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Linux is one of the last bastions for the tinkerer (sh.itjust.works)

submitted 2 days ago by bridgeenjoyer@sh.itjust.works to c/linux@lemmy.world

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Thought of this the other day. I bet a lot of us are like this, because in today's world a lot of things we used to tinker with are gone (electronics are made to be single use and unfixable, cars are proprietary and can rarely be modified or worked on without many many thousands of dollars now, etc).

Sure, there are still hardcore electronics projects going on and people doing massive restoration projects and such, but i consider them basically geniuses, not just tinkerers who enjoy messing around and learning in their spare time while working 50 hours a week.

Im glad linux gives us a space to exist!

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[–] bridgeenjoyer@sh.itjust.works 1 points 1 day ago (1 children)

I agree with you! Its also a mind shift too though. Everything (like windows) is made for the dumbest possible person to use, and to restrict you from doing anything that may break the system, thereby not allowing learning.

unless you specifically seek out tings like r pi and solar panel building etc. Which is not tinkering, that's full on nerd engineer stuff.

Linux is risky but you definitely learn from poking around it.

[–] MudMan@fedia.io 1 points 1 day ago

The Raspberry Pi is explicitly build as a widely available tinkerer tool. Its stated goal is to be cheap and widely available. Do you know what I would have given to be able to buy a disposable computer I could slap into things in the 90s for the equivalent of 60-100 bucks? That's insane availability. We could argue about how successful they are at that goal, but it doesn't matter because there are now even cheaper knockoff boards out there. It's bonkers.

And guess what, building a IBM PC compatible at home in 1989 was nerd engineer stuff. It cost an order of magnitude more than the Pi, for a start, but it was also poorly documented, hard to get and nobody else was doing it. The only reason I got one of those at around that time is I had a relative who was an actual engineer and knew what to get.

You only remember it being accessible tinkering for the masses because you got good at it.

Incidentally, I'd argue that Linux used to be tinkering, now it's... you know, a OS.

Don't get me wrong, it's still janky, but unless you deliberately throw yourself on the deep end the most "tinkering" you have to do is copy paste a line into the command line every now and then. And I would dispute that Windows is that locked down, either. Maybe Microsoft would like to lock it down further, but you can do whatever with it. For one thing you can run Linux inside it, if we're talking about tinkering.