[Discussion] What do you wish you had known years ago?

[Uptorn]

Is there any tool or command or simpler/faster way of doing something that you wish you'd known about when starting out on Debian? Or when starting out on Linux, generally?

[Diesel330]

I wish I had tried Linux and Debian in particular when I learned about it in 2009 instead of 2019 when I actually started using it

[bbbhltz]

I have dropped money on fad tech a few times.

I got the first generation of EeePC, and then the second gen. Not complaining, but I ended up frying a motherboard on one and selling the other for next to nothing. If I had known, I wouldn't have even looked at them. Nice idea, but no for me.

I rushed around town on another occasion to find a new laptop in my price range. It was junk, but I got a few years out of it. I did need it, and quick, but I should have invested a little more.

Neither of those are as bad as my next purchase: a 2nd gen Chromebook. I didn't do my research and bought a model that, at the time, was incompatible with Linux. I used that for 4 years and made ALL of my many slides and documents on Google Docs. I'm a professor. Had I known that I would quit Gmail 4 years later and finally discover pandoc and start messing around with LaTeX as well to remake all of my presentations and documents...I wouldn't have bought that Chromebook.

Now I've had the same ThinkPad for...7 or 8 years? It turns on in a few seconds and the battery still lasts 9 hours, sometimes 10. If I had only gone to the thrift store and bought a second hand quality laptop I would have saved so much time and money.

Also, to be more on topic with this being a Debian forum, I probably never needed to distro hop. I always end up back on Debian stable. But I guess I learned a lot along the way.

[CwF]

My personal list, TL;DR

Off that list is one others should realize judging from the continuing post on the subject:
RAID DOESN'T HELP personal sized systems

[donald]

The absolute value of installing and using the Screen program. Even on home machines.

The screen program allows you to use multiple windows (virtual VT100 terminals) in Unix.

[thatguychuck]

Separating out my ssh configs into ~/.ssh/config.d/
My ~/.ssh/config file grew large and difficult to edit. You can make your ~/.ssh/config have only one line

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include config.d/*

Then you can create the config.d/ folder and then add as many different config files as you need, one for home, one for each different VPS provider, ect. Add whatever file sync program you like and have it everywhere.

[Uptorn]

I wish I had tried Linux and Debian in particular when I learned about it in 2009 instead of 2019 when I actually started using it

The ten years could have represented the difference between fumbling around and mastery. I have a very similar experience to yours, only a gap ranging from 2004-2014. I try not to think about how much more capable I might have become with computers if only I'd persisted trying to get Ubuntu onto my first ever computer.

[wizard10000]

Let's see...

* Fixing a broken machine is more difficult than not breaking it in the first place.

* Understand what you're doing before you do it, especially if you're running Other People's Code.

* Almost every issue you encounter on a computer can be resolved without reinstalling the OS.

* If you can put something back the way it was before you started messing with it you can hack at just about anything without fear.

* Take the time to develop and test a bulletproof backup strategy.

* Random blogs and YouTube tutorials are of questionable value. Get your help from your distribution's resources first.

[Uptorn]

Early on, I could have really benefited knowing the desktop environment =/= operating system, or at least that it's not so highly integrated that it cannot be swapped out for something else.

* Random blogs and YouTube tutorials are of questionable value. Get your help from your distribution's resources first.

They can even be detrimental since absolute beginners are often walked through complex processes without the tutorials taking the time to explain what is being done and why.

[pbear]

Have learned a lot of tricks over the years. One of which I'm particularly fond is configuring an alias to use the GUI text editor for config files. For short files, I'm fine with nano, but GUI is a lot easier for large files.

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echo "export SUDO_EDITOR='gedit -w'" | tee -a .bashrc ; echo "alias edit='sudoedit'" | tee -a .bashrc ; source .bashrc

To use is as simple as edit /path/to/file (will be prompted for password). Depending on desktop, may need to replace gedit, of course.

[dlu2021]

My main one would be not to be afraid of the terminal. After all it is the universal GUI of Linux. Lately when trying to do a task, I try to do it though the terminal commands first.

[Chaussettes]

Pasting

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FREETYPE_PROPERTIES="cff:no-stem-darkening=0 autofitter:no-stem-darkening=0"

into /etc/environment and rebooting results in crystal clear nearly mac-esque font rendering. I went for years staring at the default unconfigured freetype fonts and can never go back

[cds60601]

The Pan Galactic Gargle Blaster

[CwF]

Maybe instead of my long list of stuff I wish I knew then, that which organizes this list will be what I wish I knew then...the OP did include 'tools'
CherryTree! I love it. Using it since before it was accepted into Debian proper, now included, has become the most important element in keeping my mind organized. Sure there are many choices, and the choice should be personal, but 'note' and 'organizer' software continues to be a transient thing with short lives. Abandonware is a real concern for anybody in the game for longer than a decade or more.

[sinterva]

#Force english fallback
export LANGUAGE="nb_NO:nb:no_NO:no:en"

in my .bashrc makes it so that when my native norwegian is lacking for some reason it falls back to english and not to swedish or danish.
I understand them perfectly, but it is sort of a pride thing, I'd rather not have my workflow interrupted by my computer mistaking me for a swede or dane.

[jmgibson1981]

I wish I had known that learning programming when you are 42 is much harder than when you are a teenager. Instead I spent time playing games on the computer. I could be much further along if I had started learning back then.

[friendlysalmon88]

I wish that i had learned how to respect not only respect figures of authority not just in my immediate physical environment but also in my electronic life as well. Further I wish that while I was still in high-school that i had stuck with my guns and started using Linux and other Unix-Workalike operating systems.

[m4c-attack]

I regularly saw tutorials on using man to better understand system/user-installed packages, but it took the better part of a year to realize that man has a much wider scope and is typically the best (and quickest) reference for config files (ie: man freshclam.conf), explanations of Linux tools (ie: man systemd.timer), and sub-commands (ie: man systemd-analyze calendar).

Using it solely for packages is only a fraction of its power

[friendlysalmon88]

My main one would be not to be afraid of the terminal.

I agree, if I hadn't feared taking advantage of the terminal, my development as a Linux user would've progressed at a mildly faster clip.

[kent_dorfman766]

How ridiuclous the world would be in 2024. Had I known, I would have better prepaired to become an ex-pat, find a nice lakeside cottage in a small village at the base of the Andes, where I'd live simply, and have coffee on my porch every Thursday morning with the local Sheriff...and maybe spend my time painting the mountains.