this post was submitted on 09 Apr 2024

314 points (98.8% liked)

Linux

54805 readers

570 users here now

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Linux is a family of open source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991 by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically packaged in a Linux distribution (or distro for short).

Distributions include the Linux kernel and supporting system software and libraries, many of which are provided by the GNU Project. Many Linux distributions use the word "Linux" in their name, but the Free Software Foundation uses the name GNU/Linux to emphasize the importance of GNU software, causing some controversy.

Rules

Posts must be relevant to operating systems running the Linux kernel. GNU/Linux or otherwise.
No misinformation
No NSFW content
No hate speech, bigotry, etc

Related Communities

Community icon by Alpár-Etele Méder, licensed under CC BY 3.0

founded 6 years ago

MODERATORS

[email protected]

314

Noob Question Thread: Ask Any Questions About Linux! (lemmy.ml)

submitted 1 year ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

441 comments fedilink hide all child comments

I thought I'll make this thread for all of you out there who have questions but are afraid to ask them. This is your chance!

I'll try my best to answer any questions here, but I hope others in the community will contribute too!

(page 7) 50 comments

sorted by: hot top controversial new old

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago (3 children)

How do programs that measure available space like 'lsblk', 'df', 'zfs list' etc see hardlinks and estimate disk space.

If I am trying to manage disk space, does the file system correctly display disk space (for example a zfs list)? Or does it think that I have duplicate files/directories because it can't tell what is a hardlink?

Also, during move operations, zfs dataset migrations, etc... does the hardlinked file continue tracking where the original is? I know it is almost impossible at a system level to discern which is the original.

load more comments (3 replies)

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago (3 children)

Someone gifted me with some old iPad that's more than 10 years old. What steps should I take to install Linux on the iPad?

load more comments (3 replies)

[–] [email protected] 13 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (10 children)

On Android, when an app needs something like camera or location or whatever, you have to give it permission. Why isn't there something like this on Linux desktop? Or at least not by default when you install something through package manager.

[–] [email protected] 17 points 1 year ago

Android apps are sandboxed by default while packages on Linux run with the users permission.

There is already something like this with Flatpak since it also sandboxes every installed program and only grants requested permissions.

load more comments (9 replies)

[–] [email protected] 12 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (5 children)

Why in Linux, Software uses a particular version of a library? Why not just say it's dependent on that library regardless of version? It become pain in ass when you are using an ancient software it required old version of newer library so you have to create symlinks of every library to match old version.

I know that sometimes newer version of Library is not compatible with software but still. And what we can do as a software developer to fix this problem? Or as a end user.

[–] [email protected] 21 points 1 year ago (3 children)

Software changes. Version 0.5 will not have the same features as Version 0.9 most of the time. Features get added over time, features get removed over time and the interface of a library might change over time too.

As a software dev, the only thing you can do is keep the same API for ever, but that is not always feasible.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 year ago (10 children)

Hey, Thanks I have one more question. Is it possible to ship all required library with software?

[–] [email protected] 8 points 1 year ago (1 children)

That is possible indeed! For more context, you can look up "static linking vs dynamic linking"

Tldr: Static linking: all dependencies get baked into the final binary Dynamic linking: the binary searches for libraries in your system's PATH and loads them dynamically at runtime

load more comments (1 replies)

[–] [email protected] 16 points 1 year ago (1 children)

It is, that's what Windows does. It's also possible to compile programs to not need external libraries and instead embed all they need. But both of these are bad ideas.

Imagine you install dolphin (the KDE file manager) It will need lots of KDE libraries, then you install Okular (KDE PDF reader) it will require lots of the same library. Extend that to the hundreds of programs that are installed on your computer and you'll easily doubled the space used with no particular benefit since the package manager already takes care of updating the programs and libraries together. Not just that, but if every program came with it's own libraries, if a bug/security flaw was found in one of the libraries each program would need to upgrade, and if one didn't you might be susceptible to bugs/attacks through that program.

load more comments (1 replies)

load more comments (8 replies)

load more comments (2 replies)

load more comments (4 replies)

[–] [email protected] 8 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (3 children)

Is there a desktop environment with full wayland support other than Gnome and Plasma? I'd really like LXQT but without X.

I know about Sway and Hyprland but would prefer it if I didn't have to install and configure all the parts of a DE separately.

[–] [email protected] 13 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

COSMIC DE will be in alpha soon. It's written for Wayland, in rust

load more comments (2 replies)

[–] [email protected] 16 points 1 year ago (2 children)

NixOS. I don't get what it really is or does? It's a Linux distribution but with ceavets or something

[–] [email protected] 20 points 1 year ago (4 children)

It's a distribution completely centered around the Nix package manager. This basically allows you to program how your system should look using one programming language. If you want an identical system, just copy that file and you're set.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 year ago (6 children)

I remember that thr kernel didn't had performance flags set and used, making NixOS not a nice Gaming platform.

Is this true? Can I fix it for myself easily?

load more comments (6 replies)

[–] [email protected] -5 points 1 year ago

I remember that thr kernel didn't had performance flags set and used, making NixOS not a nice Gaming platform.

Is this true? Can I fix it for myself easily?

[–] [email protected] -5 points 1 year ago

I remember that thr kernel didn't had performance flags set and used, making NixOS not a nice Gaming platform.

Is this true? Can I fix it for myself easily?

load more comments (1 replies)

[–] [email protected] 12 points 1 year ago (4 children)

I want to start with Btrfs and snapshots, is there a good, beginner friendly tutorial for those coming from a ext* filesystem?

[–] [email protected] 11 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

If you try a distro that does it by default then it is no more complicated then ext4 for the user. The distro will setup things for you. I know that opensuse Tumbleweed and Fedora Workstation set this up by default. Manually configuring is how ever a bit more complicated.

load more comments (3 replies)

load more comments