[SOLVED] Introductory Video Course on Linux / Linux Mint?

[Teoretik982]

Hi, complete Linux and Linux Mint newbie here,

I am wondering, whether there exists a video course on Linux / Linux Mint for beginners and if so, whether somebody could point me to it. I have found this course: https://www.edx.org/course/introduction-to-linux

That might be something akin to what I am looking for (at least it seems like something appropriate for a beginner), but unfortunately, when I register for the course, it tells me that the access to materials has expired in August 2020. Perhaps somebody can point me to some good and free alternative?

To give some background, I am trying to switch to Linux from Windows 7. I am reluctant to change to Windows 10, primarily due to its telemetry system that cannot be turned off and due to its policy of forced updates. That motivates me to at least give Linux a go as an alternative and hopefully avoid having to bite the bullet and switch to Windows 10.

The only experience I have with Linux is installing it on a laptop (Lenovo Legion 5) for my sister back in 2020. She is also not keen on telemetry and forced updates and has already switched to Linux at least for web browsing. Due to the COVID-19 crisis, however, I could not really visit and gain any more experience with this and even forgot about the installation process, which I will have to review again before installing it on my laptop.

In any case, I would love to go through an easy to follow video course on Linux, as during the setup for my sister I have found out that even basic tasks can be quite different than in Windows. For example, folder and drive structure seems completely different, installing programs is different, I was not sure where to extract drivers and so on and so on. In summary, a high level overview video course on these things and other basics would be very helpful, before I take the plunge.

Thank you for your kind help!

[absque fenestris]

Do you have 2 computers? If not, it is strongly recommended to print a complete installation manual.
Exactly when you need it urgently, the Internet including the video is not accessible...
I speak from experience. ***

***
Last year when I installed Mint, I only had access to the great Window 10 and the even greater Phaser 6200 printer, which of course could not access the great Windows 10. Blind installation - and the SSD now has an MBR partitioning... works - but is a beauty bug...

Of course the old printer is now usable again with Mint.

[Larry78723]

I'd recommend the following: Linux Mint Beginners Guide. It's available as an ebook.

[iironjade]

Guides of any type can overload you with so much information that it becomes a trial to filter out what's useful. Installing Linux and using it is the best way to get to grips with it. Ask for help here as and when you need it.

[rene]

Only a few quicks remarks; in the context of "not sure where to extract drivers" you in Linux as a rule do not install drivers; drivers are part of and supplied with the kernel and are as such pre-installed on your system. The proprietary Nvidia driver is the biggest exception (but you have an open-source Nvidia driver installed already so don't necessarily need it) together with some situations in which your hardware is too new to be supported by the by a distribution used kernel.

Installing general software is in fact comparable: you usually should install software from Software Manager, i.e., from the distribution repositories; not just from "the web" generally.

Drive structure is indeed a fundamental issue: whereas Windows has N root-directories for N drives, i.e., C:\, D:\, etc., on Linux you have just one root directory and "mount" additional drives/filesystems onto subdirectories of it thereby providing you with unified access to your storage. Folder structure, well, yes, also fairly fundamental: whereas in Windows it's customary to have an application install into its own directory under "Program Files", say, under UNIX-systems an application's files tend to be organized not by their source application but by their type, as in executables in /usr/bin, libraries in /usr/lib and so on.

That wasn't a direct answer to your question (which I do not know about) but hope it's still useful.

[absque fenestris]

https://www.linuxmint.com/documentation ... h_18.0.pdf

[Flemur]

I am wondering, whether there exists a video course on Linux / Linux Mint for beginners and if so, whether somebody could point me to it. I have found this course: https://www.edx.org/course/introduction-to-linux

That might be something akin to what I am looking for (at least it seems like something appropriate for a beginner), but unfortunately, when I register for the course, it tells me that the access to materials has expired in August 2020. Perhaps somebody can point me to some good and free alternative?

Try it again; the site is pretty poorly laid out, but I went thru the process and it tells me:

"Congratulations! You are now enrolled in Introduction to Linux"

(you can audit without paying anything) and there are some dates (this time including the YEAR - what a concept!):

Upcoming Dates

Tue, May 11, 2021
Course Starts

Fri, May 21, 2021
Knowledge Check

Tue, Jun 1, 2021
Upgrade to Verified Certificate

[Teoretik982]

Thank you for the quick replies. To answer a few questions and make a few comments.

I am currently still on my old computer running Windows 7. The new notebook will be Lenovo Legion 5, albeit a different model than my sister's. I currently have no way to practice on my sister's computer, as I cannot travel to her place, but would like to get some basic info ideally through a course, before I take the plunge on a new notebook and install Linux there (I will keep Windows 10 which is preinstalled on all these notebooks as dual boot just in case).

