Hi all,

I have a very simple question. How do anybody learn any operating system (OS) or gain expertise in language ? for example, I want to learn Linux and c/c++? So how and where do I start? i got books, I am reading them but... is that the right way? Does anybody has any suggestions??? Please

I don't know that there's a right way - I imagine that would vary from person to person. It sounds like you've got a distro and some books. That sounds right to me. For me it's read-read-read and practice-practice-practice. Hang here a lot and pick up a lot of tips. Find where all the good docs on your own computer and on the web are. Understand that the command line and the configuration files and the utilities are where it's at. That's what I try to do.

I still think I'm a clueless newbie for the most part but it's getting better all the time.

Probably the most important thing is perserverance. Stick to it. There've been times where I really wanted to chuck it all and there probably will again but I'm really glad to be typing this from Slack.

Damn, I just saw your sig. You've got it.

just some friendly advice...

[babble]
being new to something is tough as hell..
you gotta remember that you're not expected to just *know* what to do given specific circumstances. definately read-read-read and practice-practice-practice like digiot said...but if you get stuck and can't find the answer *on your own* first, come here and ask around, just make sure that when you get the answer to you're problem that you *understand* the why and how to that answer or you learn *nothing*.

...and i'd second (well, third), the *don't give up*, if you want to learn it, learn it
[/babble]

Books are expensive, however some cheepie options are:

Barns and noble has a great reference section, and lots of chairs

kaaza has many fine books in pdf format

google is your best "on demand" answer source

best option is to pick a language and stick with it, c++ will be best for cross platform programming I think, java too (for a scripting language) not to mention perl.

For educational uses you just might find a copy of visual studio on kazaa, but that would be wrong for you to download it.

Hi nchauhan

Looking at the practical side - I think the key to both of these is to :

Start off simple;
Enjoy what your doing;

A good Linux distribution for New Linux users is

Mandrake 9.1

Its got both:

An easy to use point and click GUI;
And an adequte CLI for learning basic Linux System admin.
(and much more power besides)

There are lots of online Programming tutorials you can download for C and C++ - many Linux distributions come with a variety of Compilers/Interpreters etc so you can start straight away.

Digiot made the important point about perseverance particularly regards programming - there will be frustating times - your success typically will be partially dependant on how much you enjoy it.

Thank you all ( digiot, jhorvath, bigswifty75 and Skyline) for the suggestions, it means a lot to me.

I have got Linux 9.0 and Suse installed on my m/cs, so I will start playing with them.

Have also got c/c++ with Linux. Again, I have got some experience in c/c++ so I guess I should start with some project that will use all (most of) aspects of c++. Any ideas on that?

Again, Thank you all. it is great boosting for me.

One of the best ways to learn is just to start writing stuff. You obviously have a reason for wanting to learn. What is it? just write it. Find something similar that exists and take a look at the source - find out what makes it tick.

If you want to learn Linux and C/C++ the best advice I can offer is simply to do what you're already doing (reading relevant material) and start taking every opportunity to use Linux and to look at other people's C/C++ code - and start doing your own coding. (Always bear in mind that one of the best sources of information about Linux and C/C++ is the Internet - and there's a lot of stuff on the Internet which is made freely available that beats books you find in shops.)

If you're relying on Windows for certain tasks: stop immediately. You must learn a way of doing what you want to do with your computer using Linux - and it may take time and a lot of reading at first but at the end of the process you'll have learnt a great deal about Linux - and when someone else encounters a similar problem you'll probably be able to help them out.

If there's something you need that doesn't exist or is only partially developed (e.g. drivers for a particular piece of hardware) then find out who's working on the project and offer what help you can. If you find a useful program you use a lot written in C/C++ (and which is open source, obviously) then take the time to consider how the program does what it does and then examine the code and see what you can learn (and you may even find a bug or find code which hasn't been optimised, which you'll be able to discuss with the maintainer). Obviously you shouldn't start by trying to read complicated code for a large project like the Linux kernel but there are plenty of more straightforward examples of good open source code which you can begin to learn from.

Oh - and stick with your signature, as digiot advises. Never give up, never lose faith - persistance is an essential part of learning.