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Tristan_Williams
January 31st, 2014, 05:05 AM
I heard about linux 5 years ago, and I thougt "Well I am sick of Microsofts crap... I'll give it a try"

I was instantly in love. I loved everything about it, The customization. The options. The friendly people...

5 years later, I can build a system from scratch, Change one distro into another, set up anything you want me to set up... and I am bored as I dont know what...

I just feel like I have done EVERYTHING...

Just to make sure I've done everything, here's what I've done:
- Built my dream system from complete scratch with LFS. This includes a full desktop system (Xfce), portage package management, and all the main programs (Firefox, Thunderbird, Libreoffice, Gedit)
- Built an Ubuntu system from the Ubuntu Minimal CD
- Wrote a little over 100 manuals on how to do things in Linux.
- Learned bash scripting, HTML, CSS, Javascript, and a little bit of C++(not enough to count though...)
- Installed Linux on almost all of my friends and familys computers, plus around 60 paying customers
- Got out of my chair a few times

I just don't think I can take one more day of having nothing to work on.

What are some new things I can try?

tgalati4
January 31st, 2014, 05:11 AM
Take a year off and do something different. Try painting or learning a musical instrument. Sometimes you have to step away to gain some perspective. After this exploration period, your ability to use linux to support your new direction will be obvious.

PJs Ronin
January 31st, 2014, 05:24 AM
have kids

deadflowr
January 31st, 2014, 05:37 AM
Have tried actually using your computer?
Maybe find a crazy game and immerse yourself in it.

QIII
January 31st, 2014, 05:38 AM
Kids grow up and move away.

But they don't always stay away.

:mad:

Tristan_Williams
January 31st, 2014, 05:46 AM
Musical Instrumens... Nope, I already know 11 of em.

Kids... Nope, Got 2 and another on the way :)

Games... Maybe... I like games like 0 a.d. and Halo wars... But none of them are ever on a large enough scale.

sammiev
January 31st, 2014, 05:55 AM
Try a little fishing, it's very interesting and a lot of fun. :)

RadicaX
January 31st, 2014, 06:01 AM
Study as many things as you can, what fun is it to study only one thing? How can you crisscross the things you learn too? I suffer a bit of that problem too, though for me it is in something else than Linux. So I yo-yo, I play games, I read, I study Math, I study scripture, (which is the only thing I feel a true need for), I study art, Ich lerne Deutschsprechen, Astronomy I have taken up, (hope people enjoyed the recent Super moon). Why limit yourself to one thing? Math, I have been working on the P = NP problem, it has gave me a bit of insight into security, and mistakes made by many companies, to which I wish to rectify, though I have not yet solved if P = NP or not. Yo-yos I am practicing 1A and 5A styles of play. After having different things you can do, use them together then. Find a problem people have trouble with, and study it, and try to solve it too.

You have kids too, so that is wonderful, and I am sure keeps you busy, but sometimes we need something else that stimulates the mind too.

deadflowr
January 31st, 2014, 06:44 AM
Something else

Learn to bake.
You might find a lot of the methods you've used, running and building, computers can be reapplied to baking food.

SurfaceUnits
January 31st, 2014, 06:50 AM
N=1

Bucky Ball
January 31st, 2014, 07:16 AM
Linux audio. If you're a musician, start recording yourself. There's a world you haven't explored. Install a minimal then xfce4, QJackctl, Rosegarden, QSynth, Fluidsynth, Hydrogen, Audacity, and there are many others to fiddle with. That will keep you going for sometime. I know it will me.

Grab a cheap old audio interface (I have an eight channel PCI card type one on the desktop with eight analogue inputes, midi in, out and through, and a Digidesign MBox 2 Mini on the laptop which can be procured for $100 or less nowadays and works 'out of the box' in the newer Ubuntus).

RadicaX
January 31st, 2014, 08:31 AM
N=1

^

No, this is not a simple algebra problem, that is merely the name of the problem. it deals with Polynomial time.

Elfy
January 31st, 2014, 08:36 AM
Go outside.

You'll find there is a whole worlds out there.

QIII
January 31st, 2014, 09:03 AM
Go to the woods. Find a bear. Whack him with a stick. Say "Tag! You're it!"

Elfy
January 31st, 2014, 09:12 AM
Don't trip.

sudodus
January 31st, 2014, 09:37 AM
- Do things with the children! Let them fill your time more than now :-D

- If you still have time for linux, make a nice GUI for some good text tool, to make it available for those who are afraid of the command line interface!

I can give you 'my example': mkusb (http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1958073). After that you can make a corresponding tool that looks and works the same way in Windows. That will make it easier for people to migrate from Windows to our Ubuntu flavours and Ubuntu based re-spins and distros.

robin7
January 31st, 2014, 11:35 AM
Take some college courses. Or teach some college courses on all the stuff you have learned!

