The Worst Linux Advice

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Termy
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The Worst Linux Advice

Post by Termy »

We've all had bad advice, but sometimes it takes time and knowledge to determine what is or isn't bad advice, whether that's objectively bad advice, or advice bad for us and how we use Linux. Whether it's of a terminal nature, or just general more abstract sort of Linux advice you've been given, I'd love to know!

I'm planning to make a video on YT about this, but I'm having a hard time remembering some of the terrible things told to me over the years. :lol: I've got about 8 things so far. Just need a couple more good ones.

DISCLAIMER: I might share your post and username on the video, but if you DO NOT want this, please clearly let me know.
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absque fenestris
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Re: The Worst Linux Advice

Post by absque fenestris »

What strikes me above all is a lack of advice before buying - namely in the use of 4K monitors on laptops and on external ones that are too small.

The marketing departments are deliberately silent about the consequences (... many, many pixels and many, many pixels are better ...) and the gullible user looks puzzled because nothing is visible on the monitor or the user has to do without a great workspace. In any case, there is great astonishment and lamentation.
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Termy
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Re: The Worst Linux Advice

Post by Termy »

That is a damn good point! The lack of hardware advice, or the advice to buy whatever without any consideration of whether the hardware is even supported in Linux or your environment thereof. I might have to take note of that.
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Re: The Worst Linux Advice

Post by Ivy_Pool »

Well, the Internet is covered with videos stating that the Linux user only needs a 32G partition to run their system. While that is technically true, that fact doesn't take into account the space one may need for software like Timeshare backups or all the files in the /home directory.
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Re: The Worst Linux Advice

Post by RollyShed »

Ivy_Pool wrote: Sat Jun 12, 2021 2:41 pm Well, the Internet is covered with videos stating that the Linux user only needs a 32G partition to run their system. While that is technically true, that fact doesn't take into account the space one may need for software like Timeshare backups or all the files in the /home directory.
Yes, 32 is too big. This ASUS TP200SA laptop only has 28GB and 2GB of RAM. The installation is Mint Cinnamon, quite a bit of music, a few documents, a couple of PowerPoint presentations. All of this takes up under half the space available so I suppose I might be limited... maybe.

It is just our travelling computer and the main ones are desktops. There is a NAS box for backup if needed. Timeshift? Why?
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Re: The Worst Linux Advice

Post by Ivy_Pool »

RollyShed wrote: Wed Jun 16, 2021 2:43 am
Ivy_Pool wrote: Sat Jun 12, 2021 2:41 pm Well, the Internet is covered with videos stating that the Linux user only needs a 32G partition to run their system. While that is technically true, that fact doesn't take into account the space one may need for software like Timeshare backups or all the files in the /home directory.
Yes, 32 is too big. This ASUS TP200SA laptop only has 28GB and 2GB of RAM. The installation is Mint Cinnamon, quite a bit of music, a few documents, a couple of PowerPoint presentations. All of this takes up under half the space available so I suppose I might be limited... maybe.

It is just our travelling computer and the main ones are desktops. There is a NAS box for backup if needed. Timeshift? Why?
My pc in question is a dual boot Ryzen 5 LM Cinnamon desktop that currently uses 68.79G of data. I shifted the /home to another drive, so sys now runs on ~25G and /home uses ~43G. The experience of moving /home to another drive after the LM install was hair raising for a newbie.

I'm not saying that 32G partition won't run LM; however, some plans had better be in place to manage the small data space if the computer will be used as a primary machine. I am a newbie and wasn't thinking in those terms when I tried out LM. I am not criticizing LM or Linux in general but am pointing out some advice that could have used some caveats. BTW, Timeshift has saved me a handful of times over the past 5 months. I am well aware that some don't like or use it.
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Re: The Worst Linux Advice

Post by mikeflan »

The experience of moving /home to another drive after the LM install was hair raising for a newbie.
And accomplishes little. If you have many computers separated by great distance and use them infrequently, having everything on one drive and travelling with your image backups is easier in my opinion.

