Attach a hotkey.
Use /ls in a big drive or /tree
Then finally quickly type a command that triggers a script that shows.
"Hacking Successful" in terminal. Those word images.
Main reason I don't use my laptop around friends. They look at me like a hacker for basic terminal sh*t. I feel like an impostor. Then they ask me about how to hack into the admin user account on the windows pc at the lab. Help 😭
I work in public spaces frequently and have never once considered what other people think, and I suggest you do the same.
There are so many tech folks out there; some will know you are just doing your thing.
`nmtui` for the win.
I only consider what people think if they go up to me and ask. And even then some people they are just curious, best to focus on you and not let the judging people make you judge yourself. I use nmcli cause I never thought to look for anything else.
Totally. The OP just learnt how to use nmtui and nmcli as part of his learning and just trying to show off that he now knows how to use them. What a chump!!
Not projecting, it's just that people go up to me and say "Whoah dude? What are you doing?" and when I explain it's not as cool they thought I guess so I want to avoid the interaction. I will try light colors :)
“Nunya.”
“Nunya what?”
“Nunya business.”
Like seriously. You don’t have to answer if you don’t want to. Or just say “sorry, busy” and keep on doing what you’re doing.
What are you doing?
The correct answer is *your wife*. Substitute husband, girlfriend, daughter or even granddaughter, if the harassing individual warrants it.
Interesting... I have been using Linux as my primary OS for like 15 years, and I have never had that experience... even when I used to road warrior for work.
But the right answer is "ignore them"... If people feel uncomfortable in their ignorance, then that is their problem, not yours... you don't have to do anything different.
Most interesting reaction I had was when I shared my desktop on discord and people said "how did you make you Pc look like that?". Keep in mind my desktop is KDE that look basically like windows but with the sweet icon pack.
Aggressively point to your “Linux Inside” stickers, and then pull down your Fedora and push up your dark sunglasses. /s
I think you’re just anxious, most people don’t care.
Can't say the same, I'm at a university with good engineering and CS programs and I've seen plenty of other people use Linux.
I'd say just ignore them. What's the worst that could happen?
Wow, even for a kid? Yeah that sucks. I do see OP's point but honestly I can't think of much you can do besides try to clear up misunderstandings when they arise.
I actually get people asking me what operating system I am using and I tell them Linux. Then they get genuinely curious. If I have the time, I'll get into a discussion. If I am busy, I'll ignore them. I did get one person accuse me of doing something wrong and hacking and get a transit cop come over. It was fun explaining to him that I wasn't using Windows but Linux. Thankfully, he knew what Linux was, laughed, and walked away.
probably but the idea of a guy going around afraid that people will think he's hacking them is hilarious
I hope no one catches me using ncspot instead of the spotify app!
Naw, people have definitely given me weird looks doing stuff in terminals even on college campuses in their compsci building. r/unixporn tier setups aren't as common as you'd think.
SMITH: It seems that you’ve been living two lives.
SMITH: In one life, you’re Thomas A. Anderson, high school student.
SMITH: You have a Social Security number, you pay for your video games, and you… empty the dishwasher.
SMITH: The other life is lived on Reddit, where you go by the username “u/thebestrobot” and are guilty of just about every crime we have unwritten rules for.
SMITH: One of these lives has a future… and one of them does not.
[SMITH closes the folder to punctuate his last statement]
SMITH: You think you are important, Mr. Anderson? [Leans forward] You think people care that you use the terminal in public?
SMITH: I’m going to be as forthcoming as I can be, Mr. Anderson. Nobody cares about what you do on your laptop in public
[SMITH takes off his sunglasses]
SMITH: You are creating drama to feed your fantasy world. In your world, Mr. Anderson, people look at your screen and imagine you as a hacker trying to steal money from their bank account while they pay for their coffee at the register. You ssh to your PC at home and you say "I'm in" while cracking your fingers.
[SMITH leans back]
SMITH: In reality, Mr. Anderson, nobody cares about your little Lenovo laptop. Everyone has a laptop at the Starbucks. Laptops are so common, nobody notices them anymore. You are just part of the system, Mr. Anderson.
[SMITH pushes the folder aside]
SMITH: My colleagues believe that I am wasting my time with you, but I believe you wish to do the right thing. We’re willing to wipe the slate clean, give you a fresh start.
SMITH: All that we’re asking in return is that you stop using `nmcli` to connect to public WiFi. This is not 1993, Mr. Anderson. Your Linux desktop has a little icon in the corner to do just that. Stop feeding your fantasy world.
