away from anything but a PC. Aside from the fact that I like Pc's
    • IndigoMoss, on 04/17/2008, -0/+21Linux runs on a PC...
    • Ellipsys, on 04/17/2008, -1/+7There are an assortment of games on Linux, and many of the AAA titles you enjoy on Windows work through Wine (World of Warcraft for instance). While it is true that not every game works on Linux flawlessly and easily, hopefully as adoption continues developers will create Linux game clients. Check out savage2.s2games.com This is a great, cheap, AAA RTS/FPS hybrid that runs on both Linux and Windows.
      • Onyxblaze, on 04/17/2008, -1/+1Have you ran WoW with Wine? I could never even make it to the login screen.
        • schotty, on 04/17/2008, -1/+3I have, and it ran fine. I quit WoW so I can no longer attest to its stability TODAY. But from 6-06 -> 1-08, it ran rock solid, without glitches. Cedega at first, then Wine.
      • Shadowgamers, on 04/17/2008, -0/+3Still can't run Crysis
        • BTConan, on 04/17/2008, -0/+2Nothing can run Crysis.
        • Smegzor, on 04/17/2008, -0/+2Maybe not Crysis, but it runs TrackMania Nations Forever perfectly. Not bad considering the game was only released yesterday.
    • BTConan, on 04/17/2008, -0/+2I play PC game AND use linux. It is possible to dual-boot, you know.
  • killq, on 04/17/2008, -23/+2Try taking a shower you ***** losers.
  • donkeySays, on 04/17/2008, -5/+2Is your name Stephen Covey?
  • havocjaw, on 04/17/2008, -9/+6I will never leave DOS 5.0

    damn it
  • dustout, on 04/17/2008, -3/+4its nice to know I'm not the only person that carries a version of DSL on a usb key everywhere i go :)
  • gudnbluts, on 04/17/2008, -17/+10"Over here I compiled a list of 7 habits that I feel someone has told me when I started out"

    Then I realised it wouldn't compile without the mySQL libraries installed, but the wifi wasn't working, so I plugged in the ethernet cable at which point Gnome crashed, and on restart I had to revert to the previous version of xorg.conf and add acpi=force to the grub boot load file to even get it to boot properly again, at which point synaptic wasn't giving me the files I needed so I realised that I needed a new repository added, so I binned it and installed XP.

    The end.
    • Onyxblaze, on 04/17/2008, -5/+3How did you know what my first linux experience was like?
    • nailer, on 04/17/2008, -1/+5"Then I realised it wouldn't compile without the mySQL libraries installed, but the wifi wasn't working,"

      Why are you compiling something, rather than just installing it? Why did you find getting mysql difficult, these are basic tasks than be achieved with a few clicks.
      • gudnbluts, on 04/17/2008, -2/+2Errr, it was a joke?

        Actually I distilled my real experience with Linux, admittedly to a point where Linux bods know it doesn't make sense (but why should I care) just to keep it short because I wanted it to be humourous rather than long winded and strictly accurate. Following the install instructions for MythTV broke MySQL, acpi=load actually fixed shutdown issues, not boot issues. I had ATI card disasters, hence the xorg.conf bit, and Gnome crashed whenever I clicked the "network" icon in ubuntu. Happy now? After all, jokes are better when they're explained.
        • el_taco, on 04/17/2008, -0/+2Yup, That's a real problem with linux. The install instructions for MythTV came out 2 months ago for a different distribution. Now yer using version X and all the tutorials online for your distribution are for version Y. Everything should be the same but they completely changed how they handle things so now you broke your install by trying to manually install something because you read it in Z tutorial.. bah..
          • gudnbluts, on 04/17/2008, -0/+0And installing any upnp server I've tried under windows takes a couple of clicks, so yes, that's a problem with Linux. I also had lots more that I didn't bother listing - I have a USB capture card that nobody's managed to get to work under Linux, I need to share contacts and calendar with my pocketPC, Before Gutsy, I had to recompile ndiswrapper on my system to get it to work, in openSuse the common repository thing never worked etc. etc. etc.
        • mossblaser, on 04/17/2008, -0/+3Typically, jokes are funny.
  • Harbinger67, on 04/17/2008, -12/+78. Avoid women. They just get in the way of efficiency.
  • shawnz, on 04/17/2008, -7/+1"Personally, I had numerous occasions when a friend asked me to do something on his/her computer, but found myself crippled because of his/her choice of OS."

    what can linux do that other OSes can't? i think the author needs to read #5 on his own list
    • OrangeSoda31, on 04/17/2008, -2/+7avoid nearly all viruses, grant the user true and unlimited access to even the most core settings, remain stable even when a bad program runs, etc.
    • neko, on 04/17/2008, -0/+6Come with a full featured range of software.

