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Linux is a family of open source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991 by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically packaged in a Linux distribution (or distro for short).

Distributions include the Linux kernel and supporting system software and libraries, many of which are provided by the GNU Project. Many Linux distributions use the word "Linux" in their name, but the Free Software Foundation uses the name GNU/Linux to emphasize the importance of GNU software, causing some controversy.

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What're some of the dumbest things you've done to yourself in Linux? (lemmy.ca)

submitted 6 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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I'm working on a some materials for a class wherein I'll be teaching some young, wide-eyed Windows nerds about Linux and we're including a section we're calling "foot guns". Basically it's ways you might shoot yourself in the foot while meddling with your newfound Linux powers.

I've got the usual forgetting the . in lines like this:

$ rm -rf ./bin

As well as a bunch of other fun stories like that one time I mounted my Linux home folder into my Windows machine, forgot I did that, then deleted a parent folder.

You know, the war stories.

Tell me yours. I wanna share your mistakes so that they can learn from them.

Fun (?) side note: somehow, my entire ${HOME}/projects folder has been deleted like... just now, and I have no idea how it happened. I may have a terrible new story to add if I figure it out.

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[–] [email protected] 5 points 6 months ago (1 children)

I wanted to upgrade my Ubuntu to a newer version, but I had to do it through the command line. During the upgrade it asked if I wanted to see the file changes or something, so I said yes for fun... I couldn't get out of the menu, or rather I didn't know how and seemed to be stuck halfway through the upgrade. I tried a bunch of keys and possible combinations including.... Ctrl + X.

So after quitting the terminal halfway through a system upgrade I tried to restore through backup. Turns out the backup was corrupted or something and didn't work. I never realized because I never thought to test it. I lost a few years of photos and some music files that I've had probably for decades that I downloaded off Limewire. I still have the backup file in case it can be salvaged some day, but oh well. Most of the files I was able to download again off of the bay.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 6 months ago (1 children)

Backup file? As in you zipped a folder or something?

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[–] [email protected] 2 points 6 months ago* (last edited 6 months ago)

I suppose it is like a super zip file. I was using Ubuntu's default backup (Deja Dup) which was just a gui for Duplicity. I was using the gui for everything but I suppose it didn't work. I spent days running through all the command options for duplicity, but it never yielded any results. I still don't really know what went wrong, but no matter.