Learning Linux/Unix

[shud]

...that just has a short tutorial on setting up some common Linux distros (Fedora, Debian, Gentoo, etc.) and a bunch of really useful commands? I'll install a GUI, but I hear that it's much more powerful/quick to do things from the command line and I'd like to learn as much as I can.

 

[daniel49]

try linuxquestions.org
there are many places some good some poor.
heres a few commands to get you started
Text

 

[Nothinman]

The only way to really learn is to play around with it, install it somewhere and play until it breaks then reinstall and start over again.

 

[nweaver]

gentoo has a very good install guide on the gentoo.org site. It is not a very user friendly distro for noobs IMHO.

 

[DnetMHZ]

Originally posted by: Nothinman
The only way to really learn is to play around with it, install it somewhere and play until it breaks then reinstall and start over again.

 

[P0ldy]

Simply Linux is a decent but outdated book that has a lot of distro installation walkthroughs in it. If you've ever installed Windows, you can install Linux. LinuxCommand.org can give you some commands to move around CLI.

 

[JoLLyRoGer]

Originally posted by: DnetMHZ

Originally posted by: Nothinman
The only way to really learn is to play around with it, install it somewhere and play until it breaks then reinstall and start over again.

Correction: Figure out what broke and why, then learn how to fix it.

 

[Nothinman]

Correction: Figure out what broke and why, then learn how to fix it.

Ideally, yes, but the first few times you break thing's it's a real pain to figure out why it's broke and a reinstallation is simply quicker. If you don't know the system you won't figure it out and having someone tell you "You forgot to update libgconf2-4" doesn't mean much.

 

[JoLLyRoGer]

Originally posted by: Nothinman

Correction: Figure out what broke and why, then learn how to fix it.

Ideally, yes, but the first few times you break thing's it's a real pain to figure out why it's broke and a reinstallation is simply quicker. If you don't know the system you won't figure it out and having someone tell you "You forgot to update libgconf2-4" doesn't mean much.

While this is true it will ultimately cheat the user out of a valuable learning experience. As with anything new, it takes time and it's slow going at first. The open source community is a vast place and that said, there is not much one can break that someone else hasn't broken before. To spend a little extra time researching out how to recover from mistakes is to truely learn the system.

Edit: To get back on topic, these are a couple of good sites. Even though the first one is geared toward Fedora Core, there is still a wealth of general information there that is applicable to other distros too.
www.fedoraforum.org
www.linuxdoc.org

 

[KoolDrew]

Originally posted by: Nothinman
The only way to really learn is to play around with it, install it somewhere and play until it breaks then reinstall and start over again.

 

[daniel49]

Originally posted by: JoLLyRoGer

Originally posted by: Nothinman

Correction: Figure out what broke and why, then learn how to fix it.

Ideally, yes, but the first few times you break thing's it's a real pain to figure out why it's broke and a reinstallation is simply quicker. If you don't know the system you won't figure it out and having someone tell you "You forgot to update libgconf2-4" doesn't mean much.

While this is true it will ultimately cheat the user out of a valuable learning experience. As with anything new, it takes time and it's slow going at first. The open source community is a vast place and that said, there is not much one can break that someone else hasn't broken before. To spend a little extra time researching out how to recover from mistakes is to truely learn the system.

there is not much one can break that someone else hasn't broken before
hmm i'll have to shoot for that one just kidding bersl

 

[Megatomic]

I'm just learning myself shud. Mostly I'm reading man pages and using google. It's not easy nor is it quick but I haven't had to search for the same solution twice that's for sure.

 

[n0cmonkey]

Here.

 

[drag]

I also have a link in my sig.

 

[hazel]

The HP Learning Center has a nice course by the writer of the book Linux for Dummies. Unlike many of the HP courses this isn't for dummies. Linux 101 and
Linux 201 give specific exercises on how to use command lines. She also encourages the students to do some advanced stuff on their own and then discuss it on the message board.
http://h30187.www3.hp.com/index.jsp

She also links the best tutorial sites online...

and

Suse Linux publishes a couple of news letters under the titles of Cool News,
the one for Newbies deals with commands for beginners.