Peeking in through the shadows

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So it's been encouraged that I check out the introductions forums; so here I am. Gonna spend my morning reading some of ya'lls posts.

Suppose it's not much use reading up on everybody if nobody knows anything about me; so I'll share my tid bits, but beware I can be long winded sometimes. For an being an introvert, I sure do enjoy Linux conversation from time to time.
I go by AlphaObeisance. Idk if I'm the only one that does this or not, but my username's kind of like my alter ego so to speak; so it means something to me as it reflects my entire presence online. Alpha - the beginning, of, Obeisance - differential respect .

Not too sure where to start; I'm pretty proud of my build as it's my first remotely close to "high end" computer that I've ever had. I've generally been the guy that's 3-4 or even 5 gens behind everybody else, and this year I managed to cap my machine likely more than I'll ever be able too again.
View attachment IMG_0034.JPGView attachment IMG_0033.JPG


Just this week I upgraded from 32GB of ram that I'd been using for the past few years, to 128GB, and from an RTX 2060S to my new RTX3080. I wanted the 3090 but unfortunately I couldn't swing the extra $500-600 it would have cost me to do so; making the 4k series completely out of the question sadly. But, I'm grateful none the less, as the 3080 is still a solid step up from my 2060s. Normally there would be no logical reason for me to even desire having 128GB of RAM, but I've been studying to get my RHSCA Cert with the intent of with any luck, one day finding a career in systems administration or something of the sort. As a result, since I have no experience in that sort of thing, I found myself trying to emulate a "work place" environment of sorts, and setting up lots of VM's. So I figured the extra resources would allow me to do whatever crazy nonsense I think may help me, while not choking up my host in the process haha.

I had a few systems admin friends of mine tell me that I should be applying for jobs despite not yet having my certs. They've been watching me study and learn Linux the past 3 years and told me that the demand is high and applicants are few, so I should give it a shot. Unfortunately it really boils down to looking like everyone wants "experienced" users, but so few out there are willing to provide the opportunity to gain said experience; but I'll keep pushing for my Cert in hopes it'll act as a badge of competence in hopes someone will pick me up at some point.

As for my Linux experience; I got into it shortly after Windows 11 was announced, and like many others I was bothered by how increasingly restrictive, and invasive Windows was seemingly becoming. I'd tried Linux back in something like 2015 but Ubuntu completely turned me off to it and I ran back to windows the same day. But post the Win11 announcement, I spent a day or two reading up on how to install Linux and quite literally "abandoned ship" so to speak. I created my boot drive, slapped Ubuntu in, installed and formatted all my drives. Haven't looked back since; seems like somewhere around 3 years now?

I started with Ubuntu because the vast majority of the community still suggests that as the "go to beginners distro"; and again I was pretty much immediately turned off by it. I have no idea what my beef is with Ubuntu, but I always seemed to run into problems. I used the built in Firefox to find a distro more suited to my needs; like many others who come to Linux, I really had no idea what distro's were, or that they were built each for their own purpose.

Pop!_OS by System76 was my first transition. I found the community's discord to be quite friendly, and there always seemed to be someone willing to answer my goofy questions. Pop! Worked out the box for me, never really gave me any notable issues. I was able to get things rolling that same day, steam and lutris satisfied my gaming needs, and as a noob I felt the Pop! Shop was well thought out and convenient for a Linux newcomer.

Eventually I did start having issues with Pop! more frequently than I felt was necessary, be it Pop! or GNOME related, I just ran into annoying issues that prompted me to seek out something different. I'd been using Daily Driving Linux about 6 months at this point, and had been "studying" it more and more every day. I found myself intrigued by the idea of a DIY distro. I didn't understand why everytime I updated Pop! it would seemingly reinstall apps that I had removed i.e. Firefox and the convenience fluff that it came with. So the idea of building up my own system that only ever had what I wanted on it was really appealing to me.

I had read a lot of articles on DIY and they almost always lead back to Arch as the go to DIY distro. But eeeeeeeeeeverybody talked like Arch was an "advanced" distro for "power users" and I was too intimidated to jump into it. I decided that while I did want to use Arch some day, I should probably start slow. So I installed Manjaro thinking it would be a plug and play distro that would at least help me get used to an Arch based system prior to building one up myself. It did just that, plug and played for me right out the box. I used manjaro for another 9 months or so before trying to build my first Arch system.

