I've been noticing a disturbing trend among Linux users of late, myself included, that has begun to bother me enough to necessitate writing this short article. What is this trend? It's a general loss of the Linux skillsets that so many of us senior users have gained over the years. Newer users to Linux might not see this problem just yet as they're just getting into Linux and haven't built up the skillsets we currently have. Thus they are not in a position to lose anything, but rather gain many necessary skills.Now us on the other hand, those of us who have been using Linux for a long time (or Freebsd in my case more than Linux) and have amassed a fairly sizable skillset, may find ourselves in a bit of a conundrum. With the rapid maturing of Linux and BSD in general over the past couple of years, many tasks that took us to the terminal, or which required command line knowledge and expertise to perform, are now either automated, gui operated, or no longer necessary for an end user to perform. But just because we don't need to dive into the console or do some special task in Linux/BSD on a regular basis does not mean that those skills are now obsolete.I have encountered plenty of times recently, despite all of the automation and gui tools, where I've had to dive into the terminal, or fall back on an old skill I once learned, in order to solve a problem. Yet now I find myself having to google dive for tutorials and how-to guides once again on age old skills that I should remember, but have forgotten do to lack of use. To me that's frightening. I hate the idea of being in a must know situation, with precious time and/or data on the line, and realizing that the one thing I should know by heart is the one thing I've forgotten how to do, either in whole or in part.Now I'm not saying human memory is or should be perfect. Well, ok, I admit that having a perfect memory would be nice, but realistically that's not possible, save for a small sliver of society. And as I get older, keeping my skills practiced is going to become ever more important. And as we lose our skills, we'll be less able to call ourselves Linux/BSD guru's or experts, and more able to say we're just common users. Now there's nothing wrong with being a common user, but once you've been on the mountain top and seen the deep soul of Linux/BSD, it's hard to come back down, be it of your own will or not.So always remember, once you gain a skill, don't fail to at least use it periodically and refresh your skills and your memories of your core skills. Don't let them fade away. And if a skill you once had is now obsolete, find a new one to learn. Just because one skill is no longer needed doesn't mean you can't learn other new ones. Be completely unconventional. Practice and experiment! Tinker! Try something you've done before again, and use it periodically to keep it fresh in your mind. Maybe break something and go through the procedures to fix it. Or if you have spare machines, set up at least one of them as a tinkering machine.If nothing else, by tinkering, it will wipe away any gathering apathy you may have towards Linux or BSD and refresh your love of them in lots of great ways. Even if some of these things are a challenge, don't let that stop you. Half the fun of tinkering in Linux/BSD or OSS is the fun you'll have learning and experimenting.So always remember, use, practice, refine and exercise your Linux/BSD skills, or any of your PC or software skills, or risk losing them. And losing what you've learned/gained is worse than never having learned/gained them in the first place.
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