you can do it in about 2 days if you go around posting "Hi" in every thread.

and free, net, and openbsd all have about the same software as linux, just different kernels.

So I take it free, net and openbsd are separate os's?

guru
n 1: a Hindu or Sikh religious leader and personal teacher
2: a recognized leader in some field or of some movement; "a
guru of genomics"

Guru is really just a slang term us computer geeks throw around. By this definition Jeremy would be a guru. It has nothing to do with his knowledge of linux but rather his leadership in the linuxquestions.org movement.

yes, the bsd's are different os's.
www.netbsd.org
www.freebsd.org
www.openbsd.org

"forget about the GUI, it has nothing to do with what nodger is saying. basically he means that you should run the FreeBSD operating system in text mode (so you have to do everything with standard commands and no GNOME or KDE shit)."

KDE and GNOME are GUI's so it has everything to do with what I was saying. As for running FreeBSD in text mode, I can do that in Mandrake, or Red Hat.
Thinking about it, it would not help running in text all the time, as and I may be wrong about this can anyone type in Lynx quicker than they can navigate using netscape/mozilla? I am not knocking Lynx by the way, I know it supports a lot of protocols. Anyway my point is to get answers to questions would be harder.

Actually, a mix of both is usually better. Sometimes clicking and dragging your way to something takes more time than typing a short 20 or 30 character command. I am thinking about installing one package that you know the name of with GUI vs CLI. For example, if I were to want to install the pager, "most" because I like colored man mages, I'd do this with Mandrake:to update my sources and to install it. It'd fetch it and the dependancies. Debian would be:andWith the CLI, I'd have to open RPMdrake (mandrake) or KPackage/Synaptic (Debian), wait for it to open, update (which seems to take linger to do), find the package in the list, click on it, choose install and wait for it to install, close the window (or windows, in the case of Kpackage or Synaptic).

With this example, most would have been installed CLI in less time than it would have taken to get a mirror update with GUI.

Other things are downright faster with the mouse. I can open Opera with one mouse click, as its on my taskbar. I can be at LQ clicking my first link in about 2-3 seconds tops.

BOTH are good.

I think that if you want to be a guru, you should learn what you have first inside out. Play with the GUI. Practice setting up networks (if you have the network, that is - or get VMWare and make a fake network.LOL) with your mouse. Then try to do it in a console. Try navigating every program you have installed. Go through the whole menu. Turn off the GUI and start navigating your hard drive and read every config file you find (use most, it'll be pretty). Most of the time, they are well commented and tell you what's actually going on. If your sig is right, you've guot Mandrake 9.1 installed. I have found that the files are in a predictable place, for the most part. You'll find the same files (except the Linux-specific ones) in nearly the same places on whatever distro you use as well as the other *NIXs too. If you do this kind of examination, you'll be a "guru" yourself in much less time than you think. I bet that Trickykid, Jeremy, DrOzz, or any of the other "gurus" here (I should mention Freekygeek55 too, actually) probably think that they are still noobs a lot of the time too, but I consider that they have got more licked than I do, by lightyears.

Thanks for infor Vectordrake. I will take your advice on board. At the moment I am trying to set up tripwire and a firewall. I think I am going to have to delay my exam again though. I am two thirds of the way through my 900 page Linux + book. Did a linux + virtual test and got 60% of my answers right. Way too low. When I chose to take Linux as my next exam, I expected 3 maybe 4 months before I was ready to take the exam. I've got the feeling it may take much longer and I have spent most evenings at the manual and my box. Hopefully in a month I'll take the exam.

Ever read RUTE? Its the real bible...

From the book Its 2/3 the size of your book so less reading. LOL. You should have it too (free download or purchase from Amazon, etc). Its lives up to its claims.

Downloading now. Will read when I get through my manual. Thanks.

i guess if you understand the answers to whatever questions you have, thats a great feeling.

"I think you could substitute freebsd with slackware there too." I started with slack 3.1 1993 Big ol Book from Sams-Learn Linux. Cd in the back. Most like Unix. then and Still today if you stay in Posix mode. Gui? we don need no stinking Guis my personal quest was to get as much as a can running without a gui. luck? hmm something. that what x is for <not for desktop but for access>, < my freaking cd finally broke last year. <sob> 14.0 Slack with a little Suse thrown in . picked up another cd Suse 7. Latest and greatest does not apply.

Answers most always lead to more Questions.Unix/Linux/BSD/Free& otherwise. are Based in C. even today. Learn C. as it may make your Guru-dom journey to of a 1000 steps ,a few hundred shorter. IMHO. =) Learning is the Greatest adventure a Free Linux cd is <almost> orgasmic in nature. Slacker-Tuxd

anything you learn will be insufficient within a few years, because of the fresh new developments. Therefore if you want to be an expert, you must keep learning. To be an expert is a continuous work, not a state.

How long does it take to become "a guru?"

I wouldn't know. I've been doing computers for over thirty-five years now, and there are a helluva lot of things that I know nothing about. I don't think that it will ever be any different.

The only thing that could possibly be said, I think, "as time wears on," is that you do tend to build up a more generalized perspective of how various types of computer equipment work, internally and externally. The differences become more superficial. You develop some sort of ability to be dropped into a new situation and "land four paws down." You get a little better at faking it learning.

And, I guess, you stop expecting to ever be a guru, and you stop calling yourself one.

Saw this pop up and said "How many times someone gonna ask that question?" Well ... Twas asked a very long time ago really.

Resurrected thread.

One.