Hello all,

I am new to this forum and also new to Linux usage, I am from India where Microsoft domination is bountiful. We do not have any resource to learn, no course being conducted in nearby locality. I am curious on learning linux, for the last two years i tried it with less interest.

From now onwards I wish to start using it fully and later on move to Linux. Also in my work I am forced to use Linux servers ( CentOS/ Debian).

I am about to start and working for the last fifteen days to collect information on both OS, according to your opinion which OS I should be learning considering the usage, simplicity and also support ( community based).

India has 3 times more linux users than US(Refer Here:http://www.businessweek.com/stories/...wings-in-india). There is plenty of resources online and books available.
Start with Debian/Ubuntu/CentOS/Fedora/Suse. To learn linux just use it & you will be guided by this OS itself & its community. Linux Mint is also good. Actually most of distributions available are good but check for stability. Debian/CentOS/Fedora/Suse are stable.

If you want a qualification, study CentOS because it's the free version of Red Hat and Red Hat qualifications are very popular in India.

Both CentOS and Debian are built on the same Linux, GNU etc basis so there is much in common between them, especially if you use the command line which is anyway the best way to do systems administration and usually the only way on (remote) servers.

I think learning is more effective when you learn some easier things first and use that as a foundation for learning more.

You indicated you are already using Linux Mint 14, which makes that the easiest Linux for you to learn on now.

All Linux distributions are similar enough that the majority of what you should learn can be learned in Mint.

The things that are quite different between the Red Hat family and the Debian family are very much the same between Mint and Debian. So you can do most of the Debian specific learning while still using Mint.

After you are experienced with Mint, I suggest trying Centos.

@tarunchawla: Actually if you check data there will be enough information that Indian users are using Linux but anywhere in India getting a good resource or persons to teach Linux is always a trouble, that too in particular South India have less resources for the same. I am trying a version of debian only, but I was informed that Debian is a server grade software then I went to ubuntu, for some reasons I dont like its interface so trying Linux mint which is a derivative of Ubuntu ( to my knowledge).

@catkin : I am not interested for a qualification but inclined towards using Linux for many reasons and I found its quite effective, costs nothing. But how to start with is the question, I had installed it in my three computers, daily using it ( now I am tying in that only), I am good with the GUI interface for basic usage but want to go more.

What is a kernel, how to check that kernel, some are telling that updating the kernel, how to do it, is it necessary ?

If you are a big Enterprise then updates will provide you some crucial security and performance enhancement patches, but for the time being you don't need to bother about that.I suggest you to go through some Operating System essentials. This is what linux can do to you, when you are using windows you are restricted to view that windows shows you but when you switch to linux you are eager to know more and you horizon of thinking expands. You cannot learn all things in one day just try to understand things by searching through google first as most probably your question had been already answered, if unable to find any answer then ask questions and there are lots of people out there to help you.

Read this page(http://wiki.linuxquestions.org/wiki/Main_Page)

Best of Luck

I'd go with what you use at work, at least initially as it'll speed you up for work.
After that you can branch out.
Here's some good links

http://linux.oneandoneis2.org/LNW.htm
http://rute.2038bug.com/index.html.gz
www.linuxtopia.org

You can check exact distro name+version and kernel version using the cmd line thus

There are many good links for learning some of the basics of Linux, and they are listed on this site. Check the "Quick Links" and "Tutorials" links at the top. But you're right when you say there are "flavors." As a beginner, I found it easier to work through a book, and I'd suggest either "A Practical Guide to Linux Commands, Editors, and Shell Programming," or "A Practical Guide to Fedora and Red Hat Enterprise Linux," by Mark G. Sobell, if you can get your hands on them. The Fedora one focuses on Fedora 15, in the sixth edition of the book, so it's slightly dated, but the concepts in either book can largely be applied to Linux Mint and other distros, as well. The main differences you'll find is between distros that use SELinux and those that don't, and distros using different package managers (Debian's DEB versus Red Hat's RPM, contrasted with installation from tar files), and so forth, but you can branch off from the books and figure that stuff out online.

The kernel is the "heart" of the operating system. It tells the operating system how to work with the hardware, and the kernel even has many drivers built in, as I understand. Linux didn't become "Linux" until Linus Torvalds created the kernel and coupled it with GNU programs, creating Linux/GNU. Don't neglect www.linux.com, which is the home of kernel development at the Linux Foundation. To see which kernel you're running, just type

uname -a

I'd forgotten that and had been wondering the same thing, so I Googled it.

I wish you much luck in your learning. If you have further questions, you know where to come.

Yes I do had downloaded some of them, and going through it. I am seeing that CentOS and Debian based flavours are having two different setup, systems and commands, which one will be better for learning?

As you probably know, CentOS is a very common server distribution, and it's in the Red Hat family of distros. Debian, meanwhile, has spawned Ubuntu and other popular desktop distributions. For business practicality, I'd say focus on CentOS. The Debian side is pretty simple, really, and you'll be able to apply what you learn with CentOS pretty well to Debian. Ultimately, it really doesn't matter too much which one you choose. The commands are largely going to be your standard Bash shell commands and GNU utilities. Debian is also a very stable option for servers, and it's supposedly fairly well documented so you might be able to learn a lot just from starting with the Debian website.

They are not really as different as you seem to be saying.

One big advantage of Ubuntu for beginners is: More beginner questions have been asked and answered online for Ubuntu than for any other distribution.
Once you get in the habit of trying google first for any question, you will find that almost anything which confuses you in Linux has already been asked by another beginner (who almost always uses Ubuntu) and has already been answered by an expert with a Ubuntu specific answer (rather than the less precise answer you often get when the expert doesn't know details of the beginner's distribution).

Mint is close enough to Ubuntu, that you can probably stick with Mint and lookup questions online as if you were using Ubuntu and then use the Ubuntu answer equally well in Mint.

Once you switch to Centos, you need to make sure you find RHEL or Centos answers to your questions. Even Fedora is different enough that online answers to beginner questions on Fedora likely have some details wrong when applied to Centos.

Hello,

I am surprised, why no one has suggested you TLDP guides (check: http://tldp.org/guides.html), which are really good and updated guides for beginners as well experts.

Also check here for more stuff.

1 members found this post helpful.

the C in CentOS stands for "Community" so,
I'd start there.

+1 up to the last phrase. Many ubuntu threads end without an expert contribution (or a solution). The quality of the online community support for a distro can be a significant factor in distro choice. When I chose to change to Slackware, the quality of online community support was decisive.

Another way to learn Linux is to read LQ. When a question is asked and interests you, research for a solution. That's a real world sysadmin situation -- a real question and trying to find the answer. If and when the question is solved, you can compare the solution with the what your research found. A challenging set of puzzles and an effective training.