      I can think of occasions when I've been asked for help and... oh, right, you don't -have- a CD ripping program. okay, we'll just... right, you don't have Synaptic, okay, we'll just try and find one online, ... Next Next Next Next Okay I Agree Next ... right, let's rip that oh, it's trialware. Well, use this for now, and in 30 days... find someone else to help. Please.
      • schotty, on 04/17/2008, -0/+5Funny you mention that. An older friend at work needed something to rip cds to use on his flash mp3 player he got online for retarded cheap (2gb for $30 or so). I said yeah, I can find some goodies for ya. Well 5 hours later I found one that wasn't shareware/trialware/crap. That would be much easier in linux -- get grip. (or whatever is found under a search for cd rippers).
    • vincentweber, on 04/17/2008, -0/+2Linux is faster, more stable, more secure, flexible, modular, more powerful than Windows. It is free of charge. It is not restricted by copyright, which means that you can take Linux, alter it and legally distribute your version of it over any media and you can charge money for it if you want to. Because it is open source everyone can look at the code so more bugs and security issues get fixed. It is also guaranteed that nobody is going to get away with adding evil stuff into their program since everybody can look at the source code. Ubuntu, for example, has nicer 3D effects for it's GUI. It's prettier than Vista and Mac.
      • abhiroop, on 04/17/2008, -1/+1riiight because when I choose a computer the first thing I consider is whetehr I can "alter it and legally distribute your version of it over any media and you can charge money for it if you want to". Sorry if I sound a bit pretentious. I am using ubuntu, but mainly because it does what I require of a computer. I really think that its just a computer. Do whatever you want with it. If XP crashes for u, us linux, if u can't find the drivers, buy a Mac, if u feel its too expensive use a pen and paper! Quite simply there are a million different options. My XP worked just fine, and do you know why I switched to ubuntu? the Number ONE reason was that games didn't work. Yes because of a hindarance I switched. Now at least I'm not tempted to play a game when i should be work. But hey it worked for me and thats what counts for me!
        • vincentweber, on 04/17/2008, -0/+0He asked what Linux can do that others can't. He didn't ask why he should use Linux instead of Windows as a user. ***** read _and_ think before playing with the avarage Windows user's mind to get your post dugg up. At least get your stuff right before you post.
          • abhiroop, on 04/18/2008, -1/+1take a deep breath. I'm not a posting junkie who gets a fix by being dugg up. I don't care if a windows user sees my post and diggs me up. Its my opinion.
  • HouseFan, on 04/17/2008, -1/+8ALT+SysRq+REISUB
    It does wonders if you have an unresponsive system.
    • Gambit89, on 04/17/2008, -0/+1Indeed, it's actually better to use the Magic Sysreq keys instead of a hard button reset (tip 4 - Power Crash Management), since one one of the keys in the combination will unmount the hard drive before rebooting.
    • yodasama, on 04/17/2008, -0/+1Glad that the page actually pointed to instructions that specified LEFT Alt, and to hold Alt and SysRq for EACH letter, I've been wondering about those particular points for a while.
      I've found that 'reisub' is easier to remember, but I'm not sure if syncing the drive is better where it is used in 'reisub' or 'rseiub'. Anyone?
  • boyzo, on 04/17/2008, -10/+4buried for using "The 7 Habits of Highly Effective..."
    • iRelinquish, on 04/17/2008, -0/+5hey what do you know, i buried you for the same reason : )
  • mooninite, on 04/17/2008, -10/+1OK, who puts their home directory on a separate partition? I could see separate hard drive, but consider the fact that you constrain yourself to the tiny little partition you make. I've occasionally used up my whole hard drive with stuff in my /home/ directory, but I could do that because I only have a /boot partition and a / partition. A home partition is really useless.
    • fukawi2, on 04/17/2008, -1/+6A separate home partition is really useful - on the same drive or a completely separate drive. GB are cheap these days. Buy a 500gb, make a 20gb partition for / and the rest for /home. Get over whatever free space is left in that 20gb that the system doesn't use. It shouldn't be over 80% full anyway.
    • centran, on 04/17/2008, -0/+2You ever completely fill up you hard drive? Linux no likey when the HD is full.
      Having a separate /home partition will isolate and protect your root. If you are real crazy you should have /var and /tmp separated as well.
      • schotty, on 04/17/2008, -0/+2But at least it will still boot to delete/move data from the drive. I had a Samba burp that flooded my drive. Afer reloading the daemon it fixed Samba, but the crap it left was all over. A reboot didn't fix it, but I found out rather quickly how to fix it and had it repaired relatively quickly. Alot more graceful than Windows (at least used to be, dunno about Vista at this time).
    • init100, on 04/17/2008, -0/+1Why do you think that the /home partition needs to be small? On my installation, it is the largest partition. / is 20 GB, /boot is 100 MB and /home takes up the rest (around 40 GB).
    • mooninite, on 04/17/2008, -0/+1Oh OK, so I needed to be modded down for my comment. /sarcasm

