5 Common Mistakes New Linux Users Often Make

[Music] [Music] hello again everyone and welcome back to learn Linux TV if you're a brand new Linux user there's all kinds of things that you need to learn and it could get fairly overwhelming and the thing is there's also some things that you'll run into most commonly that might trip you up so in this video what I'm going to do is help out all the new Linux users out there by going over five things that new Linux users usually run into or five things that you should watch out for and I know just starting out with a brand new platform especially Linux can be a bit overwhelming well keep in mind you have this channel to help you out so if you haven't already subscribed to learn Linux TV then you should definitely do so because this is your home for Linux related fun and learning and teaching you guys about Linux is literally what I do now with all of that out of the way let's Dive In and go over the five things that I think new users should watch out for starting with number one and the first mistake that new Linux users often make at no fault of theirs is that often they'll use too old of a kernel version now Linux differs from other Platforms in that the drivers for Hardware are included right in the kernel itself that's pretty cool actually because that means Linux itself has drivers to well run just about anything the problem with this is that if you use too old of a kernel version then it's not going to know about Hardware that came out in the future so if you have a brand new motherboard a brand new video card but an older kernel then the kernel has no way of knowing that those pieces of Hardware exist and obviously won't have drivers for them so one of the symptoms of this is a piece of Hardware might not be operational at all for example a network card might not be visible so it looks like you don't have a network card even when you do some weird Hardware related Shenanigans will happen when you use two old of a kernel version and the interesting thing about this is that it's not like the new Linux user made a conscious decision about which kernel to have on their Linux distribution that decision was made by the Linux distribution so here we have an issue that Linux users might run into and it's literally of no fault of theirs they didn't choose the kernel version they didn't choose the hardware support level they just chose a distribution so ultimately this is a distribution problem some times Linux distributions will ship with older Linux kernels thinking that it makes the distribution more stable which has never been true and a result of that is the kernel that they offer as part of the distribution is so old it doesn't work with newer hardware for example maybe you install the latest version of Debian and it's the most current version but it doesn't support your video card your motherboard or something like that maybe your sound card and maybe those things would have worked on any other distribution but they don't work on the one that you've chosen because the kernel is too old that happens so if you do have a problem when it comes to Hardware support or things not being detected you could just try to use a different distribution which will have a different kernel version and you can look at the kernel version on kernel.org if you're curious what's the most current and then see if that solves your problem this is something that I think most new Linux users will run into so I figured I would add it to the list continuing the second thing that I'd like to bring up is probably obvious if you've been using Linux for a little while but if you're just starting out you might not be aware of this and that is that you should not run as root all the time the root user is essentially the most important user on a Linux system because root can do anything for example if you want to install a package with no password no problem if you're running under the root account you won't be asked for a password it'll go ahead and do it the thing is the root account has more privileges on the system than any other user so if you accidentally type an RM command for example and you don't craft it properly and you end up removing your entire file system well you can do that if you're running his root you won't even get a password prompt and the reason why this is such an issue is because an assumption is being made within the Linux community and especially within distributions and that assumption is if you're using the root account you're doing so because you know what you're doing and that's why the root account doesn't ask any questions it doesn't get in your way it doesn't stop you although there are some exceptions to that with the way that some distributions have been designed more often than not root will let you do everything for better or worse and the worse is potentially an on bootable system so don't run his root all the time instead use sudu and again this is probably common knowledge for many of you so I don't want to spend too much time on this in fact I have an entire video that covers sudu if you want to learn it but regardless of what other Linux admins are doing out there don't run his root all the time create a normal user for yourself that's the best way to do it and that's the way that you should do it so create a user for yourself and stop using route unless you absolutely have to now the third mistake that new Linux users often make and this is somewhat surprising to me is that they'll install a Linux Distribution on their computer as the only operating system without testing compatibility first now here's the thing I'm not trying to be judgmental here but you should never ever ever install any operating system unless you verified compatibility first you definitely don't want to install an operating system get it installed and find out that nothing works and you've already blown out your main operating system on that hard drive replaced it with Linux and by doing that you've basically handicapped yourself because now you can't do certain things because you didn't test compatibility first now what makes this interesting to me is that most distributions offer live mode what live mode allows you to do is demo a Linux distribution before installing it so you could test your Wi-Fi card your video card for example you can plug in an external monitor make sure that works make sure you can get online your your sound card works you can check all of that before you