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BT1
January 9th, 2010, 02:00 PM
Hullo!

I've been toying around with Linux since Ubuntu 8-ish, but recently (in 2009) became really, extremely serious about it. I know Ubuntu isn't all that Linux has to offer but it has an excellent community and lots of advanced users who are more than glad to help, so I figure this is a good place to learn about Linux as a whole. By that I mean becoming an expert on Linux.

My background includes over 10 years of intermediate Windows use, but it does not include any experience in programming languages past HTML sadly. But that is fine for now I suppose because I am not wanting to program anything in C++ in the next two weeks lol.

The long term goal I am striving for is network administration and systems support, and to be a valuable Linux resource for possible employers to depend upon even in a non-Linux environment. An example of this would be, if you read my last post in this part of the forums you would see that my college campus does not officially support Linux because no one in the IT staff is familiar enough with it. Their website specifically states that Linux is not supported on the system even though with the cooperation of the staff I have made Linux work through pit falls numerous times on their system. I want to be that staff member that comes in and suddenly that "Linux not supported" sign comes down.

I evangelize quite a bit for Linux through Ubuntu distributions but I can only point the way. If they come back with tough questions I can't deliver and that's no good because another of my long term goals is to provide free support to anyone using Linux in a competent manner. I believe in the Open Source mission enough to study to become an expert, only to give away my knowledge and expertise completely for free aside from my main job (even write training guides and stuff).

Here's the thing though. I was led to Ubuntu and open source because I was dead broke and needed an alternative. Guess what? I'm a full time college student who's still broke who can't afford the official Ubuntu training. I need all the free resources I can get, as well as all the free advice I can get. For instance, if you think I should learn from the bottom up and learn as many linux command line commands as I can get my hands on, I'll do it. If you think I should dedicate a month or two to learning "X" or "Y" dynamics of a subsystem, I'll do it.

I'm not afraid to read books, nor am I afraid to spend late nights trying to memorize obscure Linux commands sitting in the corner with dust on them.

Thanks for any assistance!

NoaHall
January 9th, 2010, 02:11 PM
You don't need to sit there memorizing commands. Simply USE them, and you will remember. Read the man pages when you want to do something more complex, and you will learn.

jrothwell97
January 9th, 2010, 02:15 PM
Sniff your way around, ask questions, and read the manuals.

Good luck. :D

harold4
January 9th, 2010, 02:21 PM
Sniff your way around, ask questions, and read the manuals.

Good luck. :D

+ time

Techsnap
January 9th, 2010, 02:26 PM
Unless you want to get a certicfication (RHCE) or want to get employed as a Linux admin I wouldn't bother learning the ins and outs too much and just familiarise yourself with that areas that are going to be an advantage to you, it's pointless outright learning everything if you're not going to use half of it, you eventually pick it up as you use the system.

Basically start learning it your way and then look into Linux Networks, Servers etc.

mkvnmtr
January 9th, 2010, 02:51 PM
It is said that the way to really understand Linux systems is to install and use Gentoo for a while.

Barriehie
January 9th, 2010, 02:59 PM
+ time

8) I too have somewhat the same goals as the OP and can say after, getting close to 2 years, of casually using linux I've managed to get a web page up, rename EVERY file/folder in my home dir some random selection of characters, have to use my backup 3 times due to my own errors and now I'm exploring programming in awk and C. Definitely lots of clock on this OS but it's WAY more fun than that other OS. :)

jrothwell97
January 9th, 2010, 03:15 PM
It is said that the way to really understand Linux systems is to install and use Gentoo for a while.

It depends:

which way you do it - manually, compiling from source, or using a Live CD
how powerful your computer is
whether or not you want your significant other to leave you for the milkman. :twisted:

Seriously, IMHO Gentoo is overrated for learning the innards of a Linux system - it's kind of like flat-packed furniture. There's some assembly required, but there's instructions for it, much of it is made easy to slot together, and assembling a shelving unit won't turn you into a carpenter.

autonomy
January 9th, 2010, 04:23 PM
I think it will take five to ten years for myself to become a wizard so to speak. I think lucking up and finding a Linux guru as an online/physical friend speeds up the process whenever he or she helps.

scouser73
January 10th, 2010, 12:44 AM
Use the forums and have a note-taking application at hand to copy any commands that you think will be useful to you.

Look at peoples posts, even if you think that you can't possibly help, there maybe a chance that you've experienced the same problems as the postee, and have come across the solution.

Use Google or another search engine of your choosing for finding answers [that's what I do sometimes and it works]. Start off a Google search with "Ubuntu: whatever the problem here", no speech marks though.

