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Home > Archive > Linux/Unix > July 2002 > Dont know how to begin!!
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Dont know how to begin!!
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| saymon 2002-07-13, 4:49 pm |
| Hi all
I wanna learn Linux or unix..but my experience in it equals ZERO.
So can any one tell me how to begin..and what steps should i do ??
and does the Linux+ gonna help me in learning or its for those who already know about linux..?
Thanks,, | |
| Boulware5 2002-07-13, 6:08 pm |
| We've been having a bunch of these type of posts here lately. Linux+ is an intro level certification. An ideal canidate should have:
1. Academic or professional training in network theory, concepts, and operations including network hardware and software.
2. Six months or more of professional network experience including installation, configuration, upgrading and troubleshooting. Basically a Network+ cert, although not mandatory, would help.
3. Six months or more in a networked environment with hands-on experience with Linux. An understanding of hardware at the A+ level is VERY helpful. There are a lot of hardware questions on it, so either go for your A+ first or get a hardware/A+ cert book and learn hardware.
That's what compTIA says.
As for getting started. Do you have an old 486 or Pentium lying around somewhere? What's great about Linux is it runs fine on old slow machines, granted you are not using a resource intensive windows manager such as KDE 3.0. But at the command line (shell), a 486 with 8 megs of RAM will be fine to practice with. Forget the GUI (called X windows) for now; learning the commands at the command line is the important thing.
Get a book on Linux and just practice what it says. Or if you don't want a book, there is plenty of Linux information available for free on the net.
http://www.linuxlinks.com
http://www.linuxjunior.org
To install it, you need to pick a distribution. Mandrake and Redhat are better for newbies. Got a CD-RW drive? Go to http://www.linuxiso.org and burn the image onto a CD-R. That's assuming you have a fast connection. If not you can buy it already burned to a CD for a buck or two. Or you can buy a distro at the store, complete with a pretty box and manuals for $20-30 or so. But I don't recommend that, as Linux is supposed to be free. 
Hope this helps. Don't be afraid to ask questions.
**BTW, if you don't feel comfortable yet with it, you can get a Linux shell and practice any command on it as you would on your home machine. That's an alternative. You can't really use the GUI, though unless X11 forwarding is enabled (which I don't know much about). But if you want, I can let you use my Linux box so you could SSH into it and practice commands, file creation, etc. If you want to, let me know. | |
| wildscribe 2002-07-13, 8:41 pm |
| EXCELLENT post Boulware5!
You're right. There have been a lot of folks asking about how to get started with Linux and the Linux+ program. We should have some sort of Linux cert FAQ set up that we can just point them to.
I also want to add my 2 cents too. Like most operating systems, the best way to learn Linux is to - SURPRISE! - use it.
My suggestion for Linux newbies is to either get your hands on Linux distribution CD or, as our friend Boulware5 suggested, make your own CD from www.linuxiso.org and set up a dual boot on your Windows box or better yet, set up a box strictly for Linux (that way you can really experiment without having to worry about screwing up your system) and start banging away. As for a distribution type, I like Mandrake 8.2, which is basically Red Hat with a nice GUI on it. Red Hat works well too. There is a lot of support for Linux users with mailing lists, messages boards, this board, books, magazines, etc. Help is easy to find.
Good Luck!
- Wild | |
| Boulware5 2002-07-13, 8:54 pm |
| Ya know, I noticed on serveral of the examnotes forums the same questions get asked a lot, particularly the A+. Probably all these main forums could use a FAQ. | |
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| marathoner 2002-07-15, 11:06 am |
| I have been there and I don't recommend it. You will grow a beard waiting. | |
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| Now there are several drawbacks to this... but also some pro's...
1. XDMBC - this protocol is completely OPEN (UNSECURE) and is a UDP packet therefor more difficult to secure than would be a TCP packet...
2. X is a big bandwidth hog! I have a linux box (p200 w/128M and 4G) running RH 7.2 with a 10Mbit connection to the lan and it's slow as well... (I need to try it on my P3-700 but haven't gotten there yet.) and unless you are on an INTRA-Net it's not fast at all even with a cable/dsl connection.
PRO
1. Anywhere on the network (internal) you can open up a desktop and it's YOUR desktop that you always use.
2. Don't necessarily need a Keyboard, Monitor, or mouse to run the GUI (My box has 2 wires connected to it... A power cord and a cat5 network cable...)
3. In order to be able to do this you will learn how to find, read, and follow a HOW-TO file. as well as how to edit configuration files. |
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