Can I get some Linux Help and Advice?

[steve_v]

38 minutes ago, Green Baron said:

One thing should be mentioned: these tools create their own databases.

AFAIK, Synaptic doesn't respect /etc/apt/preferences and keeps it's own priority settings.
Other than that I can't say I've had any issues in ~10 years running apt-get, aptitude, synaptic and packagekit frontends on the same system.
 

38 minutes ago, Green Baron said:

One should read the man pages

One should use man pages (and info pages, and apropos to find both) as a primary source of information, preferably well before resorting to internet searches.

Edited September 24, 2018 by steve_v

[Green Baron]

Once i used synaptics and it took me like 20 minutes to find and install something. Since then i have stubbornly ignored it.

I also never had a problem mixing apt-get and aptitude. But i lost a lot of "inventiveness" for errors since my first steps. Just thought it might be better to mention possible traps right away ...

Doing a quick lookup i might have said too much much with the "own database" thing. Thanks for the hint ;-)

[NewtSoup]

I am a tinkerer by nature but in this particular instance I'm going to stick to the "If it ain't broke, don't fix it" aphorism.

[steve_v]

15 hours ago, NewtSoup said:

I'm going to stick to the "If it ain't broke, don't fix it" aphorism.

Fair enough. I tend to go with "I have backups, so breaking stuff is kinda fun."

My Gentoo box just got nvidia 410.57 and firefox 62.0.2 with link time optimisation.

[NewtSoup]

Gentoo was my first foray into Linux in about 1999 ( one of the pre-releases ) it had an early enlightenment desktop.  I did actually get it all to compile and run and look nice for a few days but then it fell over and I had no idea at all how to get it back running so I went back to windows for the next many years. I was very much a gamer and linux gaming back then was pretty much non existant

[Green Baron]

Well, installing a modern day distro with up to date drivers and different desktops is a piece of cake then 4u.

 

Am planning to do a gentoo installation too once i have the time for tinkering :-)

Edited September 25, 2018 by Green Baron

[steve_v]

13 hours ago, NewtSoup said:

Gentoo was my first foray into Linux in about 1999

I was running Slackware at that point, I moved to Gentoo around 2003 (after a brief flirtation with LFS) and ran it without issues for ~5 years before switching to Debian for "just works" and no lengthy compile time. Installing stuff with Gentoo on a P166 was slow.

Then Systemd became inescapable on Debian, so I escaped Debian. I look to Gentoo as one of the few remaining distros with a choice of init systems, and discover that it's now considered "old guard".
But it's got choice and freedom, and that's what matters. Kinda felt like coming home TBH.

 

13 hours ago, NewtSoup said:

linux gaming back then was pretty much non existant

Yeah, I was dual-booting until a few years ago, for this very reason.

Edited September 26, 2018 by steve_v