Linux Challenge - update #1

As promised, I wanted to updated everyone on my experience with Linux. And in short, so far it's been... fun?

Learning Linux isn't all that hard once you understand a few things. The problem with understanding those things, is that you usually end up breaking your OS during the education phase. Que story time... (insert flashback mosaic)

The non-everlasting /home folder

After installing Ubuntu on my primary SSD so I can dual boot into Linux, I never gave much thought to my storage requirements. I gave the Linux partition a "whopping" 100GB thinking that should hold me over while I play around and learn the ropes. Well, was I wrong.

In a short while, my video editing and daily usage started to rack up some serious GB miles. I was used to my data being stored on another HD and honestly never really gave it much thought. So one day, while editing a video that will become the next internet sensation, I get a notification that looks like this (stolen from the internet)

Yes, the beast was full. Could not take anymore of all the amazing content I was creating. I decided that I needed to move my home folder to another hard drive. Now, thinking about this, I could have possibly just moved some larger files to my 2TB HDD, but we don't do easy around here.

Here's the thing about Linux documentation. It's boring and technical. And I don't do boring or technical. I am not that technical in reality. I enjoy the more abstract and theory behind things. What that means, is that I have to visualize or picture the solution in my head before diving in. So when I was following the "steps" to move my home folder, I was just basically painting by colors. I don't learn that way, I learn by visualizing the solution.

Needless to say, following the steps did eventually get me to a place where my home folder was sitting on my 2TB disk. But that wasn't before I did the unthinkable...  I moved my home folder, while still using my home folder.

If I was able to visualize the solution, I would have thought about this silly move and would have avoided it. But sometimes, learning is painful and you have to spend 2 hours and a bunch of coffee and frustration to sit back and really enjoy the fruits of education!

But I learned a lot from this usage experiment. And I told myself that any issue I run into with Linux, I am going to solve and figure out how to fix it. That only seems the best way to learn.

First - I learned that I need to make sure that I am taking the time to visualize the solution and then piece each part of the documentation into that visualization (someone please tell me what this learning style is)

Second - My tutorials going forward will follow this rule. I learn that way, other people might learn that way, and I might as well create content that way.

Third - I am having a blast learning Linux

Stay tuned for next week's shenanigans update in the land of Linux!