My 1000th post. What I have learned?

[soulestream]

Probably not much ;) , but other people are doing so I am too.

1. Read. Read all the docs, books, posts, man pages, and wiki's you can get your hands on. Most questions you can answer yourself and you are more likely to remember how to do it next time. Even if you don't use gentoo, their docs are awesome.

2. Choose a distro and stick with it. Some people think reinstalling, changing distros, trying every new distro on the block is a good idea, its NOT. Learn about a distro. Listen to what other people say, figure out how that distro installs software, how much support you can get, and is it popular enough for you to find answers. Places like here and distrowatch.org are a great place to start.

3. Hardware is kernel specific. Just because Fedora, Slackware, or whatever didnt detect your network card on install doesnt mean it doesn't work on that distro. If it works on one, it will work on any. You just might have to manually install it.

4. Command line is your freind, learn it now. No matter what distro you choose, the command line is always the same (mostly). If you learn how to mount a drive in one distro from command line, you have learned it on all of them.

5. Noob, is a stupid word. When asking questions remember that "noob" is a relative term. Do you have alot of computer experience. Do you know what a Hard Drive is? Do you have common sense? A noob might be someone who is installing Linux who has only used a PC for 6 months or a noob might be a 15 year windows/novell admin who just started using Linux after using Unix for the last 6 months.

6. Be patient. Take you time, search for answers, and dont make posts like "I need help right now" - you won't get any. There are some really helpful and smart people here, but the aren't charging and have their own lives.

7.Live CD's are great. Try them out. Keep a couple around they are great at fixing problems and fixing other OS's too.

8. Search for answers, before you ask. This might go under #1, but I think it deserves its own line. www.google.com/linux. Every help site has a search feature. Odds are you aren't the first person to have your problem. Search the site and google before asking a question. Think about how to word the search. If you don't know how to mount a drive don't go to google and type in "hard drive" it wont help, try "mount drive linux".

9. Linux is not Windows. They don't work the same way. You will have to learn new things and new ways of doing things. Some things work better on windows, some better on linux.

10. Have fun. Linux is an amazing, flexible and quite pretty OS. Remember unless you are reading this before installing your companies server (and you shouldn't be) you are choosing to install linux. Take your time, dont get frustrated.

soule

[dkeav]

good advice, and you put "read" as the first one, lets hope they everyone "reads" that

[Parcival]

Congrats and thank you for your help in the forums. :)

[mrBen]

Well done for learning in 1000 posts what seems to take some a lifetime ;)

Agreed on all points.

[beetlespace]

What an awsome post and great advice as well!

I need to print this out and frame it!
;)

[Hayl]

My favourite points you made are: 2, 5, 6, and 8.

[cybertron]

Join Date: Sep 2004
Location: too close to graceland
Posts: 999
Methinks someone is playing fast and loose with your post count.:)

Anyway, congrats. I'm always amused by people who use noob in their username. It's kind of like putting the year you registered after your username. What do you do next year when that's out of date? Start a new user?;)

[JayMan8081]

Those are all great points. I think 2 is one of the most important ones I have learned for at work where everyone has their own flavor of Linux that they like and are good with. Many a pointless argument would be ended if everyone involved held that view.

[soulestream]

Methinks someone is playing fast and loose with your post count.

Hmm, i was on 999 when I posted this. Maybe the linux gods were making a joke (or a point) :p

soule

[JayMan8081]

Well now you are at 1000 anyway and your post will show that you are now above 1000 so only a few people would have known you weren't at 1000 when you made the post if cybertron hadn't put it in his post. :p Oh well, I guess that just how things work out.

[JamminJoeyB]

Congrats on the 1000 and good advice to everyone trying linux.

Now if I could only get to 1000. Maybe a bunch of posts in /dev/random line Blackbelt Jones will help :)

[seldomseen]

Good list there. Sticking with a distro? I guess I have, to a degree. Used Kanotix/Debian Sid as my main system for about a year (after periods with Fedora and Mepis), and switched to Vector a couple of months ago 'cause I wanted something a little more solid as my mission-critical system, and I always did like Vec. Reckon I'm staying with that.

