My conceptual problem with my computer.
I don't have sense of control over my computer.
You can say "You must use only FLOSS, only freedom-friendly hardware, etc. Then you can control your computer. "
But alas, it is an overstatement. Because if I encounter a problem, then often I forced to google solution and blindly use instructions. Without proper understanding, like magic. Thus, sometimes I feel nostalgic about times then my needs and my understanding were in perfect harmony.
My criterias of control:
1.I must understand how it works "under hood". My understanding must vary from very abstract concepts to detail comprehension of every "cogwheel", according to my needs.
2.If I encounter a problem, then I should be able to solve it on my own, without help of other people. In ideal, even without Internet.
3.I must have proper understanding of the solution.
4.I must figure out reasons of the problem.
5.I should be able to optimize computer according my needs.
That should I do? Let's do brainstorm.
1.Development of my problem solving skills. Concept maps, inductive logic, mathematics, power search in the Internet, etc.
2.Maybe I need KISS-friendly Linux. You know, like Slackware, Crux.
By the way, if "computations control" can be considered as related to ethics, then in my book proprietary MS-DOS much more ethical than opensource Trisquel. Because knowledge is power. If you have complicated open source system, then it is like "Hey dude, there is a gift for you. This is a cool spaceship, I hope you will like it very much. What? You don't know how use it? What a pity!
"
3.Hmm, maybe some of LPIC-1 tutorials can help me.
I am a member!
>By the way, if "computations control" can be considered as related to ethics, then in my book proprietary MS-DOS much more ethical than opensource Trisquel.
This is bait
Maybe is media induced hysteria. But the effect says the same: bait.
>This is bait
Really? You know, I don't eat meat(because it is unethical for me), but I think that meat is healthy and tasty. If I posted this opinion on vegetarian forum, then by your logic I'm a troll.
>Because if I encounter a problem, then often I forced to google solution and blindly use instructions. Without proper understanding, like magic.
Why? Who is making you use google/NSA? Who is making you not try to understand the instructions? It's crazy to follow random instructions one doesn't clearly understand.
>By the way, if "computations control" can be considered as related to ethics, then in my book proprietary MS-DOS much more ethical than opensource Trisquel.
This is ass backwards. With a proprietary system you cannot find out. Code is not available, can be obfuscated and you might be breaking the law if you try to find out how something works. With Trisquel you're welcome to browse the code, with an occasional comment or two and won't run into any legal issues.
>Who is making you use google/NSA?
I use google because of relevant results. Maybe this is my fault, because my search skill not-so-good, but facts are facts. For example, yesterday I was searching "activ тариф джуни". Duckduckgo showed me only irrelevant trash.
>Who is making you not try to understand the instructions?
>who is making you not try to understand the instructions?
I often try to properly understand problem/reasons of problems/solution, but alas, my knoweldge and education are not as good as I want. For example, I have no idea how force my OS to see Android phone as media storage. Maybe I could figure out the solution if I know how udev works.
But, udev isn't thing in itself. Udev is only ONE subsustym(and it have alternatives!) in Linux system. And Linux system isn't thing-in-itself too. It have links with hardware, with other computers via Internet, etc. Thus, hypothetical book "Complete Udev Guideline for dummies" would have some bits of information about Internet, technical standarts, history of computers, so on.
But there are two BIG problems.
1. Alas, I don't have this wonderful book. Thus, I must find all related material on my own, collect the crumbs to solve the jigsaw puzzle.
2. I have no idea how long my adventure will continue. One month? One year? Or maybe the whole life?
I use google because of relevant results.
Not an excuse, use StartPage.com instead. :D
>Not an excuse, use StartPage.com instead. :D
I don't see any sense to use StartPage. I don't care about NSA and so on. I like DuckDuckGo because of absence of filter bubble. Sometimes it helps me. But I have DuckDuckFallback extension. The extension added "Search in Google" button in DuckDuckGo interface.
>With a proprietary system you cannot find out. Code is not available, can be obfuscated and you might be breaking the law if you try to find out how something works. With Trisquel you're welcome to browse the code, with an occasional comment or two and won't run into any legal issues.
I can find information about proprietary system with help of (un)official documentation and reverse engineering. For example, MS-DOS is very small and simple system, so experienced programmer could analyze it easily and completely. On other hand, nobody has enough of lifespan to do complete analysis of Trisquel source codes on his/her own. Figuratively, decryption of one encrypted book needs less efforts than reading of whole library of normal books.
