Beginner FAQ's/HOWTO's and other useful information.
Posted: 09 Aug 2008, 00:33
Hi, beginners. Everyone was a beginner to Linux sometime. Me, my introduction to Linux was on the PS2. Don't let Linux scare you, it can be complex, but it's really a lot like cooking. A person who's never made a souffle can make one from a recipe, and doing things in Linux if you're new, or sometimes even if you're an old hand, is pretty much like that.
1. Google is your friend. It's saved my Linux bacon many times. Websites, message boards, mailing lists, USENET, you can find it all with google.
2. Books do help, though Linux books can be pricey. There's a ton of Beginner's Linux books out there. YDL users will probably prefer ones with a Red Hat/Fedora/CentOS/YDL focus, Though having at least one generalized fat Linux book is a good thing as well as having a small "pocket" guide to keep near your setup.
3. Keeping a log of what you do helps. It helps you do it again if you need to, and it lets you help others. Share the knowledge!
4. The terminal is your friend, though it may not seem so at first. It has two very useful tricks: tab completion, which completes commands and file paths, and command history that you can cursor up through:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Command_line_completion
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Command_history
And a tutorial on the shell used by the terminal, bash:
http://www.hypexr.org/bash_tutorial.php
Another good guide:
http://www.unixguide.net/linux/linuxshortcuts.shtml
It is sometimes faster and easier to do some tasks in a terminal than through a GUI tool. If you need help with a command line command, read it's manual page (man page) with:
You can also try using the "-h" or "--help" command line options for quick help. For example, if you wanted quick help on the man command:
5. It is faster to edit configuration files with a terminal based editor and nano is easily the most newbie friendly one.
6. Error messages can help diagnose problems, when you get one, slap it into google.
Useful websites:
http://www.linuxhelp.net/newbies/
http://www.linuxquestions.org/
Useful YDL Board threads:
HOWTO: Take a screenshot or application shot: viewtopic.php?f=4&t=3752
HOWTO: Make PDF's from practically anything: viewtopic.php?f=4&t=3753
Why YDL starts doing stuff at 4 AM: viewtopic.php?f=4&t=3751
HOWTO: Get your missing shelf/taskbar back in Enlightenment: http://www.terrasoftsolutions.com/suppo ... lost.shtml
Ron Rogers Jr. (CronoCloud)
1. Google is your friend. It's saved my Linux bacon many times. Websites, message boards, mailing lists, USENET, you can find it all with google.
2. Books do help, though Linux books can be pricey. There's a ton of Beginner's Linux books out there. YDL users will probably prefer ones with a Red Hat/Fedora/CentOS/YDL focus, Though having at least one generalized fat Linux book is a good thing as well as having a small "pocket" guide to keep near your setup.
3. Keeping a log of what you do helps. It helps you do it again if you need to, and it lets you help others. Share the knowledge!
4. The terminal is your friend, though it may not seem so at first. It has two very useful tricks: tab completion, which completes commands and file paths, and command history that you can cursor up through:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Command_line_completion
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Command_history
And a tutorial on the shell used by the terminal, bash:
http://www.hypexr.org/bash_tutorial.php
Another good guide:
http://www.unixguide.net/linux/linuxshortcuts.shtml
It is sometimes faster and easier to do some tasks in a terminal than through a GUI tool. If you need help with a command line command, read it's manual page (man page) with:
- Code: Select all
man <command>
example: man nano
You can also try using the "-h" or "--help" command line options for quick help. For example, if you wanted quick help on the man command:
- Code: Select all
man --help
5. It is faster to edit configuration files with a terminal based editor and nano is easily the most newbie friendly one.
6. Error messages can help diagnose problems, when you get one, slap it into google.
Useful websites:
http://www.linuxhelp.net/newbies/
http://www.linuxquestions.org/
Useful YDL Board threads:
HOWTO: Take a screenshot or application shot: viewtopic.php?f=4&t=3752
HOWTO: Make PDF's from practically anything: viewtopic.php?f=4&t=3753
Why YDL starts doing stuff at 4 AM: viewtopic.php?f=4&t=3751
HOWTO: Get your missing shelf/taskbar back in Enlightenment: http://www.terrasoftsolutions.com/suppo ... lost.shtml
Ron Rogers Jr. (CronoCloud)