I've been using Linux recently and the smugness it makes me feel is divine. You guys raved about everything except the smugness. You should lead with that next time you sell it to the mainstream
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You can literally run Xwindows apps from that linux instance and they will display on your screen like you're running an Xwindows manager. Any linux script/code/examples you encounter run immediately there.
WSL is truly a great tool and it's fully patched by MS. (I'm a linux guy professionally)
That's nice, but approximately 90% of Windows users clicked away when they saw the words "powershell prompt," their avoidance triggered by the same instinct that prevented our ancestors from eating brightly-colored bugs. The rest of us thought, "oh great, I bet that's a whole thing I have to learn."
Now make it run on less hardware ;) Just kidding, nice setup! I wanted to get started with OpenShift, and installed crc / OpenShift Local (on Win11.. yes, I know) in order to try learn about the platform. Thing is it does take a lot of memory. Am I following a good route in getting started?
For context, I’ve been a full stack software dev for many years. Do have Linux experience but from ages ago, even begin Fedora was around. But it was all in my spare time as a hobby as a kid. Doing Java and .NET we usually never had direct access to prod, unless for smaller projects on IIS/Tomcat
I played around with “cloud” or SOA architectures back in 2010 before moving to Azure in 2012, but the whole point of cloud was to remove the need to do the ops. I find these days, the job market is filled more with DevOps but with ops being the focus. I’ve seen a lot of OpenShift requirements, so
I’ve started to try get more into Kubernetes these days. Being focused in Azure, I’ve not had exposure to OpenShift. Decided to start exposing myself. Any tips or advice welcome :)
One question I had myself was, what would make me choose OpenShift versus using AKS and other Azure services. I know there’s also OpenShift on Azure. Looking to learn
Many of us fought hard to combat the smugness we once took part in ourselves to make Linux culture less toxic. That is why WE DO NOT TALK ABOUT THE SMUGNESS as an advantage. Flying over the waters while at the very least pretending to be humble is what we try these days. But there might better ways?
Maybe it’s also more who is smug? Linux was so full of white (and some Asian) men and the smugness wasn’t a good match with that. Doesn’t hurt if black women are smug about Linux.
Fellow Linux convert. The smugness is so true. An OS that acts like a base frame for you to do other things, it runs on nearly anything and basically free?
Even that's a toe dipped in. After that you have zfs, ceph, and more to discover. My home system is this... Which has two 10G and one 1G to each node, one for data, one for ceph, and one for clusters integrity. Plus 40G into a TrueNAS storage system.
But do play with a single node Prox system. Containers are security in more ways than one, including scheduled regular incremental backups and rollbacks and with LXC they work more or less like virtual machines without the insane complexity of K4S/K8S or Docker setups.
Gah stop it! I've barely setup my home NAS and you've made me skip down a full network server config rabbit warren. I'm not even doing rsync properly, must not get side tracked with sourcing server racks on eBay.
I used Linux back in the day when you downloaded it onto 25 floppies and it took literally overnight to compile, only to find it failed partway through. So finally getting it running gave me such a smugness high!
It's free, so there's no need to "sell" it. 😊 Yes I fel the smugness also. I've been using Linux for many years now. I wouldn't have any miscro$oft on my computer. Welcome to the fold.
I’ve been running it on servers for decades, but every time I try it as a desktop OS I spend more time fiddling with things than actually getting work done. 😒
For me it was the same.
Linux server for 25 years.
Compiling kernels and even complete LAMP stacks.
Every other year I installed a desktop distribution just to switch back.
And then I installed Mint last summer. Everything worked out of the box and it just felt like coming home.
We've all been using Linux for FAR longer than most people realize. Most of the interfaces you see on TVs, radios, kiosks, and other things like that run Linux. Also some 90% of web sites run from a Linux server.
How's that for smug?
from a tiny, $8 arm-based daughter card in a consumer TV, through most of the phones in the world, up to the worlds fastest supercomputer all essentially run one OS.