"1.I must understand how it works "under hood". My understanding must vary from very abstract concepts to detail comprehension of every "cogwheel", according to my needs.
2.If I encounter a problem, then I should be able to solve it on my own, without help of other people. In ideal, even without Internet."
I don't think it's possible to understand a system to this extent.
>I don't think it's possible to understand a system to this extent.
Why?
POSIX-type operating systems are very complicated.
How about Ruben? Is he exception?
I am a translator!
roboq6, are you making jokes here ;)
Operating systems are among the most complicated things in the world of programming. They are not some high-level application, but include relatively high-level applications as well as very low-level applications as a kernel and various drivers. The current Linux (I'm talking about the kernel of GNU/Linux) has somewhere around 70-80MB. This is unformatted text. Try typing a big amount of text into a simple editor like gedit, save it, look at the size. Imagine how much text it will take to reach 70 MB. To be fair, a big part of it are device drivers, but still.
Highly skilled professionals can understand how an operating system works, in all details. Normal users, power users, newbie programmers like myself, cannot. I'm not talking about some basic concepts, I talk about full and complete understanding of all possible layers here, all the way from the basic environment down to wher BIOS starts.
"proprietary MS-DOS..."
There is FreeDOS, but I heard it relies upon a proprietary compiler.
I believe you are correct, but still it's the best choice if you need to run "dos" in a computer. And the project is very "FLOSS minded" so it's something that we should perhaps try to understand (it's DOS after all, you can't be picky with something that is older than ourselves :P)
For the fun of it, I have a old pentium1 with freedos and xfdos. I never turn it on, but I can still say that I have a free OS even in the ancient stone xD
Hi Roboq6,
I understand your frustration as I'm in the same boat to a certain degree.
Here's my solution, take it step by step and realize that you won't get there overnight:
1) Great tutorials at www.tldp.org (click on "Guides" in the middle of the page)
a) Introduction to Linux - A Hands on Guide
b) GNU/Linux Command-Line Tools Summary
c) The Linux System Administrators' Guide
d) Bash Beginners' Guide (if you're so inclined, I'm not really there yet)
e) Advanced Bash Scripting Guide (only when you're ready)
Note that these are all dated, but they all have great information that is still very relevant -- and they can all be downloaded to read at your leisure.
2) Other tutorials -- I don't recall the exact websites where these came from, but any good search engine (I recommend Startpage.com) can find them for you
a) Linux Essentials - The LPI Introductory Programme
b) Linux Fundamentals by Paul Cobbaut
c) The Linux® Command Line by William E. Shotts, Jr.
These are all also free and downloadable.
3) Books from the library or a second-hand store
a) I'm reading "Linux Essentials" by Roderick Smith, good basic stuff
b) Next up is "Linux Administration Handbook" -- I've glanced at this, and it's the best-written computer book I've ever seen.
For me it's been a journey of a few months, but I took some serious detours into Javascript, PHP, and SQL -- without the detours I'd already be an intermediate user. Do a little bit every day, have some patience, and celebrate your learning. It's awesome stuff.
Good luck!
This site, along with the manual pages, the documentations available on the GNU project's site, and some examples on the Internet, helped me understand somethings (not everything) related to Bash, Cat, Sed (I am still in doubt about most of the things I've learned about Sed), regular expressions (I had a hard time putting the pieces together), expansion types, input and output redirection (file descriptors, command redirection etc).
This knowledge is what makes it possible for me to write a simple Bash script called SQDownloader (https://savannah.nongnu.org/projects/sqdownloader), although I still need to improve it.
My advice is the following: If you find some instructions on the Internet, or anywhere else, look for informations about them before using them, and only use such instructions if you can find relevant informations about them, and of course, only after understanding what these instructions do.
Also, don't forget to take breaks, no human is a robot.
Best regards, ADFENO.
Have a nice day.
Nobody can understand the whole system in details. There are billions of lines of code in it! That is why the freedom in computing has to be achieved in community rather than individually (freedom 3). If you disagree I see no alternative but to not use a computer.
>Nobody can understand the whole system in details
You are missing the point.
I don't want to be Mr. I-know-all.
I just want to figure out stuff I NEED to know. No more, no less. This is the most challenging part.
For exampe, is it important to know how TCP/IP works?
