hello my name is mel as you can see on my username... i am into C programming and gaming , i am 21 and married with one child... i been pulling my hair which linux would fit for me and where i am going to get the information i need to learn Linux, people say read a book or go to google and search.. i am not a newbie i am newbie for Linux but i am not dumb.. people say search, read book or get a tutorial there are whole bunch of tutorials out there and so hard to determent which tutorial is good or bad.. but i seek is a guidance to correct path not puzzle path , i have try to mess with linux so many time i lost count i try red hat,slackware but i was clueless what to do in this OS. like i notice linux is difference world , linux is hard there some task in linux the take time to setup and in window only take you matter of minutes to do.. but like i read some around here " linux is not window or dos" the truth is hard to let go "windows GUI" and easiness but we know windows is a shitty os and micorosoft is evil company.. i am very interested in learning this OS because linux looks bright took so many year for linux to be notice , now is change i want to be able to fix linux when is down so i could say hey i know how to fix linux...
so please i ask of you if you can
what would be the best linux for me ?
what would be the right place to learn the RULES..
linux console ,linux GUI..
dont give shit about whole internal thing about linux(the source code) i want to learn how to navigate through linux be able to do the task and setup drivers etc and programming .. but not so deep into linux core..

but i did my best to explain about my self so you the guru could term what linux would fit me..

thank you for your time and patience.. sorry for long ass explaination

> what would be the best linux for me?

noone can give you the right answer. it's the same as trying to find out what is the best color for you.. depends on your requirements, taste, free time, level of knowledge, money to spend on it..

> what would be the right place to learn the RULES.. linux console ,linux GUI..

www.pclinuxonline.com
http://www.linux.com/
book: linux documentation project - you don't have to read the whole book
man pages..

sorry, english is not my native language thus i mentioned only a few english webpages but i am pretty sure google can help you.

cheers,

-- joe

Try any linux you want, and if you have any problems, you can always come here for help. I think either Mandrake or mepis will be correct for you, but it is your choice!

if i had to recommend a distro for what your referring to, then i guess i also would say mandrake ... mandrake has a lot of gui frontends for things to be done, and thats what i think your aiming at this early in the game ... i'd advise not to stoop to the low standards of degrading yourself and using lindows or lycoris, no matter how good someone may tell you it is ... if you fall down to that level then you may as well stick with windows ...
if no one else gets to it, then when i get home from school then i will link some pages that have explanations of the linux directory structure, and what you'll find in them directorys .. and the most common commands you should know, and there is also a page which is like a "directory" of linux commands so you can look up any one and find what it does ... but for know you can see a couple of links that may show you some stuff below in my sig, one is linuxbasis, and the other is linux self help ... they are pretty broad pages, but they may give you a starting point, and like i said i will be giving some links about directory structures and commands, which are more specific , and also which you should understand at some point ..

DrOzz well thank you for the help i will be looking for those link.. and for the rest of you thank you for trying... i download mandrake i think mandrake is good enough to learn from .. lindows is hell no , but like DrOzz said not get so into GUI thing.. i dont wanna do that neither...

thanks again people

i am installing mandrake at the moment

The following sites are very useful. I used both of them extensively whn I first got started with Mandrake and continue to use them both today.

RUTE(Linux: Rute Users Tutorial and Exposition)

Linux Newbie Administrator Guide

These are both inexhaustible to get you started and keep you going.

Why doesn't anybody mention Redhat. No no Fedora (it will take some time to get used to the new name). I have nothing against mandrake (as a matter of fact I am downloading it right now as a third system). The single reason I am proposing Redhat is the easiness of installing new applications. A new user who wants to learn the system will need to download a lotta software, and I believe apt-get/synaptic would be a great way to start (before moving on to gentoo, slackware or even lfs).

