How To Learn to Use Linux

Most computers these days run some version of Microsoft Windows, but many servers and desktop computers are starting to run Linux, a free Unix-like operating system. Learning your way around Linux can be daunting at first, it seems a lot different than Windows, but it can be an easy and rewarding experience.

Step 1

Become familiar with the system. Try downloading and installing it yourself on your computer, it's possible to keep your current operating system and dedicate part of your hard drive to Linux (but you can run both at the same time with virtualbox). You may find this article useful if you plan to run Windows and Linux on the same PC.

Step 2

Test your hardware with a "Live CD" that is supplied by many of the distributions of Linux. This is helpful if you feel uncomfortable with installing a second operating system on your computer. A live CD will allow you to boot into a Linux environment from the CD, without the need to install anything on your computer. Ubuntu and some other Linux distributions also offer CDs or DVDs that allow you to boot into a Live mode, and then install from the same disk,here.

Step 3

Attempt the tasks you usually use your computer for. Search for solutions if you can't word-process or burn a CD for example. Make a note of what you want to do, can do and cannot do before you take the plunge.

Step 4

Learn the distributions of Linux. When we say "Linux" most often we actually mean a "GNU/Linux Distribution." A distribution is a collection of software that runs on top of a very small program called the Linux kernel.

• For casually using Linux on a PC you may wish to try Ubuntu Linux or Kubuntu (if you preferKDE over GNOME). If you don't have the capability to download CDs or don't know how to burn them, get it delivered to you for free. Whatever you do, do not limit yourself, try many different kinds and don't get upset if one isn't working for you.
• Companies that have commercial distributions frequently initiate the unpaid, highly advanced new versions (SUSE initiated OpenSUSE and Red Hat initiated Fedora). Such distributions usually have no proprietary code inside, are supported both by community and professional teams and offer the newest possible technologies. Companies still try to protect these distributions from uncontrolled copying and modification via trademarked logos.

Step 5

Consider dual-booting, this will help you understanding partitioning as well as letting you continue to use Windows. But backup all your personal data and settings before you try to set up a dual boot.

Step 6

Install Software. Get used to installing and uninstalling software as soon as you can. Understanding package management and repositories is good for fundamentally understanding Linux.

Step 7

Learn to enjoy the command-line interface too, known as 'terminal', 'terminal window', or 'shell'. One of the primary reasons many users switch to Linux is because it features the terminal, so please don't be intimidated by it. It is a powerful ally that doesn't have the same limitations of a Windows command prompt. You can just as easily use Linux without ever using a terminal as you would on Mac OSX. However, if you are interested in learning about the bash shell, do so, as it can be a great convenience. If you choose to use a shell, it is important to note that typing a command followed by --help, such as ls --help will give a brief explanation of the command while man ls or info ls will give a much more in depth explanation. Using 'apropos' can help you find a command that does a certain task. Try 'apropos user' to see a list of commands that have the word 'user' in their description.

Step 8

Familiarize yourself with the Linux filesystem. You will first notice that there is no longer the "C:\" you are used to in Windows. Everything starts at the root of the filesystem (aka "/") and different hard drives are accessed through the /dev directory. Your home directory, which you typically find in C:\Documents and Settings in Windows XP and 2000, is now located in /home.

Step 9

Have fun with your Linux install. Try encrypted partitions, new and very fast filesystem (like ReiserFS), redundant parallel disks that increase both speed and reliability (RAID's), try to install Linux on bootable USB stick - you can do a lot of things!

Tips

• There are several websites and mailing lists on the Internet with information about Linux. Try using Google to find answers to your questions.
• Books from publishers John Wiley & Sons, O'Reilly and No Starch Press are worth owning to learn about Linux. There's also "In the Beginning ... was the Command Line" by Neal Stephenson and "LINUX: Rute User's Tutorial and Exposition".
• Remember that only DOS uses backslash ("\") to delimit directories, while Linux uses the forward slash ("/"). Backslashes in Linux are primarily used for escaping characters (eg: \n is a newline, \t is a tab character).
• Refer to directories as "directories" and not "folders", although the 2 words seem synonymous, "folders" are a Windows concept.
• Build your first Linux system with a specific function in mind, and follow a HOWTO document step by step. For example, the steps in setting up a mail server are pretty simple, and you can find many sites that lead you through the process step by step. This will familiarize you with where things are located, what they do, and how to change them.
• You can obtain help for almost any particular program or distro in the irc server irc.freenode.net (example: #debian, #ubuntu, #python, #FireFox, etc). You can find user communities also in irc.freenode.net.
• Be patient, and be prepared, if you really want to learn to use GNU. Avoid moving from distro to distro to find the one that gets everything right. You will learn the most from learning how to fix what doesn't work.

Warnings

• On all *nix systems (Linux, UNIX, *BSD, etc.), the administrator or superuser account is 'root'. You are the administrator of your computer, but 'root' is not your user account. If the installation process doesn't do it, make yourself a regular account with 'useradd ' and use that for your daily business. The reason for this separation between you the user and you the administrator is that *nix systems assume root knows what he's doing and is not malicious. Therefore, there are no warnings. If you type certain commands the system will silently delete every single file on your computer, without prompting for confirmation, because that's what root asked it to do.
• It may be tempting to type blindly "curses" you found on some web site, expecting that they will do the described task. However this frequently fails just because you have a newer version, slightly different hardware or another distribution. Try to execute each "curse" with the --help option first and understand that it is doing. Then it is usually very easy to fix various small problems (/dev/sda -> /dev/sdb and so on), achieving the described goal.
• Sometimes people suggest malicious commands so double check commands before you type them.
• Do not run rm -rf / or sudo rm -rf / unless you are seriously considering deleting all of your data. Run the command 'man rm' for more details.
• Similarly, don't create a file named '-rf'. If you run a command to delete all files in that directory it will parse the '-rf' file as a command line argument and delete all files in the subdirectories as well.
• Always backup your files before you attempt to re-partition your drives when installing Linux. Backup your files to removable media such as CD's, DVDs, USB disks, or a different hard drive (not a different partition).