      I also install lots of software, and move stuff to any directory (I use machines multi-user, not single-user). Limiting yourself, even if "GB are cheap" isn't a good explanation.
  • thailand1972, on 04/17/2008, -14/+78. Don't be bitter that the vast majority of people use Windows completely trouble-free and don't want to switch to Linux because they simply do not need to.
    • witchdoctor117, on 04/17/2008, -5/+0^ LMAO, that would be because 90% of people who run windows don't use a computer... they just use windows. *click* *Do what I'm told* *crash* *"What a cool feature, it must be to make sure I take lots of breaks"*
      • thailand1972, on 04/17/2008, -0/+1Your comment is a good example of what I'm talking about.
    • Ademan, on 04/17/2008, -1/+4hahaha..... i know countless people who ***** hate windows, yet continue to use it because they haven't heard of or don't want to try linux, and feel that somehow using a mac would be admitting their own technological ignorance. That's not to say these cases aren't user error (they are) but 90% of windows users are NOT happy with it, not to say they'd be any happier on any other platform, but I wanted to get the score straight, *****-fests like geek squad are still in business for a reason...
      • thailand1972, on 04/17/2008, -2/+190% of blah blah blah - just make it up as you go along.
        • Ademan, on 04/17/2008, -1/+1bs number aside (which was obvious to anyone reading it, even you figured it out) I have a point. And yes, I just made it up, i don't have the MS FUD repository to fuel my repetitive and ignorant comments....
          • thailand1972, on 04/17/2008, -1/+1Basically you're proving my point: bitter Linux user resents Windows answering the average user's needs perfectly well. So you make up your "countless people" (who are suddenly countable) who "***** hate windows". Take your BS and bitterness elsewhere.
          • Ademan, on 04/17/2008, -1/+1@thailand1972 since digg won't let me reply directly
            What? You had a point? My point was windows DOESN'T fit the average user's needs well, and you've done nothing to prove the contrary.
        • init100, on 04/17/2008, -0/+1You mean just like you?
    • JohnFlux, on 04/17/2008, -1/+2Windows makes the easy tasks easy, and the hard tasks impossible Linux makes both the easy and hard tasks medium-hard.
      Whether Windows or Linux is right for you depends on whether you want to do something easy or hard :)
      • thailand1972, on 04/17/2008, -1/+1You have some examples?
        • init100, on 04/17/2008, -0/+1"This device cannot start". This is an error message that I encountered one day on my Windows XP installation a couple of years ago. The nVidia driver refused to enable accelerated graphics, and not even a reinstall fixed it. It stayed that way until I replaced the computer. The funny thing is that the hardware wasn't actually broken, as 3D acceleration worked fine with the nVidia driver in Linux.
  • Shadowgamers, on 04/17/2008, -6/+7Am I an effective Windows Veteran for being able to do all of these things on there with Windows? V:
  • peestandingup, on 04/17/2008, -17/+107. "Personally, I had numerous occasions when a friend asked me to do something on his/her computer, but found myself crippled because of his/her choice of OS."

    AKA, I didn't know what the ***** I was doing because I'm a Linux snob.
    • SLockhart, on 04/17/2008, -7/+1That's like saying your a cheeseburger aficionado. Linux is cheap and easy but no good for serious business.
      • vincentweber, on 04/17/2008, -1/+4That must be why ever single computer (whether it's a server or a desktop client) at IBM runs Linux. Oops....
        • init100, on 04/17/2008, -1/+1That's simply not true. My dad works at IBM, and he has a Windows XP laptop for work.
          • vincentweber, on 04/18/2008, -0/+0Than he will in a year or two because IBM is switching over to Linux completely.
          • init100, on 04/19/2008, -0/+1Not necessarily. I read the other day that IBM has started a pilot program for Mac on the corporate desktop.
      • init100, on 04/17/2008, -0/+2"Linux is cheap and easy but no good for serious business."

        Then why does Linux has 85% market share among the 500 most powerful supercomputers in the world?

        http://www.top500.org/stats/list/30/osfam
    • JohnFlux, on 04/17/2008, -0/+6I dunno, I can appreciate this.

