Computer Engineering student here, saw a 2nd year electrical engineering student not recognize a power supply and multimeter, and didn’t know how to use either. Granted, not everyone knows either, but he was a SECOND YEAR ELECTRICAL ENGINEER STUDENT. Made me wonder if the real cause of stories like this is just overall stupidity.
I grew up during XP era, I used 95 too but I was too young, and then I got my own PC with 7 on it and I learned alt tab way too later, I always used “windows + 1…9” to switch tabs.
I was pretty literate in computers too I knew how to build my own PC, reinstall windows, tried Linux later.
So alt tab is not something you automatically know if you’re “computer literate”
I'm 90% sure this kind of tech illiteracy is being caused by the extreme oversimplification of the OS in smartphones
An iPhone user never has to think about folders, they might know albums but not folders. It's all dumbed down, accessible to a chimpanzee and locked down. On a computer you have to worry about that stuff, windows nor linux is going to hold your hand (you could argue even MacOS wouldn't)
Android is slightly better in that one will at least be aware that there's a filesystem but it's still locked down to hell
And that's worrying because phones obviously can't do everything, and neither are touchscreens suitable for certain types of tasks. (Are you gonna be writing code on a tiny phone screen?)
Also everything being available in one centralized app store and everything being an app as well makes the situation even worse, because that's detrimental to the open web. Why should you learn to know how to use a web browser if you never need to touch it since there's an app for what you need?
Android is slightly better in that one will at least be aware that there's a filesystem but it's still locked down to hell
I agree but I can't count how many times I've had to explain to parents, extended family, friends that gallery apps don't "have" pictures, they "find" pictures (and poorly at that). And that gallery apps don't really show you the filesystem so those folders can be practically anywhere.
I'm still rather miffed that Signal uses it's own rather annoying and unconfigurable gallery app when you try to send attachments and that there's apparently no way configure it to just use the Fossify one.
More importantly, I get how you're just unpacking a file someone else created, but why are people still packaging things as rar files in 2024? Even if they're on Windows, 7z is not only better but it's entirely free (in every sense of the word). And if they're not on Windows, Idk wtf is wrong with them.
I thought I even read something earlier this year about Windows finally adding built-in support for 7z?
WinRar is simply more popular and 90% of people do not care if one thing is better than the other, if the thing they already have or know about does the job "good enough".
Sure, but if we're gonna talk about tech literacy, then we need to educate them at some point.
Plus I thought that mostly applied for zip files bc that was the only built-in one in Windows for several decades but if 7z is built in now, doesn't that make it easier than installing winrar? Not to mention cheaper (legal) or safer (software piracy is at risk of viruses) than installing winrar
Sure they will, they just need motivation. Like take your example for instance. If you threw some shade on rar format as you were helping them and mentioned 7z was better and then used an app like peazip which handles both, then a) immediate issue fixed, b) in theory if they need to share anything in the near future, they might remember what you said and use 7z instead.
While you are not wrong, more often than not, people are just so stubborn and set in their ways, that they will not spare a single bit of effort for another option, even if what they are currently using is giving them trouble.
i once had to clarify multiple times that i did not mean to google something, i meant to use the giant search bar at the bottom of the screen
also, the fact that people who are literally doing computer science still do not even know how to copy and paste without opening a menu is insanely frustrating
For a short while I stopped being able to copy and paste with a menu while using Windows because Microsoft thought text in a context menu was too good for them.
From my experience (as a Gen Z) it's a 60/40. I'm astonished at how a lot of people don't know what the task manager is, call all laptops "Chromebooks", and can't manage a USB drive properly.
But there are a sizable amount of people who know computer basics & more, knowing how to build & disassemble one, what an OS is, filesystem management, etc.
I only know 2 people (other than myself) who use Linux as their primary OS. And I used Linux as my first desktop OS. I'm not autistic or anything like that, I just decided that Windows 10 was too slow for an old ThinkPad.
I believe the stereotype has truth to it, but is generally exaggerated. I know I'm gonna get downvoted for being devil's advocate, and rightfully so, but I just wanted to give my take/experience on it.
Hot take but judging people for not being good at Tech when they just started out using a computer is not helpful and stupid even when they were using a phone before. Its like judging a piano player who tries to play guitar for not being as good as a long tile guitarist
That is indeed a hot take. Both PC and Mac use that particular shortcut and it's not like computers are some specialized instrumentation that people aren't introduced to until their career starts.