As for the drivers that I contended with, they were for a printer. I did not manage to make the printer work for my sister, but to be honest, printers can be quite quirky on Windows too.

The things I encountered were a sample showing that I lack even basic knowledge of the OS. There were more (e.g. installing a Witcher 2 native to Linux that threw a long list of reasons why it cannot run), but, as I said it was to show the kinds of things I am looking to learn in a course. I cannot resolve any of the actual issues now, as I currently don't have access to my sister's computer. I believe a better understanding of how the Linux Mint works could help me avoid making basic mistakes that could be responsible for some of them.

In any case, I can already see from your replies that this community is vibrant and helpful. That gives me additional motivation to give Linux Mint a fair try.

[Teoretik982]

I am wondering, whether there exists a video course on Linux / Linux Mint for beginners and if so, whether somebody could point me to it. I have found this course: https://www.edx.org/course/introduction-to-linux

That might be something akin to what I am looking for (at least it seems like something appropriate for a beginner), but unfortunately, when I register for the course, it tells me that the access to materials has expired in August 2020. Perhaps somebody can point me to some good and free alternative?

Try it again; the site is pretty poorly laid out, but I went thru the process and it tells me:

"Congratulations! You are now enrolled in Introduction to Linux"

(you can audit without paying anything) and there are some dates (this time including the YEAR - what a concept!):

Upcoming Dates

Tue, May 11, 2021
Course Starts

Fri, May 21, 2021
Knowledge Check

Tue, Jun 1, 2021
Upgrade to Verified Certificate

Interesting. I will give it another go. When I did try it, it did enroll me, but with when I tried to go to the actual course it told me that access to course materials has expired in august 2020. Given what it shows you though, it is worth another try.

[Flemur]

Interesting. I will give it another go. When I did try it, it did enroll me, but with when I tried to go to the actual course it told me that access to course materials has expired in august 2020. Given what it shows you though, it is worth another try.

I wonder if that was because you started before May 11...? (so that it was last year's course...they don't show the year on the initial page)

Anyway, here's what I see (click to make it look better):

[sjmathis]

I went through much the same process, but I bailed out of Windows when Win-XP went away. I took the EdX course, and found it helpful, but at the time they covered a lot of material that never seemed to come up in my daily life with Mint. The course does evolve, and I'm sure it's better than when I was trying to use it. Just pay attention to things that are dependant on the flavor of Linux they are teaching. I happen to like Mint, so that's why I'm here responding to your question.

I remember asking the same question as you did, as to where I could find a good Linux tutorial for newcomers, and getting much the same answers as I see above, "Don't worry, just load it and start using it, we'll help you out when you get stuck". I was not confident with those kinds of replies, but I have to admit that they were right. The folks on this site really know their stuff, and they seem to bend over backwards to help newcomers. You might find it useful to read the topic I started: viewtopic.php?f=61&t=332020

[Flemur]

"Don't worry, just load it and start using it, we'll help you out when you get stuck".

That's kinda my theory, but it's partly because I really don't like computers or learning about them; I took one class (Fortran, ~1973) and bought one book (Kernighan & Ritchie, ~1980), other than that I just faked it.

But it's probably a good idea to study some linux, see what happens when you boot or login, file structures, etc.

[Teoretik982]

Thank you for the assistance. I have managed to access the course by registering again under a different username on the EdX website. Suddenly the course works (as an audit - so videos and text only - no questions and knowledge checks, but that is perfectly OK for me as I want to learn only and do not need a certificate).

As such, this question can be considered solved.

In any case, I have now installed Linux Mint, though not on a big laptop computer as I had originally planned, but on a hybrid tablet computer. I do have some questions on some things regarding that, but they will probably be better served by a new thread, so I will do that.

[blueicetwice]

Guides of any type can overload you with so much information that it becomes a trial to filter out what's useful. Installing Linux and using it is the best way to get to grips with it. Ask for help here as and when you need it.

Best post of this thread. The Ironjade has spoken

[newlyminted7]

Learn the Basics of Linux
https://linuxjourney.com

Linux Tutorial for Beginners: Learn Online in 7 days
https://www.guru99.com/unix-linux-tutorial.html

25 Free ebooks for learning Linux
https://itsfoss.com/learn-linux-for-free

The Linux command line for beginners
https://ubuntu.com/tutorials/command-li ... 1-overview

[Green man]

Hello. This youtube channel may be helpful.
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCTfabO ... sDF4POBVqA
I credit Joe with most of what I know about Linux.
This is also a pretty good resource, it's separate from Joe's project, Although the names are similar, which can get a little confusing.
https://easylinuxtipsproject.blogspot.com/p/1.html