I personally do not really know how the TCP protocol works. I only know it controls the integrity of the packets, whereas UDP does not but is faster if reliability is not important. I personally do not "feel" I "need" to know TCP (its state diagram, the headers it adds to a packet, etc.).
Apparently most computer user only "feel" they "need" to know the basic of the application software they use.
How are *we* supposed to know what are *your* "needs" to "have sense of control over [your] computer"?
> How are *we* supposed to know what are *your* "needs" to "have sense of control over [your] computer"?
You can't. But maybe you can help me to figure out that I need to know if I tell you my needs.
Let's begin with minimum minimorum. If I have the Internet then I can solve the most of my problems somehow.
But there's paradox "Chicken or the egg"(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chicken_or_the_egg), because sometimes I can't have the Internet by reason of technical problem.
Technical support of my internet-provider is bunch of idiots and slackers. And my internet-provider is a monopolist, I can't just choose another internet-provider. I couldn't use the Internet almost 15 days !!!
That I need to know to be "technical support" for myself in this particular field?
Linux Networking Administrators' Guide: http://www.tldp.org/LDP/nag2/index.html
And in downloadable PDF form so you always have it: http://www.tldp.org/LDP/nag2/nag2.pdf
Notes:
- It's old, but a lot of this stuff hasn't changed.
- It's long, but you can dip in to find out what you need to know, and it should be good as a reference too.
For the administration of Debian (or Debian-based systems such such as Trisquel), you can read The Debian Administrator's Handbook, which is either (at your choice) under the CC-BY-SA license or under the GNU GPL license: http://debian-handbook.info
Section 8.2 is about "Configuring the Network": http://debian-handbook.info/browse/stable/sect.network-config.html
Chapter 10 about the "Network Infrastructure": http://debian-handbook.info/browse/stable/network-infrastructure.html
Chapter 11 about popular "Network Services: Postfix, Apache, NFS, Samba, Squid, LDAP": http://debian-handbook.info/browse/stable/network-services.html
Thank you, but is it useless without knowledge of TCP/IP and so on?
You do not need to precisely understand TCP/IP to administrate a network. The chapter 10 of The Debian Administrator's Handbook starts with five paragraphs giving the basic "features" of that protocol.
>You do not need to precisely understand TCP/IP to administrate a network.
The same goes for configuration of router, isn't it?
The chapter 10 would help you make a computer act as a router: http://debian-handbook.info/browse/stable/network-infrastructure.html
If you only want to configure a box you separately bought, there usually is an easy to use Web interface (search the terms you do not know in Wikipedia).
When you don't have internet, just try take a look at /usr/share/doc directory.
And read the man pages with "man " at terminal.
(The "tkinfo", "xman", and "dwww"(runs at localhost) programs are alternatives and you can expand that documentation, installing docs available with synaptic.)
Or type "ctrl-h i" when using emacs.
Also, take a look at the configuration files in /etc, or go deep in the source code ...
(then try the some with other OS)
Yeah great thread. I get as passionate about figuring out stuff as yourselves. Annotation is the key to the world and my life's project.
The problem with books and articles is its impossible to incorporate https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Affective_computing , into the process because we all sit down to learn in a mood and come up with creative questions during our shifting day moods and friends moods etc.
A properly built Annotation platform for a community allows all the questions and answers to be more efficiently and fun brain absorbed. There are some industry leaders in Annotation but after researching the game it's not being done right it should be way more mainstream and a few stand out features that I can't believe arn't added as of yet, and that I'm keeping to myself because I'm a broke dad hoping to make at least enough to raise a child in modesty, I do intend to release it FLOSS Style but need all sorts of help so keeping it away from any proprietary viruses out there, preview at www.imaginationforpeople.org/en/project/attempt-the-life-ganghouse. You Can make a living FLOSS needs to be a sticker.
Again really impressed with seeing this thread and community behind it Really passionate about Trisquel and Dynebolic. I just Can't understand why there is no official FLOSS Annotation Project with badge links all over the Place, I'm your man for further discussion though :)
All Best
I am a member!
Most probably you should be using Parabola GNU/Linux-libre, roboq6. It is Arch-based, but 100% FaiF.
It's also cute in that it's home page is untrusted by abrowser lol. What type of fun are you Paraballas having?
That's because the Parabola website uses CAcert certificates, which are not installed by default in Abrowser. You might want to read the http home page.