Help develop new editions of Ubuntu. And I'd be personally very grateful if someone could figure out why we need multiple accounts on multiple sites that all claim to use OpenID to report our findings when we test stuff! Write a tutorial on how to navigate the Ubuntu / Canonical maze! I bet there would be a lot more people testing "Ubuntu + 1" if it wasn't such a frustrating labyrinth of hoops to jump through:

http://myphotos.mypclinuxos.com/images/Artim/oopsscreen.png

ssam
January 31st, 2014, 12:25 PM
run development versions of some apps. The earlier bugs can be found, the easier they are to fix.

mastablasta
January 31st, 2014, 12:46 PM
Musical Instrumens... Nope, I already know 11 of em.

Kids... Nope, Got 2 and another on the way :)

Games... Maybe... I like games like 0 a.d. and Halo wars... But none of them are ever on a large enough scale.


then make a game that is on a large enough scale :-)

or try something like Europa universalis, eventhough once you get the hang of it it's not that difficult.

i am curious how you manage all that with 2/3 kids. i have two and i am lucky if i have 1 hour free in a day. they are constantly on the move pulling my leg, hand...

buzzingrobot
January 31st, 2014, 02:45 PM
Take up Forth.

linuxyogi
January 31st, 2014, 03:01 PM
You know so many languages write an open source app and try to make it popular or join a team of devs who are presently working on an active project.

Start working out.

Boredom often leads to some form of addiction. Stay away from any kind of addiction.

Doug S
January 31st, 2014, 05:11 PM
- Wrote a little over 100 manuals on how to do things in Linux.
I just don't think I can take one more day of having nothing to work on.
What are some new things I can try?Join the Ubuntu docs team and contribute to the "official" documentation (official is in quotes because it has fallen behind so much that is it getting hard to call it official). There is Desktop help and/or the Serverguide.

References:
https://launchpad.net/~ubuntu-doc-contributors
https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-doc
https://wiki.ubuntu.com/DocumentationTeam
https://wiki.ubuntu.com/DocumentationTeam/SystemDocumentation
https://wiki.ubuntu.com/DocumentationTeam/SystemDocumentation/UbuntuDesktopGuide
https://wiki.ubuntu.com/DocumentationTeam/SystemDocumentation/UbuntuServerGuide

https://help.ubuntu.com/ (https://wiki.ubuntu.com/DocumentationTeam/SystemDocumentation/UbuntuServerGuide)

lykwydchykyn
January 31st, 2014, 06:08 PM
Put those coding skills to work. Time to pay it forward.

Habitual
January 31st, 2014, 06:32 PM
Read books. Real books, bike, jog, run. swim...read to the blind, ...teach.

Jonor
January 31st, 2014, 07:01 PM
Second Bucky Ball's suggestion, particulary if you know 11 musical instruments.
Most freely available music needs editing down with something like Audacity as it is often too long but also somtimes not long enough IMO - a lifetime's occupation.

sffvba[e0rt
January 31st, 2014, 07:13 PM
Try real life, best graphics ever but the story sucks... ;)

Don_Stahl
January 31st, 2014, 07:40 PM
Well, Tristan, you're a problem-solver extraordinaire. Your problem now is boredom, innit!

It's a troubleshooting issue, really.

Are you more interested in playing guitar or in cooperative gaming?
Are you more interested in writing code or in writing a novel?
Given the choice, would you be more interested in running a half-marathon or running for city councilor?
Would you rather spend 14 days camping in the wilderness or 14 days living in Paris?
Do you prefer cooking a great meal for your family, or taking your family to play mini-golf?

What I might be suggesting, tentatively and with all respect, is that you use troubleshooting techniques to find out where any hidden interests lie, decide what financial and responsibility may allow you to do, and then go in that direction for awhile.

I dunno, I seem to have more stuff I want to do than I have time to do stuff.

jornoz
February 2nd, 2014, 06:44 PM
Talk with homeless pepole..:(

PotatoHead007
February 3rd, 2014, 07:08 PM
Try real life, best graphics ever but the story sucks... ;)

yea :P And the Respawn time is annoying, Tutorial takes 18 years, and pvp is not allowed :(

Seriously though, OP, try playing games like League of Legends, dotA, or World of Warcraft... if you have a lot of time, that is :P

andrew.46
February 5th, 2014, 10:56 AM
x265 is usable now, grab a copy and start exploring the newest video encoder.....

brpylko
February 6th, 2014, 04:25 AM
I felt like this once, then a few things happened:
I learned OpenGL (I already knew C++, which you should learn because it's lots of fun)
Steam for Linux
StepMania
I started a(n extensive) programming project with a friend (working with others can help with motivation and creativity)