tutorial for a total newbie

hi, i just want to move on and explore the linux world. but i don't even know the basics, nor do i know windows all the way.

All the tutorials i read weren't hard, but there was something missing the very very basics. Like when i tried installing rh7 (ended up with a f*ckedup harddrive). I had no idea that there was text version of linux. and i didn't have enough ram do run kde or gnome. It's stupid things like that i don't understand.

if you know a tutorial that explains stuff

thank you

Hmm...

I guess I learned Linux the hard way - I installed it (yeah, I also messed that up the first two times, but hey, I was around 15 (I got my first comp when I was around 14) and they didn't have nice GUI installers like they have now, hehe) and just messed around a bit every now and then.

At first it was useless to me so I didn't touch it again after that unsuccessful first try for about 2 years. Then I found out about this l33t cheating tool (a packet sniffer) for a MMORPG I played which was only avaliable for Linux, so I kinda got interested and gave it all a try again. Things were a lot easier then, so I didn't mess up as I did the first time.

I got into PHP/MySQL and played around with that on my Linux server. I found it all very interesting, although all problem solving was quite tough at the beginning (and it sometimes still is). It's not that Linux is really more difficult than Windows, it's just that it's so different, and you basically have to learn and get used to a lot of new things.

I guess I learned Linux on my own quite well because I was interested in some Linux applications. If you are just interested in learning Linux, you might not really find it all too exciting.

Are you basically just a normal computer user, a user who uses his computer for work, surfing the web and playing some games occasionally? If that's so, then I don't think Linux will be for you (maybe in a few years - Linux is getting more and more user-friendly).

If you're a more advanced computer user who likes to play around, learn new things, adventure, and if you don't mind trying to figure out for hours (at first finding answers will be slow, but it will get faster and faster) how something works (well, actually, this place here and a search engine are great sources to solve your Linux problems - just search first before you ask here), then Linux is for you!

Now, if you're still interested, maybe go look for a good Linux book. Check Amazon, I know they have tons of books on Linux - definitely a bunch of good ones for absolute beginners (make sure that if you get one, you get one which is rated high by users). I'm sure there will be good tutorials on the Web, but Linux is such a huge thing that I don't think any tutorial could fully cover/explain it. You'd probably only find general tutorials on specific Linux things, such as the Linux/Unix file-system, or specific Linux commands. I think a good book would be a lot better.

thanks a lot.

same as you i got my first computer at 14, but that was 2 years ago lol.

It's not the linux i want to learn, just how everything works. and i don't think windows is a way to answer.

i'll look into amazon.com

thanks again

How everything works? You mean, how everything in a computer works? Or how an operating system works?

Well, learning Linux will definitely teach you a lot more about operating systems than Windows will - at least about the lower level, technical stuff. Windows keeps the low level stuff hidden from the user and presents everything via nice GUIs. In Unix/Linux, you'll do a lot more configurations manually, at least later on when you know what you're doing.

If you want to know how a computer works, well, then Linux won't necessarily be the thing to study. Computer science would be. You might already take courses in that in high-school if you're 16. But learning Linux in addition to computer science wouldn't be a silly thing to do.

I'd personally recommend www.newtolinux.org.uk

i wish i had real computer classes in my highschool.

there are 3: typing, digital publishing, webdesign.

i took webdesign, just to find out that the teacher is in love with FrontPage and if you use notepad for anything she's bitching.

I know what i want to do, i just asked for a tutorial.

i shouldn't have put total in the subject

thanks tho =)

For specific questions/problems i recommend the "howtos". You can also browse them and read those subjects that you are interested in. Beware, they are not talking about distribution specific stuff and some distributions (especially those that want to be close to windows) will destroy your configuration, i.e. they´ll overwrite your config files on the next reboot I really hate those!

But it´s a good start if you want to learn the basics behind your GUI configuration programs or if you want to install FreeBSD or SlackWare

http://www.tldp.org/

thanks for link.

a question tho.

can i install rh7 on a crappy computer? 555mhz 32ram no idea what processor (prolly celeron) and some videocard. install a text version of rh7 or something.

Sure, wannabe, but a GUI will run very slowly with only 32MB RAM...

If you have a bit of money to spare, buy 256MB SDRAM for your system. It would help a lot and shouldn't be very costy (maybe $/€35).

You can certainly install redhat7 on that machine, though I'd advise you to try and get hold of a newer version if possible. If you've got a good Internet connection, download redhat8.0, if you're short on funds order a CD set from a reseller like cheeplinux.com (UK, sorry), and if you've got the spare cash, buy a boxed set to get some books with it.

If I were you, I'd try to get some more ram in that machine. The processor speed is fine, but if you could get it up to 128mb of ram, then you'd be good to go with a full graphical environment like KDE. If not, then you'll be stuck in the shell (text only).

To clear that up, no distribution of GNU/Linux that I know of is "text-only". Basically, you have the two modes, which you can switch between. You can be in the shell (text only), and then start a program called X, which is a graphical environment (within which you might run a veyr lightweight desktop environment like fluxbox, or a very full-featured one like KDE). You'll find that a GNU/Linux system is comprised of lots of different components layered on top of one another.

thanks a million =)

last question.

i found a 256 DDRAM for $35, will ddram go with my motherboard?

thanks again

No if you got an old PC (555mhz ish spec) it will most likey be SDRAM.

You can run PC133 SDRAM at PC100 so don't worry about that.

Try to find 256 meg of PC133 SDRAM, it will be cheaper.

thanks =)

What kind of a teacher is that?