Completely new at Linux and I need help/guidance.
 

Hey everyone,

Like it says in the title, I have no idea what I am doing. For a summer project a couple of buddies of mine in my major want to build an Arch Linux OS from scratch, and I am wondering 1. Is that possible, and 2. if it is, how the hell are we going to do it?

So I was wondering, what would be some good starting steps? Should I dual boot my computer and run 2 OS's and if so which OS should I choose? Are there little exercises I could do somewhere to increase my understanding of Linux?

I tried clicking on link that says "Linux tutorials" that is on the right had side of the page but is says I am not allowed to access them.

Any help would be appreciated.

Easiest non-destructive way to install linux,.. is by installing it into a Virtual Machine until you get the hang of things.

That way, you dont have to constantly reboot the actual machine to switch to windows.

Thanks Stretcher, but now the question is "Which one?"

Is there a specific Virtual Machine you would recommend, and is there a Linux OS that is more commonly used as a 'training wheels' OS?

http://www.virtualbox.org/ - virtual machine
http://www.ubuntu.com/ - linux with training wheels

You might want to look at LFS (Linux From Scratch). Download the book at http://www.linuxfromscratch.org/lfs/

Dann Washko of the TLLTS podcast just finished building LFS in a virtual machine and talked about it in his podcast:
http://www.tlltsarchive.org/archives...4-03-16-11.ogg