😆 I’ve done the classic XKCD of assuming too much domain specific knowledge.

Computer programs often have to use behavior that isn’t defined by the author. Think about how hard programming would be if you had to rewrite code to display text every time you wrote a new program. So often code relies on external implementations of functionality to reuse common sections. These common sections are kept in library files. On windows they are typically distributed as .dll files, or Dynamically Linked Libraries, on Linux they typically use the .so extension for Shared Object

Dynamic in this case contrasts against things compiled statically. When a program is compiled it has to be linked against the libraries that it uses, so it knows where to go when its time for those calls. Statically linked programs, copy the sections of the libraries into their binaries, while dynamically linked libraries are stored in separate files to save on file space. Then at runtime, the dynamically linked program will search for the missing code in a specific order based on your systems variables. /lib is the primary storage place for those libraries on Linux.

Thank you so much for the compliment, and thank you for adding more! I’ve definitely encountered programs using flags in ways I didn’t anticipate before 😂

Rereading made me already remember one I mentioned but didn’t explain.

mount is the command used most often to make hard drives accessible in the file system. Typically you need a folder to use, and then you tell the system mount /dev/sdb1 /home/user/userMount or similar. The fstab file in /etc will usually have a list of entries of devices that are automatically mounted on startup

Thats a really good point on both sides. I thought you might be overstating it on the price, but I looked it up and the XM in 2010 was at $150! BeagleBone in 2011 launched at $89 and in 2013 the BeagleBone Black came out at $45 so they were definitely playing catch up on the price. Raspberry Pi OS support has also been fantastic, with a bunch of flavors still hanging around. I used to use Arch for Pi because Debian didn’t have MongoDB packaged in the version I needed 😄

EDIT: For clarity Raspberry Pi launched in 2012 at the famously cheap $35

I’ve learned a lot from the pi too! I think its a great little machine, but also it looks like the BeagleBoard beat it to market by about four years, so maybe it wasn’t the pi itself that was so revolutionary and more the cultural movement around it

Maybe? Idk, didn’t the BeagleBone boards already exist? It definitely made an impact and got more people into it, but I can see how hobbyists might think they didnt add all that much