My main unit has four distros on it, plus W***ows 98 on a 4GB partition -- that's all Bill G. gets. Vector is the one I boot into most of the time, when I want to get work done. The other distros are there for experiments, and those change all the time. Those are the systems I break, rebuild, and play with. So, yeah, one can stick with one distro while penguin-hopping.

[Parcival]

Hmm, i was on 999 when I posted this.

I'm 100% sure that the first time I read this thread you had 1'000 post. Usually post counts decrease when a post or a thread is deleted but I can't remember anything special happening as of late (except for the mail script).

Oh, and the best way to get posts is being a mod. It took me two years to reach 1'000, but only half a year to add 500. ;)

[tlyons]

Congrats on the 1000 and good advice to everyone trying linux.

Now if I could only get to 1000. Maybe a bunch of posts in /dev/random line Blackbelt Jones will help :)

Put your 2 cents into solving other people's questions for a day or two, and you could easily knock off a dozen posts or so (you're at 987 as I'm writing this).

- T.

[Hayl]

Now if I could only get to 1000. Maybe a bunch of posts in /dev/random like Blackbelt Jones will help :)

rofl.... but please no :P

[tlyons]

Oh, and the best way to get posts is being a mod. It took me two years to reach 1'000, but only half a year to add 500. ;)

So, could someone act like a mod and get, say, 250 in half a year? :)

"Your thread title says nothing about your message. Please read our posting guidelines (http://www.justlinux.com/forum/showthread.php?s=&threadid=91066).

Move along folks, nothing to see here."

[Thread Locked]

- T.

Hey, it works!

[JamminJoeyB]

YEAH!!! Just hit 1000 posts to JLC!

What have I learned in that time.

1. Patience. Sometime just walking away from a small problem and comming back to it later will fix it faster then staying up all night trying to fix it. If the system is stable and you can continue working, its all good. Audio problems fit into this category for me.

2. I do not like RPM based distros. This is a personal preference. I'd rather sit through a stage 1 gentoo install then live through dependency hell ever again.

3. Help others as they would help you. I'm no guru, but if I have some knowledge that will help solve a problem I will post it if no one else has already made the suggestion.

4. OSS is fun. I say OSS because I have more fun trying and testing different types of software for all the different things I use my system for. I don't have to worry about the 30 day demo or try before you buy stuff. I have seen some mature projects expand functionality and some alpha/beta software mature to very useable programs.

5. Support your distro. I have been using Slackware since 8.1 I downloaded it from the net. I have tried other distros, but always came back to Slackware. I now get my latest and greatest Slackware release from the Slackware store. Why do I buy it when I can get it for free? There is a lot of work that goes into a new release of any disto. I can afford the small price tag of this as opposed to the price of Microsoft products. Besides I display the case next to my pc and friends ask me what that is all the time.

6. Read, search and read. Read the manual, read the README, read the INSTALL. Doing all of this first may answer the question or give you the solution before you post to a forum. When all else fails search google/linux and JLC. See number one when you are doing a search. The information is usully out there. I'll admit I almost posted here once asking for search suggestions for something as I wanted to find the answer myself and while I was typing the post did a nother search and found the answer. Sometimes it's just the search terms that get you.

[Parcival]

Sometime just walking away from a small problem and comming back to it later will fix it faster then staying up all night trying to fix it.

Believe it or not, but this is a problem solving strategy in cognitive psychology and one of the 11 methods my professor recommends for problem solving.

The problem with the method is that it only works after we have deeply thought about possible solutions. Life would be a breeze if all problems were solved instantly by walking away. :D

[cybertron]

Believe it or not, but this is a problem solving strategy in cognitive psychology and one of the 11 methods my professor recommends for problem solving.

The problem with the method is that it only works after we have deeply thought about possible solutions. Life would be a breeze if all problems were solved instantly by walking away. :D
They have to teach people this?:D

I thought everyone had run into a computer problem that they magically came up with a solution to just by leaving (my first implementation of QuickSort comes to mind - three hours fighting with it to realize a few minutes after I left to eat that I had a < where I needed a <=). Heh, that makes a smiley with a dunce cap. How appropriate.:D

[bigmac99]

congrats on 1,000 guys.

-Charles