      How would you, for example, grep a broken hard disk for someone thesis that they were working on? I've recovered someone's work just from doing "less /dev/hda1".

      There are been quite a few times when it's been useful to have linux on hand.
      • schotty, on 04/17/2008, -0/+6That has some peeps I know converted to linux right there :D That type of thing, even if it is cryptic will amaze people. And when told that Windows cannot innately do this, it is an even large befuddlement. (I fix computers on the side and do that at my night job. Having a laptop on hand has earned me a few hundred offhand for being able to do just that -- fix this bug, recover that ...)
    • vincentweber, on 04/17/2008, -0/+0Computer magazines, for n00bs like you, are full of "how to fix Windows XP" articles in which they all mention Knoppix.
    • JohnFlux, on 04/17/2008, -0/+1Actually I thought of a better example - when someone's version of windows has gotten corrupted and you want to copy data files off the machine onto a usb key. You can use a linux livecd to just drag and drop the files. I don't think windows has any equivalent to that.
      • CrazyZ, on 04/17/2008, -1/+1It's called bartPE or Windows Pre-boot Environment and yes you can do the same exact thing. Even supports encryption etc. to access encrypted hard drives. Easy as pie. I've yet to see any OS have a feature or third party equivelent than another OS didn't have. Use what you like.
  • joe361, on 04/17/2008, -9/+2And here's another good one, http://tinyurl.com/2q9j9y
  • SLockhart, on 04/17/2008, -5/+2Yawn.
  • surfer22, on 04/17/2008, -5/+0Started using mandriva linux and like it. Like it becoz there are practically no virus threats here. These tips will surely help. Thanks
  • centran, on 04/17/2008, -1/+2Opps.. I fail at #1
    Although it is really only half failing. On my personal desktop I don't login as root when I am dual-booted into my linux side.
    However, most of the time I am using linux on a server. Don't even have X setup. I am always logged in as root to the couple of servers I control. It is pointless for me to do otherwise because most of the stuff I do will require root access anyway.
    • schotty, on 04/17/2008, -0/+4Setup sudo and log it. That way everything you do is logged (trust me, ***** happen even to the best of them), and make sure to keep sudo asking for the password. On home systems its less of a big deal, but on servers it is.
  • Kamujin, on 04/17/2008, -5/+2Sorry, I think the title should be. "Decent tips that pop up on Digg once a month."

    I see no evidence that the author is "highly effective".
  • YodaJones, on 04/17/2008, -2/+2Nice article, Thanks.
  • spankaccount, on 04/17/2008, -0/+14As a long time Unix admin, I really appreciate well thought out Linux articles like this one. There are so many poor Linux articles on Digg that I just had to point this one out. Great job.
  • blastcube, on 04/17/2008, -12/+2The best "Linux" is Mac OS X (for me). I know i'm going to get flamed, but first let me explain why...

    - OS X has all the command line power of UNIX (I know its not Linux)
    - It has the best GUI, the Dock/Finder/Menu system is so beautiful. I don't like KDE/Gnome which dont have the polish of OS X.
    - Applications: Photoshop > GIMP, can play Mac games, can play Windows games (boot camp/vmware), can play Linux games.
    - Price (I would rather pay for something superior. I am not poor and I believe in paying for software).
    - Installing Applications: Install: Drag and Drop. Uninstall: Move to Trash/AppZapper.
    - Peripheral support. Printers/Peripherals ship with Windows and Mac installation discs. None for Linux.
    - Compiling: None for Mac/Windows. Linux: Must compile + dependancy hell, apt-get is nicer but its still a pain to use.

    Don't get me wrong, I believe Linux has its place: Servers, Engineers desktop, but definitely not a normal/graphic/gaming users desktop.