I ran with IIS ASP for years, putting up with the constant need to pause/restart the www service or reboot. Since biting the bullet and recoding to PHP (a pleasantly simple process) after switching to Apache, it's almost forgettable :)
"my computer installed an update I didn't want and changed my programs and installed some I can't get rid of"
Oh really? Back when I was using arch I had to remind myself to check for updates and if they annoyed me or guy crashy I'd just roll it back to my last stable version.
Long term linux user. I bought a Raspberry Pi 500 for my 72nd birthday this year. It's everything my previous linux boxes were evolving towards from the viewpoint of someone who now only needs to browse, write and play.
Also, if you want to be really smug and a complete dick about it, try running Arch Linux, and then just tell people "I use Arch, btw", at every opportunity.
but welcome. Hope it finds you well. Also note: Linux is better from a technical standpoint(better hardware support), but FreeBSD has the chillest user community
My trick to enjance the feeling is to find a distro that everyone says is for advanced users and get a user-friendly version, then you lie to everyone about which one you have. Ex: running EndeavourOS and telling people you're using Arch (What I'm doing) :,)
I'd say arch isn't that intimidating but I did a live install from a ram disk to another partition like a decade and a half ago and over time completely forgot how any of that worked because rolling updates meant I never needed to install a new version again.
I really wanted to learn linux, but I didn't like ubuntu and I saw a lot of people mention "don't get Arch if you're new" and my brain went like *don't mind if I do-*
I tried out pinguy and then regular Ubuntu, mint, kubuntu, opensuse, then found arch and the whole "why remove the programs you don't like, just as the ones you do" ethos plus rolling updates is a winner.
What do you look for in a distro? What makes one good and what makes one bad in your opinion? Bc imma be honest, rn I only really care about the package managers and the window managers and I feel like I'm missing criterias
I went from C64 to Amiga, and I held on my last Amiga 4000* strenuously until I could jump straight to Linux, skipping the M$/Apple nonsense, just for the smugness of it. Cheers!😎🥂
* Still in my garage, I turn it on from time to time and play some solid old game, so smug.
Apple was White collar, Ivy League smugness, the Porche 911 aficionado, the Blue Blood Brahmin.
Linux was the True Nerds smugness, The HomeBrewers, the Renegades..
Very different!
Few things will give you as much instant credibility as running Linux on a Mac. You must seize the opportunity and hang around in some tech place and casually boot up the machine so others can notice it.
Really? That's all I ever hear about; the smugness. Or maybe it just comes through in the statements. Personally, I need it to run my programs and not be hard to sort. *not a super computer person, just dated a few*
The story goes: "When she got started with the cheatsheets, she got lost in the ether of a world that she didn't know existed, and then after ,the dead silence started 🤐."
Great to hear about having a blast using Linux! It really is true that the Linux community has been humble to the point of fault. I think the lack of confidence is really hurting the community members at parties.
I've briefly dabbled, but never gone full in (Tried Ubuntu briefly, and another one). At some stage around 2026, I will be in the market for a new PC, Laptop, and will also be getting myself a slice of Raspberry Pi... see how I get on with it.
Ubuntu would probably be the easiest to start off with. Lots of youtube videos and articles. Also if you have windows programs you must use, there is an app called Wine that should get it to run on Linux.
Kinda just looking up where to get started after picking what route you want to go, I like suggesting people start with EndeavourOS (which is based on Arch) and then looking up more specific tutorials when you find things you don't yet know how to do.
If you have an old laptop lying around, which many people do, try putting Linux on that so that you play around with it: load programs, try doing some email, etc. The only catch is that sometimes, Linux doesn't have all the hardware drivers you need, but *ask people here* and they will help you.
If you don't have a spare laptop to play with, then you can do a "live preview" where you run Linux off a USB stick. That's also how you'd install it onto that spare laptop you might or might not have.
