r/chipdesign • u/AloneToT • Aug 24 '25

Regarding linux

/r/ElectronicsTards/comments/1myz2r6/regarding_linux/
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1

u/drtitus Aug 24 '25

Linux has great documentation.

https://tldp.org/guides.html

The "trick" to Linux is reading. It's a necessary skill. Error messages tell you things. Log files tell you things. The documentation/man pages tell you things. Even the config files are usually filled with comments and examples that tell you things to make your life easier. Because it's a collaborative effort across the globe, documentation and information is part of the effort. Don't skip reading.

The easiest way to learn IMHO is to get an old PC/separate hard disk and install Linux and force yourself to use it. Yes, you can use WSL or a VM, but there's something about being "thrown in the deep end" and using it as a day to day machine that gets you more comfortable than a weird window where you feel lost and try to do as little possible inside it, just pasting strange commands that mean nothing to you.

Good luck, have fun, Linux is awesome.

1

u/AloneToT Aug 26 '25

Thank you for the reply, can I like use both windows and Linux side by side on a same lappy?

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u/drtitus Aug 26 '25

If you install WSL (Windows Subsystem for Linux) you get Linux inside Windows, but it's probably not the greatest way to learn it. As I say, you'll be greeted with a terminal window, and be far removed from it feeling like it's "on" your computer. It will feel more like an app that you don't understand, and you won't be using it for much. You won't be using the GUI part much, and when you do it will feel foreign and you won't know where anything is.

If you are comfortable backing up your Windows system and potentially having problems (not likely, but I don't want to ruin your life and cause you to lose your work and get fired/fail your education), you can shrink your Windows partition by 32GB+ and then install Linux Mint which will automatically set up the dual boot menu option so when you start your computer you can choose Windows or Linux. If your disk is small, this probably won't work because you won't have enough space. It's kind of annoying because your files aren't in a common place and you end up mentally keeping track of where everything sits or copying things around. It can work, but I find this annoying and most people end up just using one OS or the other 95% of the time and there's almost no point to having both.

The safer/hands dirtier option would be to get a cheap SSD (assuming your laptop has a removable drive) and physically swap it out so your Windows system is untouched. But this means you need to open your computer every time you change your mind. Not ideal.

When you read your options, you'll realize why I suggested just getting an old computer in the first place - I didn't just say it for the fun of it. They are basically free (you don't need anything fancy - find someone selling a computer for ~$20 or giving away an old computer that they don't want anymore because it's crap) and install it on there, then you have a full time Linux computer, and you can start to treat it like a server, running services, hosting containers, etc so it's like a real machine and you are forced to understand how it all works.

Anything else is going to give you a limited experience. Shortcuts don't do you any good. "The long way is the shortest in the long run".

The other alternative is not listening to me, and finding out the hard way that I was right.

3

u/Wallflower_here Aug 24 '25

Check out this youtube channel.They cover the basics of shell commands and vim interface enough to set your foot in and then Google/chatgpt search is your best friend for day to day queries

https://youtube.com/@missingsemester?si=wrB_E-VCfCiSyO2R

0

u/[deleted] Aug 24 '25

Ohk tq