Here is some other (perhaps) bad advice. Don't use Software Manager. That is for noobs. Use Synaptic Package Manager instead. I agree Software Manager is for noobs, but that is not always a bad thing.
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Re: The Worst Linux Advice

Post by Ivy_Pool »

mikeflan wrote: Thu Jun 17, 2021 7:06 am
The experience of moving /home to another drive after the LM install was hair raising for a newbie.
And accomplishes little. If you have many computers separated by great distance and use them infrequently, having everything on one drive and travelling with your image backups is easier in my opinion.
You quoted me, so I'll clarify. Relocating the /home to a secondary drive on the PC was nerve wracking because I used command line and the process took time. In my case, all files are on the same desktop. Prior to making the changes, I was advised to back up the system and warned that I could botch my install.
Here is some other (perhaps) bad advice. Don't use Software Manager. That is for noobs. Use Synaptic Package Manager instead. I agree Software Manager is for noobs, but that is not always a bad thing.
I agree with this. Unless there is a very compelling reason to use Synaptic Package Manager, the Software Manager would likely be the better option for a noob. I cannot say that I have ever used the Synaptic Package Manager.
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Re: The Worst Linux Advice

Post by absque fenestris »

Ivy_Pool wrote: Thu Jun 17, 2021 10:20 am ...
I agree with this. Unless there is a very compelling reason to use Synaptic Package Manager, the Software Manager would likely be the better option for a noob. I cannot say that I have ever used the Synaptic Package Manager.
...
The Worst Linux Advice

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Re: The Worst Linux Advice

Post by Hoser Rob »

Ivy_Pool wrote: Thu Jun 17, 2021 10:20 am .... Unless there is a very compelling reason to use Synaptic Package Manager, the Software Manager would likely be the better option for a noob. I cannot say that I have ever used the Synaptic Package Manager.
Don't agree with this really. The only compelling reason to use software manager is the user reviews, but since only beginners use SM, the reviews aren't useful.
For every complex problem there is an answer that is clear, simple, and wrong - H. L. Mencken
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Re: The Worst Linux Advice

Post by Flemur »

I think the worst advice - well, common bad advice - is to mingle OS data (=user config files) and non-OS data (=mp3s etc) under /home, regardless of whether or not /home is on a separate partition. Unfortunately, it's the standard setup offered by most if not all linux installers.
Please edit your original post title to include [SOLVED] if/when it is solved!
Your data and OS are backed up....right?
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Re: The Worst Linux Advice

Post by Moonstone Man »

Ivy_Pool wrote: Sat Jun 12, 2021 2:41 pm Well, the Internet is covered with videos stating that the Linux user only needs a 32G partition to run their system. While that is technically true, that fact doesn't take into account the space one may need for software like Timeshare backups or all the files in the /home directory.
We often see people here recommending 20GB.
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Re: The Worst Linux Advice

Post by Termy »

Flemur wrote: Fri Jun 18, 2021 10:40 am I think the worst advice - well, common bad advice - is to mingle OS data (=user config files) and non-OS data (=mp3s etc) under /home, regardless of whether or not /home is on a separate partition. Unfortunately, it's the standard setup offered by most if not all linux installers.
It adds mild inconvenience when moving your "~/", but it's easily addressed; I don't think it's necessarily bad advice, just perhaps not optimal for everyone.

I store the primary and recent documents in "~/Documents", my Git/GitHub files in "~/GitHub", some pictures (mainly for backgrounds, branding stuff, and things I've yet to move elsewhere) in "~/Pictures", and temporary videos for YouTube recordings in "~/Desktop" (even though I don't have a desktop :lol:) and OBS streams are saved in "~/Videos".

All of my music is kept on a different and larger internal HDD (stuff mentioned prior is on another SSD). The bulk of my other data is also on the aforementioned HDD. Other data is stored on yet more HDDs. So I do keep things mostly separate, but that's only because I don't want personal stuff showing up on streams/videos and I don't want my "~/" backups to be gigantic.

This works well for me, but YMMV.
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Re: The Worst Linux Advice

Post by Moonstone Man »

Termy wrote: Fri Jun 18, 2021 1:24 pm This works well for me, but YMMV.
You just responded to a post that could lead to bad advice. Unless a personal preference is explicitly asked for, personal preference should either never be part of any advice, or if it is, it should be called out as such and made clear that it's personal preference, with the alternatives to it also called out with pros and cons.

There are several other scenarios that result in bad advice. One is wild guesses in the absence of any evidence whatsoever. Another is the failure of the responder to a technical question to check their assumptions by asking questions. Yet another is a 'I'm just trying to help' mentality where irrelevant ideas are pumped out at random.

