It's like asking "How does toilet paper work?" Meaning to say you don't have to know all the details about how it comes to be but can just use it and appreciate it does work. And you also know it would be really messy and with poor hygiene without.
this post was submitted on 27 Sep 2026
1305 points (98.7% liked)
linuxmemes
33069 readers
1743 users here now
Hint: :q!
Sister communities:
Community rules (click to expand)
1. Follow the site-wide rules
- Instance-wide TOS: https://legal.lemmy.world/tos/
- Lemmy code of conduct: https://join-lemmy.org/docs/code_of_conduct.html
2. Be civil
- Understand the difference between a joke and an insult.
- Do not harrass or attack users for any reason. This includes using blanket terms, like "every user of thing".
- Don't get baited into back-and-forth insults. We are not animals.
- Leave remarks of "peasantry" to the PCMR community. If you dislike an OS/service/application, attack the thing you dislike, not the individuals who use it. Some people may not have a choice.
- Bigotry of any kind will not be tolerated. This is an LGBTQ+-friendly community -- if that is a problem for you, you should leave.
3. Post Linux-related content
- Including Unix and BSD.
- Non-Linux content is acceptable as long as it makes a reference to Linux. For example, the poorly made mockery of
sudoin Windows. - No porn, no politics, no trolling or ragebaiting.
- Don't come looking for advice, this is not the right community.
4. No recent reposts
- Everybody uses Arch btw, can't quit Vim, <loves / tolerates / hates> systemd, and wants to interject for a moment. You can stop now.
5. π¬π§ Language/ΡΠ·ΡΠΊ/Sprache
- This is primarily an English-speaking community. π¬π§π¦πΊπΊπΈ
- Comments written in other languages are allowed.
- The substance of a post should be comprehensible for people who only speak English.
- Titles and post bodies written in other languages will be allowed, but only as long as the above rule is observed.
6. (NEW!) Regarding public figures
We all have our opinions, and certain public figures can be divisive. Keep in mind that this is a community for memes and light-hearted fun, not for airing grievances or leveling accusations. - Keep discussions polite and free of disparagement.
- We are never in possession of all of the facts. Defamatory comments will not be tolerated.
- Discussions that get too heated will be locked and offending comments removed. Β
Please report posts and comments that break these rules!
Important: never execute code or follow advice that you don't understand or can't verify, especially here. The word of the day is credibility. This is a meme community -- even the most helpful comments might just be shitposts that can damage your system. Be aware, be smart, don't remove France.
founded 3 years ago
MODERATORS
That's me, who started using Linux 5 months ago. I'm like, "I use Linux btw" to everyone.
load more comments
(2 replies)
I've been using Linux for over 2 years. When does that part when I think I know how it works kicks in? I didn't get it.
Read the meme: you already passed it long ago!
(Though there is a second stage that kicks in when you manage to grow a grey beard - which is particularly impressive if you are a woman!)
load more comments
(1 replies)
It's more like the Sphere of Knowledge. The more you know about Linux (or pretty much any subject) that more you become aware of subjects you don't understand. Whereas when you don't know that much, there are fewer categories for which you are aware of your lack of understanding. Know unknowns vs unknown unknowns.
load more comments
(9 replies)
It's a moving target.
I creating my Meshtastic network and was having trouble setting a node with the right settings and wanted to plug in the unit into my Lenovo laptop running Fedora installed from the factory.
I click serial connection. The web app recognized the connection. Click connect. Failed. Tried different plugs and ports. Failed. Searched online and I need to do a bunch of things in terminal to get it to work properly.
Normally I would spend a few hours figuring it out. Instead....
Pulled out my 15 year old PC running win10. Plugged in, instantly worked.
I reeeeally want this to be my primary laptop, but man. I am just struggling on some basic things.
it will never be your main mschine of you don't use it as your main machine.
If it can't do everything your main machine needs to do, it can't possibly become your main machine.
load more comments
(3 replies)
Ah, permissions chicanery. Had to deal with that with connecting a Switch 2 controller with a WebUSB enabler. To be fair, once you add the right udev rules (it is a bit of a pain, yes), it should work for any other devices of the same type (I think it's any with the same USB ID so like same manufacturer and model? Don't quote me on that though). Still, I wish Chromium (since Firefox as far as I know still doesn't support WebUSB) could sort it out by itself (like just have an "allow" button rather than writing udev config files yourself) or at least be a bit more helpful in pointing you the right way with a helpful error message.
You do have to get used to weird edge cases like these throwing a spanner in the works, just like you have weird stuff on Windows (trying to get some older Android devices to communicate in fastboot mode in Windows makes me feel like Odysseus).
Asking around and screwing around usually gets you places though. Eventually you find something.
load more comments
(2 replies)
load more comments
(3 replies)
I tried slackware when win 3.1 was hot. I would have went a lot further a lot sooner if I could have gotten my modem working
The Linux kernel is a computer secretary. It turns organizes hardware into files and it handles scheduling.
Fresh knowledge is not to be underestimated.
There is a book called how Linux works.
But the short answer is. Linux provides the kernel that includes a lot of functionality out of the box. Drivers so all hardware can be abstracted away, scheduling of tasks, a filesystem with privileges, processmanagement etc. This lives in the kernel.
In userland, there is more or less the GUI stuff (not entirely true). You can interact with higher privileges if you have the rights / sudo.
Linux makes you hardware run and abstracts it away in Operating System.
Long answer. Read the book. It is very good.
I don't really understand how software translates to hardware.
Like, I do... I understand that a driver takes a software value of {0,1} and converts it into a concrete voltage for that device... I just don't understand how a voltage rail can just be fiddled with like that without someone mechanically restricting the flow.
Like, I do... I understand how a transistor can regulate the flow of electricity to another circuit, by using a base to restrict the emitter to collector flow.... I just don't understand how that "switch" mechanism isn't pre-determined from some beginning sequence. A timing sequence instead of an event-driven one.
Like, I do... I understand how a simple ratchet / flip flop works in terms of constructing chaotic or aperiodic cyclic flows.... I just don't see how they were initialised in the first place to force them into specific branches of computation.
Like, I do... I understand how a CPU is made up millions/billions of such devices, reacting off external device voltages to drive software paths, all initialised in such a way to allow for any number of configurations.... I just don't understand how we can do it in such a formalized relatively error-free way that appears to defy entropy
load more comments
(2 replies)
load more comments
(1 replies)
It's like owning a car for 20 years. Even if you don't want to, you'll eventually understand more and more.