Try and help out in the forum too, helping others helps myself by retaining information.

nothingspecial
January 10th, 2010, 01:01 AM
What is a "linux expert"

Some people think I am one.

I`m not.

dragos240
January 10th, 2010, 01:12 AM
You don't need to sit there memorizing commands. Simply USE them, and you will remember. Read the man pages when you want to do something more complex, and you will learn.

Yep. I used to use dir for listing files and folders. Now I use ls, just by simply using it. All the commands I know are from using them. You'll probably use most of them anyways if you use the command line a lot.

starcannon
January 10th, 2010, 03:03 AM
You could get a dumpster computer and set up a LAMP server, try a few basic projects on your new server, just to get a working knowledge on why and what is there, and how it might be used. Try building a router from the same dumpster computer, you'll need a couple network interface cards, and if you can get one, a wifi card if you want to set up a wireless access point.

L.A.M.P.

http://www.debianadmin.com/ubuntu-lamp-server-installation-with-screenshots.html

Router:

http://www.howtoforge.com/nat-gateway-iptables-port-forwarding-dns-and-dhcp-setup-ubuntu-8.10-server

Ubuntu Minimal Install CD:

https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Installation/MinimalCD

Try serving your own html page using Apache over your Local Area Network, try building a database of your friends and some information about them(first and last name, address, email, birthday, phone number) using MySQL. Build a basic PHP page(http://php.about.com/od/learnphp/qt/hello_world.htm). Build and setup a NAT router, see if you can set it up for a secure remote administration, set it up to let you remotely administer your LAMP server, invite friends to try to hack your router and server, harden the weak spots if they find any. Look at what a minimal install has too offer, it can certainly allow you to use some fairly outdated hardware for learning purposes.

GL and HF

cariboo
January 10th, 2010, 03:09 AM
I would suggest you start answering questions in ABT, if you don't know the answer, see if you can find a solution elsewhere. I found answering questions was a great way of bringing myself up to speed after being away from the computer business for a couple of years.

RabbitWho
January 10th, 2010, 03:10 AM
My background includes over 10 years of intermediate Windows use, but it does not include any experience in programming languages past HTML sadly.

I love how you have the same level of experience as me but you're so much more optimistic!

AlexanderDGreat
January 11th, 2010, 08:30 AM
Some thoughts to ponder:

The more I know, the less I know. - Socrates
If you always want the best, you'll never find it. - someone here in the Ubuntu forums
It's not important where you are, but where you're headed. - I heard this from the radio

Good luck on your journey. :)

Eisenwinter
January 11th, 2010, 08:46 AM
I suggest you start experimenting with distributions that are more "manual" than Ubuntu.

It's just like the difference between an automatic car and a stick-shift car.
In an automatic car, you get in the driver seat, start it up (boot the OS), and press the gas pedal to drive (use the system).

In a stick shift car, you need to press the cluth pedal to shift gears in order to go forward (manually maintaining your system in order to continue using it).

Installing and using distributions which don't automate that many processes when you experiment with it, will eventually kind of force you to learn how the system works more in-depth.

The distributions I suggest for this are first Debian, since it's similar to Ubuntu.
Arch, because you set up the system from scratch basically, but it's not very difficult.
Gentoo, because you set up the system from scratch, and gain a lot of experience with compiling software.
Slackware, because you manage your own dependencies.

And eventually, if you're really up for it, LFS, aka Linux From Scratch, where you do absolutely everything by yourself.

Simon17
January 11th, 2010, 09:33 AM
As a previous longtime winblows user, I used to use dir to list files. Then one day I started using a system which didn't have the dir command by default and I had to start using ls. I mark that as the day I became a true GNU-slash-Linux expert.

AlexanderDGreat
January 11th, 2010, 01:28 PM
Buy a book immediately man. There can be no substitute for a good Linux book. It doesn't need electricity. You can write notes to it. There're no hangups. It has the fastest boot time in the world, just open it. It won't hurt your eyes so much. I'm reading Ubuntu Unleashed right now.

t0p
January 11th, 2010, 01:40 PM
Learn how to shell-script. This is an extremely useful skill for system administration.

Set up a network. You can do this by getting cheap/free old computers and wiring them up; or you can network virtual machines; or (best, methinks) a combination of the two. Install various distros on the networked machines, throw a Windows OS in there too. Set up different services on the computers (web server, mail server, file server, whatever otyher server you can think of) and set 'em working. And keep 'em working. Solving issues in your network will give you real experience in system admin, and experience beats school a lot of the time.

Check out the many online guides and tutorials on system admin and other aspects of Linux and computing in general. And keep up with tech news (Slashdot (http://slashdot.org) is grrreat). Try to stay as current as your resources allow.