If you are downloading mandrake right now don't bother redownloading, there is not that big a difference. However I believe Redhat is the best system to get started.

ok.. i been messing with mandrake for 4hr now... this os is good but is like lindows i am trying to learn linux here and this damn OS making feel i am in windows *sign... i think slackware is going to be my main choice slackware throw my ass right into console and force you learn linux that how should be.. but question the commands,feature are basicly the same on every linux release ? i mean like main core of linux is in every linux, red hat,slackware,mandrake,so on correct ? for example if i would type "ls" would the command work in slackware ?

yes it would.

unfortunately, if you don't want to get deep into Linux, Linux may not be for you. What you see and work with is not far from "deep" inside Linux.

Its closer than you think...

Netizen

I disagree. Of course I would advocate you to learn it as much as you can. You'll see that the more you learn the more you'll have to keep learning. However we shouldn't forget that besides being a way of life, Linux (and computers) are mere tools. They are here to serve us so that we can concentrate on other fields.
I believe that is one reason so many people are using windows. Because there is *nothing* to learn. The "deepest" you can get is by mastering the stupid wizards. On the other hand, you CAN use Linux dumbly, just like windows, without knowing the intricacies of glibc or how to compile a kernel. Or of course, you'll can be curious and invest some time to read the man pages and tutorials. Believe me this would be time neatly invested.

So "Linux is not for you" is not in my dictionary (dictionaries do not usually carry 5 word sentences, but hey, you get the idea). Linux is for EVERYBODY.

the truth is i have been typing alot command in console mode i discover this by just typing around "eject","clear","netstat" <-- i got it from windows "ls" by mistake , "kde" i didnt know how to load the GUI so i just started typing everything .. in slackware you type x i think to load the GUI.. so i am going to learn how to use linux by fucking with everything.. learn everything by mistake <-- just an expression i know i have to read some tutorial but hey i have alot down pack by messing aroung

I think instead of "f***ing around" you may choose a wiser path, and not risk damaging your newborn penguin. There are lots of documentation on linux. Since the os is considered a hard one to learn, everybody who has an above-the-average understanding started writing some stuff on their web pages.
Of course some of them stand out as being exquisite. For instance go to
www.tldp.org
The Linux Documentation Project.
There is a file there entitled Linux Cookbook. It is 400 pages long and it features most of the command you'll ever need. It is an excellent place to start. Even I check it once in a while. I do not know how far you got in your mandrake installation though? Do you have X? The reason I am asking this is that if you do have it you can download the guide as a pdf and check it whenever you want.

Also I have to say that your method of f***ing around works too. You should use it with care though. Never ever do it when you are root. Create your own user.

One of the reasons I had suggested (i was late though, the mandrakes were faster than I) a Redhat distro is the awe I have to their package management system, RPM. You can add some little tools called apt-get and synaptic that would let you download *anything* you want, and assist you during the install. Actually, it does the install all by itself. So you could use your method again, downloading apps and tools, trying them by reading manuals etc.. If you are into programming for instance you could download different Development Environments and pick the one that suits you best. Maybe mandrake has a similar feature though, I am perfectly ignorant on that matter.

well i was using mandrake for few hours but seem like mandrake are more focus on GUI than so i am going for slackware i did enjoy slackware before because when i first got it running threw me right into the shark i had no clue how to change directory or even load the gui i had no clue period so i start putting dos command in there some of them work non work like "cd" worked so i was like yeah baby.. you get the idea, i just have to sit down and be petience with linux... so much shit too learn

and "X" was on slackware

I would suggest you to take it slower. If you have a big hard drive try having both at the same time. Take your time to learn how things work. And do not forget that, even though it uses the gui, mandrake is also linux. A ctrl-alt-F1 will get you to your beloved console. If you do not like the interface, you can edit config files manually from there.
I do not like repeating myself, but I would strongly advise you to stick with you mandrake (if only it was fedora you wouldn't even want slack, oh well) until you learn how to use console editors (I am talking about emacs of course, not vim).
The most ideal certainly would be to have both. Experiment on slack and do your stuff on mandrake.