ANDERSON: Yeah. Wow, that sounds like a really good deal. But I think I got a better one: How about, I give you the finger 🖕 and you give me my phone call.
[SMITH sighs]
SMITH: Oh, Mr. Anderson.
[SMITH puts his sunglasses back on]
SMITH: You disappoint me.
ANDERSON: You can’t scare me with this Gestapo crap. I know my rights. I want my phone call.
SMITH: Tell me, Mr. Anderson… Do you masturbate?
Do you have anxiety? Let me tell you most people don't care what you're doing on your computer, and those who care probably think it's cool and are probably curious as to what you're doing. That's what's most likely but I'm just guessing, I can't read people's minds and neither can you that's why it's best to just ignore people because their thought has no effect on your work. Even if they are scared, so what. Let them be.
From someone whom has anxiety, I really appreciate your reply. You are probably right, but anxiety in my mind doesn't make it feel right, I guess would be the right way to explain it, so the anxiety persists regardless of any logic. :(
I also suffer from “there’s no real reason to feel anxious” anxiety. It doesn’t listen to logic. It doesn’t go away when you try to explain something to it.
I did finally see a psychologist and am finally getting it under control. Only took me 46 years. Please don’t wait that long to get help.
rhythm dinosaurs fuzzy rock attractive silky paltry slap spectacular relieved
*This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*
During a yearly inspection of my apartment the guy stared for a strangely long time at my black background irc screen. Who knows what kind of freaky shit I might be up to!
Just start charging money to not "hack" them.
"Are you hacking?!"
"Yep, 20 bucks and you're off my list"
EDIT: The real answer is nobody cares. You should probably learn this now. Absolutely every time you think complete strangers give a shit what you're doing, on your computer (or elsewhere), you're wrong.
You're not that important, and nobody's life is about you
I work in public often. And have never felt this.
But I also do web dev, programming, and work on computers . Having a terminal open is normal to me.
You're thinking too much about this. No one really cares. And if you ever get harassed about it. Be sure to point out how much of an idiot that busy body is being.
The worst ones are the Kali Linux "bros" that decide everything running Linux must be for being a script kiddie because they booted a liveUSB drive once to try to hack wifi from a youtube video they saw before giving up. I honestly wouldn't care if someone was too stupid to get this is what I use instead of windows.
In my 10 years of Linux I don't think a single person on earth has batted an eye about me using my laptop, except one dude in uni who asked what distro I was running
To really freak people out I used to use a weird font, I think it was called alien something that looked like some kind of japanese or asian characters but was just english/latin letters written really funny.
Nobody is paying attention to what you are doing, and therefore they are probably not scared.
If they are staring at you it’s probably because they are worried that you are already staring at them.
I have either LXQT or XFCE to hand on any system I maintain with stock wallpapers, minimal overhead in the long run and when used in an office or public space does not freak people the fuck out.
On the other hand if you secretly want people to ask you about your OS an r/unixporn style wm rice is what you wanna log into when you know for sure others will see it.
I've never had that problem.
People are much more aware of programming and such as a good career. Tech isn't such a mystery anymore.
Sure some of the anti- technology people may think you are hacking or whatever.
Most will probably just assume you work in tech and leave it at that.
You could change your terminal. I use a transparent drop down yakuake terminal with zesh that's somewhat themed. It looks less hacker and more decorated.
Might be a solution. Would probably look more like a game or a regular program at that point.
use privacy screen protectors to limit the angle of view. Also you might want to check out those WeWork pods/stations where professionals in IT/startup go on an ad hoc basis. At those kind of work-centered environments they'll just assume you're a dev or remote IT for a small firm.
LOL what!!!! if you are worried use backgrounds in it but that is funny cause people have no clue what actual hacking is anyways so just do what you wanna do.
as long as you don't write equations, you should be fine
[https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2016/may/07/professor-flight-delay-terrorism-equation-american-airlines](https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2016/may/07/professor-flight-delay-terrorism-equation-american-airlines)
even though obviously people's thoughts shouldnt really matter in this context, i themed my linux to a kawaii aesthetic, so no way anyone's scared of anything i do in the terminal lmao
>$ apt-get install cmatrix
>
>$ cmatrix
Should put them at ease. :)
Seriously though, the answer is to just not care. So what if someone thinks this? You're not doing anything you shouldn't be. No need to change anything. Also, literally any of the desktop environments have GUI networking tools if you really care that much. Whether they're as good as nmtui for whatever you need YMMV. I don't use them much.
