distro barely matters beyond how you get the packages.
there’s a reason arch is popular, it can be whatever you want it to be.
tbh, it sounds like you don’t have a great understanding of Linux (not an attack!) so I would definitely stay away from Kali, and other distros like that.
stick with Arch if you’re confident you can maintain it, or if you want to have a system which you don’t have to poke at Fedora is a great option
Is it possible to create a shim to make keyboard shortcuts act like macOS? I don’t think I can live with ctrl+shift+c when command/super is right there.
Actually I kinda want to throw almost all the desktop/gui conventions for Linux out and do my own thing.
I think you can change your keybinds in Gnome and KDE to do it like you want without any tinkering. I’ve changed some common shortcuts to superkey ones on Gnome. Not sure about other DEs.
Arch is a pretty good one if you want to control and tinker. I have personally found it to be very reliable over the years, and the AUR is exceptionally powerful (although you NEED to review your PKGBUILDs, there’s nothing stopping someone from putting malware on the AUR again). The packaging format is so simple and easy that I actually build a few performance-critical packages locally so I can tweak compiler flags (gimmie that -march native).
Nix is cool and kinda crazy, but honestly? I’d hold off until you’re comfortable with Arch. Same with Gentoo.
Hmm, I personally place Nix at the same level as Arch, because I see both distros being hard to get into because of how different they do stuff when compared to the average OS.
Maybe the real level up is trying to run BSD on unsupported hardware?
Arch is easier in my opinion, at least if you want to leverage the power NixOS can offer. A simple /etc/nixos/configuration.nix maybe not, but once you enter custom options / submodule territory and use stuff like lib.mapAttrs, I’d say NixOS is quite harder. Or just a more complex overrideAttrs. But then again, Arch doesn’t have an equivalent to that…
I didn’t need to learn a programming language to install Arch btw. I’d definitely agree Nix is an unnecessary complication for very little gain for the average user.
Well, you don’t need to learn nix as a programming language for a simple installation, you can use it like a slightly different json, which the configuration.nix part was about. You can get the reproducibility aspect from just that, so I wouldn’t say you get no benefits at all without learning the language.
There are more disadvantages (like time required to rebuild because you added a single package), so Arch is the better choice depending on preferences. Arch is a very good traditional distribution in my opinion, can’t go wrong with it
No no, there isn’t “no benefit”. There’s just very little gain, compared to the effort. The average Linux user definitely will not care about reproducibility. 😅 So the effort required to either add Nix stuff to an existing distro or install NixOS itself will just be wasted effort for most people, I imagine. Myself included.
As a power user, I’m still not interested. Chezmoi serves me more than well to sync between my work laptop and my main desktop PC, because I’m running Arch on both systems and I still haven’t had the need to reproduce a system in over a decade with Arch. 🥰 So stable.
But yeah if you reinstall frequently or manage a lot of machines daily then it might be worth looking into. 👌
The average Linux user definitely will not care about reproducibility.
I think a lot of people do care about it, just not under that name. But I think a lot of users asked themselves at least once “what did I do back then to achieve X”. Not in that the whole system is reproduced 1:1, but certain aspects. That’s something much easier to answer with nix.
Let’s skip all intermediate quotes and directly jump to the xkcd reference:
I only program with butterflies.
Of course, there is an Emacs command for that: good ol’ C-x M-c M-butterfly
I think that later on in your adventure, you’ll notice that you don’t actually need a distro that’s hard to maintain in order to do the hardcore stuff.
Going back to more tame distros (Mint, Debian, Fedora, Solus) may actually suit you better, even for said tasks.
Cybersecurity and “stopping hackers” are very extensive and complex topics. It’s kinda like a mix of many areas of knowledge (software, hardware, coding, internet of things, etc…)
So one advice I think I can give you is that there is a “tool” of hacking that is often overlooked: Social Engineering.
And he’s also the best fucking programmer of all time.
That sounds like quite the combo, hope you’re doing alright. I’ll probably pass on calling you schizo though if that’s ok. I had just assumed you were shitposting tbh, but whatever floats your boat. Hope you enjoy the community and the Linux experience
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Kali is not for actual every day use.
You can install all of its included tools on whatever distro you want.
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distro barely matters beyond how you get the packages.
there’s a reason arch is popular, it can be whatever you want it to be.
tbh, it sounds like you don’t have a great understanding of Linux (not an attack!) so I would definitely stay away from Kali, and other distros like that.
stick with Arch if you’re confident you can maintain it, or if you want to have a system which you don’t have to poke at Fedora is a great option
Is it possible to create a shim to make keyboard shortcuts act like macOS? I don’t think I can live with ctrl+shift+c when command/super is right there.