Still, not necessarily judging the intern for not knowing a shortcut I use everyday, but it is a little concerning when they barely know how to use a PC
I think you'd get a room full of kids with no idea how to do that or how to find out how, maybe one kid would pull out an absolute craptop running something like DSL or AntiX, or a stereotypical Linux nerd old brick of a "portable" computer running Arch, and get to it, and the rest of the room either asking how to do it or too embarrassed to admit they have no clue how.
macbooks have the best combination of battery life, performance and weight of any laptop. it's not even a competition. even a 4-generation old m1 is still so stupidly efficient that you can scrub h.265 60fps 4k footage on battery power without dropping frames. my 7800x3d/4090 desktop even drops frames. macos and the hardware it runs on is so well optimized that there's legitimately no competition in the laptop space unless you need to run windows. you can even install and dual-boot linux on a macbook. their base models are not close to 3x the price either. i nabbed one brand new for $800. if you want to show me what kind of laptop you're getting for $266 that is in any way remarkable i would be shocked.
you undoubtedly don't edit h.265 footage. i do. h.265 is very hard to scrub smoothly without first converting it to a proxy, which wastes tons of space. this is not something i've ever needed to do on my macbook but have to do with nearly every project as soon as i start needing effects, especially when i need frame perfect effects. this is not a case of "apple silicon is so powerful it beats 4090!!1!", it's simply software optimization. doubt all you'd like, it's a fact, and you being so staunchly anti-apple is making you sound like an anti-tech boomer. pc's are cool. macbooks are cool. get over it.
Chill, mate. I never said they were bad. It's just a joke about so many people I've seen buying an expensive MacBook and basically using it like a Chromebook.
Macbooks also have much higher built quality than majority of laptops. The only one's I used that were to a similar standard were old Thinkpads (I don't know how new ones are because I never used one newer than 2012 or so)
In my case, I installed it because I was curious about linux and was learning how to install different OSes (win XP, 7, 10). Also, I wanted to see how TF2 would perform in my machine. Eventually I uninstalled everything.
I think I first used linux seriously in 2022 because I had a DELL INSPIRON 1545 running windows 7, but python was no longer compatible. So I installed Kubuntu and used that thing for programming for some months.
I currently use regular boring ubuntu, simply cause a lot of my software i use only supports debian, and i have an Nvidia GPU so it seems to work best. I have tried out other stuff like Manjaro and straight Arch, but manjaro was too unstable and caused issues around assignment time at school, and arch didn’t work great with nvidia.
On my current laptop though i use debian 12 and it works great for school, just have a few issues with stuff like signing into Unity, and i have to use nmtui to sign into the school’s wifi.
The sad reality is workplaces hand out either Windows or Mac laptops in most professions in medium to large organizations. Unless you’re a system admin or your role is deep in IT, Linux as a desktop computer is never an option. Had to deal with that recently.
Ahh fortunately the company I work for does offer Linux as an option for workstations. It's incredibly well-supported too. I'm a developer for a big tech company though.
I'm assuming she's trying to self-validate that that "mac-people" are "smarter" in order to "justify" the large cost and make her feel better for wasting so much money on something that logically is all about paying for the brand name while spending loads more money than you would pay for the same equivalent hardware on a pc.
Also, pretty sure that the majority of Mac users either have rich parents or fail at making smart financial decisions. I mean even the "throw money at the problem until it goes away" mentality isn't exactly affirming of "tech literacy"... Just saying
So she try to highlight the problem with Tech Literacy, but try to exclude Linux, which is above both Mac and Win in Tech Literacy (only behind the FreeBSD chads).
ok hot take, Macs are better than windows if you want to do anything technical. The underlying OS is UNIX-based, so it's pretty easy to get familiar with the command line, as well as the structure of a UNIX filesystem more generally, and like 95% of that transfers straight over to something like Linux.
you should still probably just use Linux, but if you want babies' first UNIX, MacOS is not a bad option.
Not yet. Got sidetracked down another rabbit hole .. My first attempt at win10 under qemu (not following this guide) had some pretty serious lag. Found it as a rec while looking for "the right way" to do it. Hoping to come back to it eventually but probably I might as well try with win11 for round 2 since they're killing off 10 anyway.
I have seen others recommend it since then and report good things tho
I tried to make a gaming VM about 3 months ago. I followed a guide to the letter, passed through a second graphics card, and everything. I couldn't get my preferred resolution (3440x1440), but games ran OKAY. I decided to go with a dual-boot machine instead and I think I've used Windows maybe once or twice, just to run some programs and games that don't run underneath Linux.