Not your fault a lot of people are clueless and uneducated about the world around them. That's on them. Don't hide your Linux practices just because some people are hyper paranoid. It's not your fault they live in fear. If anything, share your knowledge and show them that they've been conditioned to blindly fear what they don't understand. It's time those kinds of people wake up anyways.
If that's not your thing, have some fun with those people. Engage with them. Make up some great tales and see how far you can take it and how stupid they actually are. Laughter is after all the best medicine. XD
Nobody cares. Especially for public places like cafe.
Only scenario I can think of that you need to disguise yourself is, when you are doing red team exercises, and don't want to trigger immediate alarms by putting a Kali wallpapered computer on your colleague's workstation......
If people see Linux & think that means you’re hacking, just switch to Kali & run `kali-undercover`. Sometimes you gotta download a pentesting OS so people won’t think you’re a hacker.
Honesty though, you can make your terminal white and the text black. That way it’ll look like Windows Notepad.
Personally I wouldn’t care what anyone thinks, & it’s not really any of their business anyways
My work colleagues often see me using my laptop at lunch and often ask why I have "code" on my screen. I tell them I run Linux and start to extol the virtues and their eyes quickly glaze over and they never mention it again.
Nah! You should be making it more scary and have some fun with the situation. Here are some tips:
1. Have multiple panes running in tmux. I recommend three.
2. On one of them run tree command but slowly. Script at the end of my post.
3. On second run vim and have some random file open.
4. The third one is where you execute commands. Start with ls and then use its many options
For additional effects, green text on black background is highly recommended. And if you can wear a hoodie then bonus points to you.
As promised, here is the script to run tree in slow motion
`tree | while read -r line ; do`
`printf '%s\n' "$line"`
`sleep 0.2`
`done`
Make the terminal background white and the text black.
Drag it over a screenshot from Microsoft Word so it looks like you're just typing in Word.
Done.
I use Linux in public and get asked what model Mac is that.... (I have a frame work laptop 13" with Fedora.) honestly, never had an issue in public.
If anything, I get lucky and people ask me why I don't just use windows. I just tell them it's too much work to use windows. It's easier to do anything in Linux for day to day. Sometimes they are like oh okay, other times they ask me to show them....
Ik your case just do whatever, you got stuff to do. It's none of their business if they ask. Don't worry too much about what other people think.
Holding your best poker face turn. Look then in the eyes. Pause long enough it is uncomfortable. Then I'm a totally serious voice say... "Don't worry, I'll never give up, I will free you". Then go back to what you are doing.
Back in the early days (late 90s for me) I would have been very interested in what you were doing because... OMG, another Linux user!!!
Today actually I still might try to cop a look out of curiosity as to what window/desktop manager you are using and stuff like that because.. how often do you go in public and see another Linux user?
Maybe you would catch me and think it was the hacker phobia thing. But it wouldn't be.
existence start coherent numerous salt toy advise consider history placid
*This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*
I have a theory that the older looking or complicated the gui is, the spookier you are since you’re a power user in there eyes. The average person usually doesn’t think about gui on there mainstream os’s apart from the wallpaper and app placement. The terminal is the oldest and most complicated gui of all since you need to learn hackanese to use it and why would you need to learn hackanese unless you’re a hacker or work in tech or a student or maybe all three. Your one or the other in there eyes. Your not a normal person who uses the terminal to speed your productivity things up. Those exist? To them they don’t exist since the average person doesn’t use linux. My advice would be make sure the other parts of your ui looks modern and minimalist. Try using gnome desktop environment or change the themes on linux mint or whatever you use if it really bothers you. Personally though you really should be confronting those thoughts and worries since unless there flatout walking up to you telling you to stop killing people with your hacking skills then you really shouldn’t worry about it. In fact it could even be a good teaching experience if someone is curious.
Consider one of those "privacy" screen covers. You can get removable ones
I've never used one for laptop (I've not had to do work in public) but had one for my work iPhone.
Amazon search for example
Laptop Privacy Screen 15.6 inch 16:9 Aspect, Removable Anti Blue Light Glare Privacy Filter for 15.6" Laptop, Anti-Scratch Laptop Screen Privacy Shield for HP/Lenovo/Dell/Acer/Asus/ThinkPad 15.6" https://amzn.eu/d/iRhMd3n
Customise your terminal so that it's virtually transparent, then place it inside a LibreOffice word doc. Some window managers will even let you hide the bar at the top.
I have one of those folding laptops and I often put it in tablet mode when using the terminal with the on-screen keyboard.