Actually I kinda want to throw almost all the desktop/gui conventions for Linux out and do my own thing.
I think you can change your keybinds in Gnome and KDE to do it like you want without any tinkering. I’ve changed some common shortcuts to superkey ones on Gnome. Not sure about other DEs.
Arch is a pretty good one if you want to control and tinker. I have personally found it to be very reliable over the years, and the AUR is exceptionally powerful (although you NEED to review your PKGBUILDs, there’s nothing stopping someone from putting malware on the AUR again). The packaging format is so simple and easy that I actually build a few performance-critical packages locally so I can tweak compiler flags (gimmie that
-march native).Nix is cool and kinda crazy, but honestly? I’d hold off until you’re comfortable with Arch. Same with Gentoo.
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Like those Google Chrome ones back then
Other hardcore options include Gentoo or just going Linux from scratch.
I thought the “hardcorer” alternative to Arch was LFS
Not if you are a 1337 H4x0r like the badass you’re answering to.
LFS is for memes. I guess Nix is a level up from Arch.
Hmm, I personally place Nix at the same level as Arch, because I see both distros being hard to get into because of how different they do stuff when compared to the average OS.
Maybe the real level up is trying to run BSD on unsupported hardware?
Arch is easier in my opinion, at least if you want to leverage the power NixOS can offer. A simple
/etc/nixos/configuration.nixmaybe not, but once you enter custom options / submodule territory and use stuff likelib.mapAttrs, I’d say NixOS is quite harder. Or just a more complexoverrideAttrs. But then again, Arch doesn’t have an equivalent to that…I didn’t need to learn a programming language to install Arch btw. I’d definitely agree Nix is an unnecessary complication for very little gain for the average user.
Well, you don’t need to learn nix as a programming language for a simple installation, you can use it like a slightly different json, which the
configuration.nixpart was about. You can get the reproducibility aspect from just that, so I wouldn’t say you get no benefits at all without learning the language.There are more disadvantages (like time required to rebuild because you added a single package), so Arch is the better choice depending on preferences. Arch is a very good traditional distribution in my opinion, can’t go wrong with it
No no, there isn’t “no benefit”. There’s just very little gain, compared to the effort. The average Linux user definitely will not care about reproducibility. 😅 So the effort required to either add Nix stuff to an existing distro or install NixOS itself will just be wasted effort for most people, I imagine. Myself included.
As a power user, I’m still not interested. Chezmoi serves me more than well to sync between my work laptop and my main desktop PC, because I’m running Arch on both systems and I still haven’t had the need to reproduce a system in over a decade with Arch. 🥰 So stable.
But yeah if you reinstall frequently or manage a lot of machines daily then it might be worth looking into. 👌
I think a lot of people do care about it, just not under that name. But I think a lot of users asked themselves at least once “what did I do back then to achieve X”. Not in that the whole system is reproduced 1:1, but certain aspects. That’s something much easier to answer with nix.
The real level up is bare-metal Emacs.
Shame this OS does not come with a solid text editor.
Text editors are bloat, I only use punch cards
Let’s skip all intermediate quotes and directly jump to the xkcd reference: I only program with butterflies. Of course, there is an Emacs command for that: good ol’ C-x M-c M-butterfly
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Nice to know you’re enjoying Linux :P
I think that later on in your adventure, you’ll notice that you don’t actually need a distro that’s hard to maintain in order to do the hardcore stuff.
Going back to more tame distros (Mint, Debian, Fedora, Solus) may actually suit you better, even for said tasks.
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Cybersecurity and “stopping hackers” are very extensive and complex topics. It’s kinda like a mix of many areas of knowledge (software, hardware, coding, internet of things, etc…)
So one advice I think I can give you is that there is a “tool” of hacking that is often overlooked: Social Engineering.
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You’re going to feel right at home with TempleOS.
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Terry Davis.
Welp, here’s sincerely hoping this is not a bad omen.
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And he’s also the best fucking programmer of all time.
That sounds like quite the combo, hope you’re doing alright. I’ll probably pass on calling you schizo though if that’s ok. I had just assumed you were shitposting tbh, but whatever floats your boat. Hope you enjoy the community and the Linux experience
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What kind of “hardcore shit” are you planning to do with your computer? 😅
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I understood the exaggeration part, just not the specifics 😁 Alright, cool