Has this happened to you?

[machiner]

So -- up until about 3 years ago I had a terrific working knowledge of all 7 layers, and I knew the intracacies of windows (pick an aspect) and networking, sysadmin, desktop support, security -- cold.

Then I wanted to learn html, so I did. I know it pretty well (actually, it's pretty damned easy). Then apply sales/marketing skills to opening an online business - then learn apache/php/mysql (I don't know much - just enough to get by, or tweak/fix some scripts, or a php page...set up a server). Then I sold my services to market other folks sites - call it SEO (but that's not really what I did-do, just a little).

THen I wanted to learn linux...or at least be able to install, tweak, and run it for daily/production use.

i think it might be personality, but as soon as I started using Linux I found myself a noob - and forgetting so much of what I used to know about basic computing...a la winblows.

But I want to qualify that more - windows is just a crappy gui to dos - and a lite-brite board for apps and aspects to plug into and run from.

I consider the OS to be DOS with a pretty face. It's built hodge-podge and it's very fragile - I don't care what msoft says...I was ALWAYS busy.

SO now, I find myself making rookie mistakes - or - forgetting important stuff so I have to go fix things later... and saying stupid things like ftp'ing instead of cp /my/sites /mnt/server/my/sites

I think I fell for the "linux is hard" (which it's not) and I almost felt all my prior computing knowledge escape through my ears as I began my Linux journey.

Maybe I'm just getting old and overwhelmed by all that can be done with Linux.

Has this happened to you? I'm no longer a working windows admin - like I said, for a few years now...

Sheesh - I feel like a n00b.

[rbran100]

No need to feel overwhelmed linux works so well because it is so simple. You have access to all the code, the way just about everything works is easily avalible information. You probably are feeling overwhelmed because you have loaded ubuntu and it has so much stuff happening and loaded that you can't make one thing from another. Don't get me wrong that is great for a "newbe" because he can learn on his own terms and use the gui when he just needs to do something fast. I suggest you get a book like "Linux in a nutshell" and load a stripped down version of linux (pick you r distro from one of the thousand stripped down versions) and spend a weekend or two learning the basics. That will make you feel a lot more comfortable and confident (and faster) when you come back to your gui. I am just lucky to have started using unix early enough to grow with it.

Good luck, it is a fun journey \\:D/

[machiner]

Well now - thanks for your post - and there again I might not have been as cohesive as I wanted to.
I'm definately not a noob, ( well, some aspects I guess) but I also don't have the expert familiarity with linux that I had with windows...but it's not as smiple as that, is it? 1's and 0's my friend - that's what it's all about.

I think the problem lies with the fact that it's much harder to break stuff in (ubuntu) linux than it was in windows....I never wanted to know as much as I did in windows - but I'm a tinkerer and it was just so easy to fudge stuff up that I was forced to learn ...and thereby (here's ego speaking) become "expert".

SO - while I'm not a n00b in linux, I find there is a supplantion (that's really not a word) of knowledge happening. Like forgetting basic admin stuff (read: admin) although this time around I absolutely do NOT want to learn linux as well as I knew windows.

anyway - thanks again for your input...I'm just getting old.