It all started with a 3D printer. The rabbit hole went down deep and fast. What the hell is a Raspberrypi? Well, 3D printers can use it for all sorts of stuff and it uses "Linux". I have only ever used Windows. Linux is completely new to me. ls? pwd? sudo????

So this is a couple weeks ago and I started watching YT videos. A lot. Been playing around with hardware and software and have now done things like:

Installed unbuntu in a Virtualbox running on Windows
Gained su priveledges on it
Setup a raspberrypi by flashing it with some kind of Linux
Can run SSH to get to command line on the pi from Unbuntu over network
Can run VNC to get to the GUI on the pi from Unbuntu over network
Set up shared directory Win host <-> Unbuntu
Discovered github
etc

So far its like, watch some videos, type in some commands (that i really don't understand all that much) and see what happens. Sometimes all goes well, sometimes need a little more help, sometimes hit a brick wall. I am intrigued by this Linux stuff so far.

But thing is, its all "type in a bunch of commands" to accomplish one thing. I think I need something a lot more structured and comprehensive.

Can anybody recommend a book? Yes, I know, a book. I actually learn better when I focus on broad concepts and forget the command syntax until actually ready to try something. Will study the book with the computer off to get a better understanding of the Linux "system". The commands, GUI, and actual practical use will follow.

I know it took me a long time to ask for a book recommendation, but my mindset above may help in the recommendation. And being so new, I realize I need to start with fundamentals that everybody has to go through, but I want to go deeper than "Linux for Dummies".

Thanks.

Peace. Out.

How Linux Works & Linux Bible. Amazon / local library / maybe even an old version web .pdf

Welcome to LQ & congrats on lots of progress!

Welcome.

How Linux Works is published by No Starch, The Linux Bible is published by Wiley.

Paper copies are the most practical for learning even if there are PDFs out there. The "UI" for a book is much easier to work with under a wider variety of conditions and physically easier on the eyes. It can also be open parallel with the main computer and you can easily flip between selected pages even in different chapters, etc.

Another book would be The Linux Command Line by William Shotts, if you want to take a deep dive into shell scripting and (by extension) the interactive shell. You can do everything with the shell and via the shell everything can be automated or done remotely in a secure manner over SSH. Remote access can mean across the desk or on another continent. It can mean one computer at a time or hundreds or thousands at a go.

Also, check out second hand book shops, quite often older books are still relevant, especially for the command line.

1 members found this post helpful.

Reading books online (or real books) is much better than youtube as we all know anyone can post anything on youtube and we have no idea of the accuracy of it.

We see quite a few people who do that with questions here after they have mucked things up so you are on the right track, reading/researching to understand what is going on. Another book I would recommend is the "Linux Pocket Guide" by Daniel Barrett which is published by O'Reilly, a company which publishes a number of books on Linux and this particular one should be available in used book stores.

If you follow the links in my signature, you can find something I wrote years ago called The Charm of Linux. It's not a howto for anything but it will give you a good idea of how a Linux system works overall and why things are as they are.

Thanks all for the book recommendations. Probably get a couple of them.

I forgot to mention also that another driving motivation for learning and trying Linux is I am growing increasingly wary of Microsoft. They seem to just be getting worse all the time.

Anyway, I have now installed a fresh version of Unbuntu 22 on an old Optiplex 3000 that had Windows on it. Didn't even go for dual boot, just wiped drive clean and now have a native installation of Unbuntu all by itself. Figured it might make things a little simpler and better experience.

P.S. dont mean to start further discussion on Windows here, everybody already knows.

I first encountered Microsoft in 1984, and they have been getting worse ever since. IT was hard to tell that when we were all running MS-DOS, but as soon as the released Windows 2 and then Windows 3 I could see some of where this was all going. Some of their products have improved from time to time, but the company, ethics (if any), and policies have been on a downward spiral from day 1.

Two great ways to multitask Microsoft products came out pre-Windows 98: DesQview and OS/2. Both dead now. (But they still work if you can find them, and FreeDOS works with them well enough!)

Ubuntu causes problems on all my platforms, and they seem to be about as ethically challenged as Microsoft. I use Manjaro, but I have used everything. You might want to look at Q4OS, Elementary Linux, MintDE, or OpenSUSE if Ubuntu lets you down. I recommend the PLASMA (KDE) desktop regardless of distribution.

Wish you the best of luck!

I can recommend Garrels's BASH Guide for Beginners from The Linux Documentation Project. It's about a quarter way down the page at the link. I still keep a print-out of it on my bookshelf.

The project seems to have gone dormant, but, as mentioned above, when it comes to the command line not much has changed.

It is how does it work. I mean everything. The world. Sometimes all goes well, sometimes need a little more help, sometimes hit a brick wall.
If you want to use something (a tool?) you need to learn to use it. Even a hammer.
And the most important thing is to practice, practice and more practice. Always read the documentation of the applications you [want to] use, about the program you want to play with. And you need to know what are you looking for, which part of the Linux world piques your interest.

My comment to admin(root):
I need to know if I can paste url at geocities having the Design of UNIX operating system book at pdf file here?

In general it is not advisable to distribute any document that may have a copyright that is not your own.
Downloading such from an approved site is OK.
Posting a link to that document on that site is usually OK; but depends upon the site where you are posting that link.
Distributing it without written approval from the copyright holder may lead to legal problems.

To confirm that it would be acceptable at geocities you would need to check with an admin at that site. Why ask at a non-affiliated site?

Thank you for your comment.
>> may lead to legal problems.
geocities(Free website provider) allowed me to upload that pdf file. I was having this pdf file for years and I have shared those pdf files to learners over years.
geocities used to add their javascript when we upload our html file there.
my actual query was:
Can I provide other website(example: geocities) here at my comments?
since it is making the user to go outside linuxquestions.org

I'll add an important condition to that point, in the context of LQ.

That condition is: it is not advisable to distribute any document that may have a copyright that is not your own -- unless that copyright hold of that copyrighted material has given permission such as in a license permitting such distribution. The Creative Commons Licenses and the GNU Affero General Public License, are two examples, one for documentation and one for code.

If the book is under such a license, then link. If it is not, then it is prohibited under the Berne convention and the passage of time only means that it has not gotten slapped down yet.

Maurice J. Bach published "The Design of the UNIX Operating System" in 1986.

Absent any CC licensing or similar, posting a PDF copy of it would violate copyright laws where LQ is hosted, and thus also the LQ rules. (Where that PDF is hosted is not relevant; using a forum attachment vs an external link is not relevant.)

If you say WHY you think the book is worth reading, anyone interested can visit a library and/or book store and obtain a copy for themselves.

(Note: I am not the site admin; you do not need the site admin to answer this; the site admin does not actively monitor every thread. The way to contact the site admin is to use the "Contact Us" link, included at the bottom of every page; but again, you do not need to waste their time with this question.)