Blaugust 23: Linux woes

Shane's mom got a laptop from some guy at her work. It's an HP Pavilion 7, which was manufactured 12 years ago and still has Windows 7, and I figured it'd be a good test subject to install Linux on. Since Windows is ending their support for the operating system from 7-10, it's recommended to breathe some new life into older computers by installing Linux. Especially if you're like me and hate Windows 11 and all the non-con genAI cortana gemini whatever shit.

But despite every tech nerd online saying “Linux is so easy to install even my 7 year old nephew can do it, why can't YOU, you stupid ugly asshole???”, I have failed on my first day of attempting to install Linux! Yippee! There's something wrong with the laptop or the USBs we got. I documented everything I did on that drafts page so I can look back and be like “wow!”, and maybe it will help someone else who is using the same oldass laptop as me.

My pal Becky wrote a blog post about moving to Linux, and it is very motivational to see another artist attempt this shit and talk about it. Many of us drawing-type people don't use computers that good, so we can try to break down the steps for each other in a way that's more understandable than trying to decode stackoverflow threads. Plus she got her installation working with CSP ¹⁾, and that program is notoriously awful to try to get working within Linux.

I have failed for now because our USBs are fried (guess they came dead in the package) and the installation keeps stalling due to a USB read error, but hopefully we'll be getting a return on those and getting another USB in the morning to flash Linux Mint Cinnamon Roll Galarian Darmanitan Zen Mode onto. My web-lord Kat is helping me figure out what the hell is wrong with this oldass laptop too, so many thanks to her for telling me what funny letters to type into the terminal.

But yeah, be nice to us cavemen that are not as smart as your 7 year old cousin at installing Linux!!! It's not like I don't know how to install an OS, I was the one as a kid to obtain Windows for my family, burn it onto a CD-rom, and install it on their self-built computers. It's just like… usually you just buy a computer and it comes with shitty Windows installed so you don't have to spend 5 days figuring out how to install it yourself because there's always 500 variables that aren't accounted for in the OH SO SIMPLE installation documentation. Hell I just searched up my laptop series and it just has a lot of weird issues with Linux specifically. Can't help that :P So it's a HUGE wall to adoption if every person who wants to install a better functioning OS has to get one-on-one help to set it up. Whereas yeah people will just use Windows or Apple cuz they won't fuck it up if it comes on the computer.

I'm not FOSS-phobic or nothing, I've found a lot of value in all sorts of free and open source programs! I think most of the stuff I use to play video games (Stardew Valley mods, Minecraft launcher Prism, my Oblivion/New Vegas mod manager MO2…) is FOSS, so there's where all familiarity with basic tech stuff comes from. Copying files, typing shit you don't understand into the command line, installing dependencies 🤢. All that stuff has come in very handy now that I'm dipping into a little webdev and a little non-Microsoft computing. So I think I do have one little baby stool step above me compared to some of my peers who even struggled to type their essays on a computer in school.

But it's just the fact of the matter that this shit CAN be frustrating and hard if your brain isn't aligned this way! I wouldn't know how the hell to diagnose my issue with installing Linux rn without Kat's guidance!!! It's like telling someone “anyone can draw, just start drawing portraits” which is like yeah ANYONE can draw for real! But the first steps are so important to get people into doing this - up to recommending easy materials like pen on paper vs. making someone jump into oil painting and chemical mixing first, or recommending starting with a simple subject like an apple versus a fully jointed human figure with dynamic posing and perspective. My learning-impaired ass WANTS to learn new things, it's just HARD without the right kind of teaching! And I gotta say most tutorials online on this shit is NOT the right kinda teaching for my kinda learning – or many other non-tech-inclined people's learning.

Pro-Tips:

• do not write “simply do xyz” or “just xyz” in your simple tech guide for noobs.
• Don't say stuff like “i'm so stupid I could do it, so you should be able to do it too!”.
• Explain simple obvious shit like “open the terminal” or “boot up the BIOS” - like you're explaining it for the first time to someone who's never touched a computer, even if I've done that shit before maybe I'm not doing it right and actually opening the wrong thing with a similar name!!!
• And have some screenshots so I can visually compare where I am on my on screen with where I should be.

Uhh that's it for now. A lil break from Ode To A Guy posting. I finished a commission, now to sketch out ideas for the next one… and respond to another email… ah and I want to move the furniture around our bedroom so our printer wire isn't stretched so far and is more comfortable for both me and Shane to get to when we're at our desks. Yayyyy. Coping by watching King Of The Hill recap/analysis videos.