Learning linux...

I need some recommendations on how to go about learning Linux. Can you guys recommend books? distros? websites?
right now I convinced my work to allow me to experiment on my own laptop at work with linux. so far i have tried portable ubuntu which seems pretty handy and ubuntu 8.10 off the cd on my laptop.

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remyforbes777

deadpool287 wrote: »

I need some recommendations on how to go about learning Linux. Can you guys recommend books? distros? websites?
right now I convinced my work to allow me to experiment on my own laptop at work with linux. so far i have tried portable ubuntu which seems pretty handy and ubuntu 8.10 off the cd on my laptop.

Depends on what your definition of learn linux is. If you really want to learn linux, forget the gui all together. Get a cheap computer system off of craigs list and make it into a server. Use only command line. What distros? CentOS or Debian. Sites? linuxquestions.org is a very good one. Books? Linux+ book or LPIC-1 is a good start. The gui is going to dumb things down for you and if you really want to get into the guts of Linux, only use the command line for now.

deadpool287

I really want to be able to utilize linux on a server basis, opensuse, red hat, and centos is pretty much my goal to learn, but i dont know where to start. i have an old dell i want to say dimension 8250 that i can turn into a linux box.

blargoe

I got started by going from scratch and building a server for a purpose. For example, taking a base install and from the CLI building an apache web server, or a samba server, or an FTP server, or whatever. You can study linux commands and stuff but I have to have some kind of tangible thing to work toward. Get familiar with Linux and then delve deeper and learn the OS more.

deadpool287

ok well i awnt to host a gaming server for me and my friends, and possibly an ftp server but i want to do it via linux just to give me that much more knowledge.

rfult001

Welcome to Linux From Scratch!

remyforbes777

Not sure about game servers with Linux being that I don't game, but an FTP server is definitely doable. Blargoe is right in that you want to have something to work towards and not just typing commands aimlessly. The box that you have should be sufficient enough to get started. Get an account on linuxquestions.org and post questions that you can't find an answer for on google. Look on google first. Ha. When you post a question, give as much information as possible such as distro, kernel version, error messages etc. It will help them help you.

Slowhand

When I wanted to learn the basics of Linux, I decided to go out and find a structured plan to follow and ended up doing was getting Linux+ certified. Studying the material for that exam, doing some hands-on work with various distros, (Debian, Red Hat, and Slackware,) and a little bit of extra-reading on specific topics all served to give me a very good foundation with *NIX operating systems. After that, it was easy to learn new things about Linux and Unix because I was building on a pretty broad base of knowledge.

rsavoia

I am just beginning to learn Linux myself. I pulled out an old laptop and install Ubuntu Studio for starters. I tried to install SME server and a couple of other distros but they didn't do well on the laptop so I installed Ubuntu. It works well and I am impressed with the way it handles updates. I think the day is coming when desktop Linux will give Microsoft Windows a run for their money.

Now is definitely a great time to go after Linux certs before all the MCSE techs jump ship and join in.

ally_uk

What exactly do you want to learn about Linux? identify the goals and go from there, For me it was how to setup and administrate a Linux Server and I had a strong interest in running Linux side by side with Windows machines so learning Samba was the way to go for me.

Some excellent resources I can recommend:

The dedicated server handbook shows you how to setup and administrate a dedicated linux server by using webmin.

Samba 3 by example - One of the best guides I have used for Samba

Linux+ Book - Pretty much covers the basics of Getting Linux up and running

deadpool287

well as a test i installed CentOS on my laptop. Text install though, i figured if i can learn the text version without spoiling myself with the gui version i'll be better off.

ally_uk

Yeah That's how I started well I didn't have a choice, nearly 3 years ago I joined a new company and spent a bit of time shadowing the Sysadmin which was a real eye opener, I was stubborn back then thinking that the whole world revolved around Windows and Microsoft products, at this point I wasn't really aware of the Whole Open source movement.

I started out with computers with a Old 286 with Windows 3.1 and used windows ever since for me that was the norm.

So When I first was introduced to Linux my intial reaction was Linux? wtf is Linux? lol I have been a keen follower ever since and prefer using it to Micorosft products.

The Sysadmin was old skool he grew up with Unix so was a whizz at all things Linux and could manipulate and edit config files like a wizard :P

I work for a company where we refurbish old computers so the likes of modern hardware is scarce, being a chairty money is tight and being able to deploy networks and having the luxury of Windows Licenses unfortuantly isn't practical so we have a huge Open source ethos.

My initial experience with Linux was hard, making the transistion from the Windows mindset was a challenge and I screwed up numerous machines, But you learn from your mistakes and the easiest way to learn is to break stuff.

I started out with Debian the net install version so everything was command line based, anything I didn't understand I would use walkthroughs or use the Sysadmin who would usually would give me a response which would baffle me lol but it would then finally sink in.