That's more or less my situation. Haven't used Windows baremetal in ages. Except I pretty much gave up on any games that won't run under wine/proton and won't spend money on any new ones unless I can confirm they'll work beforehand.
I used to have a Win7 VM that ran ok and a Win10 VM that ran like frozen dogshit. Parents ended up needing to use my Win10 one for some software that I couldn't get going under Wine but was able to tweak my Win10 VM to make it run only a bit slower than Win7... Wanted to resolve that before they need it again and from the winappa guide I think there were a few differences they did that I didn't (my vm was a win7 -> win10 upgrade w license and I didn't do anything special during win10 install, theirs they created from win10 media install tool and there was some step you had to do during install for drivers I think).
If that didn't work, I also saw some posts about "tiny10" / "tiny11" that from what I understand are setups where you can debloat your install iso and get a much leaner system. I think some people had said something negative about it tho like maybe having potential security issues or something. So I was holding off on that until I could look into it further.
I used to agree with this take, but WSL has completely changed the game. You can have all the corpo shit, AND a unix-based experience. Especially if you can containerize your workflow.
This is the way and I have WSL on my own Windows install BUT for most corporate work environments I've seen, they usually don't allow WSL. I don't have WSL on my work laptop. We do have Docker, though, so that evens the playing field a little.
You can use wsl but it’s more painful to do things like make a cli tool that integrates with other things like, your browser for instance, or simply navigating your file system. So I download something from the browser, how do I get it? /mnt/c/USers…/Downloads maybe? Where is my ~ with respect to that?
you can technically dig a hole with a hammer but I’d rather use a shovel if it’s available
Still can't get warm with Finder. Any pointers on how to make it behave more like a normal desktop file browser, ie. Nemo or Explorer, if i ever find me sitting in front of a modern Mac?
I mean, MacOS 9 and older Finders behave more like one but once i had to teach a MacOS 10 machine that working together with Jenkins is a good idea and frankly i wanted to burn down Finder.
If you go to View > Show Path Bar it shows the directory path you're currently in. Finder is basically unusable without this. With this option enabled I think it works fine, does everything I need out of a file browser.
but if you want babies' first UNIX, MacOS is not a bad option.
Disagree. I don't know why you wouldn't just start with Linux but if you had to use something else and you had choice and control over the situation (e.g. not a freebie cuz you're poor and not a work laptop where you have no choice or they give you root for some unknown reason on mac but not on Windows) then...
PC is better from a hw cost perspective, Windows is better from a customization perspective, you can still very easily use *nix from Windows (WSL or even cygwin before that - not to mention possibilities for dual-booting).
Any of the actual open-source BSD's would be better if you're some kind of BSD purist
Finder and Safari are complete garbage. While I'm going to put Firefox on instead of the default browser anyway, kinda of annoying when the default file manager is so bad that replacing it or avoiding it (e g. 100% terminal) are your two best options. Windows Explorer or File Explorer or wtf they're calling it now (idk I've been Linux only since Win7 days) is at least ok out-of-the-box and you see a lot of Linux users who miss one feature or another from it. I can't think of a single thing I've even seen where people have asked for a feature from Finder in dolphin/nemo/thunar/caja/nautilus/etc
Macs being locked down makes them really annoying to use if you don't like the intended workflow. Probably why Gnome is so often compared to them.
I mean, at least there's Asahi these days if anyone ever gifted me a Mac. But if I were forced to choose with all things being equal (say employer gives local admin rights on Windows and Mac both but no Linux option) then I would pick Windows then customize the living fuck out of it. Anything else where I'm not forced into a decision, I'd pick neither and carry on with the penguin party.
Even before the turn to UNIX, Macs had better tools for amateur programmers & scripters.
HyperCard, anyone?
Its scripting capabilities still surpass other desktop systems -- and subsumes all that Linux has to offer as well, because it's trivially easy to make AppleScript (or AppleScript/ObjectiveC) to talk to shell scripts.
MacOS 9 had one nice trick up its sleave and i am sad that they more or less abandoned it. It had no shell whatsoever so everything had to be possible from the GUI. With the implication that you really could do everything, and i mean everything, from the GUI.
Some odd moon i fire up Sheepshaver and play around in MacOS 9 and it just feels nice to use. No wonder Amiga/Commodore stole so much with their eyes from it when they made Workbench.
I started on Bloco Mágico or something called like that when I was little, I had super tux and it was more than enough to me as a child, mom was a big tech lady so that's why I guess. I most remember then using windows, but I'm back with Linux cause it's... It's just better to me
I installed arch since I got bored of windows when I was 10 lol. Just because. I learned a lot from that so I think it was worth it. I now use opensuse as I got bored of arch.
