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Thread: More basic information about GNU-Linux

  1. #11
    Join Date
    Mar 2010
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    Been there, meh.
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    Distro
    Ubuntu

    Re: More basic information about GNU-Linux

    Linux isn't Windows. It took you a decade to learn Windows. It will probably take about that long to learn Linux/Unix to the same level.

    If you only speak English, from a typical English speaking country, and get dropped off in rural China, it will take some time to figure things out as you slowly learn a completely new language. Learning Linux is like learning Mandarin. Things that appear the same often are very different. Further, there are two very different cultures for each OS.

    Things that seem odd to new users are often because they haven't yet learned the genius behind the "why" things are the way they are.

    If you've ever seen a Unix-centric person, someone who has never used MS-Windows try to make sense of that OS, they get frustrated too. Around 2010, I tried to use MacOS. Within 3 weeks, I wanted to smash the Mac computer against a brick wall, it was so frustrating to me. I'd had too many years with Linux and Unix that my expectations of flexibility just couldn't be met by MacOS or MS-Windows.


    The other issues, I'll leave to others with more patience that I have to address, but one reference book worth getting is : https://www.linuxcommand.org/tlcl.php . It is a non-hassle download and starts from the beginning, building the next concept based on the prior concepts introduced. With Unix/Linux knowledge, you can't jump into the middle of a complex task and see 1 screen with 5 checkboxes ... and an "OK" button to press. You'll need all the knowledge necessary to get to that point first. You didn't know how to do fractional math on day one of grade school. You had to learn numbers, then addition and subtraction. The next year, you learned simple multiplication and division. And the 3rd year of math, you were probably taught fraction, how to convert to decimal values and how to do "long division" of any numbers. Don't expect to do long division things in Linux until you've mastered addition and subtraction. It takes time. The specific program you want to install isn't a standard program, so the installation isn't setup to be trivial for people new to Linux. It probably follows a well used pattern from the 1990s, but for the last 25 yrs, most Linux systems have used a package manager for installs, that includes all the popular Linux distros.

    One last thing ... if you are typing more than a few characters at a time inside a terminal, you are doing it wrong. Most shells, including bash, support something called "tab completion". It helps fill in programs, data files, and command options - effectively making it next to impossible to get "command not found" errors or the wrong spelling of command options, or point at a non-existent/misspelled input file. Before you get too far, find a 2 minute video online about "tab completion" sometimes called "command completion" and watch it, practice using it on your system. It will solve those issues. Of course, if you enter an existing, but incorrect option or input filename, that's human error and still your fault, but at least it won't be misspelled.

    Anyway, good luck to you. Unix/Linux is becoming more and more popular every day. The permissions model it uses is the most popular in the world today. Effectively, there is only 1 OS that isn't based on Unix at the core. It happens to be very popular, but all your IoT devices and in telecom, Unix is king. I worked wireline telecom for many years in the systems and network architecture team. Get the fundamentals down ASAP. Learn Unix permissions ASAP, not just the simple stuff for the more complex things. It will only help you.

  2. #12
    Join Date
    Jul 2021
    Beans
    149

    Re: More basic information about GNU-Linux

    "Just because you can do it doesn't mean you should do it."

    "If it ain't broke don't fix it."


  3. #13
    Join Date
    Mar 2007
    Location
    Promiseland
    Beans
    1,731
    Distro
    Xubuntu 22.04 Jammy Jellyfish

    Re: More basic information about GNU-Linux

    You will find another useful book, The Linux Command line by William Shotts, by checking out the link under my signature. It can be downloaded in pdf format.
    Cheers,


    The Linux Command Line at https://linuxcommand.org/

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