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What are some of the best sites on the web you can recommend to help me learn Linux so I can finally ditch Windows?

  • Linux Filter: What are some of the best sites on the web you can recommend to help me learn Linux? Apologies in advance to anyone getting miffed at the large number of Linux related questions on AskMe. My goal in asking this question is to find other sites to ask Linux questions so I don't have to clog up AskMe with Linux questions. I saw many Linux related posts, but I didn't see any that asked specifically about other web resources for Linux. Sorry if I missed them. I've been meaning to learn Linux for a long while now. I always seem to sputter out and fall back on Windows because it's what I know. I would love to hear any and all recommendations for some of the best sites/web resources out there for learning Linux. I've done enough to know about Live CDs and such. I'm not really interested in those since I have three unused PCs that I can install distros on and see how they interact etc. My biggest problem in learning Linux so far, I think, is that I'm overwhelmed by the sheer number of sites out there. I haven't found any really good communities for some reason. Things I am especially interested in: (In general) - Primarily command line usage. I prefer this to using a GUI, although I recognize the GUI can be a lot easier many times, especially for newbs. - Free or low cost online training courses. Again, command line preferred. - Best web resources for bringing a semi-skilled XP guy up to speed on Linux. Where to go for help when needed without expecting hand holding. (More specific.) I'm just mentioning these as examples. I don't expect answers to these topics here on AskMe. - Strategies for disk partitioning. When I need "extra" mount points (/usr, /var etc.) How to add or delete them later if I change my mind? What are the implications relating to this? - Doing things like adding support for hardware (eg: a NIC driver) that is available from a manufacturer but is not supported by a distro I am trying to use. Building drivers from source. - Understanding better the reasons for and perils of certain distros using older versions of applications. Sometimes it seems to take a long time for the newest application updates to make it into the Linux repositories. I'd like to know how to install cutting edge apps (especially for security patches) when I feel I need to and not shoot myself in the foot the next time I do an online update of a distro. - Server vs. Workstation builds - Linux networking. Intermingling Linux and Windows machines and network devices (printers, routers, etc.)

  • Answer:

    I learned as much as I know about Linux by just deciding one day that I'd had enough of Redmond's bullshit, I loathed the locked-in direction that Apple was heading in, and that I was just going to use Linux or not use the computer. Having had a bit of Unix experience at college helped some, but most of what I know has been acquired over time by the http://xkcd.com/627/ The first Linux distro I played with was Red Hat 9, and I had a lot of fun running that into the weeds and then recovering from my mistakes. I didn't persist with the Red Hat/Fedora family because I wasn't all that fond of the enterprise vs. personal development model, I didn't much like the "everything and the kitchen sink" feel of the default install, and never having had much fun with RPM package management was inclined to believe the rumours that Debian packaging shat upon it from a great height. After a brief flirtation with Gentoo, I settled on Ubuntu for a while. I really enjoyed Ubuntu - it was lovely to see it get better and more polished by leaps and bounds every six months. I did a couple of Dapper installs for people I knew who were also sick of Redmond's bullshit (mainly families with teenage Windows sysadmins who were tired of needing to un-bugger their computer every six months), and found that even then, the followup support required for those was less time-consuming and far more enjoyable than that for comparable Windows installs. By the time Hardy came out, it was clear to me that Windows really was a complete waste of time on the desktop by comparison, at least for end uses not tightly tied to Windows-hosted proprietary apps like QuickBooks, and I started being rather more forward in promoting Ubuntu to customers. That paid off bigtime; about 90% of them ended up preferring it. But Ubuntu jumped the shark with Lucid, and I've finally got around to using dear, sweet, patient old Debian on my own machines (including the old 733MHz, 3TB UPS-protected box being used as a headless server that chugs away 24/7 in the back room). I'm enjoying the same lovely package management Ubuntu got me accustomed to, and enjoying using a system that I feel has the right development balance between making stuff work well and making it look slick. I've done one Debian Squeeze desktop install for a customer (I'm also supporting another, that was done by somebody else), a couple of Squeeze server installs at work, and so far it's even less trouble than Ubuntu. Command line: start http://linuxcommand.org/ This is http://ask.metafilter.com/171234/Advice-and-encouragement-please-on-jumping-the-rest-of-the-way-into-Linux#2463623 Support for recent hardware: path of least resistance is to http://packages.debian.org/experimental/kernel/ Next is http://www.howtoforge.com/kernel_compilation_debian_etch Only if your hardware is still not supported that way will you need to add specific driver code to your kernel source. Linux native support for wireless NICs is now very extensive; most of the time, the driver you need will already be in the kernel. But if you have an inflexible requirement to use an unsupported one for which only a Windows driver exists, you will probably be able to use the Windows driver in Linux via http://wiki.debian.org/NdisWrapper Putting Linux and Windows boxes on the same network and figuring out good ways to give them the use of each other's facilities is indeed a really good way to teach yourself a lot of stuff very quickly. The single most essential tool is http://www.wireshark.org/ an excellent cross-platform network packet analyzer. There are many, many ways to share files between *nix and Windows boxes over a network. Most of what you'll find on the net pertains to using http://www.samba.org/ to support the Windows file serving protocols on Linux. Samba is mature, complete, and huge, but http://www.owlfish.com/thoughts/winipp-cups-2003-07-20.html works better for sharing Linux-hosted printers, and for simple file sharing jobs I've recently started installing http://www.kpym.com/2/kpym/index.htm on any Windows box I want remote access to. Learn about http://www.google.com.au/search?q=ssh+tunnel if you're not already using it regularly. In fact, learn about ssh in general. It's an absolute Swiss army knife for doing damn near anything remotely. If you find yourself setting up a weird and baroque collection of daemons and clients to get just about any networking job done, have a bit of a look around and see if the same thing can be done just by throwing a few command line options at a ssh client. You will be impressed by how often it can. I know of no better way to learn any complex system than just committing to using it and taking the time to solve problems as they arise. If you think about it, I'm sure you'll find that you acquired most of what you know about Windows in exactly that way. Also, I've personally found AskMe to be an excellent resource for helping me sort out my own Linux-related problems. It's generally where I'll end up whenever my eyes! the Googles do nothing!

