Sunday, October 23, 2005

Linux geekiness scale

This is the Linux geek scale I came up with. They are in the increasing order of geekiness all through. I am sure it can take _many_ more additions. So suggestions are very welcome.

Update: Ananth's comments have now been merged into 'mainline' with minor modifications:)

Novice:
*) You say "Linux? What's that?"
*) You pronounce Linux as Linux, not Lynux.
*) You know Linux is something other than Windows!
*) You have seen Linux on your geeky friend's PC.

Beginner:
*) You know who Linus Torvalds is.
*) You ask "Are you running 'Linux 9'?"
*) You have tried to install Linux on your PC.
*) You know that what a distro is and you know the name of the distro you tried to install.
*) You know what KDE and Gnome are.
*) You know how to install software on Linux.
*) You know how to enable MP3 support in RH based distros.
*) You have argued with your friends that Linux is superior to Windows.
*) You have made at least one customization to your KDE/Gnome desktop.
*) You can differentiate between the kernel version and the distro version

Getting there (It gets interesting now):
*) You know where Linus Torvalds works.
*) Your PC boots into Linux by default, not Windows.
*) You have tried compiling your own kernel.
*) You know what LD_ASSUME_KERNEL is.
*) You know how to get on to #kernelnewbies
*) You ask a question on #kernelnewbies without someone invoking "lxrbot rules"
*) You use your own kernel on your PC.
*) You have posted a mail to LKML at least once.
*) Your post on LKML was not flamed at.
*) At least one of your patches was accepted into mainline Linux kernel.
*) You find a lengthy discussion about comparison of rpm and deb formats, pretty interesting.
*) You think vi vs emacs war is holier than Iraq war.
*) You think KDE and Gnome are too earthly, so you use Metacity or something more geeky.
*) You use underscores to highlight words (_thisway_)

Geek (not Greek) god:
*) You have uninstalled Windows on your PC.
*) When someone asks you a Linux question, like "I cannot connect to the Internet" or "I cannot login to my system", your response is on the lines of "Have you tried this with latest mainline kernel?" or "Did you compile your kernel with CONFIG_XYZ option?".
*) You know the difference between Ubuntu and Debian.
*) You believe "mutt" is the greatest invention after sliced bread.
*) You are capable of retrieving you box even after hozing the bootloader
*) You have tried one of -mm or -rt trees on your PC.
*) You have successfully compiled your own glibc and installed it on your system.
*) You have successfully submitted a patch to libc-alpha list.
*) The default runlevel on your desktop PC is 3 because you think anything with UI is too dumb.

1 comment:

  1. Additions:

    For the novice
    - You run "Linux 9" !!

    Beginner:
    - You can differentiate between the kernel version vs. distro version
    - You know how to get on to #kernelnewbies
    - You ask a question on #kernelnewbies without someone invoking "lxrbot rules"

    For the expert
    - "mutt" is the greatest invention after sliced bread
    - You are capable of taking sides in vi vs emacs
    - You are capable of retrieving you box even after hozing the bootloader

    ReplyDelete