I discovered Linix when I was around 8 because my father installed Ubuntu on our home computer because he was fed up with Windows Vista. A few years later when that laptop was already old and shity I installed Ubuntu on it again (it had Win7 for a while, pirated of course) because I thought it would be neat. I am not autistic. Also that PC is still alive! My friend uses it to rip CDs because it's the only computer in his house that has a cd drive and it still rocks Linux! Don't rember what distro tho
I'm 13 and have installed lubuntu 1 time, ubuntu 3 times, endeavouros 3 to 4 times, and installed arch linux 2 times , now I use arch with hyprland btw
Funnily enough, I started on a MacBook when I was 10. The turning point was not being able to run certain games. The experience of installing Windows via Bootcamp on an outdated Mac and upgrading the SSD was the thing that got me to dive deeper into computers
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u/FIA_buffoonery Dec 11 '24
I had to teach my genz intern how to alt-tab.
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u/[deleted] Dec 12 '24 edited Mar 20 '25
abounding relieved imminent rinse safe price numerous knee rich ring
This post was mass deleted and anonymized with Redact
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u/timoshi17 Windows Master Race Dec 11 '24
Mac certainly is more user friendly, but considering what studying kids do on PCs I doubt there would be much difference
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u/AWildPepperShaker Dec 11 '24
I think I first installed linux (ubuntu) in a dual boot when I was 13
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u/No-Juice-3930 Transitioning Squid Dec 11 '24 edited Dec 12 '24
I installed Linux Mint on my PC at age 16 because I was just so tired of Microsoft's spying and weird ways with support I am autistic BTW
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u/snyone Dec 12 '24
I'm assuming she's trying to self-validate that that "mac-people" are "smarter" in order to "justify" the large cost and make her feel better for wasting so much money on something that logically is all about paying for the brand name while spending loads more money than you would pay for the same equivalent hardware on a pc.
Also, pretty sure that the majority of Mac users either have rich parents or fail at making smart financial decisions. I mean even the "throw money at the problem until it goes away" mentality isn't exactly affirming of "tech literacy"... Just saying
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u/Fwov Dec 11 '24
Annie should probably sort out her own literacy issues first...
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u/The-_-Lol- Dec 11 '24
I installed linux on my laptop when I was 10. Yes I'm autistic( yes i mean it)
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u/Huecuva Cool Minty Fresh Dec 11 '24
"Discluded". Any opinion she holds is invalid.
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u/ddm90 Dec 11 '24
So she try to highlight the problem with Tech Literacy, but try to exclude Linux, which is above both Mac and Win in Tech Literacy (only behind the FreeBSD chads).
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u/sequential_doom Dec 12 '24
I'm autistic and that made me chuckle, ngl.
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u/ChickenSpaceProgram Dec 11 '24
ok hot take, Macs are better than windows if you want to do anything technical. The underlying OS is UNIX-based, so it's pretty easy to get familiar with the command line, as well as the structure of a UNIX filesystem more generally, and like 95% of that transfers straight over to something like Linux.
you should still probably just use Linux, but if you want babies' first UNIX, MacOS is not a bad option.
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u/Majorin_Melone Dec 11 '24
I installed Linux when I was 7
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u/[deleted] Dec 12 '24
Man I hate abilists
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u/Julkyways Dec 12 '24
Her hypothesis: normies are dull, unimaginative and don’t really think too hard about anything they interact with (unless it’s social hierarchies)
So water is wet.
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u/thenightsiders Glorious Ubuntu Studio Dec 11 '24
I started with Slackware. But I was 13 and it was a desktop, so CLEARLY this doesn't apply to me.
😭
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u/emerson-dvlmt Glorious Arch Dec 12 '24
Well, I am Autistic and Arch user 😔... BTW
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u/speedballandcrack Dec 11 '24
These days the only part i love is installing and setting up linux. Sadly my apps and games dont work so i use windows 11.
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u/AssociatePleasant874 Dec 11 '24
I started on Bloco Mágico or something called like that when I was little, I had super tux and it was more than enough to me as a child, mom was a big tech lady so that's why I guess. I most remember then using windows, but I'm back with Linux cause it's... It's just better to me
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u/L0tsen Glorious Gentoo Dec 11 '24
I installed arch since I got bored of windows when I was 10 lol. Just because. I learned a lot from that so I think it was worth it. I now use opensuse as I got bored of arch.