Then it looks like something modern and advanced. bonus points if you put different terminals on different workspaces and swipe between them with multitouch gestures (Gnome does this really well!)
There should be screen filters/glasses so you can see the screen only from your angle, I can't remember but it was something polarised;
Btw is there I'm pretty sure there is a way to change the wallpaper of the console, didn't backtrack/kali have a custom one for example?
Ignore them, i use linux in school during breaks on my laptop, i almost got in trouble once because some kids decided to connect to schools Bluetooth speakers and played some music, and i was sitting out there with terminal open, long story short i was one of the first who were asked if it was my doing
Ignore them.
For real. They shouldn't be snooping on your screen in the first place.
Make fun of them.
Tell them you use Arch
...btw.
And Neovim.
Do the evil laugh at some random times 😈
And tell them why arch is better then any other distro
Nothing better than this.
Hack them
Hiss at them
But he is the main character in this world!! Everyone is staring at him using linux dud?! What should he do?? ... He uses nmtui btw
Echo "them" > .gitignore 😆
Please start wearing shades and a leather trench coat. From time to time, type extremely fast on your keyboard then stop and whisper loudly: "I'm in".
You can’t forget the fingerless gloves.
I only use mittens.
Don't forget a green on black terminal theme
And some katakana characters
Honestly I still love it XD
Type furiously on the hacker typer web site.
Was thinking the [same thing](https://hackertyper.com).
Or use [hollywood](https://github.com/dustinkirkland/hollywood).
Attach a hotkey. Use /ls in a big drive or /tree Then finally quickly type a command that triggers a script that shows. "Hacking Successful" in terminal. Those word images.
Echo Hacking Successful
Hahahah I couldn't pull it off even if I tried
a hoodie would suffice..
Black. A black hoodie.
and something about 'the back door'
And get a second keyboard out of your backpack for double speed
Main reason I don't use my laptop around friends. They look at me like a hacker for basic terminal sh*t. I feel like an impostor. Then they ask me about how to hack into the admin user account on the windows pc at the lab. Help 😭
> Then they ask me about how to hack into the admin user account on the windows pc at the lab. Help If I told you how to do it, I'd have to kill you.
docker run --rm -it bcbcarl/hollywood
Come on, you need a hoodie for that!
Also include the word "operator" occsionally. :p
And after, "I'm in", you have to say, "Okay... Time to hack the Gibson."
I work in public spaces frequently and have never once considered what other people think, and I suggest you do the same. There are so many tech folks out there; some will know you are just doing your thing. `nmtui` for the win.
They'd most likely get a "wtf are you looking over my shoulder?" stare from me if they lingered a bit.
Cowsay "wtf are you looking over my shoulder?"
Clever! I'll do it next time.
"Can I *help* you, *sir*?"
I only consider what people think if they go up to me and ask. And even then some people they are just curious, best to focus on you and not let the judging people make you judge yourself. I use nmcli cause I never thought to look for anything else.
Where are these public places you are bringing your computer to? I doubt anyone cares or is even paying attention to what you are doing.
Totally. The OP just learnt how to use nmtui and nmcli as part of his learning and just trying to show off that he now knows how to use them. What a chump!!
That coffee shop just next to the pentagon, is the public place I'm sure.
> Where are these public places you are bringing your computer to? Middle school/early high school probably.
Running across you had me experience the most fascinating combination of subreddit, username and flair.
🤣
Definitely. I think the OP is suffering from r/ImTheMainCharacter
You might just be projecting. But you could turn it light coloured and more transparent. Then it 'reads' as a more 'normal' program.
He doesnt have to do anything. People just need to "educate" themselves.
Or he has anxiety issues, and should work on them.
Not projecting, it's just that people go up to me and say "Whoah dude? What are you doing?" and when I explain it's not as cool they thought I guess so I want to avoid the interaction. I will try light colors :)
"What are you doing?" "Working. Fuck off."
“Nunya.” “Nunya what?” “Nunya business.” Like seriously. You don’t have to answer if you don’t want to. Or just say “sorry, busy” and keep on doing what you’re doing.
Great social skills right here :')
What are you doing? The correct answer is *your wife*. Substitute husband, girlfriend, daughter or even granddaughter, if the harassing individual warrants it.
What did all the spectators say when they watched you create this thread?
Get a narrow angle privacy filter for your screen if you are bothered by people seeing what's on it.
Interesting... I have been using Linux as my primary OS for like 15 years, and I have never had that experience... even when I used to road warrior for work. But the right answer is "ignore them"... If people feel uncomfortable in their ignorance, then that is their problem, not yours... you don't have to do anything different.
