Where to get tips and advice for someone new to linux

18 hours ago by TexNox to c/linux

I would class myself as reasonably computer literate but have always used windows (since win95 so that dates me). I'm looking to get used to Linux and have stuck mint onto an old notebook to get used to the system.

We've been up and running for a couple of months now and I've got the basics going but I'm starting to collect questions on how to do this, best ways to achieve that etc, in times past there would probably be a good forum community I could start posting on to learn but I don't know where to go these days.

Where do you take your open questions to, to learn and improve.

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PixelatedSaturn -5 points 17 hours ago

I understand I'm going to get downvoted and hated for this, but AI.

It's amazing. Basically I started with Linux, set up everything, gamed, set up a server, jellyfin, torrents, nextcloud ( fantastic btw, so so happy with this), all over cloudflare ( didn't even know what that is before), webserver. I host a bunch of stuff now for my climbing club. I moved all my services to some open source stuff that ai helps me install and use.

I have zero time to research this stuff on me own with the family and work, bit I did All this stuff. It's amazing.

Next I'm buying a bunch of sensors and connecting them to the server and I want to have an app that shows what's going on with temperature and humidity and microwave movement sensor,... I have no idea how any of this will work, but I'm confident I will do it which is just bizarre really.

Linux is awesome, ai is awesome too help me do all this stuff.

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WhoIzDisIz 5 points 17 hours ago

LLMs ("AI" is quite the misnomer, IMHO) can be useful when its source material is well vetted, or at least made up of mostly reliable input. In the rush to dominate the market, "AI" purveyors have been far less judicious in what they provided as input to their LLMs, and in the end shot themselves in the foot by doing so. Validate what it's telling you against actual sources, and it can indeed be helpful.

ETA: Also check for information it leaves out as you're doing that validation - especially when it involves server administration, because missing details can be quite fatal to your server security.

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khleedril 5 points 17 hours ago

@WhoIzDisIz @PixelatedSaturn Even then it can produce utter nonsense. Do not trust!

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WhoIzDisIz -2 points 16 hours ago

Oh, okay - on your absolutely minimalist say-so the world will stop using LLMs.

🙄

If you're going to make an assertion, at least try to back it up with an explanation or example if you want to be taken seriously. Otherwise you're just wasting everybody's time - including yours (and potentially diminishing your reputation).

In the meantime, I'll just point out there's a reason I said to validate what it's telling you.

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PixelatedSaturn -3 points 17 hours ago

The name ai has been used to describe many things. We called Chess engines ai, we still call video game opponents ai. Even the guy who coined the phrase intended it to describe something that is simulating inteligence. I think LLMs are something that completely fit the bill. When we invent something better, we will probably stop calling LLMs ai, but I think it's completely fair to do it until then. It's a simulation, I think the general public understanding is that this is not a living intelligence we are conversing with.

Validate what it's telling you against actual sources, and it can indeed be helpful. Yes, but.... I don't have to do this anymore, because I ask it to explain each command to me and while I would still struggle without it, right now I call already understand the commands. It can't delete everything or something epic like that. I don't use agents for this stuff, that would be more risky.

However.... I often wonder when I do cli commands and paste them back to llms, how stupid that is. Maybe it's still necessary to keep control? But when I extrapolate into the future and let's say llms get just a bit more reliable, doing all the stuff I did would take no effort at all.

I think of it sort of like soup. You don't need soup to be extremely well defined to work. Sure you can mess it up, but it's not that likely and if that situation doesn't hold a big financial penalty then why not risk away?

Also, I'm not some ai evangelist. I'm more like extremely pragmatic.

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WhoIzDisIz 7 points 16 hours ago

As they say, "it's your funeral, do what you want." Sooner or later you will wind up trusting it a bit too much, and it will bite you. Also bear in mind who's behind those "AIs" - control freak tech magnates who can and will abuse their power over them to manipulate the masses.

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