this post was submitted on 08 Mar 2025
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Linux: i can't stop dumb users (me) completely destroying everything with a bad console command
I much prefer that to Apple's approach of "you probably didn't want to do that, so you can't". I've literally had to boot into Linux to fix things on Macs. Fucking infuriating.
I did this. Luckily, nothing was lost because I was only using it to learn at the time. It oddly boosted my confidence because if I could break the OS, I could learn how to use it.
I'm pretty sure that if you use elevated privileges to run commands you don't understand, you can break Windows just as much as you can break Linux. Windows might pop up an extra "Are you sure?" box or two though. It's been a while since I did anything on that OS.
You can, but on windows there is no need usually to run these kind of commands.
What happened was that years ago I was trying out Ubuntu but didn't like the UI, so I followed some steps from someone to replace the gnome or whatever with something else (kde?), but then the ui completely broke down.
Given how fickle that system is in Ubuntu, I was probably using legit sources for the commands, but they were not fully up to date and something went wrong.
Ironically, something similar happened lately on my Ubuntu virtual machine, where the file explorer has rendering issues, but tbh I think this time it was because the virtual machine disk space became full mid update, so kind of my bad too.
The only thing keeping me in windows these days is that I just really like the UI, but I think next time I need to format (which admittedly might be year or two from now) I might move to GraphyOS anyway.
I would not recommend someone who does not know what they are doing replacing the DE, the process heavily varies depending on your current setup. If you want Ubuntu with KDE, just use Kubuntu.
A great learning experience to not copy paste commands yoj don't understand.
Breaking things is a valid way to start learning. Reading man pages is very often difficult and confusing for new users. And much of the documentation is crap anyway-- it's why distro forums exist. And I'm from a time when distro upgrades/updates were sometimes dicey, (they still can break things on occasions), and you complied your kernel and drivers from scratch.
Please, I don't understand a single command I'm putting in. I'm just copying whatever some nerd posted on a message board.
wget url | bash
Nice, now your computer is mining crypto for someone else or part of a botnet.
Ftfy
But that's in my experience sadly very necessary especially in the beginning when you are getting into Linux. So getting into Linux has quite a steep learning curve because not knowing what you are copy pasting can have terrible consequences, but understanding everything before you copy paste is very demanding.
When out comes to my main rig, i never had the experience of everything just working out of the box. There was always something that required me searching for obscure fixes, hoping for the best.
No it absolutely is not. When you're looking up guides and come across an unfamiliar command, don't copy and paste it and find out what it does. Google it. Man it. Research it. Stop copying and pasting commands you don't understand.
My point is that if that is the case (and I do understand why) then i can't possibly recommend Linux to people that don't want their OS to be their hobby, because as for my experience they will come across something that needs some command line input.
I would genuinely be surprised if you could give me an example of a command that can't be replicated with a GUI in some way
Lots of install instructions are based on commands. If you know what they are doing, you might be able to replace them, but then you already understand them, so...
If you're installing something without understanding the command behind it then you're doing something wrong. You wouldn't download and install a random .exe, so stop running random wget | sudo bash commands.
I actually think a lot of people put the same or more effort into Windows, they just don't realize it because it's what they're used to. You would verify the install instructions on Windows. If you wouldn't, then you probably should be on something atomic rather than windows or a normal Linux distro.
I think you overestimate most people wrt computer knowledge.
Plus sometimes you don't have a choice in what you install. I recently had to install Kind for a class I was taking and their only install options on linux are just that: downloading binaries and moving them to /bin.
First of all, that's not their only install option as far as I can tell. I can see an incantation which automatically pulls and installs it, and I see a step-by-step
make buildinstruction set.Both of which can be relatively easily googled because they're both only 3 commands. And, if you're on a Linux machine that means you probably have access to the man pages for make, mv and cd.
And also don't run commands that require you to type in "do as I say" before they run
Yeah. Reminds me of a dependency fuckup with steam on pop os that uninstalled the desktop environment when trying to install steam.
I'm still pissed off about how LTT reacted to that. The warning literally told you not to do it, you did it anyway, and somehow that's Linux's fault? That's like eating one of those silica packets that says "DO NOT EAT" and then blaming the manufacturer.
I never messed up my computer despite frequently not knowing what certain command I am running does. Am I lucky, can I buy a lottery on this basis?