I devloped a strong interest in the server side of Linux, and like to tinker with setting up file servers, Samba and using Webmin, I'm not a programmer tried that years ago just didn't have the mindset for it.

jibbajabba

rfult001 wrote: »

Welcome to Linux From Scratch!

LOL - this is one way to push someone back to Windows

phantasm

deadpool287 wrote: »

well as a test i installed CentOS on my laptop. Text install though, i figured if i can learn the text version without spoiling myself with the gui version i'll be better off.

Good job. For a fun challenge install gentoo from the CLI following the Gentoo handbook. This will give you an idea of how to format and create partitions and setup file systems plus installing the actual software and GUI if you so desire. I run Gentoo at the house exclusively and am still learning.

Forsaken_GA

I'll echo the sentiments of others in setting a goal list, but I'll go one further -

Migrate your GUI interface to a linux desktop install like Ubuntu as well. Learn it from both ends, not just the server end. For everything you do from your windows setup (I'm assuming you use windows, my bad if that's not accurate), find a way to do the equivalent in linux (or FreeBSD, whatever, unix is unix at it's core, the differences tend to be superficial). If nothing else, dual boot your workstation.

When I set out to get my unix skills up to speed, I set quite a few goals -

I wanted to be able to play World of Warcraft at work, but the ports were blocked - This lead me to two different solutions. The first one was to simply install a SOCKS proxy on my machine and then forward that port over ssh to a remote server. Worked like a charm. The second solution was VPN. And boy was that a learning experience. This also lead me to expand my knowledge on tunneling in general, and as such, learn how to defeat pretty much any firewall countermeasures that can be thrown at me.

I wanted to be able to document my learning - I setup Apache on my home server, and installed Wikimedia, so now I have my own central repository for learning. I no longer have to use Google to find documents I've used in the past for something I need to do again.

I wanted a to-do list I could access from anywhere - I setup a ticketing system to run on my web server, which I can now use to generate new issues, track my progress, and get at from anywhere I have a net connection

I wanted to be able to monitor my home network, and be alerted whenever on my Blackberry whenever something was wrong - This lead me to learn to install and configure Nagios, and lead to an exploration of implementing an SMS gateway

I wanted to be able to track the bandwidth usage of the individual network devices and hosts in my home network - This lead me to explore tools such as MRTG, before settling on Cacti. This also necessitated a crash course in SNMP. Now, I have it graphing such things as like how many pages total my printer has printed, and what % of black and color ink is left.

I wanted to run my own mailserver so that I could control the flow of mail into and out of my mailboxes. This lead me to get very comfortable with postfix, amavis, clamav, spamassassin, and dovecot.

Since a good part of this data was being stored in a database, I knew I had a single point of failure - if something went wrong with the database server, a good many of my services would be affected. This lead me to explore mysql replication. It also taught me that my initial idea of using replication as a backup was a bad idea, because corrupted data on the master = corrupted data on the slave. Oops. Which lead me to my next project....

I wanted to develop a simple and effective backup strategy. This lead me to building out a server with a beefy RAID array and learning the intricacies of rsync.

My current project, and one which is only mostly completed since I've resumed my Cisco studies with a passion, is that I was sick of having to maintain different usernames and passwords for everything. I didn't want to update my password in 8 or 10 or whatever different programs. So I explored my options for a single sign-on environment. This led me to openldap, as damn near everything can at least authenticate off an LDAP server, even if it uses no other info from the directory. And let me tell you, this one has been one hell of a learning experience.

Once I'm done with that, I'll be looking into setting up an Asterisk server, so I can run IP phones to all of the rooms in the house and basically treat it like one big office. This one might get put off a bit though, because it requires me to get off my rear and actually run some copper.

Now, all of that may seem overboard. And yes, I am a big nerd. Absolutely none of that is something that is necessary to have in day to day life. But it is kind of neat to be able to do, and every single one of the skills (yes, even figuring out a way around the firewall to play WoW at work) is directly transferable to one real world job or another. And I do it with commodity hardware and free software.

So pick a few aspects of tech that you're curious, research it, and try to emulate it on a small scale within your own environment. When you run into something you don't understand, resist the urge to just Google a solution and implement it, take the time to learn why it's the correct solution instead of what it is. Take the tangent where it leads, learn the underlying tech, then go back to what you were trying to do. As you learn more, more things to do will occur to you to try, and it'll be a self-sustaining process at that (or a vicious cycle, depends on your point of view I guess)

rossonieri#1

wow, ally and forsaken has said it all

learn it well from the experienced - especially how to change a mindset.
not to conflict one OS against another, but how can we make all those work together for better infrastructure.

do it at your speed but build it in solid discipline.