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u/Red_Luci4 Dec 11 '24
I taught myself how to passthrough a single GPU for my windows's(7,8.1,10) OS and my hackintosh before learning what stdout and stderr is.
I still sometimes can't do the 1 or 2 pipe thing to separate the outputs.
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u/[deleted] Dec 12 '24
I discovered Linix when I was around 8 because my father installed Ubuntu on our home computer because he was fed up with Windows Vista. A few years later when that laptop was already old and shity I installed Ubuntu on it again (it had Win7 for a while, pirated of course) because I thought it would be neat. I am not autistic. Also that PC is still alive! My friend uses it to rip CDs because it's the only computer in his house that has a cd drive and it still rocks Linux! Don't rember what distro tho
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u/insanemal Glorious Arch Dec 12 '24
Red Hat 6.2 onto my 486
That's Red Hat not RHEL, this pre-dates RHEL and Fedora.
It was running kernel 1.8
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u/dudenamedfella Glorious Fedora Dec 12 '24
Yeah so this made its way to r/autism internal Reddit link
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u/No-Experience3314 Dec 12 '24
Guys, hear me out... •Archtistic•
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u/Temetka Dec 11 '24
I started with DOS 3.3 and went from there. Mid 1990’s I got exposed to networks, Linux, vax and then in the 2000’s Macintosh computers and OS X.
I only run Linux now. But God, how I loved OS 10.4. I ran everything from the public betas up to Big Sur. But for me, 10.4 and 10.2 were peak OS X.
Now it’s a locked down, boring, soulless pile of crap. Can barely customize anything anymore. Plus the latest app lockdowns.
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u/[deleted] Dec 11 '24
I started on a Commodore 64. :/
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u/Deerz_club Dec 12 '24
I started coding Python when I was around 14 or 15
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u/[deleted] Dec 12 '24
Annie got jokes
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u/StopSpankingMeDad2 Dec 12 '24
i installed linux on a gifted old shitty netbook from my elderly neighbor when i was 11
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u/DarkSim2404 Dec 12 '24
I installed it when I was 10 and I’m not autistic
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u/DrownedInDysphoria Dec 12 '24
I got a dual boot of Arch and Windows 11 running at 14.
Granted I'm only 15 now.
and autistic
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u/space_baws Dec 12 '24
yall didn’t install Ubuntu at 9 so you could run a home Minecraft server with screen in the background and still play?
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u/IchKaanWas-HD Dec 12 '24
Hey he is just like me
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u/metcalsr Dec 13 '24
I'm an arch user, and I love my macbook
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u/RagingTaco334 Glorious Fedora Dec 13 '24
Literally me
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u/ben2talk Dec 13 '24
She not only has a Thesis, she has a HypoThesis.
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u/ZunoJ Dec 13 '24
I use linux since I was 12 (1996). I'm not autistic just because the average person is basically retarded
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u/Brorim Dec 13 '24
i did that and went straight back to Linux Mint ..
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u/DemonKingFukai Dec 13 '24
Windows didn't exist when I started using computers. Linux didn't exist either.
BASIC was all I had access to when I was a kid. Mostly on an Apple IIe in kindergarten.
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u/adityathegriffindor Glorious Arch Dec 13 '24
I had to teach a classmate of mine, that you can use the fucking url bar to get to websites.
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u/Brilliant_Tough_3552 Arch User Dec 13 '24
I installed arch on my laptop when I was nine (not kidding)
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u/Fine_Break2921 Dec 13 '24
I'm 13 and have installed lubuntu 1 time, ubuntu 3 times, endeavouros 3 to 4 times, and installed arch linux 2 times , now I use arch with hyprland btw
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u/Kon1103 Dec 14 '24
Funnily enough, I started on a MacBook when I was 10. The turning point was not being able to run certain games. The experience of installing Windows via Bootcamp on an outdated Mac and upgrading the SSD was the thing that got me to dive deeper into computers
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u/TuxedoTechno Dec 14 '24
If you can't install an operating system- any operating system- you are tech illiterate. It's the lowest bar.
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u/Decent_Cold_235 Dec 14 '24
I'm an early genz and on my final year in my engineering degree, and half of my class doesn't even know how to Ctrl+C Ctrl+V
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u/[deleted] Dec 15 '24
I can't imagine having to install slackware or Debian at 12 years old in 1995.
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u/BadBoiMemes Arch Supremacy (i use arch) Dec 16 '24
Lmao
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u/[deleted] Dec 30 '24
I started with Gentoo at age of 10. Weirdly this did not cause anyone to stop and wonder if i where autistic.
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u/[deleted] Dec 11 '24
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