Searching gives me the impression there’s a million ways to solve the same problem on Linux, and I find myself profiling answers into about four categories at a glance:
- Succinct: one or two-liner, a single config file, or just a few clicks
- Long-winded song-and-dance: Full train of thought interspersed between various commands and logs, several config files (some of which don’t already exist), or installing an obscure package that is no longer maintained
- Specific to a desktop environment or version I don’t have
- Just looks wrong
I’ll usually just take solutions from the first category, which almost always works, save for differences between updates and versions. Solutions in the second category also seem to end with a 50% chance of the OP unable to solve the problem. If I’m desperate, I’ll try the second one, but it often ends up not working, eventually leading me to come up with a much cleaner solution of my own.
Curious if anyone else does this too and if those one-liners are really better solutions or if it’s just confirmation bias.
The more experience you have, the more BS your able to smell. Sometimes I marvel at how succinct other people can be fixing an issue with amazing docs. Compared to my old “wizard spell” shenanigans that solve the issue, but only on a Tuesday, full moon, goats, etc…
Its hard to solve issues, even harder to keep the solution working after a certain amount of time.
Drives me nuts computer illiterate family members praising me for fixing the most basic, basic shit for them. They think its because I have lots of experience. But no, its because I learned the absolute basics of computer literacy and the experience I now have is grounded in that. I don’t want praise for “working magic”, I want people to fucking spend a small amount of their time learning the most BASIC of IT skills so I don’t have to waste my time fixing shit you should know.
Sorry, my frustration might be showing just a little.
I’ve worked many years in IT support. They computer-illiterate people are everywhere.
Tech illiteracy is 90% of why we have work.
Doing it for free sucks though.
My spouse is a tech and tells me he has all the patience for stupidity because he gets paid for it. Once upon a time, I was going to go into IT but turns out that no amount of money was worth it for me because my tolerance for stupidity and willful ignorance is next to zero.
TBF, I still smile and tell family members it’s all good, no problem to fix and then vent my inward seething later on to my spouse 😅