My first Arch attempt was as to be expected, chaos. I studied the installation page but little else, so I lacked pretty much all of the drivers that my system would require. I tried it and for about 3 days I stared at that black screen console wondering what the heck I was doing wrong; but eventually I finally got it installed successfully. It took me couple months to get things figured out enough that I finally had not only a stable Arch system, but a stable Arch Gaming rig; and I've been here ever since.

Some might be reading *if you've made it this far* and thinking to themselves "Oh boy, another Arch user smh*, but I challenge you to give me a chance. I'm not like any other Arch user I've met yet. I don't think Arch is some kind of super distro, nor a complex one at that. In fact if someone posesses basic reading abilities just about anybody can install Arch.


The only reason I favor Arch is merely because A: I just like working with it, and B: I mean cmon dude, they've got the coolest logo in Linux, 2nd only to my variation lol! ;).
arch.png

Also, unlike a vast majority of Arch users, I don't gate keep, and I'm 100% willing to help those with Arch inquiries, no matter how redundant the inquiry may be; or how easily it would be solved by "googling" it. While the majority of the Arch community would require you to put forth the effort to resolve issues yourself (understandably so), I just enjoy Arch Linux, and I'm happy to help regardless. Heck I'd build your system for you if I could, I legitimately just enjoy it.

Anyway, "that's bout all I gots to say bout dat". 3 years strong now and I'm still just as passionate and enthusiastic about Linux as I was after the bug bit me. I don't much care to "convert" people to Linux, but if I see some noob deliberately seeking to get into Linux; I'm jumping on that like white on rice in hopes to make their transition easier than mine had been.

I'm trying to learn to code on the side. Recently wrote my first bash script backup utility to serve the purpose of backing up my game dedicated servers; posted about that little experience over in Linux Gaming if you'd like to read how that little adventure went. I'm pretty proud of having accomplished that, having never code before.

Aside of all that. I'm 33, got a wife and 3 kids, and this years kicked the crap out of me in ways inevitable to everybody. Lost my mother to Cancer in early August, and a bunch of other crap. So I've dove into Linux even harder than I ever have before. Determined to make something of myself and find a purpose within the community. Ideally starting a career with all that I have learned.

Anyway, that's my little intro novel. Good to meet ya'll.
 


Hello @AlphaObeisance,
Welcome to the Linux.org Forums, Enjoy the journey!
With that experience you will be a great help to many. Look forward to seeing you around the forum.
 
you have enough Linux experience, have you thought of cybersecurity training instead of sys/addm
 
With that experience you will be a great help to many. Look forward to seeing you around the forum.
Here's to hoping. I appreciate the warm welcome.
you have enough Linux experience, have you thought of cybersecurity training instead of sys/addm
You know, I've got a cousin that claims he's into the whole "Ethical Hacking" scene. I'm set to discuss with him exactly what it is that he does come Thanksgiving family gathering to see if he's actually worth his salt. He claims that he uses Kali daily; which, if he's more than the sterotypical "I use Kali for a cool dragon but can't make it work" Kali user, then he may be able to help introduce me into that field.

Aside of that. The only way I could possibly even begin to learn systems sec. would be to go about my traditional "trial and error" method of learning, turning my VM's against one another and trying to crack into them or something. Tbh, I don't really know how to go about it.

As it stands, I'm open to just about anything Linux provided it keeps me learning and I'm intrigued by the process. Information Security was my aspiration as a kid, tried going to college but book smarts isn't my thing. 100% trial and error, and tons of google's gotten me this far; without the financial overhead of "public education".

Truth be told, I just want to start a career utilizing Linux. Sparing all the sally sob story of my life, i'm just not physically capable of doing the blue collar work I was raised to do; so I'm forced to use mind over matter and try to make my intelligence work for me. I'm the kind of individual that if I don't know, I'll figure it out. Prime example being my use of Linux itself, but also the fact that having never code a day in my life, it only took me a day to comprehend enough of the bash basics to start a bash script backup utility, 3 days to perfect it as I'd intended it to function. I like to think myself resourceful and self driven. Wish that meant something to all these employers sending me all these rejection emails lol.

I don't know squat about the linux process at a corporate level. Don't know squat about servers; but I'm taking a Complete Linux Course on Udemy just to familiarize myself, and it's so thorough that it boasts preparation for the RHSCA cert.

I really have no direction. I'm just grapsing at whatever straws I can get my hands on at this point. Desperate to maintain my sanity between the loss, newborn and just life feeling heavy more often than not lately if that makes any sense. Keeping busy keeps me productive and learning.

