The true search for the solution

It is quite common to install a new one Distribution X and look for documentation of it, but is there always and in all cases a documentation for any Linux distribution? Do users know how to differentiate distribution problems, or specific software? Do new users know how to find solutions?

The most feasible is that IF THERE IS that solution for the Distribution X (either in our language or in English), but most new users do not have the culture to assimilate that solution Z for your Distribution X shift. To find the solution for the Y distribution, the possibility that it is equivalent or associated with its Distro X But what if I told you that a solution for the District Y can serve the same way for your Distro?

Leaving the algebra aside and exemplifying this situation a bit, Ubuntu has an innumerable amount of information, tutorials and howto's, blogs and forums, whether in Spanish, in English, and another great variety of languages. It is very common for Ubuntu users who move to new Distros to misjudge their new acquisition for not finding information about it or how to solve a problem, when the solution is right under your nose, but they don't know how to see it.

Going back to the examples (which for me is the most practical way to understand the reasoning), when I took the initiative to move from Ubuntu to OpenSUSE, I had gotten used to (usually) finding and evacuating any doubts I had about the Canonical System through forums and / or blogs. But a Linux user, with the passage of time (at least that is what has happened to me), finds a way to solve the problems that may appear in an intuitive, reasonable and self-taught way, finding "equivalents" to your problem in a totally different distribution. 2 days ago, I took the initiative to exit OpenSUSE, and I moved my illusion to Fedora 10 (which is not an illusion, if not a charm: D), and believe me that the only thing I had to investigate was the operation of Yum.

Search methods

What a user new to the world of Linux (not Ubuntu, LINUX!) Would do, would go to Google and search for the solution based on their problem in the following way:

"Firewall not working in Ubuntu 8.10"

Is this search string correct? Now, if we look in another way:

"Firewall not working in Fedora 10"

Will we get the same results? Will it exist in our language? Will we have to find out where the Firewall is located and its configuration in the new Distribution? Are we waiting for a "guide" or a "step by step" on how to do it?

Maybe yes and maybe not. Actually we must bear in mind that blogs and forums are made by users of the Distribution in question (I put Ubuntu and Fedora as an example), and with this it should be clarified that if Ubuntu has too much information on the Internet, it is due to the large amount of users that it has attracted, and to a large extent, those users are very used to having the solution "on the tray".

Actually, the "new" Linux user (not Ubuntu, LINUX!) Has to understand is:

  1. If the distributions are based on Linux, all its commands are applicable to all distributions.
  2. Each distribution has its own package manager, be it Aptitude, Zypper, Yum, etc. Knowing in depth its use and application, it is easier to understand how the Distribution works, what it accepts and what it does not.
  3. The installable software packages are not all the same, be they .deb or .rpm, but they all come from a binary, compiled and packaged in the package system used by the Distribution.
  4. Folders, drives, and files in Linux are laid out in a single way. That there are some other exceptions between Distributions, is because they are their own. But / Home Gentoo is the same as Slackware!

The solution "on a tray"

With all this and many other points that I have not mentioned, it is good to be able to deduce that if our distribution has a Gnome desktop, it is very likely that the error and its solution are applicable to any other distribution that uses Gnome. If we have a problem with K3B, it is good to understand that the search for the solution is not based on distribution ( "K3B in Ubuntu does not play mp3"), but rather in the software itself ( "K3B does not play mp3").

More important is to differentiate the problems of software, Distribution, Linux, Hardware, etc. But only with time, learning, differentiation of elements, only at that moment do you really acquire a culture or learning about what to look for, and who to judge.

In reality, the distribution is just a cluster of packages, which has its installation method or manager and its parent distribution. On it, the rest of applications and various software work, and underneath, the Linux kernel, which is identical in all Distributions.

Perhaps, in some cases, new users are not correctly guided in how to find the solution to a problem. Those same users who believe that windows look bad in Kubuntu, and they never reflect that el culprit may be KDE. Those same users who usually judge a Distribution for not having the solution "on the tray", when you can apply another solution from another distribution X and solve the same problem.

And believe me, it is possible ...

This article has been written by bachi.tux who also writes Un Tux Loose


12 comments, leave yours

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  1.   I am said

    A big hug Bachi, thank you for writing to us today.
    And I take this opportunity to greet the entire community. From tomorrow they are left with one less windowsero, for 10 days. I will see you when I return.

  2.   I am said

    At the command of the ship is my partner Ffuentes, whatever they crucify him ... I'm going to be sunbathing in Brazil ...: D

  3.   f sources said

    I get the impression that this does not come only from those who need help, but from within the Linux culture, people in general, even when they post tutorials, most are focused on distros, implying that they serve only for that, although that Do not be like that.

    For example, many solutions in Ubuntu appear on blogs with this structure:

    "How to fix X program for Ubuntu Hardy Heron"

    And then you entered the link and realized that the solution worked for anyone.

    It is a cultural problem.

  4.   Juan C said

    But I think they do it like this to wash their hands. It is not healthy to say that such a tutorial can be used for any distro since if an error occurs the tutorial writer would be indirectly responsible and would lose credibility. Ideally, you should specify which distro it is proven to work on and which ones it might work on.

  5.   Menthol said

    So what you mean is that there are no more difficult distros than others?

  6.   bachi.tux said

    @ esty: thanks for letting me write to LXA!

    It is that I owed you (them) a ticket since the site started.

    I am not going to add much regarding this topic, simply that I stay with what I wrote, and reinforce the comment of @ffuentes.

    Greetings to all ...

    PS: @esty said the word "Community". SL syndrome perhaps?

  7.   I am said

    bachi.tux, you're welcome friend, you just know how long I was trying to convince you to bring you to write here, without success.
    Cesar, I'm not reeling, based on the great N @ tu post, I'm an SL user, I use thunderbird, firefox, pidgin, and more. I say community, because it seems to me that we have created a nice chat group among all of us, right? LXA! It is a nice place!!.

  8.   Caesar Salad said

    hehe, she's been wobbling for a long time, hehe. You are doubting the dark side of the force.

  9.   N @ ty said

    Excellent post on bachi.tux, a pride that you write in LXA! It's true, I admit I doubt when I can't find the answers to the problems I have in my distro X ... even though they are solved in Y.

    According to cesar and esty… we are a beautiful community !!

  10.   Caesar Salad said

    Unfortunately ... I agree with you. LXA! it is an excellent place !!!

  11.   bachi.tux said

    … And how the Community in question grows, right?

    Keep it up ...

  12.   f sources said

    @ bachi.tux: If you want to continue writing here you just have to notify us, in fact we will have space especially this week when Esteban is not there.

    We should start calling ourselves "LXA Community!"