Those focus on the person giving answers, but a lot of responsibility falls on the asker too. There is a major tendency to be more vague than a homeopathic soup made from the boiled down entrails of a dead-for-years sparrow. We can't read minds, and the vagueness of some requests amounting to pages of screed and ancient history, starting when the asker was a nipper, going through every machine they've ever glanced at sideways but saying nothing other than 'it doesn't work' are commonplace. Part of the problem here is that people don't know how to ask for technical assistance.

The worst advice, in my opinion, is from those who offer advice but can't solve their own technical problems. Usually this type of person will just offer a link without any comment. Presumably the person given the link is to read its content and come to the very same conclusion that the link offerer came to. Again, this is unchecked assumptions gone mad.
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Re: The Worst Linux Advice

Post by jimallyn »

Absolutely the worst Linux advice one could get is "don't try it, stick to Windows."
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Re: The Worst Linux Advice

Post by Hoser Rob »

Not 100% sure but I think the worst advice I ever acted upon was installing the Unity DE version of Ubuntu the 1st time I installed Linux. Definitely the biggest mistake though. Many may not realize that the reason Mint got so popular all of a sudden was that many Ubuntuers hated Unity so much they went for Mint Cinnamon instead. Before Mint was just one of many teeny Ubuntu derivatives.

Hard to pick the worst bit I've heard but I'll give it a go.

"In Linux you can do anything you want". That's only true in that if you have the right password the OS will assume you know exactly what you're doing and allow it. That doesn't mean it'll work.

"You can run your Windows programs in Wine". Or POL etc which are all wine based. WIne is a ridiculous idea and fails most of the time.

Can't think of anything else right now.
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Re: The Worst Linux Advice

Post by motoryzen »

@Hoser Rob
WIne is a ridiculous idea and fails most of the time
I have to disagree there.

I recently fired up Battle.net launcher so I could go back to playing some campaign of Starcraft II. The launcher window launched but everything was black. So I searched for answers online. An old post mentioned dxvk. So I right clicked while inside the actual folder of the .exe launcher, open with terminal, typed " winetricks", selected "select default wine prefix" and chose to install dxvk after scrolling down a bit to find it".

Immediately the very next try, Battlenet launcher worked as it should. I thought I had already installed dxvk, but apparently I got side tracked from when I installed the battlenet launcher from Lutris website with dealing with something else before actually launching it the first time a while back.

Now, obviously your adobe products, MS Flight Simular, Valorant tech required games like League of Legends and Anticheat required games won't yet work in Linux, as well as Corel WordPerfect ( I've heard this depends on the individual version), but now more than ever more stuff does work in wine these days. It's slowly getting better and better.
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Re: The Worst Linux Advice

Post by RollyShed »

Hoser Rob wrote: Sat Jun 19, 2021 8:43 am"You can run your Windows programs in Wine". Or POL etc which are all wine based. WIne is a ridiculous idea and fails most of the time.
As I mentioned recently on another thread, WINE saved the day running an .exe to make a file that fixed a dead Panasonic DVD radio unit.
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Re: The Worst Linux Advice

Post by Moonstone Man »

motoryzen wrote: Sat Jun 19, 2021 9:30 am @Hoser Rob
WIne is a ridiculous idea and fails most of the time
I have to disagree there.
Whereupon you proceeded to prove him right.
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Re: The Worst Linux Advice

Post by Hoser Rob »

motoryzen wrote: Sat Jun 19, 2021 9:30 am @Hoser Rob
WIne is a ridiculous idea and fails most of the time
I have to disagree there. ...

... Now, obviously your adobe products, MS Flight Simular, Valorant tech required games like League of Legends and Anticheat required games won't yet work in Linux, as well as Corel WordPerfect ( I've heard this depends on the individual version), but now more than ever more stuff does work in wine these days. It's slowly getting better and better.
'Yet"??? Try "never". Just look at the Wine app comaptibility database and see how well it works. BTW anything rated less than Gold won't run properly.

'Slowly' getting better than ever? I used to read that on Linux forums about 10 years ago.

It's a stupid hack that's just never going to work the way newbies think it will.
For every complex problem there is an answer that is clear, simple, and wrong - H. L. Mencken
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