I'm eager and thirst for knowledge; bout all I got going for me at this point.
 
He claims that he uses Kali daily;
Sound suspect, Kali is not designed to be used as a daily drive, as they clearly point out in their documentation. It can be a right pig to set up, and I found [as others do] the official forums [depending on your view] sometime elitist, often offhanded, and very unhelpful to the novice pen-tester,
Professionals will normally work their testing build either on a separate machine, from a Live pen-drive installation, or in a VM/VB, to ensure they don't accidentally bulk their daily drive OS., there are about 6 distributions aimed at pen-testing but as you say many uses Kali just to be cool, for those looking to become professionals and want a friendly distribution forum, I recommend you take a look at Parrotsec , they also have a nice home distribution for daily use [it is basically the same distro without the tools, I use it on my travelling laptop for a little extra security]
 
sometime elitist, often offhanded, and very unhelpful to the novice pen-tester,
well gee, sounds like I'd feel right at home. Must be the Arch Communities sister or something ;)
I recommend you take a look at Parrotsec
I've actually got a wiiiiiide collection of Linux Distro's that I play around with in VM's. PenTesting distro's I've got currently are Arch Strike, BlackArch (This one slightly concerns me), Parrot, Kali and Blackbox. I may be ignorant to pentesting, but I've dabbled around their environments out of sheer curiosity at best.

Sound suspect, Kali is not designed to be used as a daily drive
Pretty sure he just uses it daily via VM's. Not sure what his host distro is tbh; something I'll have to inquire about.

I can't say I'll ever leave Arch as my Host distro; but I built this rig up with running VM's on the regular in mind; so it's highly possible that if I got into pentesting, I'd have a primary VM with a little extra resources than the rest for productivity sakes.

I'll have to look into my options as a pentester. It's a field I know so little about that I don't see it being a viable option anytime soon. I was going for SysAdmin options merely because I've had to study navigating the systems so much over the past year or so with Arch that I've become fairly fluent in my setup and navigations.

I've yet to install RHEL into a VM, but I've been doing my course through CentOS so to familiarize myself with RHEL syntax and such.

Ideally, if I can comprehend quickly enough; I'd honestly just like to get into programming. There was something about writing up that backup utility that was oddly satisfying, not unlike my initial expeirence learning to install Arch. It required planning, structure, and a lot of attention to detail that kept my brain pretty focused; which I found quite therapeutic despite the fact I was staying up WAYYYYYYYYYYY to late at night trying to resolve the issues I ran into lol.

I'm told my final product was nice, neat, and tidy so maybe i've got a future in code; who knows lol.

At this point, I'm willing to do just about anything.
 
G'day AlphaObeisance, Welcome to Linux.org

Aside of all that. I'm 33, got a wife and 3 kids, and this years kicked the crap out of me in ways inevitable to everybody. Lost my mother to Cancer in early August,

My commiserations. mate. Losing your Mum is a hard moment in time. Keep your head in the right place.
 
My commiserations. mate. Losing your Mum is a hard moment in time. Keep your head in the right place.
Best I can anyway. She'd of wanted me to strive to establish myself in doing what I love. Right up until her last days, she was encouraging me to keep going. So I'ma do just that. Going to push until I don't have to worry about money anymore, and can live out my life doing what I enjoy.
 
The only reason I favor Arch is merely because A: I just like working with it, and B: I mean cmon dude, they've got the coolest logo in Linux, 2nd only to my variation lol! ;).
Welcome but you can use the Arch logo with neofetch using any distribution. Also be sure to look into RHCE as well if you want to get a job as a sysadmin, RHCSA and RHCE are the two they usually look for but it may also depend on the company and country where you live as in what they require.
 

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Yup. If you wanna job as a Linux admin, you're gonna need to know a whole lot about RHEL. Then you can worry about certificates for other operating systems, but RHEL pretty much dominates large swaths of the enterprise market. Heck, I heard 'em mentioned the other day in an IBM commercial - during an American Football game. I was pleasantly surprised.

It was much easier when my father passed. My mother was first, by quite a margin. In hindsight, it didn't help, but I stayed pretty drunk for a while. That didn't help anything, but it seemed like the right thing to do at the time.

They say it gets easier over time. I'm not sure that's true really. It's more like you get better at accepting it.

Then, as you age, those around you and near to you start dropping like flies. It's just a part of aging, I suppose.
 