install it if any of those things don't work you should not install it find out why it doesn't work and when you have a general idea why and what to do about it then you can proceed with the installation but do not install Linux without testing compatibility first now by telling you guys there's a demo mode that lets you demo Linux before you install it you would think that this is a problem that no one has but still I find all the time on forums people posting messages like I installed Linux and I can't get online now how do I get online or how do I get my Wi-Fi card to work and I'm wondering did you not notice demo mode did you not notice Wi-Fi wasn't working before you installed Linux now I'm not trying to be judgmental I just honestly don't understand why that's so common it's a very common issue and that's why I always tell you guys to use live mode test compatibility first and then install Linux and you'll have a much better experience now it's time for number four another mistake that some Linux users make is they'll write off an application or command because it's difficult to learn for example they may not give Bim a try because it might be overwhelming to learn or they might not give the said command a try which would otherwise be very useful to them sorry to interrupt my own video but I just wanted to let you know that I appreciate each and every single one of you and I love creating Linux related content for you guys but unfortunately producing highquality Linux content like this isn't cheap but if you want to help me make even more content for you guys then consider supporting learn Linux TV TV and a great way to do that is to check out the official shop for learn Linux TV which was just recently updated inside the shop you'll find Dr themed shirts bags drink wear and more and there's some other surprises there as well for example I've just introduced a mouse pad that doubles as a t-mo cheat sheet how cool is that so check out the shop at merch.ly dotv or you can check out the merch shelf right here on YouTube you could get yourself something really cool and support Linux learning at the same time so it's a win-win anyway thank you guys so much for your support I really appreciate it now let's get back to the video so some commands might get written off just because of their difficulty level and I think the biggest reason why this is the case is that people assume that they have to learn everything I mean if you take a look at all the options for any one Linux command you might think like how does anyone remember all of these commands well the thing is nobody remembers these commands instead people remember the things that they use or the options that they use they write those down and that's what they use but they don't learn everything I don't think very many people have memorized the you know man Pages for every command or anything like that that's just not normal if somebody looks at a man page for Vim or rsync or any of these other commands that are you know more complicated they might get scared off there's just a lot to learn but the thing is again you don't have to learn everything you only need to learn the options that pertain to what you want to do and that's what you learn and that makes everything a lot easier and and even I had the same problem I didn't start using the said command until much later in my career because I thought it was overwhelming but when I realized I didn't have to learn everything I now use said pretty much weekly and sometimes daily it's a very useful command and it's one of the ones that I recommend that you learn but definitely don't write off a command because it's hard just learn the basics the very very very Basics low-level Basics and then I think you'll have a much easier time getting up to speed with that command now for mistake number five and that mistake is focusing on just one distribution now I get it there's all kinds of Linux distributions out there I mean we have Ubuntu Debian Centos I could go on there's a bunch of Linux distributions out there often what happens is people within the Linux Community will tell you and recommend that you pick a daily driver distribution and you stick to that one now I do agree with that to a point you should pick a daily driver Linux distribution absolutely but don't let that be your only distribution you should have at least a plan B distribution because maybe the distribution that you use as your daily driver is going to go a direction that you don't want to follow along with and changes happen all the time so if you don't want to go along with a distribution's decision you might be left with a choice stick with that distribution or learn another one from scratch but if you at least know the basics of another distribution and that becomes your plan B drro then I feel like that situation won't be as difficult in n navigate and if you work at a company even better because that way you'll be informed of multiple distributions you know the basics of multiple distributions that makes you more marketable but yes choose a daily driver but that does not mean that distribution should be the only one that you use it could be your main distribution but always have a backup plan in case something happens anyway in this video I've gone over five things that new Linux users often run into and I hope you find this content helpful the thing is there's definitely other things that you might run into as a new Linux user but I wanted to go over five of the most common things that I find in this video which is exactly what I've done but if you want to learn even more about Linux if you haven't already subscribed to learn Linux TV then definitely do so because I upload new Linux content every week anyway with that said there's our video I hope you enjoyed it and I'll see you in the next video thank you so much for [Music] watching [Music] [Music]

Channel: Learn Linux TV

Views: 106,770

Keywords: Linux, gnu/linux, LearnLinuxTV, Learn Linux TV, Linux Training, Linux Tutorials, Learning Linux, How to learn Linux, Five Mistakes, 5 mistakes, New Linux User, Linux for Beginners, Linux Advice, linux tutorial, linux for beginners, open source, linux tutorial for beginners, cloud computing, cloud computing basics, it careers with no experience, linux administrator, linux server tutorial, cloud computing explained, linux distributions, computer science, linux distros

Id: nY9dVJ2EnSk

Length: 11min 48sec (708 seconds)

Published: Tue Mar 12 2024