I’ve been doing the OverTheWire Bandit over the past couple of days and have become stuck on the earlier levels. I deem this very embarrassing as this is supposed to be an “easy” and “recommended for beginners” type of puzzle that requires hands on understanding of the Linux terminal. But I have been using Linux for 9 months now, I wouldn’t do the most complicated things (other than break my whole os) only the things required to make my overall user experience somewhat enjoyable. Now this makes me very sad to come to the conclusions that I may be below the average Linux beginner which I didn’t know was possible according to my knowledge. I am only asking of tips and tricks to these puzzles and maybe to positive reinforcement to make feel better about myself. Now I will not tolerate spoilers as in the official rules of OverTheWire clearly states, and I hope you will follow this rule for the better sake of my learning and understanding of the Linux terminal ( and for the sake of the game itself)
it is a website for code, built for code tools. this is a bit like walking into a barn full of wheat and asking where the sandwiches are; there may incidentally be one in there, but if there is it’s almost certainly not meant for you.
Tell that to the people who distribute their applications exclusively through GH. I can’t count how many times I’ve been told “just DL it from GH” and I have to reverse engineer the site to find the download link. I have it figured out now but it certainly could be a lot easier. And while I don’t agree with the way it was presented, I empathize with the thought process.
You mean you have to read the “Install Instructions” section?
No, those usually don’t exist. It’s just assumed that you know how to do it already.
I have not worked it out, too many times a search ended at GitHub; it’s like the great filter for me, I cannot for the life of me get past it.
Similar/ related Linux instructions are often the same. Just do the gobbiligoo and write magicmumbojumbo in the wolooolooo. It is often just presumed that you know all terms, and that you automatically skip the first 5 steps which are soooo obvious.
The secret is you have to scroll all the way to the bottom and click the tiny link that says “releases”. Or sometimes click the ellipses (…) at the top of the page and find it there. From there you scroll to the bottom of the latest release and expand the section that says “assets”. Then you typically need to understand package formats and choose the correct one for your device.
Sounds manageable but I will only know the next time I end up on GitHub. Thank you for the help though, it might just be enough to get me through.
i mean it’s a one time thing to learn, like with sourceforge, moddb, apt, etc etc
Sure, now try learning any of those things with no instructions.
if they direct you to github for downloads, and don’t point you directly to the releases page, and don’t have anything about installation in the readme, then that’s on them. personally, i’d click “releases” anyway because that sounds like a word associated with products.
like, try downloading something from the steam workshop with no prior exposure to steam (eg, from the web browser and not logged in) then get back to me.
Sure. How does that help me?
If you knew what you were looking for, sure. On every other website on the face of the planet, that button says “download”.
Except you aren’t “downloading” the .exe as this thread suggests.
You’re right, it is more complex, “difficult” and fiddly than downloading an exe - presumably because you are trying to do something more complex than your walled garden software allows.
I don’t do the repairs on my car myself, even though I probably could and most of them are probably simple and don’t require specialist tools. Same for free software to do specialist functions.
except steam workshop, which i mentioned.
Yeah, to an extent. Many devs leave release handling solely to github without a project website. A lot of these are dev focused tools, but some are projects are just too small to warrant packaging and a website and all that.
In your analogy, I’d liken it to a farmers market or farm stand.
yeah, if there was a sign saying “sandwiches sold here, please come in” (or, without the analogy, a readme with an “installation” section) then it’s different. point being, it’s not the original intent.