Trisquel/General Computing Terminology Resource

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jaisgossman
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Iscritto: 06/18/2018

I'm looking for a catch-all terminology resource that is not necessarily specific to Trisquel, but would fit well into a Trisquel auto-didact's literature. I am learning things, but I have often found myself further ahead than I should be, leading to problems and frustrations that set me back in terms of motivation. I would like to be more methodical in my quest. Any and all resources welcome.

kenogo (non verificato)
kenogo

Sorry, I find it hard to understand what exactly you’re looking for. Can you describe in detail a hypothetical scenario in which you would use the thing you’re looking for and how it would work in that case?

jaisgossman
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Iscritto: 06/18/2018

perhaps something specific I saw a while ago was a cheat card that gave shortcuts for using emacs (I think?). maybe something like this, that can help me understand the directory structure of Trisquel.

Connochaetes

I am a member!

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Iscritto: 12/13/2017

I thought you were looking for a dictionary explaining the meaning of computing terms, but "something like" a list of shortcuts sounds very different.

jxself
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Iscritto: 09/13/2010

"the directory structure of Trisquel"

Specifically for that, see
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Filesystem_Hierarchy_Standard

strypey
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Iscritto: 05/14/2015

Is this the kind of thing you're looking for jaisgossman?
https://www.gnu.org/philosophy/words-to-avoid.html

rinakra
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Iscritto: 11/20/2019

Yeah it would be easier to help if we knew what you're trying to learn in the first place.

My experience with Linux has mainly revolved around just kind of configuring my system. For example, I set up i3wm to be totally usable with just a touchscreen tablet or something like that. There was a huge learning curve. Just today I wanted to write a script to toggle my touchscreen on and off. It's really simple but I had to learn how to write a small program and it actually got really involved!

One time, I tried to make lightdm let me login as "root" so I didn't have to type my password for things... I edited one file and messed everything up so bad that I couldn't even open a TTY terminal... I had to learn to "chroot" into my system from a live USB and fix things.

If I just excepted Trisquel as it is and used the MATE desktop and didn't try to change everything none of these things would have happened but until you have a reason to learn about these various different topics, you kind of just don't. Reading about it all in some book woudl probably be incredibly dry.

In retrospect somethings that would have helped were learning basic Python coding language and the basics of Bash. Like how to create, edit, copy files, how "grep" works, what "awk" means... etc. There are all kinds of textbooks/pdf files on the internet for that kind of thing but I would never remember anything I read unless I applied it. And I don't know when I would apply it until I break something. Personally I never use emacs. I plan to start using vim to edit Latex files when I get around to it.

Another weird thing: The internet and the few people I know who use linux irl told me I should *not* use Parabola as a beginner. I ended up installing it on my other laptop. It took two days and I literally cried while doing it but that's when I really learned the most.

I got a new computer and didn't want to bother with the long installation process so that's how I started using Trisquel. Surprisingly enough, I have found Trisquel far more difficult to understand than Parabola. It is actually way more complicated mostly, it seems, due to the presence of a full desktop environment (MATE). On my Parabola installation I knew exactly where everything was and why it was all there and how my wifi and files and literally every other program worked. So anyway I actually highly suggest isntalling Arch/Parabola at least once because I think you learn a lot and it makes dealing with Trisquel easier.

jaisgossman
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Iscritto: 06/18/2018

Great sources. Here's a thought. I have encountered RSS as a way to take in information, a lot at a time and in a focused way, but I don't have the skill set to begin implementing this as a practice. For instance, I learn the most from these forums, and everything else on the internet seems to generally just be a distraction. rinakra, you are right, we often seem to learn the most after going against the wise advice and breaking some stuff on our system (facebook's adage "move fast and break things" didn't come out of thin air; I just want to be considerate and only implicate myself).

I will try Parabola. So, the question is, can I use RSS feeds on Parabola?

rinakra
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Iscritto: 11/20/2019

Right. These forums and the IRC channels are really helpful. You can do everything on Parabola that you can do on Trisquel. The main difference is after you install it, you literally just have a terminal. So you have to do everything "by hand" like creating user, installing your DE if you want that, setting up the internet connection (there's no network manager installed at the beginning). So if you use some kind of program to get the RSS feeds, you just install that and you can use it just like on Trisquel. I mean they are both Linux afterall so they are not really *that* different in terms of how you use them day to day. The Parabola IRC chat is also really really friendly. It's way more welcoming than the Arch community imo. Nonetheless you should expect it to be pretty time consuming at first.

I'm a PhD student and I don't have a whole lot of free time. Sometimes you have to pick your battles. There are a lot of things I would love to try: learning to use VIM, learning Haskell, learning to use a different window manager like Xmonad or something like that, and I'm even really interested in learning about actually building circuits and things like that. For example, there are these tiny computers, Sony vaio something or other, and they are really cute and have a 3g modem. The problem is they were built in like 2009/2010 and they have terrible battery life. But I don't get why we can't just wire in a modern cell phone battery that has like twice the capacity. I'd like to get into experimenting with things like that.

But I put it on hold because I have to finish my degree. I guess what I'm trying to say is, it helps to have a goal in mind when you're trying to learn something. For me it was trying to get rid of non free software in my life entirely because, among other things, it's distracting, and I was trying to make using my computer sort of like an extension of my brain. I think I have gotten really close actually. But a big part of that is making things automatic and convenient in ways specific to me and how I use my computer.

jaisgossman
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Iscritto: 06/18/2018

Goals are great. My problem is I just end up writing poetry while I'm trying to learn.

Malsasa
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Iscritto: 12/01/2016

> I'm looking for a catch-all terminology resource that is not necessarily specific to Trisquel, but would fit well into a Trisquel auto-didact's literature.

Hello jaisgossman!

There are some computer terminology resources I love and find out:
- http://foldoc.org (once recommended by The GNU Project's website)
- http://linfo.org
- https://www.computerhope.com/jargon.htm
- https://techterms.com
- http://www.osdata.com/kind/history.htm
- https://winworldpc.com/library/operating-systems
- https://www.operating-system.org

I understand your first email as I am also an auto-didact person. I
hope these links useful for you and please tell me what do you think
about them. Thank you.

jaisgossman
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Iscritto: 06/18/2018

This a great list! I only have clicked computerhope thus far, but by the titles, I can see these will be very helpful.
Thank you

Malsasa
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Iscritto: 12/01/2016

Hello jaisgossman, you are welcome. I am really glad to hear your opinion!