Yeah, Bitzsk...

work, no work...

I think I want to do "Linux From Scratch" using Ubuntu for the build...

Also, consider Gentoo if you are also considering suicide. :-)

If you don't learn regular expressions, you will never really learn Linux. So, if you are not a programmer... get on it.

You do NOT have to BE a programmer, but you need to follow a course of programming to an intermediate level just so you truly understand what is happening. The thought processes you learn to follow, even as a beginner programmer, will benefit you for the rest of your life, in all things you set out to accomplish!

I recommend getting a good C book. It is the most popular programming language of all time. It has now been relegated to a fairly back-burner status, but you would be surprised how much it IS still used so many years after it's creation.

C is what is know as a Structured Programming Language. Much of your standard scripting is done in this style.

It is EXTRAORDINARILY important to ALSO learn and digest the concept of Object Oriented Programming. Why? Because it is essentially how all UNFATHOMABLY large programming projects get done. No one can possibly follow the whole thing. You have to learn to think modularly and realize that pieces of code take input, do something with it, and produce output. That is EXACTLY how you will need to troubleshoot and nit-pick and really LEARN the workings of Linux.

C++ is a natural progression for learning Object Oriented Programming, but I actually don't recommend it as your next language after C. Yes, the syntax is often similar, but it is FAR from the same and I found that it really just threw me for a BIG LEARNING CURVE loop because I was still stuck on the concepts of C. I would recommend Python as an Object Oriented Programming Language. Java is perhaps the most widely used now.... ok, well... it is! But it has fostered a really nasty reputation for itself in the business, thanks to a lot of fly-by-night programmers from 3rd-world countries, who have learned to put pieces of it together very poorly at the dismay of the rest of the computing profession.

Linux and the GNU utilities and the remainder of the *nix, Open Source Software-style of code are built by many different people from many different places at all sorts of different times, etc. Understanding that the method of organizing the people is more important than knowing HOW to code or configure in the overall scheme of things is vital to comprehending Linux.

Once you really examine it, you will find that Linux is like, half configuration-files. And the whole Operating System fits together like one big Object Oriented Programming project.


(by the way fellas, yeah, I am a little chilly here...)

(and for the record, I hate OOP!)

After several years as a perfectionist procrastinator... I have learned to recommend Ubuntu, NOW! JUST GET IT INSTALLED SO YOU CAN GET ON WITH LEARNING LINUX! No other distro comes close out-of-the-box. BUT. USE UBUNTU WHILE YOU LEARN ANOTHER, MORE TRADITIONAL DISTRO! Red Hat, BSD, Solaris, CentOS ( <---- my personal favorite... )

Just get started. If you like my title. Then ignore all the flames that this title is going to invoke from fan-boys and get Ubuntu 9.04 going and get your learn on!


I recommend learning as much as you can about networking, if you really want to learn the nuts and bolts of Linux. If you are a programmer, then you are WAY ahead of the game. Now back-learn some networking.

Cisco Internetworking Technologies Handbook - Read the first 7 chapters like a religious-text to a monk! If you do, you will then be able to pretty-much flip to the other 900 chapters in any order and find that you are no longer, lost...

Then, come back to linux to configure all those settings, by hand.