Starting to get into Linux, advice needed

bradtechonline

I have had little experience with Linux. I did run Redhat and Mandrake, along with SuSe. I messed with linux for about a week or so a couple years ago.

I am downloading SuSE 10.1 Live DVD right now. I plan on buying a Linux+ book to help me learn linux, and eventually get certified maybe. I've had years dealing with 2000/2003 server and all windows clients. I think it's about time to learn something else, and linux is gaining popularity. I want to be able to run linux servers, and be able to work with it when I run into it in the field.

What is a good Linux+ book that can teach how to use linux and prepare you for the Linux+. Of course I plan on studying for a long time, and getting good before I evne think about taking it.

Young Fred

I hate the linux penguin lol

Gennosuke HIGAKI

As I posted before in Linux forum, you will check below before you invest your money on books. Regards

http://endor.clublinux.org/RHCE.html
http://www-128.ibm.com/developerworks/linux/edu/l-dw-linux-lpic1101-i.html?S_TACT=105AGX03&S_CMP=LPLINUX
http://rute.2038bug.com/index.html.gz

rbutturini

I came from a very similar background to you before I began to go in depth exploring Linux...Welcome to the cult! . Suse is a fun distro to play with...If you want something to play with linux server packages on, may I suggest Fedora or CentOS? OpenSuSE right now is geared for the Desktop more than anything.

Mark Sobell's Linux books, although MASSIVE in length, are very thorough and cover all the servers, from apache to sendmail to Samba, plus provide many examples. Also, the books suggested on the Linux+ pages on this site for were very helpful to me in preparing for the exam. Good luck! Have fun exploring Linux!

rossonieri#1

hello,

the most documented linux probably red hat - so, if you want to start learning perhaps red hat the best OS to play with.
get in depth - the linux main command/function perhaps almost the same from one to another.

cheers.

crap I forgot my old pwd

Try out Ubuntu, thats what got me interested.

sharptech

Right now I am playing around w/ Ubuntu - I am doing everything from the shell..

As for the OP - their are a ton of online resources for Linux - so you may want to hold off on buying the books.

Check out linuxfromscratch.org - great site and is a book that dedicates building your own Linux distro. In the beginning of the book it has some links for people just starting out - great reads.

Slowhand

I've been using a lot of Red Hat, since that's what we use for our primary Linux distro at work. In my spare time, I've been messing a little bit with Debian, doing some stuff with SuSE/Novell, and I was called upon to fix a misbehaving Gentoo machine. (Take on projects, that's how you really learn.) Also, since my work uses BSD to run our DNS servers, I like to fall back to BSD as my "control". I figure, since I'm studying LPI and trying to be as vendor-neutral as possible, I should be able to go back and forth between Linux and Unix as well as being able to sit down with just about any distro and be able to wrap my brain around it.

As for study material for Linux+ and the like. . . I really liked the TestOut course on it, and I really got a lot out of taking a look at some study material for LPIC-1 for reference. Using those videos, The Linux Documentation Project, the man pages, along with both this site and LinuxQuestions.org, I had plenty of study material. I didn't really use any cert books for the Linux+ exam, but I found it helpful to go pick up Linux in a Nutshell as well as Running Linux.

steve-o87

SuSE is awesome

It is the first Linux distro I ever touched, Kubuntu/Ubuntu is ok but I dont like the way some of it is set out. I really like Red hat And Fedora too.

Choosing a distro comes down to personal choice! They all have the linux kernel and they're all good. If you are looking to go corporate Linux then RedHat/SuSE are your best bet but just find one you like and stick with it

jonwatson

The current Linux+ objectives are from 2004 and use Fedora Core 2 for examples. While FC2 is ridiculously out of date now (and probably impossible to find), I'd recommend at least sticking with an RPM distro (FC, SuSE, Red Hat, etc) in order to study for the exam.

I've been a Debian child for about two years, but I installed SuSE onto my laptop for two weeks to learn the ins and outs of the different init system and RPM package manager. Ubuntu and the like are Debian and will lead you down the wrong path in some areas.

I wish the Linux+ was vendor neutral, but it isn't. The best part about passing it was being able to put Ubuntu back on my box

mgmguy1

I started with Kubuntu then switched to Sabayon wich uses the same source code as Gentoo Linux so all the commands that are in Gentoo work in Sabayon. Sabayon is a fun OS but I think I am going to move to Gentoo.
It's an OS that "makes" you get your hands dirty in learning the OS.

Just my two cents.

BTW.
Check out Destro watch. It's got a listing of over 100 Linux destros and tons of information. http://distrowatch.com/

mgmguy1

Gennosuke HIGAKI

Though I am not sure of whole Linux distros, there are two approaches in view of methodology on Linux.

One is a traditional "Grow Linux" type, i.e., "make what I need by myself from scratch". Find a source code, read documents, compile, and configure it. Tar ball based Slackware is really a classic case.

Another is a handy "Use Linux" type., i.e., "use pre-compiled binary" Rpm based RedHat, SuSe, Mandrake, and more and dpkg based Debian and her families are noteworthy.

For achieving certs, we had better choose the latter, however, the former really helps us understand and familialize Linux. I believe and have done so far.

Slowhand

It breaks down to some pretty simple guidelines.

For your own purposes/environment, choose whichever distro suits you and whatever OS you feel comfortable with. (This goes for any type of OS, not just Linux. You like Red Hat, go with that. You like BSD, go with that. You like Windows, Mac OS, Solaris, whatever.)

For the exams, make sure you understand what OS'es and what distros are being tested on. For the vendor-specifics, it's a no-brainer. (RHCE: Red Hat Enterprise, obviously.) For LPI and for Linux+, I've found that there are three basic variants they ask you about: RPM-based (for the purposes of the test they use Fedora Core), Debian-based (for the tests they assume it's Debian itself,) and finally they've picked Slackware as the "no-bells-and-whistles" Linux distro. If you understand the differences in these distros, such as the package managers and the differences in the filesystems (like if they're BSD or Unix v5 based, etc,) you'll be well on your way to understanding the information the vendor-neautral tests will expect you to know.

!30

This is a no-end story. How to start learning Linux . I'll tell you my story to , mayne it helps someone.

Three years ago , I saw on my CCNA instructor desk RedHat ( I don't know what version , I know that is really used right now to ). I say : wow ? what is that ( I never ask ). Another friend of my told me : if you want networks , learng Linux to , it good to know about it , start searching and asking around forums , and you'll understand Linux.

I started with Fedora Core 4 ( I like it , and I'm still using it ) . It pretty similiar with LPI training course . I like yum . Everithing made easy , for us .
You got to understand the basic concepts : work with the shell , know some basic commands ( at start ) , install / archive , recompile kernel , configure servers and so on so fort. ( At start it may seem a little big hard , like every starting point ).

I tryed Ubuntu to , its very used in Romania . Many people are using it instead Windows , not for shell and servers , but is a good place to start learning some commands and working with the 16 color shell . It's like to . A good example is Knoppix ( 4.0 per example ) , I used it for compiling C programs. ( gcc/cc ).It's live DVD/CD.

Debian it's very cool to , ( apt-get feature ) , easy to configure , it's a Linux that you like. ( Debian sarge I'm using right now ). I never used Suse , altough its high-used in Romania/Europe , coz I never feel I need.

I recomand FreeBSD ( altough its some sort of UNIX ) , you'll love it , if you love Linux . Pinguin rocks !