this post was submitted on 23 Aug 2024
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Linux

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Linux is a family of open source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991 by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically packaged in a Linux distribution (or distro for short).

Distributions include the Linux kernel and supporting system software and libraries, many of which are provided by the GNU Project. Many Linux distributions use the word "Linux" in their name, but the Free Software Foundation uses the name GNU/Linux to emphasize the importance of GNU software, causing some controversy.

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Beginners Guides (lemmy.ml)
submitted 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) by klep@lemmy.ml to c/linux@lemmy.ml
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Hey everyone, I'm relatively new to linux and was looking for some advice/direction. I have been using Mint Debian Edition for around 6mo or so, and want to learn to use the command line efficiently and proficiently.

I have set up EndeavourOS on a backup laptop I have and have been playing with it, reading the Arch Wiki and such, but I feel like I'm not necessarily learning why I'm doing things, just doing what has worked for others.

So here I am. I guess I'm looking for recommendations for books or articles (physical or online) that can help me to learn and understand the workings on linux, and especially the command line.

Thank you all so much.

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[–] rand_alpha19@moist.catsweat.com 3 points 2 months ago (1 children)

I think, as a Linux beginner also (~10 months), the best way to learn the terminal is to figure out what tools are useful to you and then read the manual pages or [application name] --help (if the application supports that command). Learning how to use grep will also be really helpful for troubleshooting, since sifting through logs is such a pain.

Like if you want to download a YouTube video, install yt-dlp and then type man yt-dlp into your terminal to learn about how that tool works. You can do this for basic utilities too, like cp, dd, mv, etc. and other applications you have installed. You can also use yt-dlp --help but that won't open in the parser, just the terminal. Learn by doing things that are relevant to you and branch out from there.

There are also applications that will let you read the manual pages outside of a terminal, like xman, if you find that useful. After a certain point, you'll be able to write commands with switches/arguments without needing to check what they mean first.

[–] Malgas@beehaw.org 2 points 2 months ago

apropos is also helpful if you want to do something but don't know what the relevant tools are.