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The best way to learn Linux is to install it, then break it, then fix it, and repeat. Do that and learn as you go.

devnull

Working with Linux is like playing a musical instrument. It's not really something you "finally learn"; it's something you just keep getting better at with practice. Enjoy!

flabdablet

The single most important thing for getting familiar with linux is picking one distribution and sticking with it. If your goal is to learn about it, instead of use it for common tasks with minimal hassle, it does not matter if the distribution you pick is the best for your needs or if it is especially windows-friendly. What matters is that you stick with one and, when something breaks or doesn't work as expected, keep at it until you understand what is really happening and find the solution to your problem. It follows from this that the forum you need to be reading is the forum for your distribution of choice - I have been using arch for a while, and they have a reasonably complete wiki and https://bbs.archlinux.org/. On to your more specific questions: - Strategies for disk partitioning. When I need "extra" mount points (/usr, /var etc.) How to add or delete them later if I change my mind? What are the implications relating to this? Have a look at the http://www.pathname.com/fhs/2.2/. - Doing things like adding support for hardware (eg: a NIC driver) that is available from a manufacturer but is not supported by a distro I am trying to use. Building drivers from source. Do you know any C? If you are going to muck about with this kind of thing, it pays to know, for example, what a header file is or what the error messages your compiler is spitting out might mean. You don't need to become a kernel hacker, just learn enough so you can write and compile a hello world program. - I'd like to know how to install cutting edge apps (especially for security patches) when I feel I need to and not shoot myself in the foot the next time I do an online update of a distro. This one is very distribution specific, I suggest you tackle it after you have settled down with a distro and feel comfortable keeping up with their bleeding-edge development packages. - Server vs. Workstation builds A server can be any number of things, from the boxes running google to a BSD toaster. The general principle is that a server must do only what it needs to do, because maintaining unwanted stuff on a system other people are depending on is both an unnecessary and a potential source of problems. It's a pretty big subject to study in the abstract, since you have spare machines lying around a good idea would be to start a toy project, such as a personal file or web server. - Linux networking. Intermingling Linux and Windows machines and network devices (printers, routers, etc.) The good thing about networks is that, in an ideal world, nobody cares what system you are running. Familiarize yourself with basic networking concepts such as TCP/IP and the linux-specific stuff should come naturally. AFAIK askme isn't running out of electrons, if you have any questions ask away. >

Dr Dracator

anadem

http://www.linuxquestions.org has answered any random obscure question I ever had as I embarked upon the trial and error method. If you can face it, I recommend setting up a Gentoo system by following the guide (it's very very detailed) and by the end you'll have a good introductory knowledge and have a system you built your way etc...

dougrayrankin

Your first choice is your distribution. A lot of things are the same across distros, but having a distribution gives you a go-to community for questions and in some cases a particular starting point (e.g., most distributions run their own package management, default configurations, etc.) It sounds like you want to get under the hood a bit, so I would recommend Debian. It's a very large, mature, and well-supported project that doesn't set out to hide everything under a shiny, locked down GUI. I like Debian because it'll get you running about 30 minutes after you burn the install disk, and then you can play around to your heart's content. One Debian caveat: it's not the most cutting-edge of distros. You will need to do some work to get the latest wireless drivers or what have you. Even more customizable and educational is the approach taken by Gentoo and, worse, Linux from Scratch. The latter actually has you build your own distribution piece by piece; at the end, you're either a Linux guru or utterly mad. Meanwhile, distros like Ubuntu will make everything very user-friendly at the cost of separating you a bit from your own computer. I don't think, if your goal is to learn Linux rather than merely use it, that you should pick Ubuntu.

d. z. wang

I'd also recommend picking up a book and using it in conjunction with learning your O/S. I think also your distro is going to depend on what you need it for; I'm working on Red Hat, so I have CentOS installed at home. But reading a cert guide like an RHCE guide or maybe A+ might be helpful because of the comprehensiveness of the material. The rest is just fuck around, get an error, try to figure it out yourself, cry, get mad, give up, google it, spend hours looking up the solution's new commands in the man pages, then implement. Oh, Linux. You beautiful bastard.

mckenney

Actually, Windows is more like herpes. It's irritating and weakens your resistance to other problems so you're better off without it, but most people you know probably already have it and common relationship practices make avoiding it virtually impossible.

flabdablet

IMO, the best way to 'learn linux' is to build something useful with it-- for example, try to wordpress up and running on it, or a file server.

empath

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