Welcome but you can use the Arch logo with neofetch using any distribution.
Oh I know lol, but then it wouldn't be authentic lol ;)
neofetch.png
Also be sure to look into RHCE
yeah I planned on getting both as I can.
you're gonna need to know a whole lot about RHEL.
Right. The course I'm taking is focused on CentOS (RHEL fork by RHEL kind of like Fedora, RHEL runs it all). so thankfully by the time I"m done with my course i'll be pretty well versed in RHEL/CentOS/Fedora systems.
They say it gets easier over time. I'm not sure that's true really. It's more like you get better at accepting it.
seems at this time, just trying not to think about it is my coping method. I have my moments of mourning but overall just try to avoid thinking about it.
Then, as you age, those around you and near to you start dropping like flies.
Unfortunately this seems to be something I'm already experiencing; as those I grew up with mostly went off wasting their lives away on drugs and other dumb crap. Thankfully I got my act together, started a family, got a life n what not.

I'm not scared of the end personally. But losing is the part I struggle with.
 
They aren't better than any Linux distribution out there
As stated in my OP ;)

Truth is as I see it; all distro's are identical barring syntax. So long as you add whatever repository you want, they're all the same.

I've used Debian, Ubuntu, Pop!, Manjaro, Garuda, Mint, Fedora, CentOS, RHEL, Kali, Parrot, and in the end they're all pretty much identical; they just have different ways accomplishing the same things. I just happen to prefer Arch over them all.

Truth be told, there are only 3 distro's. Arch, RHEL, and Debian. Everything else , for the most part, is just a fork of the 3 from my understanding.

The only reason Gentoo and Arch stand out from the rest is because those who build their system from the ground up inherently have to have a pretty solid grasp of the Linux Fundamentals.
They don't offer anything extra, or anything more "superior".

But knowing how to set up the systems without use of a GUI or installer says something about a users familiarity of Linux Systems; that's it. And for some reason, those that take pride in being able to do this; are some how frowned upon. By those that prefer GUI methods of operation.
 
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So it's been encouraged that I check out the introductions forums; so here I am.

Yep, that was me.
but beware I can be long winded sometimes.

No, do tell.

For an being an introvert, I sure do enjoy Linux conversation from time to time.

Many of us do, so you may have found a home away from home?

Seriously, AO - you'll either get used to my Aussie sense of humour ... or ... you won't, but I hope the former. ;)

Maarten @f33dm3bits was right on cue when he swung by, because of his RHEL credentials, nice to see you Maarten, I'll PM this weekend. ;)

AO have you read the following?

https://cloud.google.com/compute/docs/eol/centos-eol-guidance

Maarten was trying one of the alternatives, Rocky LInux, he might have some feedback.

Cheers, and see you around the Forum.

Good read.

Chris
 
Many of us do, so you may have found a home away from home?
Here's to hoping! But if you get to know me, you'll come to a point that if you see my Avatar, you'll likely know there's a novel long post involved haha!
Seriously, AO - you'll either get used to my Aussie sense of humour ... or ... you won't, but I hope the former. ;)
I've always loved Aussies :p. I'm a bit culturally ignorant, heck I don't even leave my house so I hardly know my own culture lol! But I'm sure I'll catch on eventually xP.

I had not seen this! Thank you for the heads up! In this case; I suppose there's no better time than now to toss up RHEL into the VM; I can't imagine that going anywhere anytime soon lol. I really only use it for familiarity sakes in the event I ever do get a gig at an industry level.

Glad to be here. Ya'll are far more welcoming than LTT's subforums lol.
 
Maarten was trying one of the alternatives, Rocky LInux, he might have some feedback.
You can't go wrong with any Rhel clone, I chose Rocky Linux because it was setup by the same person who originally started the CentOS Project. I heard Alma Linux is a good project too, but I wouldn't come near Oracle Linux as in you never know what shit Oracle might pull. I run Rocky Linux on all of my vpses and Proxmox on my homeserver, the most important two are my fileserver and my mailserver and I've never had any trouble. You could also look into getting a Redhat developer subscription, then you get I think 10 or so free Redhat subscriptions you can use. Although I prefer to use a Rhel clone just so that I don't have to deal the subscription-manager and the pain that I might have to go through to renew it.
Maarten @f33dm3bits was right on cue when he swung by, because of his RHEL credentials, nice to see you Maarten, I'll PM this weekend. ;)
I think you have my email, you can email me that way I won't have to login to read your message but whatever is easier for you :)
 
You won't go wrong with Rocky.
 

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