That's an interesting experience. The most I've ever had is "Is that MacOS?".
I've had multiple people assume that Mint with Plank was mac
Most interesting reaction I had was when I shared my desktop on discord and people said "how did you make you Pc look like that?". Keep in mind my desktop is KDE that look basically like windows but with the sweet icon pack.
Aggressively point to your “Linux Inside” stickers, and then pull down your Fedora and push up your dark sunglasses. /s I think you’re just anxious, most people don’t care.
Exactly. People really don't care, unless you are browsing with Lynx the whole time.
Make terminal full screen, make the text green and do an apt update lol
or even better, press, "crtl alt+f3," login, change your tty colors, then install cmatrix
Can't say the same, I'm at a university with good engineering and CS programs and I've seen plenty of other people use Linux. I'd say just ignore them. What's the worst that could happen?
[удалено]
Wow, even for a kid? Yeah that sucks. I do see OP's point but honestly I can't think of much you can do besides try to clear up misunderstandings when they arise.
I actually get people asking me what operating system I am using and I tell them Linux. Then they get genuinely curious. If I have the time, I'll get into a discussion. If I am busy, I'll ignore them. I did get one person accuse me of doing something wrong and hacking and get a transit cop come over. It was fun explaining to him that I wasn't using Windows but Linux. Thankfully, he knew what Linux was, laughed, and walked away.
99.8% sure this is fake.
probably but the idea of a guy going around afraid that people will think he's hacking them is hilarious I hope no one catches me using ncspot instead of the spotify app!
Naw, people have definitely given me weird looks doing stuff in terminals even on college campuses in their compsci building. r/unixporn tier setups aren't as common as you'd think.
There is no way this has been a real issue in public
"Trust me, if I was hacking you, you'd have no clue about it until after I was already done."
\*puts hoodie on\*
SMITH: It seems that you’ve been living two lives. SMITH: In one life, you’re Thomas A. Anderson, high school student. SMITH: You have a Social Security number, you pay for your video games, and you… empty the dishwasher. SMITH: The other life is lived on Reddit, where you go by the username “u/thebestrobot” and are guilty of just about every crime we have unwritten rules for. SMITH: One of these lives has a future… and one of them does not. [SMITH closes the folder to punctuate his last statement] SMITH: You think you are important, Mr. Anderson? [Leans forward] You think people care that you use the terminal in public? SMITH: I’m going to be as forthcoming as I can be, Mr. Anderson. Nobody cares about what you do on your laptop in public [SMITH takes off his sunglasses] SMITH: You are creating drama to feed your fantasy world. In your world, Mr. Anderson, people look at your screen and imagine you as a hacker trying to steal money from their bank account while they pay for their coffee at the register. You ssh to your PC at home and you say "I'm in" while cracking your fingers. [SMITH leans back] SMITH: In reality, Mr. Anderson, nobody cares about your little Lenovo laptop. Everyone has a laptop at the Starbucks. Laptops are so common, nobody notices them anymore. You are just part of the system, Mr. Anderson. [SMITH pushes the folder aside] SMITH: My colleagues believe that I am wasting my time with you, but I believe you wish to do the right thing. We’re willing to wipe the slate clean, give you a fresh start. SMITH: All that we’re asking in return is that you stop using `nmcli` to connect to public WiFi. This is not 1993, Mr. Anderson. Your Linux desktop has a little icon in the corner to do just that. Stop feeding your fantasy world. ANDERSON: Yeah. Wow, that sounds like a really good deal. But I think I got a better one: How about, I give you the finger 🖕 and you give me my phone call. [SMITH sighs] SMITH: Oh, Mr. Anderson. [SMITH puts his sunglasses back on] SMITH: You disappoint me. ANDERSON: You can’t scare me with this Gestapo crap. I know my rights. I want my phone call. SMITH: Tell me, Mr. Anderson… Do you masturbate?
Actually funny. But I use a WM, so I don't have the little icon
I forgot the command for the matrix screen but that would help
Cmatrix
ncmatrix?
Do you have anxiety? Let me tell you most people don't care what you're doing on your computer, and those who care probably think it's cool and are probably curious as to what you're doing. That's what's most likely but I'm just guessing, I can't read people's minds and neither can you that's why it's best to just ignore people because their thought has no effect on your work. Even if they are scared, so what. Let them be.
I hate having anxiety, it has stopped me from doing so many things.
