How did you "learn" Linux?

[randomizer]

This is how I learn.

Code: Select all

while (true)
{
    SelectDistro($distro);
    $boredOfDistro = false;

    while (!$boredOfDistro)
    {
        ScrewUp($epicFail);
        SolveProblem($solution);
   
        if (NowBored())
        {
            $boredOfDistro = true;
            $distro = FindAGoodDistro();
        }
    }
}


[lmintnewb]

LOL ... what else is there to say ?

[trollboy]

This is how I learn.

Code: Select all

while (true)
{
    SelectDistro($distro);
    $boredOfDistro = false;

    while (!$boredOfDistro)
    {
        ScrewUp($epicFail);
        SolveProblem($solution);
   
        if (NowBored())
        {
            $boredOfDistro = true;
            $distro = FindAGoodDistro();
        }
    }
}


Just epic!

[acw]

Love your script Randomizer

I was already very familiar with Unix systems as I did a lot of work in Telco 5E Switching systems
where Unix was the actual OS. I knew Unix before I ever touched windows and found windows
annoying as there is so much between you and the system. I heard about Linux having a
similar kernel and investigated it. I played and learned Linux with Ubuntu since 7.04, but recently
left it due to the "Unity Issue" and now have just started playing with Mint. Linux was easy
to learn because there was SO MUCH of it that was similar to my old friend Unix.

I am so glad that Linux is all about choice

[Habitual]

This is how I learn.

Code: Select all

while (true)
{
    SelectDistro($distro);
    $boredOfDistro = false;

    while (!$boredOfDistro)
    {
        ScrewUp($epicFail);
        SolveProblem($solution);
   
        if (NowBored())
        {
            $boredOfDistro = true;
            $distro = FindAGoodDistro();
        }
    }
}


I had to stick this on my DorkBlog. It's a Keeper!

[mychance]

I got into a french version of Linux for Dummies that has become one of my "bathroom readings"

[darethehair]

Perhaps it is because I am getting older, but my difficulty is *remembering* what I have learned along the way -- so for a few years now whenever I learn something that I am likely to forget (from lack of daily use), I create an electronic note for myself (simple text file) that I save for the future. I also 'date stamp' stuff so that I have a record of when I learned it, and when I add to my personal knowledge base

[grey1960envoy]

Like so many of my fellow Linux users I learned (READ learning)by the seat of my pants One borked system after another

[casey972oo]

Hi there ! ... ' grey1960envoy ' ! ...

Yeah ! ... " Linux on my computer ! ... Windows on the Wall ! ... and M$ in the Trash ! " ...

that's it ! ...

casey972oo

.

[lmintnewb]

As mentioned can sum it up in one word. BORKAGE ... MAJOR BORKAGE. Well 3 words, but still, lol.

[casey972oo]

Sorry Guys ! ...

but what does it mean ? ... borkage ? ...

don't understand this ! ... want to learn some more ! ... about LINUX ! ...

caasey972oo

.

[The-Wizard]

I have been using Linux for about 3 months now and haven't even started learning, most of the guys and galls on here probably know more about their little fingers than i do of Linux, But by just reading these forums i have already absorbed some useful information, we call it on the job training, or learn by your mistakes, its the best way because you will always remember

wizard

[lmintnewb]

Borkage = messing up your operating system casey.

Which I have done more times than I can count now. In my quest for the perfectly tweaked Mint install.

The easy solution to borkage = backup utils ( clonezilla OR Making a recovery partition etc.) In the brief time I've been using Mint. I have taken widespread borkage to whole new levels. But my Mint install and linux know how has come a longggggg way towards maximum tweakage !!! D:

[grey1960envoy]

The ideal way to learn Linux is to bork your windoze system and FORCE yourself into using nothing but Linux which is exactly how I learned it Actually the hard drive failed in a nearly new laptop just after the warranty expired and be damned if I was going to pay for a new OS After a few failed attempts with such distros as Slack, Arch, and OpenSUSE I found Mint . Now my wife uses Mint 9 Isadora and I use a variety of distros including Crunchbang, Mint 9 &10, along with my newest trial a Hackintosh...but I still revert back to Mint as a favourite OS. I haven't found anything that requires windoze to run as there are very good alternative programs in FOSS. We do have one poor old XP powered computer in the basement where M$ belongs gathering dust and cobwebs ... Hmm maybe I should see if it even runs...Nah rest in peace

[bender1077]

Now I am a complete beginner, but I have been learning at a fast pace (I think).

I basically read everything I can find.

I read posts of people having problems, research them until my head hurts, then help resolve the issue. Once you research and understand an issue, then help someone resolve their issue; you have a fairly high probability of information retention for that issue.

This process has been going fairly well for me!

[casey972oo]

Yeah guy's ! ... and gall's ! ...

did learn a lot more about LINUX ... when I read this post's .. and this forum ! ...
my favorite is still ' Linux Mint ' ... till I find out more about ' SalineOS ' ! ...
and ' SalineOS PSE ' ! ... I'm on this track already ! ... is just quit jung ! ...
also there are a smal forum there ! ... http://www.salineos.com/ ! ...

thanks for your teaching me ! ... come and have a cup of coffee ...
in the ' MINT Cafe ' ... they have also some good music there ! ...

casey972oo

.

