My 6 WORST LINUX MISTAKES

hey everyone this is nick and i can safely say that i do not know everything there is to know about linux i've been using it since 2006 and along the way i've made a ton of mistakes that really hampered my growth and progress and learning experience with linux some of these are personal and might not seem like mistakes to you some others you probably made yourself and some others i still regret to this day so don't hesitate to let me know in the comments if you made any specific mistakes with linux and what these mistakes are but first let's take a look at everything i did wrong and everything i could have done better what was definitely not a mistake though was speaking today's sponsor tux care this video is sponsored by tuxcare but this time i'm not going to talk about their services to handle and manage your linux server fleet this time they are giving you access to an independent study by idc peerscape that analyzes if when and how to implement open source solutions alongside 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dust on pixi's wings right you you do see the the pixies as well right so when i started using linux it was on an old refurbished laptop that didn't have wi-fi or an ethernet port i was living at my parents house and their router didn't have wi-fi either so i ordered a cd from canonical got ubuntu 6.06 that per drake and installed it on my laptop without access to the internet it did have a 56k modem though although at that point even my technology hating parents had moved on to dsl and let me tell you using linux without an internet connection almost made me drop it immediately see i needed some drivers and so i had to download packages from the repos manually and copy them to a usb key transfer them to the laptop copy them there install them only for dpkg to tell me that dependencies were missing and so i went downloading dependencies and more dependencies for these dependencies again and again until i finally had all the packages i needed pure nightmare and the same went for installing packages from the repos at the time no app images no flat packs no snaps you had to use the repos or download an archive and compile it which also needed dependencies so installing anything was just a pain and i promptly concluded that linux sucked because at least on windows you could download installers and use them offline fortunately i bugged my parents enough so they bought the pcmcia card expansion for the router to get wi-fi and i got myself a usb dongle for wi-fi on my laptop which also needed me to use packages downloaded offline to use endis wrapper and the windows driver to make it work but that's another story in the end with wifi the experience was much much better and that made me stick to linux even though my connection speed was about 300 kilobits per second so yeah using linux without an internet connection big mistake it's completely unusable might be easier nowadays but not by much now of course it's not something that most people will run into nowadays because well everybody has the internet mostly second mistake i took way too long to correct was not setting up a separate slash home partition most of you probably already do and if you don't you probably should have see you can reinstall a whole other linux distro and reuse that exact same slash home partition to keep all your settings files configurations and more and avoid losing hours setting everything up again at the time ubuntu didn't do that out of the box and since i almost exclusively used ubuntu until 2013 yet another mistake i'll talk about next i never got that separate partition except i was using the betas all the time and my system broke all the time needing me to reinstall very often because i didn't know my way around the command line well enough to fix my problems so i had to think about what i needed to backup copy everything to a usb drive or hard drive copy it back set up everything again after each reinstall and realize i had forgotten half of my stuff after my music collection and so i had to rip my cd collection again and again i must have done it about 20 times yeah i just do not learn nowadays distros generally also don't default to a separate slash home partition which is a mistake in my opinion it should absolutely be the default because even if you supply a backup tool or restore tool you know that most people just don't do regular backups and they are going to lose some stuff when distro hopping or when they ultimately follow the wrong guide online and break their systems speaking of distro hopping that's another mistake i made i did not distro hop enough when i started using linux this might seem weird and maybe not a mistake but the diversity of linux distros and what they offer is undeniably the greatest strength of our ecosystem granted it can also be a weakness but it's mostly a strength i was way too comfortable with my ubuntu debian packages aptitude then apt-get then just appt gnome then unity and i just didn't really experience all the breadth of tools and systems we could use i'm a man of habit and also i was too scared to change anything and also i was lazy which i still am mostly dystro hopping is how you learn about all the various things you can do on linux it's how you try other desktop environments unless you want to clutter your existing install with hundreds of apps from different toolkits and it's also how you learn what the differences are what the advantages of each distro each system are not distro hopping sooner meant that i just didn't learn anything new while using linux for a long time i didn't learn about rpms and dnf i didn't learn much about xfce or even kde although i did use it a bit on kubuntu i didn't learn what gen 2 was what arch was what open souza brought to the table i just stuck in my corner and professed that ubuntu worked better except that i couldn't know that until i tried something else which i finally ended up doing after i caught the distro hopping fever and reinstalled my system about 20 times in the length of a few months like be honest we all caught that virus at some point or another had i not waited several years to do that i might have started this channel a lot sooner or at least i might have been more proficient with linux's underlying systems and tools in the same vein i also put off trying out new projects for a long time flat pack wayland image based operating systems like silver blue gnome extensions i used to stay safe in my little comfort zone and i judged everything else by the standards of what someone else had written online welland it's not ready it will never be flatback it wastes space it's just inefficient just use regular packages image-based operating systems why would i want to use something so limiting oh to be young and so wrong when i started the channel i decided not to limit myself to what i already knew so i tried it all well maybe not all but a lot of things and that changed my perception of most projects i was sneering at before after using weyland for a while i wouldn't go back to x11 if i can avoid it all the benefits it brings are just amazing flat packs are now my main way of getting software when i swore by good old packages before for no well-explained reason and while i wouldn't use an image-based os on my main computer because i