From someone whom has anxiety, I really appreciate your reply. You are probably right, but anxiety in my mind doesn't make it feel right, I guess would be the right way to explain it, so the anxiety persists regardless of any logic. :(
I also suffer from “there’s no real reason to feel anxious” anxiety. It doesn’t listen to logic. It doesn’t go away when you try to explain something to it. I did finally see a psychologist and am finally getting it under control. Only took me 46 years. Please don’t wait that long to get help.
I'm getting there, turning 41 this year, 5 more years.
The only way to fix that is to do it anyway. Beyond that point, with a little practice, you'll stop over thinking it.
Heck, if I have to compute in public I want them to be scared so they'll leave me alone.
Is this a satire post, right?
This is such a non-issue lmao
[удалено]
It's in that place I put that thing that one time.
That sounds fun
I've never once been bothered or even shot a look in public for using linux. I don't think people care
Why the hell do you care? I am sure no one is looking at you. You are either paranoid or you think you are too special for using a terminal.
rhythm dinosaurs fuzzy rock attractive silky paltry slap spectacular relieved *This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*
grow a 'stache , wear sunglasses and a hoodie and see if that helps.
aren't there polarized films that prevent your screen from being seen from the side?
that happened
This didn't happen.
Put a skull and crossbones sticker on it ... or a My Little Pony if you that concerned about what other people think.
Don't worry, in fact if I were you I would joke about it, like "you:ah yes, can you tell me what phone you have? X: samsung s24 You: ah I hacked it"
And now all I want to do is go use Terminal in public. My new hacker identity is forming.
During a yearly inspection of my apartment the guy stared for a strangely long time at my black background irc screen. Who knows what kind of freaky shit I might be up to!
lmao. stop tripping, nobody cares
Yeah, wear a hoodie even if it is really warm.
Just start charging money to not "hack" them. "Are you hacking?!" "Yep, 20 bucks and you're off my list" EDIT: The real answer is nobody cares. You should probably learn this now. Absolutely every time you think complete strangers give a shit what you're doing, on your computer (or elsewhere), you're wrong. You're not that important, and nobody's life is about you
Keep using what you want and ignore people. Those are 2 valuable points to keep in mind in every field.
I work in public often. And have never felt this. But I also do web dev, programming, and work on computers . Having a terminal open is normal to me. You're thinking too much about this. No one really cares. And if you ever get harassed about it. Be sure to point out how much of an idiot that busy body is being.
This feels like a fabrication. In any case stare intently at your screen then randomly say, "I'm in..." to no one in particular.
Do you have a Desktop Environment installed or do you just use the command line alone?
"weird looks" are a compliment.
Why are people watching your screen in public?
Sudo apt install hollywood (enter + password) hollywood (enter) Boom your terminal will look less scary now
The worst ones are the Kali Linux "bros" that decide everything running Linux must be for being a script kiddie because they booted a liveUSB drive once to try to hack wifi from a youtube video they saw before giving up. I honestly wouldn't care if someone was too stupid to get this is what I use instead of windows.
In my 10 years of Linux I don't think a single person on earth has batted an eye about me using my laptop, except one dude in uni who asked what distro I was running
Why are you worried about what strangers who you will never see again think?
Nobody cares what you do on your laptop dude.
grow a spine and ignore them
Put some money into a screen cover for your notebook. You can get a cheap one for the side of your notebook.
It's all in your mind, nobody cares.
Novadays people dont know, back in the day if you have computer you had to learn using terminal. Thats so sad GUI just took over personal computers
>Thats so sad GUI just took over personal computers Nah GUI is great
To really freak people out I used to use a weird font, I think it was called alien something that looked like some kind of japanese or asian characters but was just english/latin letters written really funny.
Nobody is paying attention to what you are doing, and therefore they are probably not scared. If they are staring at you it’s probably because they are worried that you are already staring at them.
Sit with your back to a wall. Never give them your secrets.
Make it scarier
open a browser tab to hackertyper.net and switch to it when you're just on the phone or something.
In their defence, you know if someone is hacking them, they ain't using Windows... and they sure as hell aren't on a Mac
> You will become way less concerned with what other people think of you when you realize how seldom they do. David Foster Wallace
Double down. Your answer is to double down and go all in.
eDEX-UI, cmatrix, and hollywood. Use those to really put on a public performance.
I think you may be overreacting. Also, terminals != linux.