    Also for the Linux fanboys its pronounced "OS Ten", nothing to do with sex. Anyway I'm sure Linux users will hate me and find a million holes in what i've said to attack me. I don't hate you or Linux. I just PREFER using a Mac, which is perfectly okay.
    • marpstar, on 04/17/2008, -0/+2Open Source?
    • el_taco, on 04/17/2008, -0/+3You had me up until the compiling part. You've never used Darwin ports before have you?
    • SteveMax, on 04/17/2008, -1/+2I used to believe in uninstalling by drag and drop. That is until I looked at my ~/Library.....
      Also, printer support in OS X is exactly the same as in Linux. OS X includes Cups, which is the standard print server for most Linux distros today; Apple benefits from the long time spent by the community developing a top-notch print server, and the community benefits by the added interest by manufacturers in Cups support.
      Also, as good as the OS X command line is, it still has some annoying bugs (I'm still on Tiger, maybe this changed on Leopard). For example, command flags must be given before the objects, so "ls -l /Applications" works, while "ls /Applications -l" doesn't.
      And as el_taco already stated, you can install programs both from source and as binaries on both Linux and OS X. Most good *nix software on OS X is installed via Darwin ports or is compiled in some way; and in most Linux distros, you install 99% of what you want via an unified package manager, which takes care of dependencies and (usually) just install the binaries with no local compilation. Only occasionally you need to compile something by hand.
  • noBananas, on 04/17/2008, -3/+1elementary, my dear Watson
  • neko, on 04/17/2008, -1/+9I agree with most points, except for 2., the file naming thing. I can name my files with spaces and all the special characters I feel the need for, and I love it. Just because some characters are special to the shell shouldn't mean anything - we have quotes and escapes for that. And usually typing the first part of the name and hitting TAB will get you the rest of the name, suitably escaped.

    I don't mean to pick on Windows for this,... okay, maybe a little.... but go and right click on the desktop in your graphical CLI-free environment, make a new file, and call it "Does Windows Hate Me?.txt". Then you will have your answer.
    • stonklit, on 04/17/2008, -0/+0The tab thing I find to be somewhat limited.

      It works great if I'm doing a "cd" command, but if I do a "sudo ln -s", the tab won't auto complete the item in question with the spaces.

      Not sure why that is, though. So I frequently have to do:

      cd "item with spaces" "item with spaces 2"

      ..then hit the home key and replace "cd" with "sudo ln -s" or something.

      Any way around that?
      • init100, on 04/17/2008, -0/+1That's strange, it should complete that (assuming that those are existing files (or directories, links, etc)).
  • momsshizzle, on 04/17/2008, -9/+1Buried. Linsux users are all fat and sit in the basement of their parent's house. Linsux.
  • dayalsoap, on 04/17/2008, -6/+1This comes from the book "How to Succeed with Women". The Chapter is "7 Habbits of Highly Effective Seducers".

    Way to steal a title. Yes, I read teh book, and so did teh submitter of teh topic.
  • HalfGiraffe, on 04/17/2008, -7/+28. Save time by having mom make your peanut butter and jam sandwiches and leave them at the top of the basement stairs.
  • johnnyrotten, on 04/17/2008, -1/+1Number 2 is bull. Programmers need to learn to program correctly. If you use $* and don't properly quote variables, you are not a shell programmer. Heck, there shouldn't even be a $* in the first place - it should work like "$@" does.
  • mikeopubco, on 04/17/2008, -7/+2#8: When someone new comes to you for help on a message board, sneer, then call them a n00b.
    #9: Spam digg.com with articles masturbating over Linux at least 50 times per day.
  • jameslhart, on 04/17/2008, -3/+1#8: Don't recompile each new release of the kernel.
    #9: Don't recompile everything in sight at the slightest provocation (I'm looking at you Gentoo).
    #10: I really must follow my own advice.....
  • stonklit, on 04/17/2008, -3/+0"If you don’t know how to do it in the command line, use “gksu” or “kdesu”."

    DESU?? DESU!
  • pyrates, on 04/17/2008, -3/+1When is this going to be fixed? In all these years of using Linux, why hasn't it been offered to be fixed? In any commercial OS they always filter out invalid characters so you can't use them.

    # Avoid special symbols like dollar signs, brackets, and percentages. These symbols have special meanings to the shell, and could cause conflicts
    # Avoid using spaces, handling files with spaces in the terminal is kind of awkward. Replace spaces with either hyphens or underscores
    • HouseFan, on 04/17/2008, -0/+2it's a solely recommendation.
      If you're using UTF-8 encoding (which it's the standard right now on Linux, ASAIK), it won't cause too much problem.
      Whatever, if you copy the files to another system [e.g. Windows], that could be a problem.
  • brettalton, on 04/18/2008, -0/+1I've only been using Linux for 2 years and I already do all of those.

    Does that mean 'Highly Effective' = 'Nerd'?
  • jabberw0cky, on 04/18/2008, -0/+0I had never heard of the trick associated with the mnemonic 'Raising Skinny Elephants Is Utterly Boring'. Very useful article!
  •  

    Login or register to add a comment

    Create a new account or login to join in the conversation on Digg. You'll also be able to Digg stories to help promote things you like.


© Digg Inc. 2008 — Content posted by Digg users is dedicated to the public domain.
DIGG, DIGG IT, DUGG, DIGG THIS, Digg graphics, logos, designs, page headers, button icons, scripts, and other service names are the trademarks of Digg Inc.