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Tips for new Linux user...
| Get used to the terminal and your distributions package manager
| man info
| this sure does help a lot
| >>168759
I found the whole terminal thing a little overwhelming, any tips in that regard? To remember commands and type faster etc
| practice, use man and info commands, linux.die for reference. Give yourself a project to drive usage of the system.
| >>168843
Check out ss64.com/bash . It lists common linux commands with info, links to other helpful resources and information regarding command-line syntax. explainshell.com can be useful too. Use autocompletion (tab key) and history (up and down arrow keys) to type faster.
| I found 'The Linux Command Line' by William E. Shotts very useful in learning to work with the terminal.
You should download it; it's free.
| Additionally, some terminal shells (which you'll learn later, perhaps) offer command autocorrection. Say, for example, you mistyped 'cat' (and say, you typed 'cta') — the shell will then prompts whether you want to correct it to 'cat' or not.
It's a pretty handy feature and I still often use it for command with weird and long names (which I often mistakenly spell wrongly).
| >>168754
In general:
Try beeing more precisely about what you want to know exactly.
On "linux":
Understand what a distribution is and think about what you expect from an OS.
E.g.
- do you work with low hardware or are you a minimalist or do you like a fancy and yet high customizable desktop?
- how much control/customization do you want to have or gain over on the system?
| Pick a good distro. If you're getting started then Linux Mint or Manjaro are solid. Mint for a package manager that uses precompiled packages to install so faster installs, or Manjaro for source code packages you compile on your computer, longer compile times but if you want to squeeze out performance this is what you want as a beginner. If you prefer a Free as in stallman distro, Debian is probably the best bet. Arch would take time to learn to complete an install.
| >>169687
Then try to do everything from a terminal, it just takes time, but eventually command line operations are like breathing.
| >>168843
You do not need to use the terminal that much nowadays if you are a newcomer. As a starter level there's many things you can do with the gui too.
Update the system? Check
Upgrade the system? Check
Install software? Check
Use software? Check
Edit configuration files? Check
Partition and format disks? Check
I do not think you are aiming immediately at doing weird automation yourself in your system.
Get comfy with the generic feel of it and then see where your interests lead
| >>169851
Typical troll answer, but if you plan on going balls deep in Linux, Gentoo is one option, the other is follow Linux from scratch and build your own distro. Alternatively, you could run OpenBSD or Qubes and run multiple operating systems in containers. Lots of options, eventually I'd like to get around to building a Gentoo system for the sake of having learned something new.
| Using the terminal is meme. Use graphical interface, it's easy. Especially for new people
| Qubes is a good idea but it has high system requirements, so keep that in mind.
| Honestly? I know there will be people who don't consider you a real Linux Hacker unless you use emacs/ vim, command line only, write your own bash scripts, etc etc.
What I did was just download Kubuntu and modded it to my liking. I didn't know a lot of what to do but it was OK, there are plenty of resources.
Don't get too upset at the learning curve, always be willing to learn something new, and don't be afraid to break your install (unless it's your work computer)
| Also seconding what a guy above said:
"man x" where x is the app you want to learn about. Some people don't write manpages for their programs though!
If you do get into cmd line, try enabling tab command auto completion if it isn't already. There's a bunch of stuff you can do with .bashrc as well.
| As condescending as it sounds, RTFM. The way to learn Linux is by learning how the system operates under-the-hood. Man x and --help are two very useful commands. Also tldr, but that requires you to install it separately
| >>169933
The comupters went wrong when you made them for niggers. That's when it went wrong, okay? It's like how many people are "oh it's a command line". Eh fuck you man white people don't mind it, okay? The white people are like "yeah it's a command line, so what's your point"? The niggers are all like "no we don't like the command line". Here's the difference between a white person and a nigger: You like the command like, okay you're a nigger, fuck you, get the fuck out.
| I highly recommend starting with ubuntu. I started with arch and was kinda overwhelmed by it, but now arch isnt as overwhelming cuz i got ububtu and made a point to try and use the terminal for everything I wanted to do. But having the desktop feel ububtu offers is a good transition from windows that other ass OS. Anyways, just make your main computer ububtu. Try and get used to installing linux programs with terminal, torrent stuff, get steam, etc. Personally I love Linux now.
| >>169851
If you can't install Gentoo, then just install CloverOS for a faster and easier Gentoo install.
| You will get tired REALLY fast from Gentoo OP, with the neverending compiles all the time. Needing to install anything will have you wait half a day. God forbid you realise there is some feature you do not have because you now realise you did not enable it at compile time, or a library was not there and all that chunk was configed as '... no, disabling'.
