While Greg's response is a good starting point, the question is where
you currently see yourself in terms of Linux (and general computer) skill.
If you are not familiar with lower level system admin type tasks (yet),
you may want to simply start with learning the environment. Ubuntu is a
relatively good distribution to get your feet wet without being
overwhelmed by the depth of the topic.
If you are a little more skilled/knowledgeable, Then Greg's links will
probably make sense to you. Also, you might consider looking at the
"hard core" distro's - Slackware, Gentoo, Linux From Scratch, etc.
These distros need you to setup everything yourself, which means you get
very familiar with the system - from compiling only what you need to
using the system for it's intended purpose. Gentoo is the one I went to
that taught me almost everything I know about Linux. The documentation
was very good and thorough. The LFS book was written by a local fellow...
Regarding distros, applications, and choices.... Think about it like
buying a car. You can make use of any car, but some don't feel right,
some feel like they are too much, some have polish, while others are
more about function than looks. You need to try a few out to see which
ones work for you. Which one "clicks" with you. This might be Ubuntu,
or Red Hat, or Debian, or Slackware, or something else entirely.
One point - be careful to keep the desired task separate from the idea
of the "Linux Desktop". Building a web server is similar regardless of
the distro. Managing a Windows shared drive on Linux is similar
regardless of the distro. Learn the concepts, and everything becomes
much simpler. Usually.
My top tips for using Linux. Use it. Don't be afraid to use Google.
Or to ask for help.
Welcome to the group.
On 11-09-05 07:07 PM, Greg King wrote:
Simple question to which I think there are no simple answers, but I'll
take a stab at it. With Linux you will want to become somewhat familiar
with the command line and a basic text editor like vi or vim (emacs if
your so inclined, but the learning curve on it is rather large). This
will save you from many a crisis when the GUI interface isn't available.
I'd start with:
1. a book on shell programming like "teach yourself shell programming in
24 hours" -
http://www.amazon.com/Teach-Yourself-Shell-Programming-Hours/dp/0672323583/ref=dp_ob_title_bk
2. A book on Linux itself like "LPI Linux certification"
http://www.amazon.com/LPI-Linux-Certification-Nutshell-OReilly/dp/0596804873/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1315267679&sr=1-1
<http://www.amazon.com/LPI-Linux-Certification-Nutshell-OReilly/dp/0596804873/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1315267679&sr=1-1>#_
3. A book on open source network administration like
http://www.amazon.com/Administration-Prentice-Computer-Networking-Distributed/dp/0130462101/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1315267946&sr=1-1
<http://www.amazon.com/Administration-Prentice-Computer-Networking-Distributed/dp/0130462101/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1315267946&sr=1-1>#_
(this one is a little dated but something similar would be good).
I have personally used all of the above resources and found them useful.
YMMV.
Play with a few distros, at least one RPM based like RedHat and one
Debian based like Ubuntu and learn the software management tools. Play
with user interfaces Gnome, KDE and a lightweight GUI like xfce. Here
virtual machines (VMs) are your friend. I use VMware server which is
free but somewhat old and has some issues, but there are others probably
as good or better. Buy a big multicore 8GB+ memory machine and load it
up with VMs - its all free as in no cost so the only limitation is your
ability to absorb the content.
There is a lot of information on Linux on the internet (an
understatment) so just google Linux + "your topic" and you will find
toms of information but beware that some of it will be out of date. The
Linux Documentation Project www.tldp.org <http://www.tldp.org/> is a
good place to start and each distro will have its own documentation and
release notes which are usually woth a browse, and man pages are your
friend too.
I hope that gives you some ideas. Good luck with your quest to learn
Linux. Taken in bite sized peices it can be a very reqarding experience.
Greg
----- Original Message -----
From: Stuart Gilmour <stu...@stuartgilmour.com>
Date: Monday, September 5, 2011 1:07 pm
Subject: [clug-talk] n00b
To: clug-talk@clug.ca
> Hello,
>
> My name is Stuart and I just started to learn linux. I was just
> wondering if anybody had any thoughts on where a good place to
> start would be. (books, links, courses in the calgary area) I
> have "googled" and read few a articles and lessons on the net
> but there is so much to choose from. PS I am interested in
> network administration. If that helps?
>
> Happy I found this group!
>
> Cheers,
>
> Stuart
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