You’ll only get more comfortable with Linux once you get on it .

the will to learn about the topic

I think this is the bigger issue, to be honest. Like your example of environmental variables, it’s not a complicated concept, but when a guide says to set the variable for Editor rather than a context menu asking you to choose the default program to open this type of file in the future, all of a sudden, people lose their minds about how complicated it is.

Comparing uncloging -manually pushing and pull a bar- or chaning a light -turn left, change, then right- or a breaker -literally just pulling a tab up- are WAY simpler actions. Yes, running apt upgrade is easy, but how you know is all well? That it work? + if I run apt update everyday I see almost no diference in my system, why should I even do something like that

These examples don’t make sense to me as a point against using the terminal, especially since GUI package managers are a thing these days. Many upgrades are under the hood, so to speak, and don’t produce visible changes for most users, and this applies just as much to other operating systems as it does to Linux. When Windows finishes upgrading and reboots, or Chrome tells a user updates are available, and they restart it, how do they know all is good? For the most part, they take it as a given that all is good as long as there’s no new, undesired behavior that starts after the upgrade.

Just because I haven’t been exploited by a security vulnerability or encountered a particular bug is no reason to remain on a version of my OS or programs that is still liable to either of them. That’s just a bizarre argument against staying up to date.

It’s pretty unreasonable to expect people to know all the intricacies of their OS unless it’s their job, but I do think people could stand to treat their computer less like an unknowable magic box when they need to work with it and take a few minutes to try any basic troubleshooting at all. An example of the sort of thing I’m talking about, last year, my fan stopped working nearly as well and began making crazy amounts of noise. Could I explain to you how the motor in my fan works? Absolutely not. But I unplugged it, looked up how to disassemble it and got out my screwdrivers and opened it up to see if there was anything that I could see wrong with it. Turns out there was a lot of hair wrapped around a shaft and the base of the blades that built up over the years I’ve had it, and removing that and reassembling it was all it took to get it working fine again.

Plenty of people don’t want to put in even that small amount of time and effort to understand things when it comes to computers, which is also a valid choice of its own, but they tend to annoy me when they attribute being unable to do something to the system being too complicated to understand/use, rather than owning their decision to focus their time and energy elsewhere. There are absolutely complex programs that are not accessible for non-tech people on Linux or the BSDs, but the same could be said for Windows and Mac. In the case of the other two, people just choose the option that works for them, but with Linux, they decide ahead of time that Linux is tough and complicated and don’t even try. It could be something as simple as they want to install Debian and need non-free firmware to use their wireless card, there are people who will declare this to complicated to understand and discard the idea of using an OS entirely over a question that can be resolved in less than 5 minutes with a quick search and nano, all because “Oh, I’m not a computer person, it says terminal.”

This presumes one has these options available. Yeah, there are local delis in the neighborhood, but they’re slicing Boarshead, not their own cured meats. A bakery that actually bakes their own bread is a 90 minute round trip, while the local farmer’s market is over an hour each way, one day a week to get eggs if you happen to be off that day. Also, closing that list out with Coke? I remember when I worked at a grocery store in high school, a 2L bottle was routinely on sale for less than a dollar. The same bottle is over $3 now.

Because words have different etymological roots and different endings can convey different grammatical or linguistic information in many languages? This is just a misguided train of thought comparing the endings of iron and helium and expecting them to be the same. The examples I cited either have Latin roots, or were deliberately latinized words, while Iron comes from an Old English root. Ferrum, the Latin for iron, comes closer to the broader pattern. It’s like saying, “I have a calculator that calculates, a ventilator that ventilates, so why is it a phone and not a callator.” or something.

Aluminium at least makes sense by analogy to other elements ending in -ium, like helium, sodium, potassium, cadmium, beryllium, etc.

Well, if it isn’t the chicken of the sea, back again.

I’ve been a hiring manager, I simply don’t see the value in them for most job postings. Maybe if you’re trying to get your first job out of school, or you’re trying to pivot into a new industry, sure. If you’re applying for, say, an accountant role, you’ve been in the industry for 20 years and the position you’re applying for is largely in line with your experience, just a step up the career track or a change in volume, I don’t see the point.

Heck, I see retail jobs asking for a cover letter sometimes to be a cashier and stock merchandise. Waste of time for everyone involved, and only serves as a filter for the employer to see who’s desperate enough for a job, or passionate enough about whatever is being sold, that they’ll put up with whatever.

Honestly, cover letters are something that needs to die out for most jobs, they’re entirely pointless. 99% of the time, it just seems like they want you to rehash the contents of your resume and grovel a bit for the company. Screw that.

You want someone with 5 years experience in a role, my resume shows I have ten years doing that job, make your call if it’s good enough to interview me or not. I’m not writing an essay about how excited I am for the opportunity to count widgets at your company, and how it’s always been a dream of mine to work inventory control for a company that changes the world by ensuring stock buybacks can regularly happen by overworking and underpaying their staff.

Biggest waste of time I see recommended for applications. I don’t apply to any job that requires them.