Where to learn about Linux?

Well, I didn't know anything either, and am still learning, but the best way to learn is just get your hands dirty....

Newbie or not Newbie, there's always a question

I want to recommend you Peter Norton??s "Complete Guide to Linux"
Rainer

Hello djungk,

You realize that by asking to learn that you're opening a can of worms. Now you'll want to learn more and more, and what's worse, you'll eventually want to help someone What kind of guy are you?

There are piles of information available, but of course, that's why you're asking! I have learned a lot by getting books from O'Reilly (the "animal books"). Any reputable bookstore will have many of them, or go to their website www.oreilly.com. The also have a site called ONLamp.com that gets pretty advanced, but there are also beginning links from there.

Also, check out TUXMagazine www.tuxmagazine.com. It's a free, downloadable (in PDF) journal so if you have a dial-up it can be a bit chunky. However, there have been some good articles in there. It's sister publication is Linux Journal www.linuxjournal.com. Also, read anything and everything by Marcel Gagne. He's written some very good books too.

As to "standards" you might wander out to "The Linux Documentation Project" www.tldp.org. They are a group trying to standardize and organize some of the differences between distros. Oh, and one last one I promise. If you haven't already gotten confused, check out DistroWatch, www.distrowatch.com and check the weekly version (comes out Mondays). Sometimes they have some interesting things there.

And whatever you do, don't go to Slashdot http://slashdot.org

There! That should keep you busy for a day or two

Also, glad you've come into the community. We all learn by hammering through these problems.

Dear Jungk,
What a strange name?
Anyway, I like the
"Debian GNU/Linux Bible" by Steve Hunger -
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/search-handle-form/104-2248379-8208746
"Linux Power Tools" by Roderick Smith -
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/search-handle-form/104-2248379-8208746
"Running Linux" by Matt Welsh -
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/search-handle-form/104-2248379-8208746
This should keep you busy. But mostly just try things on a non-essential box.
Luck,
Vince

Vince LaPorte
Marshall, MN 56258

Thanks to everyone for the suggestions.
My Grandfather said it is a Dutch spelling of a German name.

Don

search for "The Rute Tute"
and download it.

Someone already mentioned The Linux Documentation Project, (TLDP), as one great resource. I will go further than that. If you start with TLDP and another portal, YoLinux, found at http://www.yolinux.com, and you don't mind reading documentation on line, you will find all you need to really learn a lot.

As others mentioned, the O'Reilly books, often found with animals on them, are generally sources of accurate information. If you prefer books, they are often the way to go when you are looking for the kind of information that is relatively static and not subject to constant change. Frankly, for stuff that changes constantly, I use on line documentation.

Finally, blogs, forums, and advocacy sites like this one are good places to ask questions. When you are armed with the kind of references that people have mentioned here and you make a good effort to study them, then ask questions when you get confused, the questions can often at least be questions with a solid starting ground. People are much more apt and willing to help those who have already demonstrated that they have put time and effort into their learning.

I hope that all of us have helped you out and I hope that you utilize many of these resources. Don't ever be afraid to ask questions. At the same time, the more you investigate on your own first, in the long run, the more thoroughly you will learn a topic.

We're here to help. Even veterans can learn many new things, and that is what this is all about!

--
Brian Masinick
mailto:masinick@yahoo.com

I never "learned Linux" per se. I leared Unix (BSD 2.8 circa 1980) by reading the manual cover-to-cover. The manual was just a collection of short descriptions of commands organized into 7(?) chapters and printed in alphabetical order. It was only a few hundred pages so scanning it gave me an idea of the general capabilities.

Mind you, I like reading encyclopedias as well ...

Anyway, this same manual was put on-line on every Unix system, and it continues to exist today in Linux. The Mepis version (at least as my system is configured) has 6000 entries. You can get a table of contents by typing the command:

man -k " " | more

You can search the table of contents by typing, for example,

man -k "dvd" | more

If you see something interesting, you can read about it by typing, for example,

man dvdauthor

You'll only have man pages for the packages that are actually installed on your system. If you want to find about packages you might potentially install, go into synaptic and browse ... there's another 10 thousand or so there. If you see something you like, Google will probably find you the "man" page for it on the web someplace.

I know this is a somewhat nerdy approach, but it really doesn't take long to scan the contents and that'll give you a good idea of the sorts of things that are available. Once you know what's available, you will either be able to figure it out from the man pages, or at least get enough buzzwords to be able to use Google to find a tutorial (good Google helper words are "howto" "faq" and "getting started")

Note that the configuration files like "fstab" and "sources.list" all have man pages.

gvc, you presented some good ideas.

One other way to RTFM (grin) is through Google. If you enter "man:fstab", for instance, in the Google search field you will be shown LOTS of different man pages on fstab. Depending upon what you're searching for you will be taken to a different site, but I have found that's useful in learning some of the subtle differences in how a particular command works (a command may work one way in Mepis, but behave differently in FreeBSD for instance; but that's usually in the options).

Jon

type "man:" (of course without quotes) in Konqueror -- good place to start.

--
Post questions on www.mepislovers.org too -- very helpful community

Try the following link. Its a Debian Desktop User Survivor's Guide. Since Mepis is based on Debian, this is a good base for learning. There are differences, but the differences can be hashed out with Mepis forum users. This should answer a lot of basic questions though. You can probably find a downloadable version of this if you look around a bit.

http://www.togaware.com/linux/survivor/

Running Mepis 3.3.1-1

I'll look at it.

DJ