I'm unplugged from the Windows Matrix, but now I'm a bit lost in the Real World

[Ted_Smith]

I am fortunate enough to be one of the not so many who experienced domestic computer use before the advent of Windows and can proudly say I was around and old enough to have my own MS-DOS 8086 PC in about 1992. I did not encounter UNIX\Linux until much later (2002). Like many people, I got swept up with the MS Windows age when it arrived a year or two later, and became what many normal folk would consider 'an expert' with computers.

When I first experienced Linux in about 2002, I realised how 'unexpertly' I really was. I flirted with Linux on and off until about a year ago when I encountered Ubuntu. I felt like I'd been unplugged from "the Matrix that is MS Windows" and that Mark Shuttleworth is Neo, and the community supporters are the band of merry men and women unplugged in 'the real world' trying to save all the poor dissillusioned types still hooked up to MS Windows. It was a real eye opener and an experience that so far has been very enjoyable. With the very rare exception I never use Windows domestically anymore.

What does concern me though, is the parrot like fashion in which I find myself 'copying and pasting this' and 'copying and pasting that' into terminals without really fully understanding a lot of it but not having the time to work it out (or memorise it). I wonder - are we inadvertently creating a new generation of people who don't use Windows, but likewise don't really understand how to use Linux either? A prime example is all the 'apt getting'. I kinda get it now, but I still don't really understand all the ins and outs, and I think it's only due to the frequency in which I have to "apt get" that I understand what I do. A lot of the time I find that I'm using scripts by people like TSElliot or using Automatix to get things resolved.

All you folks who know what you're doing - how did you find the time to learn it all?

Ted

[meng]

It's a combination of
(a) taking some time to think about what is been typed (or pasted) into the terminal; and
(b) number of repetitions
that aids learning. With the greater emphasis on (a).

[B0rsuk]

By the way, I heard the original Matrix movie displays actual Linux code. I didn't watch the movie, but look here:

http://www.insecure.org/nmap/nmap_inthenews.html

[mostwanted]

http://monkeyblog.org/ubuntu/installing/

Maybe this link explains apt? I like to think it does.

[Brunellus]

By the way, I heard the original Matrix movie displays actual Linux code. I didn't watch the movie, but look here:

http://www.insecure.org/nmap/nmap_inthenews.html
That's actually pretty neat.

To anyone born after 1990, a commandline is terrifyingly 1337, and might as well be The Matrix. For those of us who remember MSDOS, well--one prompt's as good as another. Learn the syntax, and be happy.

[kaamos]

It's a combination of
(a) taking some time to think about what is been typed (or pasted) into the terminal; and
(b) number of repetitions
that aids learning. With the greater emphasis on (a).

(c) breaking something up by accident so you will have to learn how to fix it. ;)

[Ted_Smith]

c) breaking something up by accident so you will have to learn how to fix it.

Yep, done plenty of that.

Just to clarify, I didn't mean that I literally and blindly copy and paste stuff - I was making reference to a general culture. I do look into what I'm pasting whenever I can, but sometimes there's too much of it, too many switches, and too many other things to do at the same time that occasionally I just aim on resolving the issue at hand.

The Matrix stuff at insecure.org is well interesting! I've ordered the trilogy today from Amazon having read that. We wnated the set anyway and kept meaning to buy it, but that's just the motivation i needed to buy it!