A good idiots guide to Linux.

waterproofbob

waterproofbob

Junior Administrator
I've decided to get proactive in my linux use and actually want to learn how to do stuff more to entertain myself than to actually serve any useful purpose.
I've wanted to get into for a while and have never got round to it. I know a lot of you are linux monkeys or have some linux experience, I know I can google things everytime I need a particular thing but I'd really like a nice crib sheet styley with some explaination as well and was wondering if someone could point me in the right direction. I'm currently running Ubuntu and it is fairly empty at the mo.
I'd like to get my teeth into it a bit.
I know there is the linux help forums about the place but they seem to be swamped with I'm holier and more open source than you mere plebien and not that helpful.
Any help on this would be awesome, If lots of ppl post lots of little helpful things then I might be able to create my own guide from that.

thanks in advance.
bob
 
thatbloke

thatbloke

Junior Administrator
The problem with Linux is that it can vary wildly from distribution to distribution. There are of course many many common elements, but to the user at the end of the chain (i.e. you) each one can be wildly different in the way they work.

As you are running Ubuntu the best person around here to talk to would be Haven as I believe that is what he uses.

Also you don't really state what kind of things you want to be able to do. Are we talking about (perhaps) some kind of windows-linux conversion sheet for various tasks? Things like, for instance, copying a file and stuff like that?
 
E

elDiablo

Guest
I bought a book called "An Introduction to the Unix Operating System" (or something). It's a good start to the common applications available under Unix (but really Linux) as well as learning awk scripting and stuff. It's a good little book to get you into Linux and the command line. I've still got my copy, and I don't want it. If you do, just say and it's yours mate!

Other than that, I'd suggest getting into a project. For example, start off with installing Gentoo or something hard, where you have to read the manual a lot, just to get used to it. Then wipe that and install Ubuntu or something else nice and easy.
 
waterproofbob

waterproofbob

Junior Administrator
Yeah I'm basically looking for a sort of guide for being able to use linux as my only OS, I have no plan to stop using Windows but I'd like to be able to use Linux as easily.
I'd like to be competent in living in the command line world. As this is of course the benefit of the Linux world and I'd like to be able to us it without needing to ask ppl how to do things all the time.
For example, I'd like to know how to do user admin type stuff in linux from a command line perspective, somet that in the GUI form is simple stuff, I'd like to get my teeth into properly breaking it in a command line sense.

tbh any advice is muchly appreciated as you can't appreciate my lack of knowledge in this, it may seem like a redundant thing that you just know but throw it at me anyway, if i do know it already then super, if not then even better.
 
thatbloke

thatbloke

Junior Administrator
take elD's book. It's a good intro to some very useful aspects of Linux usage - I have it too (it was required as part of our degree) and it taught me alot aboot how linux works :)
 
Haven

Haven

Administrator
Staff member
Its hard to learn anything without a specific aim in mind and Linux is no different in that regard. Also Ubuntu is a very friendly OS with lots of automated scripts to hide things behind the scenes. It makes a great desktop once you know linux but isn't hugely helpful in letting you learn whats behind the scenes. Once you know more about linux then its a good OS to come back to if you are a lazy person as it does most things for you. I run it on one of our laptops at home and recently slapped it on my desktop after I hit issues with sound under gentoo (same issues under ubuntu unfortunately). I also roll it out and customise it for work so I'm good with it.

If you really want to learn linux command line then set yourself the challenge of installing Gentoo/Slackware/FreeBSD and Fedora.

Run each one for a week and get yourself to the stage where you have X-Windows, can play Music and Movies and browse the web and check your email. Each OS does some things the same and some differently - one of the useful key skills to learning linux is understanding where linux stops and disto specific begins, having a play with multiple OS's will certainly give you that.

That would be my advice.

If however you want to stick with Ubuntu then try and setup a custom kernel built from scratch (i.e. downloaded from kernel.org). Its not an easy challenge but it will either scare the crap out of you or get you interested in knowing more.

Failing that type:

man man
info info

And go from there :)
 
VibroAxe

VibroAxe

Junior Administrator
I actually found the thing that taught me the most baout how linux WORKS (bearing in mind prety gui's and stuff are usually just frontend interfaces in linux) was installing gentoo. The guide is actally pretty easy to follow if you take some time to do it properly and it explains alot about how the underlying stuff works and what it is. Try it out mate
 
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