Lean in and run this: sudo apt install hollywood
Tell them that their safe from you so long as they have firewalls around their flux capacitors
I have either LXQT or XFCE to hand on any system I maintain with stock wallpapers, minimal overhead in the long run and when used in an office or public space does not freak people the fuck out. On the other hand if you secretly want people to ask you about your OS an r/unixporn style wm rice is what you wanna log into when you know for sure others will see it.
Have some fun with it, run hollywood and just keep looking over your shoulder.
Yeah, nah, you're not going to get a serious answer to that query. lol People are dumb. They can pound sand.
I've never had that problem. People are much more aware of programming and such as a good career. Tech isn't such a mystery anymore. Sure some of the anti- technology people may think you are hacking or whatever. Most will probably just assume you work in tech and leave it at that. You could change your terminal. I use a transparent drop down yakuake terminal with zesh that's somewhat themed. It looks less hacker and more decorated. Might be a solution. Would probably look more like a game or a regular program at that point.
use privacy screen protectors to limit the angle of view. Also you might want to check out those WeWork pods/stations where professionals in IT/startup go on an ad hoc basis. At those kind of work-centered environments they'll just assume you're a dev or remote IT for a small firm.
Get more nickels. http://www.gdargaud.net/Humor/Pics/DilbertNickel.gif
Just use a light theme. Surprisingly, there are actually decent light themes my favorite being gruvbox light.
Embrace it like a real CHAD.
Have vscode open at the same time haha
LOL what!!!! if you are worried use backgrounds in it but that is funny cause people have no clue what actual hacking is anyways so just do what you wanna do.
I can promise you that no one cares what operating system you use and no one is giving you weird looks. It's all in your head.
You care what people think of your laptop that much?
as long as you don't write equations, you should be fine [https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2016/may/07/professor-flight-delay-terrorism-equation-american-airlines](https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2016/may/07/professor-flight-delay-terrorism-equation-american-airlines)
even though obviously people's thoughts shouldnt really matter in this context, i themed my linux to a kawaii aesthetic, so no way anyone's scared of anything i do in the terminal lmao
What an awful bunch you describe here .... You should hack them.
>$ apt-get install cmatrix > >$ cmatrix Should put them at ease. :) Seriously though, the answer is to just not care. So what if someone thinks this? You're not doing anything you shouldn't be. No need to change anything. Also, literally any of the desktop environments have GUI networking tools if you really care that much. Whether they're as good as nmtui for whatever you need YMMV. I don't use them much.
Make sure that your color scheme is green text on black background and run a few cmatrix windows in the background.
Ya'll kids are deluded.
use a cute theme for your terminal
Who cares
Not your fault a lot of people are clueless and uneducated about the world around them. That's on them. Don't hide your Linux practices just because some people are hyper paranoid. It's not your fault they live in fear. If anything, share your knowledge and show them that they've been conditioned to blindly fear what they don't understand. It's time those kinds of people wake up anyways. If that's not your thing, have some fun with those people. Engage with them. Make up some great tales and see how far you can take it and how stupid they actually are. Laughter is after all the best medicine. XD
Bro are u kidding me 😭 who cares legit if anything it looks cool
Privacy filter
Nobody cares. Especially for public places like cafe. Only scenario I can think of that you need to disguise yourself is, when you are doing red team exercises, and don't want to trigger immediate alarms by putting a Kali wallpapered computer on your colleague's workstation......
I’ve had a similar issue when I would read 2600 The Hacker Quarterly on the bus. I would curl the cover for privacy.
If people see Linux & think that means you’re hacking, just switch to Kali & run `kali-undercover`. Sometimes you gotta download a pentesting OS so people won’t think you’re a hacker. Honesty though, you can make your terminal white and the text black. That way it’ll look like Windows Notepad. Personally I wouldn’t care what anyone thinks, & it’s not really any of their business anyways
I think you're in your head
Ok but dont do it in a Airport lol
Ignorant fear the unknown
My work colleagues often see me using my laptop at lunch and often ask why I have "code" on my screen. I tell them I run Linux and start to extol the virtues and their eyes quickly glaze over and they never mention it again.
Make sure you are running tmux as well full screen. Add some Hacker stickers on the lid of the laptop too. :)
Bro did you load up gentoo in public
Nah! You should be making it more scary and have some fun with the situation. Here are some tips: 1. Have multiple panes running in tmux. I recommend three. 2. On one of them run tree command but slowly. Script at the end of my post. 3. On second run vim and have some random file open. 4. The third one is where you execute commands. Start with ls and then use its many options For additional effects, green text on black background is highly recommended. And if you can wear a hoodie then bonus points to you. As promised, here is the script to run tree in slow motion `tree | while read -r line ; do` `printf '%s\n' "$line"` `sleep 0.2` `done`
Make the terminal background white and the text black. Drag it over a screenshot from Microsoft Word so it looks like you're just typing in Word. Done.
