Hi !

Ok, let me first clarify one thing: I am not a "for dummies" kind of guy. I'm a computer programmer (6 years now) and I know my way around computers VERY WELL. I do PC repairs as a secondary job, and now web hosting.

The problem is: I'm a windows guy. I master every OS that MS ever built, but when it comes to linux, I'm totally off track.

Now that I've done many months of web hosting (as a rseller, so NO linux knowledge involved here) , I'm really starting to feel the need to know more about linux ...

I would like to start with "a little of everything" ... like a little of the linux shell, a little of system management, a little of user management, a little about daemons, a little about X ... You see the portrait ...

Now here's what I need from you:

1- I need to know WHICH distribution of linux I should install. I am thinking about RH, but I'D like some opinions. I'm gonna install it on my home PC (P4 2.4Ghz) in a multi-boot environment (Win2K, Win98 and now Linux).

2- Do you have any good books to recommend for "starters" like me ?

Thanks for your help !

I am a programmer myself and same as you on the Windows environment. Actually the more you have that Windows mindset the harder you get with the transition to Linux, the infrastructure and how it works is quite different and I have a hard time trying to understand the logics behind what each function do.

The unlearning process is difficult and after 7 years using Linux, I can honestly say I still do not understand it. You will need to drop how you perceived things to be done. I believe it is easier for someone with no knowledge to actual learn Linux so there is no pre-conceived mindset on how things should work. I guess I am just a slow learner.

Redhat Linux is fine. It is currently pretty common to find the build but with the current plan by Redhat to go commercial and drop the current Linux free line people are hopping to other distro. Although not exactly Linux, FreeBSD is gaining popularity in this area. FreeBSD from what I understand is more Unix than Linux. Fundamentally different but from the POV of the user, there are several similiarities.

My only interest in Linux was to run one of my web servers and find Linux Apache Web Administration http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0782141374/qid=1069030262/sr=1-1/ref=sr_1_1/104-0174026-6154316?v=glance&s=books to be quite useful.

It basically covers the Web aspects of Linux so X is not being discussed since that is more Desktop.

Originally posted by alex-info
Hi !

Ok, let me first clarify one thing: I am not a "for dummies" kind of guy.

LOL :. I was in your position as well. I would recommend RH as that is almost standard and it's best to start with the preferred os

I am a windows GURU but when I added Linux it was

encryted greek to me. ;)

If you are familiar with DOS :. command line is quite simple. It doesn't hurt to creating your little notes with some of the commands. This is how I started.

Regards!

hehe :D

When I started learning Linux, the forums at http://www.justlinux.com/ have been very useful. I faced some problems when installing RH on my friend's machine. Then I tried Mandrake on another computer and it went very smooth.

There are complete starter books on linux that are in HTML format online. Just google around.

For a collection of HowTo's and guides for Linux:
http://tldp.org

For excellent books on Learning Linux:
http://www.oreilly.com/

RedHat 9 is a good OS to start with.

I think installing lfs or gentoo will give you a much better understanding of how linux works. Plus its a great learning process and you should feel comfortable with linux after you are finished. Redhat is great and all but it doesn't teach you linux. You will get stuck knowing only using gui's and not use linux to its full potential. I learned on slack 3 which forced me to use the command line. I see so many people who learned on redhat/mandrake and can't admin a box without a gui.

first off if you want a decent understanding of of the command line, you are best off using Slackware, Gentoo (although this does do quite a bit for you) or FreeBSD if you want unix. If you have any macs get OSX and use the BSD command line there.

What you get with redhat/mandrake is a copy of all the kiddie features people get used to when they use windows.

The best way to learn is to learn from a unix distro, then apply your knowledge to using linux and learn what is different between then. Even on my mac, i generally find myself doing things through the command line simply because I have more control over what i'm doing and am not at mercy to what the window manager wants to do.

some links for you:

http://www.slackware.org/

http://www.freebsd.org/

http://www.freenode.net/ <-- ask any and all questions here very friendly

Given the current 'state of the nation' I recommend you spend some time with FreeBSD. RedHat, while (in my opinion) is a great distro, I think the next 12 months or so may see a serious 'shift' towards FreeBSD if RedHat maintains their hardline approach towards a commercial product. While it's close to a given that open sourcer's will pick up the slack most server admins will be looking towards a distro that works 'closer to home'.

I really don't see any shift towards freebsd in the future. Especially since 2.6 is on the verge of being released and HP/IBM/SUN being huge supporters of linux development, I can see linux keep growing at its current rate and take over the server market.

FreeBSD is NOT linux, it's BSD. There's a big big difference. What distro you should use really is dependent on what you want to use it FOR. For home use, mandrake (http://www.mandrakelinux.com) is probably the best bet for you. For server use, the response has been widely redhat (http://www.redhat.com). The only problem with using redhat in the next year or so is that you'll have to figure out how to compile rather than rely on RPM's, or, you'll have to find a trusted site that releases RPM's.

You said you're not a "for dummies" kind of guy, but you'd be surprised I think. Go oout there, pick yourself up a decent linux handbook and you'll use it often, if nothing more than just for refference.

Originally posted by wolfstream
FreeBSD is NOT linux, it's BSD

Nobody ever said it was?

I wouldn't advise someone who wants to learn linux to use mandrake etc. - they will learn nothing but how to use a new GUI.

Originally posted by phision.com
they will learn nothing but how to use a new GUI.
Not necessarily. Part of learning Linux is learning the home environment, and, most of that is GUI. Admittedly , mandrake does setup X windows as the default login, but you can easily turn that off.

Originally posted by wolfstream
FreeBSD is NOT linux, it's BSD. There's a big big difference. What distro you should use really is dependent on what you want to use it FOR. For home use, mandrake (http://www.mandrakelinux.com) is probably the best bet for you. For server use, the response has been widely redhat (http://www.redhat.com). The only problem with using redhat in the next year or so is that you'll have to figure out how to compile rather than rely on RPM's

Nobody said freebsd was linux. I would not recommend mandrake to someone who wants to learn linux. You can still use rpms with redhat. Redhat will continue to support their enterprise edition and fedora is the new project taking over the personal edition. What do you mean by "home enviroment"? I have yet to work with a linux server which runs X