[casey972oo]

Hallo ! ... ' grey1960envoy ' ! ...

just did the same with my ' Windows ' ! ... did borke it ! ... and was FORCED by ' Microsaft Corporation ' to use LINUX ! ...
but I did know about LINUX before ! ... and when the time was right ! ... I was also ready for this change ! ...

now ! ... I can't stand the Rain ! ... on my ' Windows ' ... bringing back bad memories ! ... Lol ! ..

casey972oo
.

[dwasifar]

I started with Ubuntu, partly out of curiosity and partly because I had been hearing about this "Windows Longhorn" (eventually named Vista) that was due to come out in a couple of years. I didn't like the direction Microsoft was taking, so I started playing with Linux just in case I had to switch.

It was really frustrating at first. You think you're an expert because you know where everything is in Windows, and then you find yourself with a strange system in front of you, and you don't know the first thing about where anything is, or how to do simple under-the-hood tasks. Where's the registry? Where's Control Panel? Where's Documents and Settings? What are all these directories - /etc, /usr, /home, /boot, /var, and so on? And where the heck are the drive letters?

I think the drive letters thing was the first really alien concept I had to learn, and it took a little while to grasp it. On Windows, the filesystems reside on the drives; in Linux the drives reside in the filesystem. That took some getting used to and made me realize I had a lot of unlearning and relearning to do. And it was the first thing I had to learn, because I wanted to mount a second drive in the system, so here I was, a novice user picking through the Ubuntu forums, and learning to edit /etc/fstab to mount /dev/hdb1 to a directory I'd just created. When it actually worked (on the third or fourth try), it was like a triumph.

At first I kept the Windows XP machine as my main desktop and had Ubuntu on another box next to it, and I would just play around with it, poking at things, using it to surf the net sometimes. But gradually I got accustomed to it, and I started being pulled in. I'm a tinkerer by nature, and Linux just invites you to tinker with it. Changing desktop themes and appearance, moving things around, installing applications so easily! And it was fast and stable too. You don't notice how often Windows bogs down and lags until you have some other OS sitting next to it for comparison. Eventually, any time I'd be on the Windows box doing something, I'd be wondering, Can I do this in Linux? And that would be a challenge, and I'd try to find a way to do it, and it would turn out that I could, and often better.

After about a year of this, I realized I had more or less switched over to Linux completely, and the only things keeping me on the Windows box were a couple of legacy video processing applications which had (at the time) no free alternative that worked as well. So I hacked around with those for an afternoon, got them working just fine in Ubuntu under Wine, and shut down Windows for the last time.

I never did have to use Vista. My home now is a humming den of networked machines and peripheral devices. I run my own web and mail server, and a separate home media server. And everything's Linux. No Microsoft allowed.

Here's the TL;DR version: I learned it gradually, weaning off Windows as I went, lured by the nearly limitless opportunity to tinker and play. Start with a clean install, set yourself a simple task that you already know how to do in Windows, and hack on it until you learn to do it in Linux. Then do another. And another. The people here, and at ubuntuforums, will be glad to help if you get stuck. It can be frustrating, but it's still great fun.

[z06gal]

I learn by accident! I cannot help but learn simply by using it.

When I had three computers instead of one, I experimented alot more. Down to one 'puter which has to be completely stable and completely functional, I rely on the LTS versions of Xubuntu and/or Linux Mint. In fact I won't upgrade to the next LTS edition on this 'puter until the previous one reaches end-of-life.

But when I can get a "spare" computer, I'll experiment and play and adjust and configure and tweak Linux until it breaks, then Google for solutions and fix it. Can't help but "learn Linux" doing that! And it's kinda fun if you have time and don't need the 'puter for anything critical.

Actually I installed Debian and spent the better part of two months getting it to work and to look and act like I wanted. My perfect, personalized Debian Xfce mixture was so similar to Xubuntu that I was like, "Geez I could have done this in 20 minutes instead of two months!"

-R

Robin, I am also a Robin and I concur on the tweaking until it breaks comment. I have "learned" what I know by crashing my computer so many times it is laughable. I have been a Linux user since Mint 7. Ubuntu is a trip in my experience because it is so buggy. What was funny was installing something which would in turn remove 3 more things. Lol...but I am getting there. I have accumulated commands I keep on a flash drive along with other tricks, etc. Anyway, regardless of what I try, I always come back to Mint. It is just the best distro in my opinion. It works, is so user friendly, and just beautiful.

[teilnehmer]

I'd like to throw in one aspect. I, too, have learned through fixing problems and, before that, through reading a few things (the missing drive letters, as stated, or mounting, or the home directory), but my main experience with linuxes from within the last 2 years is: There isn't much to learn.

Don't get me wrong, Linux is quite different from Windows in many ways, but whenever I install a new linux system (now having grasped concepts like /home on its own partition), I'm so amazed by how I just get going. When I installed Mint I even was kind of frustrated, because I was in admin-mode and wanted some serious computerstuff to happen, just for fun, and then, after 1 hour, I had a perfect system running that didn't require any messing with.

"Learning" now is down to browsing the menu, clicking on the programs I don't know and checking them out. Of course, knowing how to install via terminal is helpful, but it isn't needed. And I really like that Linux got there. I tried 5 years ago (SuSe, I believe), and first it didn't mount my 2nd partition, later I had no sound... blurg. THAT required learning. Glad it's over.
Some time ago, I helped my uncle with his new PC and put Linux on it for him (typical e-mail/ word processing/ internet user) and he gets along perfectly, although he'd never say he learned something about linux.