This is why Linux will never take over the desktop...

[you2]

Yea. I have /home on a different partition (or disk). These days I run /home raided with zfs (used to use mdadm). pretty happy with zfs parity checking so far though it is rather harsh on ssd.

 

[Commodus]

This is on an older laptop, and I'm leaning quite heavily toward an Apple for my next upgrade. Need Linux stuff, and need things to "just work." And access to XCode for potential iOS development is enticing.

I'm reminded of that expression: Linux is only free if your time is worthless. That's not to say that Linux is worthless, far from it, but rather that there is a time advantage to a commercial OS that requires less tinkering. It's like paying someone to fix your car. Yeah, you could save money by doing it yourself, but you know what's also nice? Having the time to do other things.

If you enjoy the tinkering and have the time to do it, great! But just as it'd be unfair to ask everyone to know their way around a car engine, it's unfair to ask everyone to know how to troubleshoot a software configuration.

 

[whm1974]

I'm reminded of that expression: Linux is only free if your time is worthless. That's not to say that Linux is worthless, far from it, but rather that there is a time advantage to a commercial OS that requires less tinkering. It's like paying someone to fix your car. Yeah, you could save money by doing it yourself, but you know what's also nice? Having the time to do other things.

If you enjoy the tinkering and have the time to do it, great! But just as it'd be unfair to ask everyone to know their way around a car engine, it's unfair to ask everyone to know how to troubleshoot a software configuration.

It is funny that you mention that, since I have had far more trouble with Windows then I ever did with using Linux.

 

[Commodus]

It is funny that you mention that, since I have had far more trouble with Windows then I ever did with using Linux.

Ha, well I'm primarily a Mac user, so I maybe I've dodged a bullet!

 

[whm1974]

Ha, well I'm primarily a Mac user, so I maybe I've dodged a bullet!

To be fair I have never used a Mac so I can't really commit there.

 

[you2]

Never loved the mac interface. It isn't bad if you like it and it is far more flexible than windows but it relatively rigid where you can set things up with the interface you prefer in linux. Where linux fails is if you really like the pure gui interface of windows. I don't but there are folks who do prefer that sort of environment.

 

[lxskllr]

I'm reminded of that expression: Linux is only free if your time is worthless.

Linux is always free in the sense that matters, and that's liberté. That's the only thing that's meant when "free software" is spoken of. It's many times gratis, but that's only a secondary benefit. Many people are, some who should know better, confused by this, but it's the whole reason gnu was started, and the linux kernel plugged into place to complete the gnu system.

 

[whm1974]

Linux is always free in the sense that matters, and that's liberté. That's the only thing that's meant when "free software" is spoken of. It's many times gratis, but that's only a secondary benefit. Many people are, some who should know better, confused by this, but it's the whole reason gnu was started, and the linux kernel plugged into place to complete the gnu system.

This is why I use always use the term FOSS instead of "free" when talking about such software. I'm mostly around folks(in person) that know very little about computers much less anything about Linux, Open Source, and GNU.

 

[sweenish]

I've thought of backing up /home or putting it on another partition, but won't you run into issues because all your various profiles will be for the version of programs that are for another distro? Or will that stuff work across multiple distros? What about system stuff like GUI related settings? Ex: if going to a distro that uses another type of DE.

It's very likely that there is some cruft in there from my previous distro, but it's not interfering in a meaningful way that I have observed.

 

[whm1974]

It's very likely that there is some cruft in there from my previous distro, but it's not interfering in a meaningful way that I have observed.

The same here, I haven't notice any problems either when changing distros.

 

[J.Wilkins]

I've thought of backing up /home or putting it on another partition, but won't you run into issues because all your various profiles will be for the version of programs that are for another distro? Or will that stuff work across multiple distros? What about system stuff like GUI related settings? Ex: if going to a distro that uses another type of DE.

/home needs to be on another partition, always.

You have your system with all of your mainline software... compilers, word processor and so on and then you have your own home partition where you store all of your files. Your profiles work with the software you use, if you keep using the same software on another distro the profile will be native to the software no matter what the distro is.

Even installed games and software you have on your /home will work across distros (most of the time, you may need to install additional software on some distros to make it work but it's getting rarer and rarer).

 

[mv2devnull]

I have seen things ...

There was a CentOS 6 with whatever XFCE that is avaialble for it and a CentOS 7 with whatever XFCE that is avaialble for it.
The user had a session in one, then in other, and back to first. 7->6->7, IIRC.
After that the personal part of XFCE settings (on network shared /home) was a mess.


When you do install something (preferably as a managed package) it will install a default configuration with it.
Main config. System config. You might edit that config, and it affects every user.
Some (many) apps have a "site" folder for additional config that overrides the system config. Still all users of the comp.
Most apps should look config from user's home folder too. Personal overrides.
Last, command line arguments are often used to override all other setting (if you do use CLI).

 

[Red Squirrel]

I don't really store anything in /home, all my actual data is on my server and then I just mount NFS shares. What I HATE about NFS though is that the user/group IDs have to match on all systems for it to work properly which is the stupidest design decision ever. So when I setup a new distro I need to specifically ensure that my user account matches or the shares won't work properly. That is also a huge security issue as it uses IDs instead of passwords to authenticate. There's ways to setup better authentication but it's a huge pain in the ass and pretty much the polar opposite of "turn key". I'm really surprised Linux does not have something equivalent to AD yet that is just as easy to setup and manage.

 

[you2]

Well you can set up a directory service that owns the uid; but it is more work. In the old days it was yellow pages; and these days it is ...