The Eternal Battle Noobs vs Power Users...

[MurphCID]

I did the All-In-One Linux+ Certification book's Linux pre-test.

According to the results, it's possible I don't even know what a keyboard is, much less an actual computer.



Seriously though, it does show the tip of the what-there-is-to-learn iceberg for Linux. I can't wait!

I might have to try that, although with my level of knowledge, it will probably tell me to take the book back and get a refund.

You think you're bad? They probably wouldn't even let me buy it.

LOL! I'll be in the same boat, Banned from purchasing Linux books!

[Portreve]

Yup the audible modems taking forever to load anything. I remember downloading a single sound... now you can download entire albums and entire discographies.

I can totally relate. My first modem was a (blazingly fast) 2400 bps Everex Emac-MD. My second was a SupraFAX Modem 14.4Kbps, my third was the 28.8Kbps version of that same modem, and then I had several different 56Kbps modems.

One of the curses of my life with Linux. Why, oh why, does Apple not make an iTunes for Linux?

I transitioned away from iTunes a LOOOOOOOOOONG time ago by way of Google Play Music (back when that still existed). Once I started having head units in cars I've owned which had USB slots, I just put a copy of my library on a flash drive, which I then update periodically as I get more music. And since I never bought any music via iTMS nor anything else (except one time I did buy Crowfield's Goodbye, Goodnight, So Long Midwestern on a very good recommendation by Rick Beato) so I've never become dependent upon anyone's walled garden.

I am a Noob to Linux and I am sure its the same questions being asked over and over again but we all had to learn somewhere. I remember the days of old windows with c prompt and dir but I always hated programming. Its much easier today with the internet and forums.

I think one of the things I should do, in the interest of this being a community (and therefore a commons) is to share the wealth as I learn things. It should be pretty easy for me to re-teach that knowledge in a way that doesn't violate any copyrights.

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EDIT: I would like to add that this post got me to thinking about that album. I bought it but I've really only ever listened to it using my phone. It's really odd how you can buy electronic versions of albums from Amazon, but if you try to use your computer to listen to them via their web site, suddenly you have to have an Amazon Music subscription. To listen to stuff you bought outright. Seriously confused?!?!? Anyhow, what I wound up figuring out is that I could use the Amazon Music app to download the whole album to my phone (it was actually saved to my SD card) and then I copied those files — once I finally figured out where in the heck they were saved — onto my computer, whereupon I got rid of their garbaged-up names and renamed them sane-ly. Now they're all backed up to my network storage. And the truth is that it shouldn't take my level of expertise to have made this happen, even though I do appreciate that at least Amazon doesn't make it impossible, unlike Apple.

[absque fenestris]

iTunes was my reason for terminating Apple. Ever tried to uninstall iTunes from an OSX / macOS?
Why you buy music (or books) in purely electronic form is puzzling to me. For my money I want the CD in my hand - or the book printed on paper or occasionally a good piece of vinyl, because of the cover...

[Lady Fitzgerald]

iTunes was my reason for terminating Apple. Ever tried to uninstall iTunes from an OSX / macOS?
Why you buy music (or books) in purely electronic form is puzzling to me. For my money I want the CD in my hand - or the book printed on paper or occasionally a good piece of vinyl, because of the cover...

I have similar reasons for preferring CDs over downloads. CDs are usually better quality than downloads (I rip them to a high bit rate .mp3 and wav files and, recently, started including .flac). They also have more accurate and complete track and other information than downloads. I scan the liner notes, etc., including an image of the disc itself, and assemble the images into a PDF which goes into the album's folders (I use separate folders for each file type) along with the ripped files.

[AwesomeOpossum74]

I watch DistroTube a bit; he has some interesting things to say and show. But do I use the tiling window managers and suckless utilities that he touts in just about every video? No, because I don't need them, nor do I want to go through the hassle of configuring everything by hand. I consider him somewhere between elite and elitist. Like he'll happily help, but he'll be huffy about it, just like in his videos.

I work in IT, but that work is in a Windows world. I play in Linux. It's been years since I've dabbled in Linux server tech, keeping mostly to desktop stuff these days. I don't consider myself a newb when it comes to most desktop/cli/filesystem operations, but I would consider myself a newb dealing with server configuration and management. So it's all relative to the area in discussion.

No, I think there isn't anything that can be done in Arch/Redhat/etc. that can't be done in Mint. Linux is basically Linux, with a few differences thrown in.

Yeah, there are definitely elitists who seem to flock to certain distributions, and tend to be the loudest voices when it comes to "distro wars". Those are the ones you ignore in deference to the ones with common sense and a sense of good social behavior. Those who have been around in IT since the 90s know it used to be a lot worse.

[Portreve]

99% of my music collection is self-ripped CDs. They are all transcoded to FLAC, with all relevant metadata hand-entered, along with original album art. I've found that 500x500 image data of the most universally compatible. I then transcode from FLAC into either OGG or MP3 depending on where I'm going with those files.

My personal process, while manual and labor intensive, ensures all my stuff is exactingly perfect.

[MurphCID]

I have ripped many a CD, but, at least for me, iTunes works the best for my music needs. Now in Linux, I simply copy the files from my iTunes folder, and put them in the Music folder. Rhythembox then plays them with no issues.

[absque fenestris]

Yes - and there are CDs that don't even run on the Hi-Fi player. Thank you Sony for your copy protection.
The digital copy (preferably created on an old Mac with OS 9.2 and Toast) that - that runs then...
Completely crazy industry.