Get what is popular and easy OP. And welcome in community. You will hear all kinds of shit, dont take all seriously.
| >>171153 or Sabayon
>>171118 never use Ubuntu, they sell your telemetry data and shit.
If you want easy, Linux Mint Debian edition, install KDE interface afterwards.
| Do not afraid from terminal most of the commands doesnt do anything harmfull just know what you are writing i recommend debian, Manjaro or Antergos.Arch based distros are good because there is arch wiki and forum which will solve your %96 of your problems . Ubuntu has a wiki amd forum but it is not as immersive as arch does
| >>172236
I wouldn't recommend anything Ubuntu based. Ubuntu was based on Debian long ago, Debian alone is good, but for people who want to use non-free codecs like MP3 (who downloads music these days) Linux Mint covers it for them off the back.
https://www.lifewire.com/use-linux-mint-not-ubuntu-2201176
See number 4.
| >>172234 gonna want a source on the telemetry shittery, I'm balls deep in Ubuntu right now and if I'm gonna hit up Mint I want a good ass reason.
| Actually I agree with either Debian or Mint distros. The other minor ones are just hip and 'me so coolz0r' material while Ubuntu is more and more turning to a walled garden mimicking Apple as much as it can.
Mint is when you need a consistent system that does things sensibly, has a sane interface and with most of Ubuntu shit removed. You can transfer all knowledge acquired from it into Debian which has a lot of learning material and resource available in general.
| It might lack a wiki like arch does, but the Internet in general has so much Debian experience and advice already accumulated that you will never remain helpless and out there without a solution to any problem or need. There are almost no problems in Debian that someone else has not encountered before and has not written about it.
And these distros are both fixed release distros. Especially when building systems for work or for other people, remember: never use a rolling distro.
| >>172701 I have never installed arch, but I can't count how many times that wiki still helped me out. Many things about GNU OS are very universal and not limited to single distros.
| >>172928 Yes. Just because it is Arch wiki, does not mean its info is not apliable for other distros. I use Debian myself and have used that wiki as well myself many times.
| gay
| Install ubuntu and accept systemd into your heart
| Ultimately though, play around with rhel/centos. Most jobs you'll see will run redhat anyways
| >>174022
I have used linuxes in 10+ years of employment. Not a single place I worked used rh/centos.
| >>172897 I see. Well at least Ubuntu is open about what they collect. Still, not ideal. Will switch when I can collate all the packages I actually use. Any tips for migrating distros and not having to reinstall/configure fucking everything?
| >>174286
Your best chances are to stay within the distro families. Jumping from RH to Debian group or vice versa is not ideal as they have things in different places. /etc content alone is just incompatible even though they basically contain the same configs. And then there is the Arch family. And also the Gentoo family. And Slackware. And the myriad of standalone distros.
Choosing distros involves also maintenance and migration headaches. It is one of the reasons I use Debian.
| When it comes to personal user data though, transfering /home/username - or only the dotfiles and dotdirs for configs only - will cover 95% of cases.
| >>174323 >>174324 Good. To. Know. I'm guessing the other 5% of cases are so trivial that it's faster to reset those programs up than it is to try and migrate them.... Thanks! I'll swap over when I get a good chance.
| >>174275 well, I'll be damned, in the past few years the 3 different corporations I've worked for were all redhat shops
| >>174552
It probably depends on where you live and work too. In my cases noone needed support - that is the only reason to go RH. We did everything ourselves and used public resources and documentation, forums, software, etc. Heck, we even thought of building openstack from sources so not to be dependent on a bundler company. But then there was not enough staff to dedicate so much about it so we went with ubuntu openstack.
Technicalwise I consider Debian family superior to RH.
| I have used RH last time around 2010 and did not like it in comparison to Debian. It had some defaults that didnt make much sense for me, some strange config locations, and package conflicts were a pain in the ass when competing packages for the same functionality existed and you wanted to switch away from the default. As long as you staied within installation media everhthing was perfect. Getting out of that DVD was an adventure.
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| Help.