do tinker too much on my system i actually really love the benefits it brings to my steam deck for example yeah i got a steam deck but it was before it was cool and every poser had one there is nothing better to learn something new than looking online to try and find a justification for your fast five years of disdain for that thing really another mistake that might be more personal is dual booting for too long yeah that is definitely a mistake in my opinion i kept a window system on my devices for a long long while up until i started this channel actually in 2018 i used windows as a crutch when something didn't work immediately on linux i just rebooted on windows i did the thing and then i stuck to windows for the day because rebooting was annoying and then the next day i still used windows because i knew i had something to do that i already knew how to do on windows and so i didn't learn how to do a lot of things on linux even though it would have saved me time in the end now don't get me wrong dual booting isn't bad at all i think it's actually really really good when you get started with linux but once you get your bearings and linux works for you i think you should get rid of windows having that windows crutch just slowed me down instead of taking the time to adapt to another system to another way of doing things to the things i could or couldn't do i just knew i had a system i already knew that i could do whatever i wanted in until i took the plunge for this channel trying to experiment with using linux only which i did and i still do none of my computers have a windows partition anymore do i miss anything no i can do everything i need on linux i've been working at a day job and running this channel exclusively on linux for the past four years if there's a game that i want to play but isn't compatible i just accept that i can't play it i don't need to play everything or i just play it on my xbox if it's there if there's a program that doesn't work on linux i use an alternative and i learned how to use that and in the end i learned much more than if i had stuck to windows and used the same thing that i already knew how to do and also my os doesn't spy on me or tell me which browser i should use i'm the one doing that to other people now another big mistake i made back in the day was avoiding the command line like actively avoiding using it i felt it was hacky and dangerous and that it would destroy everything on my system which you absolutely can do on linux using the command line linux provides many many foot guns and my foot is riddled with holes and okay i'm a strong proponent for graphical user interfaces nowadays most if not all linux distros can be used without using the command line at all you just need to find and download the right program and you'll do everything you want whether it's editing a config file changing some hidden options transcoding a file reinstalling your system whatever you can do it all using a gui but that doesn't mean i should have shied away from the command line it's a wonderfully powerful tool to get things done updating your software repos and installing multiple apps at once is just more convenient from the command line fixing an error is also way faster this way or transcoding a video using ffmpeg although yeah that's only if you already know of ffmpeg's various multiple command line options which are going to take you a lifetime to master so that's probably not the best example the command line is in most cases faster and easier to use than navigating a software store finding the right graphical app installing it and then enabling the right setting or option so don't fear the terminal it's your friend it might look intimidating but if you dive in it's really really going to make your life a lot simpler if you want to and think of all the looks of envy you're gonna get when you're hacking away at a full screen terminal although maybe do not do that on a plane or an airport because you're gonna freak people out and of course i made a ton more mistakes reinstalling windows after installing linux and having to reinstall grub from a ch route wiping out the wrong disk when using dd also short for this destroyer wiping out my whole disk by mistyping a command breaking all the dependencies on my system by forcefully installing the wrong package from stupid ppa or not installing linux on my mom's computer sooner so the tech support would have been kept to a minimum or using arch or chrome sorry i couldn't resist we all make a ton of mistakes but most of the time they're also learning opportunities mine taught me why i prefer linux over everything else and in the end i also learned a lot more things about various programs how to use them where to find them and how to fix errors but now what about you what did you do what horrible horrible things did you do to your linux systems when you got started let me know down there in the comments and let's not forget about the worst mistake you could make not checking out today's sponsor tuxedo tuxedo is a company based in germany they make laptops and desktops running linux out of the box you can pick from a big selection of popular distros when you configure your own device or you can install your own afterwards and get access to all the things you need from tuxedos repos to actually make everything work perfectly so when you buy a device from tuxedo you know that everything is just going to run well with linux which is cool they have a huge range from small ultrabooks to high-end mega monster gaming pcs and laptops like the solaris 15 in the back that i just reviewed on the channel and they also have desktops nugs whatever with a ton of configuration options and a ton of keyboard layouts and they also ship worldwide and they can engrave your laptop with your own graphics or logo if you want which is freaking amazing so if you need a new device and you want to make sure you buy something that supports linux development and that also will run well with linux click the link in the description below and get yourself a new device from tuxedo so thanks everyone for watching the video i hope you enjoyed it if you did don't hesitate to like to subscribe to turn on notifications to write a comment and if you didn't like it well dislike it and tell me why in the comments as well and if you really enjoy what i'm doing on this channel you can also support me by clicking on the super thanks button under the video by clicking on the paypal link in the description or just by joining my patreon subscribers or youtube members both get access to a weekly podcast and the right to vote on the next topics.com so thanks everyone for watching and i guess you'll see me in the next one bye [Music] [Music] you

Channel: The Linux Experiment

Views: 151,890

Keywords: linux, elementary os, open source, distribution, linux distro, linux help, linux 2021, linux tutorial, linux 2022, mistake linux, linux mistakes, worst linux mistake, mistakes to avoid on linux, mistakes not to make linux, which mistakes to avoid on linux, mistakes beginners make using Linux, worst mistakes you can make linux, worst mistake, linux worst mistakes, linux bad mistakes, linux partition mistake, linux dual boot error, fix linux errors, how to fix linux

Id: RapJNczwP7k

Length: 16min 28sec (988 seconds)

Published: Tue Jun 28 2022