[Portreve]

I was working for Sony (the Sony Electronics division) when the whole Sony audio CD rootkit thing came to light. I've no doubt that after the fact there internally was all kind of hell to pay within Sony overall.

Incidentally, Sony Entertainment was dead set against Sony Electronics including optical drives on their computers, the fact that everything had by then transitioned to CDs from floppy disks be damned.

I have no love for the entertainment industry, considering all the really seedy cap they've pulled or tried to pull, including messing with copyright law, introducing the DMCA, trying (and failing, thank goodness) to get SOPA and PIPA passed, etc. That's one of the reasons I rip and transcode DVDs and CDs: I only trust content I can have and keep. They've made an absolute mockery of property rights.

Personally, I believe being aware of what folks with power and influence have done and are doing should serve as a major incentive and justification for folk to move away from proprietary software (programs, OSs, media formats, etc.) because it's the only practical thing individual "people on the street" can manifestly do.

[ivar]

Incidentally, Sony Entertainment was dead set against Sony Electronics including optical drives on their computers,.

As I understand, the entertainment div. was pretty much set against anything...? You poor ppl in the electronics div. that had to see their products consistently crippled before release. ie DAT, Minidisc, etc even Sony "MP3" players had their usefulness limited from rigourous anti-copy schemes

[Portreve]

As I understand, the entertainment div. was pretty much set against anything...? You poor ppl in the electronics div. that had to see their products consistently crippled before release. ie DAT, Minidisc, etc even Sony "MP3" players had their usefulness limited from rigourous anti-copy schemes

All too true. Sony was (maybe even still is?) very much a silo culture. The degree to which they hamstrung themselves cannot be overstated.

[MurphCID]

I was working for Sony (the Sony Electronics division) when the whole Sony audio CD rootkit thing came to light. I've no doubt that after the fact there internally was all kind of hell to pay within Sony overall.

Incidentally, Sony Entertainment was dead set against Sony Electronics including optical drives on their computers, the fact that everything had by then transitioned to CDs from floppy disks be damned.

I have no love for the entertainment industry, considering all the really seedy cap they've pulled or tried to pull, including messing with copyright law, introducing the DMCA, trying (and failing, thank goodness) to get SOPA and PIPA passed, etc. That's one of the reasons I rip and transcode DVDs and CDs: I only trust content I can have and keep. They've made an absolute mockery of property rights.

Personally, I believe being aware of what folks with power and influence have done and are doing should serve as a major incentive and justification for folk to move away from proprietary software (programs, OSs, media formats, etc.) because it's the only practical thing individual "people on the street" can manifestly do.

The DCMA needs to be overturned, or radically reformed.

[Lady Fitzgerald]

I was working for Sony (the Sony Electronics division) when the whole Sony audio CD rootkit thing came to light. I've no doubt that after the fact there internally was all kind of hell to pay within Sony overall.

Incidentally, Sony Entertainment was dead set against Sony Electronics including optical drives on their computers, the fact that everything had by then transitioned to CDs from floppy disks be damned.

I have no love for the entertainment industry, considering all the really seedy cap they've pulled or tried to pull, including messing with copyright law, introducing the DMCA, trying (and failing, thank goodness) to get SOPA and PIPA passed, etc. That's one of the reasons I rip and transcode DVDs and CDs: I only trust content I can have and keep. They've made an absolute mockery of property rights.

Personally, I believe being aware of what folks with power and influence have done and are doing should serve as a major incentive and justification for folk to move away from proprietary software (programs, OSs, media formats, etc.) because it's the only practical thing individual "people on the street" can manifestly do.

The DCMA needs to be overturned, or radically reformed.

No kidding! That mess even often prevents fair use (such as maintaining backups or doing media shifts) due to the industry's paranoia over piracy (they should look at the music industry and how piracy is not a huge problem for them, despite having abandoned copy protection). Then again, copyright protection has been extended far beyond its original intent by big corporations such as Disney. The DMCA and similar acts are being slowly eroded by the court systems of some countries but still won't be gone during my lifetime.

[AZgl1800]

I do NOT turn on DCMA in my browser, if I can't see something, that is their loss, not mine.

[Lady Fitzgerald]

It's DMCA, BTW, for Digital Millennial Copyright Act (I have more accurate terms for it but Mama told me not to use those words). Yeah, I know, I'm being picky.

[Portreve]

The DCMA needs to be overturned, or radically reformed.

...and...

No kidding! That mess even often prevents fair use (such as maintaining backups or doing media shifts) due to the industry's paranoia over piracy (they should look at the music industry and how piracy is not a huge problem for them, despite having abandoned copy protection). Then again, copyright protection has been extended far beyond its original intent by big corporations such as Disney. The DMCA and similar acts are being slowly eroded by the court systems of some countries but still won't be gone during my lifetime.

We need desperately to get rid of DMCA and any equivalent legislation in other countries or blocs, as well as the PATRIOT Act and other garbage which has all manner of other deleterious effects. That said, all of these things should be motivators for the exclusive use of software who's source code can be peer reviewed and publicly viewed. It's not the stuff of tin foil hat conspiracy theory to say we need to protect ourselves from a lot of different potential threat vectors which include state- and non-state actors.

[MurphCID]

Power users never use the GUI, they wail away in the CLI and have lots of BASH aliases to do things. Noobs like me try to remember the commands...,

For the Newbies out there: https://linuxjourney.com/

[Lady Fitzgerald]

One doesn't have to eschew the GUI to be a power user.

[Rooo]

For the Newbies out there: https://linuxjourney.com/

bookmarked thanks

[MurphCID]

You are welcome, I find it handy.