Learning Linux Condensed 1

Posted by JD 03/31/2017 at 12:00

People are always looking for the shortest way to become fluent in different topics, including Linux. There aren’t any shortcuts. It takes time and active learning. Our minds need time to consider what we learn every day. New connections from things learned last week, last month, and last year are made as we learn new things this month.

Review these three links, in order …. Should take about an hour to get the core information.

You can always google for the Ubuntu Desktop Guide and/or Ubuntu Server Guide – these are written for beginners. Sadly, they leave out the why and only provide 1, simple, method for the how. They also cover many things that almost nobody should be using anymore. Things like setting up an FTP server when use of plain FTP should have ended in the mid-1990s. Stop Using Plain FTP .

Amazon Prime Video has free (for prime members) Ubuntu beginning videos. There’s something about seeing someone else do something that is really helpful.
Youtube has lots and lots of videos of different quality. #1 thing to learn is how tab-completion works. If you are typing more than 2-3 characters at a time, then you are probably doing it wrong.

The Linux Foundation has free online classes. These can also be seen on EdX.org as well.

Effort is required to learn a new OS, just like effort is required to learn a new spoken/written language. If you want something simpler, but still Linux, get a chromebook or a tablet running Android. Ubuntu and similar Linux distros are extremely powerful operating systems. 90% of the power comes from non-GUI stuff. Imagine all the things you do with typical GUI-centric OSes – and multiply that 9x – that’s the power of a Unix OS that can be accessed without any GUI.

Knowing the WHY, is important since thinking the Unix-way is a fundamental mind shift from using GUI-centric operating systems. Making the connections between each newly learned skill will help with the why. It does become clearer, over time.

It is common for new-to-linux users to complain that everything in Linux isn’t easy. What can I say. With great power, comes great responsibility.

A much longer version of my Learning Linux post with many more details.

  1. faraco 04/02/2017 at 09:14

    Nice article to read. Coming from Windows, I found Linux is ‘hard’. Soon, I just realized it is not, it’s just different, and in a way much better.