this post was submitted on 29 Aug 2025
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Linux
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From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Linux is a family of open source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991 by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically packaged in a Linux distribution (or distro for short).
Distributions include the Linux kernel and supporting system software and libraries, many of which are provided by the GNU Project. Many Linux distributions use the word "Linux" in their name, but the Free Software Foundation uses the name GNU/Linux to emphasize the importance of GNU software, causing some controversy.
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I have fucked up my computer so many times.
I have also succeeded with some really cool stuff, but that's the thing about working with computers; you fail completely, until it works perfectly. This is of course a gross simplification, but it also has a lot of truth to it. There's just not a lot "this is not great, but it will do", it either functions or it fails (until you get it working and start fine tuning it for the rest of you life)
Just laugh at the absurdity of the situation when you realize you were just missing a comma in a JSON file, and don't let it bother you that you didn't notice before you paid to have your second floor covered in aluminium foil trying to fix the issue.
Try creating a VM in GNOME Boxes (if you use GNOME) or Virt-manager, take a snapshot, so you can easily repeat this process, and break it. Just make it stop functioning. Do it in an interesting way, and look up more ways on the internet.
Be curious, have fun and don't feel bad about getting sick of that stupid computer, you can come back later and it won't care that you even left.
My personal favorite was the time I accidentally gave every file in the system full permissions because I fucked up somehow with writing a command and recursively changed them on EVERYTHING instead of just the one directory I wanted to change
I was just trying to get a game from Origin (I think?) to work and I don’t remember what lead me to trying this but basically I just had to reinstall Linux
Hahahahahahaha, you're a... tech "miracle"! For the 10 years with Linux I've never uninstalled the DE by accident or otherwise, or any of the other problems you mentioned. I have fucked up my computer only once but I did it on purpose - to see what will happen. I had already created a clonezilla backup of a working system, so I was free to experiment and... I decided to uninstall both kernels (rolling and LTS) and reboot. There was no kernel panic because there was no kernel to begin with. 😆