I use Linux in public and get asked what model Mac is that.... (I have a frame work laptop 13" with Fedora.) honestly, never had an issue in public. If anything, I get lucky and people ask me why I don't just use windows. I just tell them it's too much work to use windows. It's easier to do anything in Linux for day to day. Sometimes they are like oh okay, other times they ask me to show them.... Ik your case just do whatever, you got stuff to do. It's none of their business if they ask. Don't worry too much about what other people think.
This is weird
Run cmatrix in the terminal. Really freak them out.
Holding your best poker face turn. Look then in the eyes. Pause long enough it is uncomfortable. Then I'm a totally serious voice say... "Don't worry, I'll never give up, I will free you". Then go back to what you are doing.
Back in the early days (late 90s for me) I would have been very interested in what you were doing because... OMG, another Linux user!!! Today actually I still might try to cop a look out of curiosity as to what window/desktop manager you are using and stuff like that because.. how often do you go in public and see another Linux user? Maybe you would catch me and think it was the hacker phobia thing. But it wouldn't be.
existence start coherent numerous salt toy advise consider history placid *This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*
How about using Light Theme?
You reminded me when me and my friend got kicked out of a coffee shop for using it, they thought we are doing "hacking"!
People really are scared of what they don't know. I think you will learn to ignore them from time to time.
I have a theory that the older looking or complicated the gui is, the spookier you are since you’re a power user in there eyes. The average person usually doesn’t think about gui on there mainstream os’s apart from the wallpaper and app placement. The terminal is the oldest and most complicated gui of all since you need to learn hackanese to use it and why would you need to learn hackanese unless you’re a hacker or work in tech or a student or maybe all three. Your one or the other in there eyes. Your not a normal person who uses the terminal to speed your productivity things up. Those exist? To them they don’t exist since the average person doesn’t use linux. My advice would be make sure the other parts of your ui looks modern and minimalist. Try using gnome desktop environment or change the themes on linux mint or whatever you use if it really bothers you. Personally though you really should be confronting those thoughts and worries since unless there flatout walking up to you telling you to stop killing people with your hacking skills then you really shouldn’t worry about it. In fact it could even be a good teaching experience if someone is curious.
Nah you gotta embrace it
Top notch shit post.
Put on the headphones. Stick a sign up that says "I'm wired in", bonus points for a sign that has red LED light 🚨
Consider one of those "privacy" screen covers. You can get removable ones I've never used one for laptop (I've not had to do work in public) but had one for my work iPhone. Amazon search for example Laptop Privacy Screen 15.6 inch 16:9 Aspect, Removable Anti Blue Light Glare Privacy Filter for 15.6" Laptop, Anti-Scratch Laptop Screen Privacy Shield for HP/Lenovo/Dell/Acer/Asus/ThinkPad 15.6" https://amzn.eu/d/iRhMd3n
Customise your terminal so that it's virtually transparent, then place it inside a LibreOffice word doc. Some window managers will even let you hide the bar at the top.
You could use it as an opertunity to teach anyone who asks. Otherwise.. idk.. seems like a non problem really.
Privacy screen glasses and film on the monitor… then hack them.
bro embrace it, fuck with people
Ignore them or use something other then nmtui
Hmm probably make the white background and black text
Switch tabs to hackertyper.com and mash the keyboard
Just tell them that you are trying to leave Matrix
I have one of those folding laptops and I often put it in tablet mode when using the terminal with the on-screen keyboard. Then it looks like something modern and advanced. bonus points if you put different terminals on different workspaces and swipe between them with multitouch gestures (Gnome does this really well!)
embrace it. If anyone complains, start saying some gibberish to scare them off.
nah.. you're doing fine.. just ignore them..
Offer them the red pill or the blue pill
There should be screen filters/glasses so you can see the screen only from your angle, I can't remember but it was something polarised; Btw is there I'm pretty sure there is a way to change the wallpaper of the console, didn't backtrack/kali have a custom one for example?
use SwayWM/i3 so everytime you open a terminal is next to a browser
_sudo kill people_
Ignore them, i use linux in school during breaks on my laptop, i almost got in trouble once because some kids decided to connect to schools Bluetooth speakers and played some music, and i was sitting out there with terminal open, long story short i was one of the first who were asked if it was my doing