How do you guys know so much about linux?

[tadaensylvermane]

For me while I make no claims about being any type of expert, every bit of knowledge I have stems from curiosity. I started messing with open source because of a passing interest. Didn't take long for me to fall deep in the rabbit hole. Since then I've had difficulties like any other person. I've gone to forums, a ton of google searching and gradually built up a decent personal knowledge base. This is going on 10 years now. ChatGPT has made searching for solutions much quicker in many cases just because I don't have to read through pages of results to hopefully find what I need. 9 times out of 10 it does that part for me and just gives me an answer.

I still hit walls sometimes when I'm trying something new, but as I've learned a ton already I can start at a deeper point in the problem than "how do i edit this file as root?"

It's like anything really. The more you do it, use it, the better you get at it. In this case while the general answer for Windows is "just reinstall" with Linux it can usually be fixed outside of really big screw ups like uninstalling python or running chmod 777 recursively on the main root directory among a few others.

[Lady Fitzgerald]

the phrase 'trial and error' comes to mind

yeah! In my case, mostly error.

[MurphCID]

...Get an old computer that you don't mind breaking as a test bed, and just install Linux distributions...

That's the best advice in this thread so far! It's the advice I got from a Joe Collins video when I first started out.

Thank you. It has worked for me so far.

[Hoser Rob]

...Get an old computer that you don't mind breaking as a test bed, and just install Linux distributions...

That's the best advice in this thread so far! It's the advice I got from a Joe Collins video when I first started out.

Thank you. It has worked for me so far.

Yes, messing around should be done either on a spare computer or in a VM. Old and still great advice.

[MurphCID]

That's the best advice in this thread so far! It's the advice I got from a Joe Collins video when I first started out.

Thank you. It has worked for me so far.

Yes, messing around should be done either on a spare computer or in a VM. Old and still great advice.

And it makes you learn by discovering that the WiFi card is not working, or something else is not working. OR in some cases, everything just works and you can pound on it till you break it, and then re-install.