I don't know if my question makes sense since there are so many varieties of linux. Like if you learn how to operate a toyota, you know how to operate a bmw, more or less. maybe every once in a while you will run into a problem like not knowing how to turn on the windshield wipers.

if I learn ubuntu, does that mean I know how to use all other linux varieties?

and the main question is, how can I really learn it? I am so clueless, when I look up a problem and someone has answered it, I don't know what they are talking about.

Hi Jose,

Learning Ubuntu will go a long way to knowing other distros. The package management is different in different distros, everything else should transfer over. Learning the command line will be the same for any thing. http://linuxclass.heinz.cmu.edu/doc/tlcl.pdf

--glenn

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First, your question does indeed make sense. The best answer I can give is "sort of."

As regard major applications, such as, for example, Firefox, Thunderbird, the GIMP, LibreOffice, and other common GUI applications, yes. They are the same across Linux platforms.

This is also true for the command line. Once you get beneath the surface of the GUi to the command line, it's pretty much the same across distros. Also, if you learn the GUI text editor in Ubuntu (which editor you have by default will depend on which GUI environment you are using), you will find that most GUI text editors work pretty much the same; their differences are mostly cosmetic.

The exception is package management, that is, updating, installing, and removing applications. In Linux world, there are several different package management systems, and the commands for managing them from the command line are different.

If you learn how to manage packages from the Ubuntu command line, those Ubuntu commands will work for all Debian-based distros, because they all use the *.deb package format. However, the same commands will not work with, say, Fedora; however, knowing how to manage packages on Ubuntu will help you with learning other package management systems. To put it another way, the commands may be different, but the underlying principles are the same.

And welcome to LQ.

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Hi
pdf is not loading

Looked like it was missing a colon http://linuxclass.heinz.cmu.edu/doc/tlcl.pdf maybe or we have it set up to need the s in http? add an extra link for it: https://onlinebooks.library.upenn.ed...?key=olbp73320

...running linux will help, like skateboarding &c... https://www.linuxquestions.org/quest...0/#post6431656

Just a comment: reading a book or watching a few videos does not make you "proficient". You need to learn a lot and even more. It will [probably] take years to become an advanced user of "linux".
The different distros are more or less similar, but obviously there are differences.
The 3 most important things are: practice, practice and practice.

What is your definition of proficient / how deep do you want to go?

Different people learn in different ways - reading books and manuals combined with plenty of practice and experience may be enough, or it may only get you closer, or it might just leave you frustrated.

(For command line stuff, learning to read/navigate man pages is an important skill, even though some of them are poorly written).


Then find another answer that explains it, or ask that someone to explain further, or find a different explanation of the same solution and see if contrasting them helps.

Just because someone has answered a question it doesn't mean they a) know what they're talking about and b) are effective at communicating - this applies everywhere (including LQ), but especially so on Stack Overflow.

Also, it is perfectly acceptable to create a thread with a link saying "I was trying to do X, found this solution, but don't understand why it works, can someone explain?"

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Most people here won't be offended if you ask politely about a provided answer, "How exactly does that work?" or "What do you mean by ...".

The second difference between distributions after the package manager is the desktop. There are several desktops available and different distributions provide different default desktops when you install the distribution. When you switch distributions you can tell the installer to install a desktop that you are already familiar with or you can take the new default and spend a couple of days figuring out how the new desktop works.

Hi&welcome2LQ! Are you near any large libraries, if you like books?

Do you already have any PC(s)? http://OSboxes.org/virtualbox

Maybe tell us more about your aspirations for Linux...

Best wishes! Enjoy the http://LinuxJourney.com (site is back!)

the baiscs bash commands are the same the init system and packaging manager not so much. so learning Linux, bash, or some other shell just curtail it to you and what you use.

I am going to disagree here. Anything Ubuntu based is a bit different than every other distribution in some quite basic ways.
If you want skills that transfer go with something closer to the GNU case: Debian, Devuan, Manjaro perhaps.

If you want stability and learning from the low level up then Slackware and Linux From Scratch (LFS) are hard to beat, but you might want some experience behind you before you go there.

If you want skills that are more likely to transfer well to commercial distributions go with RHEL like (Rocky, CentOS Stream, Oracle), SUSE like (OpenSUSE).

If you want cutting edge stuff go Sparky Linux (or VSIDO), Fedora (you will have to upgrade or reinstall often), or ARCH based (Manjaro: these are rolling and you never have to reinstall unless you want to or break things).

If you want gaming, there is an Ubunto based gaming distro or two, but I would recommend Sparky Linux Game Over Edition.

There are some distributions aimed at education, but they are actually more appropriate to assisting in education of OTHER subjects USING Linux than for learning Linux itself. For your purposes they shoud be avoided unless you desire that function.

My best advice, pick one that is basic but not Ubuntu specific for a start. Once you have better ideas what you want (to learn, run, use, value) you can seek out a more appropriate distribution for your purposes.

I donno, Slackware was my first distro and I keep finding myself going back to slack for its simplicity. Having to have some kind of "but you might want some experience behind you before you go there." I don't agree with, it's all a learning curve.

Jump in and start learning how to swim.Then when one gets into the disto hopping phase they can see where the similarities are and the differences are, and not until then.

you can install the software on anyone of them.

Distros that hold your hand might not make you as "proficient?" But how much time do you wanna spend making stuff work, are you going to school for it? Where twenty hours of class work can become forty* hours of actual work... with teachers and books only telling you what to think,,, not how!

Here's what I suggest that you do: load VirtualBox®, which is a full-featured virtual machine monitor which runs on everything and is absolutely free. (It is also supported by one of the largest software companies in the world.) Now, pick a "distro," download the installation DVD-image, and use it to install.

After you spend a little time just "kicking the tires," invent "something that you want to do," and try to do it. Rinse and repeat. Make it a point to use the virtual machine every day for some significant period of time. You need to become as "accustomed" to the Linux-GUI way of doing things as you do with your host. (And by the way, there are several "Linux GUIs!" Get used to it.)

The beauty of using a VM = virtual machine is that you don't have to touch your "host environment." Your host sees the "VM monitor" as an ordinary set of well-behaved programs, running under its control. No matter what you do (or, screw up ...) in the VM, you cannot negatively affect the host. The VM simply "runs in a window," or full-screen if you choose. The "hard drives" of the VM are actually "ordinary files" on your host system which automatically grow and shrink so as to not waste host-side space. Linux will run the same way in a virtual environment as it does on "real iron." And, you can define as many separate VMs as you want. (I actually use a multi-terabyte USB-C connected SSD drive ... which costs "almost nothing" these days at any office-supply store ... to store my VM-related resources, just to keep them out of the way when I don't need them.)

Now, I never say that I am "proficient" in Linux, because the ecosystem is too vast and diverse. I simply say that I have worked with it for many years and know my way around it very well. I also daily use MacOS (OS/X), which is a Unix®-based system. But this really isn't a world for a "jack of all trades." You will always know some things better than other things, and generally, "humility is a virtue."