Here are instructions for Mint. It's a kind of Linux that looks very similar to Windows (and if you don't like that one, there are other options): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RBC72byLDAA
There are loads of how-to videos for Linux. Folks on Bluesky and esp Mastodon are really happy to answer questions and help out people who are new (which I still sort of am myself). Stay away from dedicated discussion boards. They tend to be pretty cold to new users. It's don't get why. It's weird.
I used matrix colors when I was younger, first because green on black was the only option, then because of the Matrix. Now they just hurt my eyes, and I just use dark mode everything.
Aliases are one of these basic knowledge everyone should know. Instead of "sudo pacman -Syu --noconfirm" I just type "a" (in Spanish, to update is actualizar). Same with v for neovim, y for yazi, etc.
I've been using Linux since 2011. It's a great OS with a build to fit any need, but the geniuses behind it have never quite caught on that it needs to be easy for the non-technical user.
Linux is just the kernel, GNU/Linux is the OS layer, Gnome is the desktop environment. Decoupling allows hundreds and thousands of different projects working in this open world.
Mainstream linux distributions do come with Gnome and KDE.
Most Linux systems do install GNOME by default. When they don't, you can still install it from the package manager. Most of us have moved on from GNOME though, because it is much worse than it used to be. KDE is far superior.
I use Linux, but with Xfce4 rather than Gnome. With Arch, the very bare minimum comes installed. I usually have to set up a wifi package and configure audio, and again it's up to me which I pick. At first it was overwhelming, but I've mostly found what works for me. Every machine is a bit different.
Arch is getting too popular. If you want a big dose a smugness, NixOS is where it's at. Instant nerd points to anyone using NixOS as their daily driver.
Real talk tho NixOs is really usable as a daily driver. I prefer Arch ofc (arch btw) but it works!
Arch is getting popular cause of stuff like Manjaro (yuck) or Garuda (for tru3 gam3rz) or EndeavorOS. Also Archwiki is way too good and steamdeck is also arch...
How doesn't like container? If you wanna appear extra smug you can always talk about why "systemd Is sO bAd"
Voidlinux is also an option or just say fuck it and go with LFS and take 8 hours to compile Firefox.
Dell have partnered with Ubuntu before.
Smugness did not come to mind when i started using it - i did it as a learning tool and found it to be easy.
I find Macintosh people very Smug about their Mac's and iPhone. I worked in IT for 30 years and definitely saw that "smugness" from "Mac" users.
There is a lot to be smug
about. I’m basically a humble person, so I don’t have time for it. And the hating over different distros is particularly pointless. Pick one, install, sit back and relax!
If we mention the smugness, we get shouted down. We just savour it every time we come across some dumb thing that's there because someone made an honest mistake, not because the ecosystem is trying to force you down a path you don't want to be on. Go the Penguin!
That is indeed the sweet nectar underlying it all when you sit in your basement rebuilding your kernel for no good reason for the umpteenth time using gcc. the pure unadultered smugness of it all.
I tried to install Docker on my windows PC, and it wanted to install wsl2 (basically linux), then gave up because I already had Ubuntu in dual-boot. The smugness continues into the other realm.
People already project smugness onto me, and I feel it distracts from the more tangible big picture benefits. I can understand feeling a sense of superiority for making a significantly better choice than the average consumer, but mostly I feel gratitude to the countless volunteers who make it work.
As a systems engineer I have so wanted to use Linux, and have installed it on some VMs and even a laptop, but the frustration I have with all versions act like they're an Enterprise server drives me nuts, they need to fix admin elevation in the GUI for workstation, until then I'm out
Try Slackware. Smugness on a whole new level. Think installing device drivers from the command line and sometimes writing them because they don't exist. Think no GUI coming as default and having to compile it. No package manager that works and writing your own ETH scripts and startup level scripts.🤪
I’ve been an IT person my entire carrier. Linux has his usefulness, but it is not a mainstream solution. Most people would not be able to be comfortable with Linux.
