Learn Linux the Hard Way

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Posted by Soulskill on Friday December 21, 2012 @03:11AM from the for-the-really-hard-way-close-your-eyes-first dept.

An anonymous reader writes "Here is a free interactive beta of Learn Linux The Hard Way; a web-based virtual Linux environment which introduces the command line and other essential Linux concepts in 30 exercises. It's written in the style of Zed A. Shaw's Learn Code the Hard Way lessons. The authors says, 'You will encounter many detailed tables containing lists of many fields. You may think you do not need most of this information, but what I am trying to do here is to teach you the right way to approach all this scary data. And this right way is to interpret this data as mathematical formulas, where every single symbol has its meaning.' Of course, my first entry was rm -rf /* which only produced a stream of errors. I wish I had discovered something like a long time ago."

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Re:fp by MisterSquid · 2012-12-21 03:20 · Score: 5, Funny

Learn Linux the Hard Way? I thought learning Linux, period, was the hard way!

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The usual by Razgorov+Prikazka · 2012-12-21 03:23 · Score: 5, Interesting

The hard way is saying NO to Google, fora, newsgroups ant the like, and saying YES to Manpages, --help options, txt files that came with the package using cat maybe accompanied by | grep or | grep -v
That is how I learned it in the mid-90's. Heck, google wasnt even there yet!
Anyway, I am going to do the course, see what I make of it :-)

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rm -rf --no-preserve-root / ...and let /dev/null sort them out...
1. Re:The usual by BobNET · 2012-12-21 03:59 · Score: 4, Insightful
  
  The trick is to use OpenBSD's manpages. They actually get updated when the code changes, for the most part are relevant to other systems, and don't scold you for not using the texinfo manual.
2. Re:The usual by arielCo · 2012-12-21 04:04 · Score: 5, Insightful
  
  That approach falls short when:
  * You don't know *what* program does what you need ("man -k" and "apt-cache search" are not always helpful)
  * There's a quirk / unexpected behaviour / bug (man pages seldom admit the former)
  * You don't even know the right terms to start searching
  * You lack understanding of something too fundamental for a manpage (e.g., initrd)
  * The docs are downright poor
  OTOH, fora are terrible: full of obsolete hints (especially in rapid-changing distros), awful S/N ratio. To me, wikis are the way to share knowledge (updatable, searchable, concise) and fora are for:
  * asking for pointers to that knowledge
  * suggesting one-off solutions
  * troubleshooting
  * tossing ideas about
  Once something is settled, there is no reason why a forum thread should be its repository; it irks me every time I read "use the search function, you'll find a whole thread dedicated to that".
  Incidentally, I'm an Ubuntu user and many times the clearest, most comprehensive help I've found is an Arch wiki page.
  
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  This post contains no rudeness or derision of any kind. All arguments are friendly. Terms and exclusions may apply.
Re:fp by degeneratemonkey · 2012-12-21 03:26 · Score: 5, Funny

Note that this should not to be confused with Schrödinger's ass, the infamous non-deterministic pack mule known for delivering US weapons to either Afghanistan or Pakistan at any given time.
LFS by owlman17 · 2012-12-21 03:30 · Score: 4, Interesting

Linux From Scratch boosted my Linux knowledge about a hundredfold. I cut my teeth on a modified LFS 5.1. Following the instructions, while tedious, was doable and straightforward. What made it more difficult for me was that my host distro was a bit too old for the then-current LFS (5.1). With a slow and expensive internet connection, downloading an entire distro was out of the question. Downloaded the official tarballs, mixed and matched on my Celeron 366, and I eventually got it up and running.
Re:If you like your linux hard by Anonymous Coward · 2012-12-21 03:30 · Score: 5, Insightful

Gentoo isn't hard, it's just time consuming. And not even your time, CPU time.
Re:Annnnnnnndddddddd..... by SilentStaid · 2012-12-21 03:31 · Score: 5, Funny

They did say the hard way. If someone wanted to learn the easy way they'd have installed Ubuntu... which I assume would have:

booted up
connected to the closest availble wifi
...cracking the password if needed
googled for stories relevant to itself
posted this witty comment
became self aware
Skynet.
updated Unity
became unusably cluttered and bloated, thereby saving the human race.
...
Profit??? I mean, that's the MS did it, right? ...getting cluttered and unusable?
Wait! by Jmc23 · 2012-12-21 03:42 · Score: 4, Funny

Is there actually an easy way???
Might have saved me the past two decades...

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Don't complain about syntax, grammar, or spelling. There is no.hell like input on android.
Linux shouldn't be hard, geek elitism has to go. by CronoCloud · 2012-12-21 03:44 · Score: 4, Insightful

There's an old Jack Tramiel quote about computer pricing (referring to Apple II prices):
"

We need to build computers for the masses, not the classes."
I believe that Linux can be for the masses as well:
Linux for the masses, not just those who have taken programming classes.
Things like this "Linux the Hard Way" is the last thing we need. We need better tutorials, better documentation in general, something "better" than crappy gnu info (there's nothing I hate more than a man page that directs me to use gnu info, how I hate that thing) Making Linux more non-nerd friendly makes it better for everyone. It even saves nerds time. I'm not just talking Ubuntu here, after all there was a time when Red Hat was considered the Linux Distro for the Masses. Personally in my Linux usage, I prefer to take the "Easy Button" way whenever possible, I have a "set it and forget it" philosophy and I like "reasonable defaults". Sure, some things are faster in a terminal, but even there I take the easy way by using mrxvt, and not the incomprehensible geek=favorite...gnu screen.
Capacity planning the hard way by Cuban+Devil · 2012-12-21 03:46 · Score: 5, Funny

Site is down... someone is learning capacity planning the hard way.
Re:Annnnnnnndddddddd..... by Hillgiant · 2012-12-21 03:57 · Score: 4, Funny

...slashdotted immediately
How to set up a web based Linux test environment the hard way.

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Re:Linux From Scratch by GaryOlson · 2012-12-21 04:01 · Score: 4, Informative

Linux From Scratch is now considered more organic -- you know, the small animal sacrifices and such required for a successful compile.

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Every mans' island needs an ocean; choose your ocean carefully.
sudo by Tarlus · 2012-12-21 04:11 · Score: 5, Funny

Of course, my first entry was rm -rf /* which only produced a stream of errors.
Try it again as root. =)

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Re:Learning Nothing, Earn Nothing by VortexCortex · 2012-12-21 07:00 · Score: 4, Funny

I installed Ubuntu for my father who is in his 80's. Not only does he know nothing about Linux, he doesn't even know that he is using Linux.
Yep, same experience here: I installed Ubuntu for my girlfriend to upgrade from XP when Windows 7 came out.

"Ubuntu"? Does that mean "Windows" in, like, African? OMG, I heard of something like this! You bought me the expensive African version to help out all those starving kids! ::smooch::

I never had the heart to tell her it wasn't Windows.