Looking for newbie guides to Linux

[Electronix]

Hey Linus Tech Tips,

 

I'm looking for a good newbie guide to all the nooks and crannies of Linux in order to become a competent user. I've installed Linux distros on old machines, but I've never really dug in before. I know I'd need to learn the command line shell and picking and utilizing a desktop environment like KDE or Enlightenment E17. If you guys have any links you can share, it would be greatly appreciated. 

[noahdvs]

No links from me, but if you want to use the terminal, try installing fish (fantastic defaults, less customizable) or zsh (ok defaults, more customizable) and use it for your terminal emulator instead of bash. fish is better for beginners. It comes with syntax highlighting, tab completions and auto-suggestions for previous commands. Pressing the up and down arrows goes through your command history (works with bash, fish and zsh). You can configure fish by entering fish_config into the terminal, which will open a gui in your web browser. Destop environment should really just be whatever your preference is. You don't need KDE, Enlightenment, i3wm or whatever.

 

BTW, you don't need to use `apt-get` to manage packages. You can just use `apt` instead, which comes with a nice little loading bar when you install, upgrade or remove things. The equivalent of `apt-get dist-upgrade` is `apt full-upgrade`.

Edited March 16, 2017 by noahdvs
extra info

[flowalex]

I would take a look at this guide that another LTT user made a while ago, it has all of the basics of getting started and links to popular guides

 

[aremis_]

There is no definitive guide to linux.  There are some things to jump off from to get in the ever flowing river, but there is no "HOW TO LINUX" thing anywhere.  Workflows are different, DE's are different, everyone has their own choices.

 

There are generic recommendations though...

 

Heres mine.  Go get Netrunner 17 and learn the basics of KDE (the desktop environment).  Learn the basic uses of it and maybe tackle the package manager in the terminal (apt-get).  Learn the wiki's and go on IRC when you have a question.  If you have problems, learn what to ask where or what to google.  Otherwise, dive in yourself.

[Spawn0202]

Hey @all

I agree there is no “how to Linux”

For me personally I think the best way to learn is to take an old maschin install Linux on it with a Desktop like KDE or Gnome.

Then translate simple tasks like creating a folder coping files and understanding the mount system and then carry on with mounting a USB stick e.g.

And then tray doing it over the command line (Terminal)

The next thing is to look at right and how to change right and so on.

My personnel approach was to get DVB ruing under Linux so a started my research what programs are available and then I look at System requirement to get the hardware

In easy words take an easy windows task and try it under Linux.

 

 

 

[David89]

If you really want to get into Linux, I recommend Arch Linux. I have no idea, why the Beginners Guide has been put down, but there is the archived version of it on the Wiki: https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php?title=Beginners'_guide&oldid=446195

 

The Arch Wiki is also simply the best Wiki for Linux there is. Many, many things apply to other Distributions, since Systemd and others are "standards". There is also this one:

https://github.com/jieverson/dotfiles/wiki/arch-linux-for-dummies

 

However, i've become lazy and i use Antergos. It is basically Arch Linux, but with some extras. Like Cnchi, which does the Install for you, instead of using the CLI. Also, there is a live CD that runs pretty good. Apart from that, the basic system is the same. If you'd remove the extra repository, it would be Arch Linux.

 

Anyway: Get yourself a VM, put it in UEFI Mode and just try things. You just have to be careful trying to Dual-Boot your actual System, since Windows will either overwrite GRUB (if it's on the same SSD/HDD), or it will change the boot order in your UEFI. You can turn off the Windows BCD entry inside the UEFI and lock it with lInux, so GRUB will chainload BCD. It's still pretty crappy...but it's microsoft, what do you expect