I first tried Linux around 2010 or so and thought it was neat, but still preferred Windows to it at the time. I've been dabbling with it this past year though since I refuse to go to Windows 11, and some distros and desktop environments seem tailor made to appeal to longtime Windows users.
I feel like I could get my parents and grandma onto Linux Mint, and by and large they'd have no issue with it because it does everything they usually use a computer for with ease. It really doesn't feel all that different than Windows.
I am having one problem though: When I start the laptop the Caps key is lit and when the desktop appears there is no mouse. I have to do a hard reboot and then the Caps doesn't lite up and the mouse works. I did a complete re-install but the same happens. Mystery.
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a) go to a powershell prompt
b) type "wsl --install"
After a while you should have an Ubuntu icon available, and you will be able to do any linux 'thing' or example or run/write any linux-specific code.
WSL is truly a great tool and it's fully patched by MS. (I'm a linux guy professionally)
Then I waited,
and waited,
& waited...
pro *nix
to
anti smug
pipeline
In RedHat 1, you had to live-compile the kernal by hand for updates.
if astronomical smugness, buy pinephone or actual linux phone.
/j
Repeat.
In other words, reboot as often as possible for good sex.
Linux server for 25 years.
Compiling kernels and even complete LAMP stacks.
Every other year I installed a desktop distribution just to switch back.
And then I installed Mint last summer. Everything worked out of the box and it just felt like coming home.
How's that for smug?
from a tiny, $8 arm-based daughter card in a consumer TV, through most of the phones in the world, up to the worlds fastest supercomputer all essentially run one OS.
Time to 'wsl --install', folks ;)
That said, and I know OP was mocking it, I hate Linux smugness lol.
Oh really? Back when I was using arch I had to remind myself to check for updates and if they annoyed me or guy crashy I'd just roll it back to my last stable version.
Many Times.
That's a joke, not actually recommended.
Then I found endeavour and I was kicking my feet
Also put puppy and then bodhi on a netbook for gf
An OS is just a tool.
* Still in my garage, I turn it on from time to time and play some solid old game, so smug.
Linux was the True Nerds smugness, The HomeBrewers, the Renegades..
Very different!
As a 30 year veteran, it gets better and better.
I am now the master of the universe. HAHAHAHAHA
😎
Very amusing though that this effortlessly gets around the whole "proctor can see your screen" anticheat concept.
You can see what THAT os thinks is my whole screen, sure.
Feels more cozy than green to me
Though if there's a little Gentoo in the neighborhood, I'm afraid he can't play with him.
1: It makes you extremely smug
2: You can make it look like windows 98/2000
When would you ever want a program half covered?
Gnome, KDE exists
As a Vim user, I praise the terminal
Mainstream linux distributions do come with Gnome and KDE.
Arch is getting popular cause of stuff like Manjaro (yuck) or Garuda (for tru3 gam3rz) or EndeavorOS. Also Archwiki is way too good and steamdeck is also arch...
Voidlinux is also an option or just say fuck it and go with LFS and take 8 hours to compile Firefox.
Smugness did not come to mind when i started using it - i did it as a learning tool and found it to be easy.
I find Macintosh people very Smug about their Mac's and iPhone. I worked in IT for 30 years and definitely saw that "smugness" from "Mac" users.
https://www.linuxfromscratch.org/lfs/
about. I’m basically a humble person, so I don’t have time for it. And the hating over different distros is particularly pointless. Pick one, install, sit back and relax!
How do you know if someone uses Arch? Don't worry, they'll tell you ;D
afaik license (which made it possible)
say's you can try that
but
i wont be because ...
https://bsky.app/profile/victoriaduncan.bsky.social/post/3lkbrt3nrs22l
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hjjydz40rNI
Don't even get me started on my Emacs smugness.
I did not know that was a feature. Luckily for me, the Linux users I know don't get smug at me.