Linux newbie help please

[CF93]

Thinking of trying Ubuntu as I've now got a spare pc lying about doing nowt, but apart from installing Mandrake a few years ago then never actually using it, I'm a complete Linux newb.

Anyone got any decent help/tutorial sites that can explain the basics they could post? Ta.

 

[Will_3rd]

This is always a good place to start

http://www.ubuntuforums.org/

 

[CF93]

Will do, ta.

Was thinking slightly more generally than that though, ie how Linux works generally rather than a specific distro (probably should have said that to start with really!)

(Just to get an idea of how it works so if I decided to try out others or do something slightly more complicated than surf the net I might know what to do!)

 

[GarethDW]

Here's one from The Linux Document Project... it's comprehensive but not the most interesting thing you'll read this year:

http://tldp.org/LDP/intro-linux/html/index.html

Otherwise, here's a more fun document, but it doesn't cover as much as the one above... http://www.linuxnewbieguide.org/pdf/Ultimate_Linux_Newbie_Guide.pdf

HTH

 

[BillytheImpaler]

This might be helpful: http://www.pcmech.com/show/os/917/

 

[CF93]

Thanks guys, I'll have a look at those in a bit....

 

[InsomniaCalls]

Otherwise, here's a more fun document, but it doesn't cover as much as the one above... http://www.linuxnewbieguide.org/pdf/Ultimate_Linux_Newbie_Guide.pdf

HTH

Been reading this instead of working this afternoon.
Cheers

 

[GarethDW]

Heh, don't blame me if you get fired

BillytheImpaler, that's a good link... I know some people that will appreciate this one too.

 

[gumbald]

http://ubuntuguide.org, used that as a reference for learning Ubuntu. Doesn't teach you the principles of Linux though, just what you need to do to get things working

 

[CF93]

Been reading this instead of working this afternoon.
Cheers

Me too

Heh, don't blame me if you get fired

And I know I won't get fired cause we're all being made redundant, there's no work to do anyway, and we're all getting paid for it



Good links - thanks for the info guys!

 

[Cake]

You should learn to use the command line. It's very powerful and you can do things so much more quickly and easily just by typing one line.

Almost every command will have a manual which can be seen by typing "man <command>" in the terminal. To get out of man pages type ":q" and hit enter.

Another way to see command help and options is "<command> --help", "<command> -help", "<command> --h" or "<command> -h".

Another thing you should learn about is the filesystem. Everything in Linux is mounted under one root directory (/) and it's useful to know where to go to do certain things.

Another thing you might want to do is learn to use a non-GUI text editor. They come in handy if something goes wrong and you can't run X (the window manager) and you need to hand edit config files and such things. I use vi, but there are others like emacs and nano too.

And Google is your friend.

Hope this helps. Happy *nix'ing