Like the subject says, i'm completely lost when it comes to Linux/Unix/BSD etc. I'm not even sure what half of the stuff means or what they do. I'm just completely lost. I've been using DOS/Windows my whole life so this is completely foriegn to me. Any good sites that will just give me a good run down of some basic linux things I need to know? Like say what such and such program does, how to recompile kernels, compile from source, libraries, etc. After I post this i'm going to go read some tutorials from this site. Any other good places? Thanks in advance.

"Rute" helped me a good bit at first.

http://www.icon.co.za/~psheer/book/index.html.gz

Poking around LQ has been the most help though.

get a good book on linux. I started with RH and bought the Bible series books. RH 9 bible is the newest edition i believe. get a linux distro, and have patience. It is very different from windows and the learning curve can seem insurmountable at first. As for books, you can find book reviews in the Book Reviews link on the upper right, under the main menu. Install linux, and when you have questions, search the forums. If you don't find an appropriate or acceptable answer, post your question. These forums have been a huge help.

Some online resources:

LinuxHowto.net
The Linux Documentation Project

And of course RIGHT HERE!

The one that got me started was "Newbie's Linux Manual". It encludes the day-to-day command line operations, as well as a few more complex sys-admin subjects, such as kernel compile.

Hi,

If you're using RedHat, I find anything written by Mohammed Kabir to be easy to understand for beginners (it's what I used at first). He's done books for RedHat, M&T, and Wrox.

His point of view is from a system administration aspect (servers, not workstations so much), so if you're looking at setting up a workstation with all the bells and whistles, it might not be the best choice.

For setting up a server, though, he gives pretty good advice that is understandable by new converts.

www.linux.org


Since you are lost, and I don't blame you, I'd do some investigating on the various distros, decide on one or family and search your heart out on that distro. There should be an overabundance of information on the net for various Linux commands, programs, functions, etc. I'd say, once you are comfortable with that one distro/group, move on to something more complex or intense that interests you, that is, if you are not satisfied with the distro.

Keep it small and then expand! whee!

-ghazz

believe me man you arer not far from where i stand
i took a course in linux 2 yrs. back---just for the sake of a certificate
found it very compliated at first and lost track of it
but then just a few months back i installed in in my home pc
i would suggest you first get an overveiw of the file system
it will make it easy for u to navigate through the system.

The Linux Newbie Admistrators Guide
helped (and helps) me a lot

http://linux-newbie.sunsite.dk/

mark

Strange... I think I'm the first one to tell you to use the man pages and info pages.

This is so trivial I think other people didn't take the effort to mention it, and they're not to blame, I just mention it for completeness.

Start with:
$man man;
go on with:
$ man <<command>>
and if it's bash or another big program,
$ info bash (for example).



And by the way, I learned OpenBSD using mainly man pages since OpenBSD isn't as well documented as Linux, and there aren't as much forums / books etc, so it can be done with only man pages!

I think that the best place for a Windows user that is thinking of switching to Linux to start looking for information is in LQWiki. Start with http://wiki.linuxquestions.org/wiki/Main_Page and then read the first part of http://wiki.linuxquestions.org/wiki/...Misconceptions where you can find answers to questions like:

• * What is Linux?
  * Which Windows users should switch to Linux? Why? When? How?
  * Linux HOWTOs, FAQs, docs, tutorials, man pages, guides, tips, reference manuals, indexes
  * What is a distro/distribution?

If you don't know the meaning of a term used on one of the LQWiki pages, or what it is for, you can often just click the term to go to a description, or do a search for the term to find pages that may contain a description.

If neither works, you can edit a page containing the term to insert a link to a empty description page. Someone may add the information you need. If you find the description elsewhere, you might add the information yourself.

Visit my webpage,

http://www.websamba.com/Linux_Docs_Links

Sheng-Chieh

Visit my web pages
http://www.novell.com/coolsolutions/author/1211.html
and look out for a new page on this site for newbie basics in the GUI

I found http://www.linux.org/lessons/ to be very helpful.