Wild Ride

Understanding how Linux works is important information. You’ve got to investigate KDE from the surface, from your desktop, from the applications you use every day, down into the structure of Linux. You can find most of your KDE applications in your ~/.config.

Copy the files you’ve saved in your external hard drive into your Home directory, to transfer all your data to your new Linux PC. Click on the Control icon in Dolphin and select Hidden Files.

Your .config file should be near the top of the list. These are the files and directories you will use to configure and repair your Linux. Be careful. Make sure you back up any file you change, so you can replace it if something goes wrong.

To understand how to use the power of Linux, and the fun, you’ll want to learn how to use the command line. Investigate UEFI, the Linux kernel, systemd, units, cgroups, targets, etc. Bash or zsh is your portal into a fascinating world of cyberspace and artificial intelligence.

Learn both systems. Start with the Graphical User Interfaces, the GUIs, which are the main advantage of KDE. In my opinion, KDE Plasma is the prettiest, easiest to learn, Linux desktop.

After you get some experience using Linux, drill down into the command line and have fun exploring this beautiful, intricate puzzle. It is very complex, which is half the fun. The most fun is what you can do with Linux, once you learn how to operate it.

These days, whenever I install Linux, I can get a very awesome operating system and desktop set up in a few hours. I use discover to find new applications.

The first application I install is the Muon Package Manager. I use Konsole and the sudo apt install command to install major applications, like Gimp, Calligra or Krita. Then, I use Muon Package Manager to find and install extensions and plugins related to those applications.

Many years ago, I spent days, actually, it was probably months, researching bash and zsh, vim and emacs. I never really liked emacs, but you might like it. The documentation says it is easier to learn. I just started with the best and I keep learning how to use the best Linux tools there are.

I usually get zsh and vim installed and configured within the first week or so of a new Linux install. It depends on whats going on.

Use

$ sudo apt update

then

$ sudo apt install zsh

to get zsh installed. During the installation, check the recommendations that Linux makes. Mark them and use ctrl+shft+c to copy them onto your clipboard and then select y. After zsh is installed, type in

$ sudo apt install

Make sure your cursor in is position right after the space after install and use ctrl+shift+v to paste the recommendations in. Go through them and delete the ones you don’t want and make sure they are all formatted right. Get rid of any pipes |. Press enter to install them.

The shell may say some of them are unacceptable for one reason or another. That’s okay, just get the ones that look important, like zsh-doc.

This may not the most efficient way to do this. Its the way I have figured out how to do it. I have paid people thousands of dollars to show me how to do all this Linux configuration and web development and I have not been very successful with that strategy. It may be that the way my brain works drives people away.

It takes me a long time to memorize things, so I’m kind of a slow learner. I like to study really complex subjects, like physics, astronomy and cosmology, history, philosophy, psychology, religion, neuro-linguistic life coaching and computer science. I’m just really slow at it.

I also have a very holistic perspective of things and that seems to aggravate the people I’m asking to help me. They get upset with me for not focusing on one particular facet of my whole system. Or they get frustrated that I already have an plan, which I’m asking them to help me accomplish my aganda, instead of following them along their agenda.

I’m writing these stories to get this information imprinted in my own long-term memory. I also like teaching and helping people, hence, my interest in neuro-linguistic life coaching.

Be mindful that this story is about how I do this on my HP Envy laptop, with Kubuntu installed. The details might be slightly different on your computer. Once you have zsh installed, select it as your default shell, using the command

$ chsh -s /usr/bin/zsh

You’ll have to restart your shell. I always select vi mode and 100,000 for all the history questions. I’ve been installing Oh-My_Zsh. I may try to configure zsh myself the next time I install it, because I’ve been learning a lot more about how to do that recently.

You’ll have to install curl if its not already installed (sudo apt install curl). Then, curl Oh-My-Zsh into your shell.

Oh-My-Zsh will create a .zshrc file for you. Copy your custom settings from the zshrc file you have saved in your file system and paste them into your .zshrc file.

I recently noticed that Oh-My-Zsh recommends creating a separate file with your customization’s. I’ll stay with what’s working for now. I’ve been using this setup for years now and I may stop using Oh-My-Zsh at all soon.

Getting vim installed and configured is another complicated project. Use

$ sudo apt update

then

$ sudo apt install git

then

$sudo apt install vim

vi is usually installed by default. You probably have to install vim. Use

$ cp vimrc .vimrc

to create your .vimrc file with your settings in it.

Visit https://github.com/VundleVim/Vundle.vim. Read the README.md. Then

$ git clone https://github.com/VundleVim/Vundle.vim.git ~/.vim/bundle/Vundle.vim

and then

$ vim +PluginInstall +qall

That should get your custom .vimrc file properly installed and turn on all your plugins. I selected all those plugins a few years ago, when I spent a significant amount of time exploring vim and tmux and zsh and bash and shell scripting, etc. I still don’t know very much about shell scripting. Tmux doesn’t seem very practical for a home office based Linux system.

After one of the programmers I had asked to help me learn how to use Linux set up a backdoor into my computer and damaged it when he got mad at me, I stopped leaving my Linux PCs on all the time. You have to leave your computer on to really benefit from the power of tmux.

I just open another terminal if I need more than one, which is pretty common during my workflow. For example, I often have one open with zsh and another one with vim. I also often have more than one zsh session going on at the same time.

I definitely recommend that you spend some time learning how to use your shell, whether you decide to use the default bash or the suped up zsh or another option, and vim or emacs. Sublime Text is another popular text editor that is more like a modern text editor.

I still recommend vim. Even though I’m really slow at it right now, I think it will end up being superior to any other text editor, even though some of the newer alternatives are easier to learn.

I want to be in control of my own free enterprise. Linux and KDE and zsh and vim are all tools designed to increase my self determination. Freedom is a good thing. Freedom is lawful, not lawless. There are rules. That’s the difference between wild animals and civilized human beings.

Investigate the rules that make Linux work. Learn how to harness the power of free and opensource software. It’s like flying by following the natural laws of aerodynamics.

The global cloud of artificial intelligence is a very powerful system. Linux is your control panel, your dash board. Learn how to operate your own personal instance of that global cloud of artificial intelligence. It is an art and a computer science. It is a fun, wild ride.