Linux Gurus-Need Some Help

[ToohipGottaGo]

I'm sitting at home learning some new stuff and I've decided to give Linux a run. After 25 years of tech work it's time to dip my toes into the Linux pool. Can anyone recommend a good learning version of Linux? I'll use it more of a test bed than anything else. I'm going to build a few VM's so more than one idea is great. I'm going to be home until May 1st so I might as well stuff my brain with something other than video games.

Also I want to give my buddy @shanewu a big shout out. He helped me down the road to righteousness using NetApp and ONTAP. Thanks Shane.

 

[NullNomad]

Oh this is always a fun subject, linux distros can create religious battles lol

If it were me and I'm going to assume that you're more of a windows guy right now so dont shoot me, I would start with Ubuntu. Debian is another good place to start because the availability of information around it is massive.

 

[mtbloco]

I'm sitting at home learning some new stuff and I've decided to give Linux a run. After 25 years of tech work it's time to dip my toes into the Linux pool. Can anyone recommend a good learning version of Linux? I'll use it more of a test bed than anything else. I'm going to build a few VM's so more than one idea is great. I'm going to be home until May 1st so I might as well stuff my brain with something other than video games.

Also I want to give my buddy @shanewu a big shout out. He helped me down the road to righteousness using NetApp and ONTAP. Thanks Shane.

I would vote CentOS. It's well supported and updated. Free! we use this at work on a lot of my instruments. With all linux, if your stuck....it's a package issue. update everything. YUM is your friend. Install all versions of those libraries even if it "shouldn't apply to my version/hardware". In the case of Linux....Bloat is your friend.

you waiting this long to dip your toes is a good thing. It's so much more user friendly than before.

 

[NullNomad]

I would vote CentOS. It's well supported and updated. Free!

I'm embarrassed that my brain didn't even register CentOS as an option, good call!!

 

[ToohipGottaGo]

Oh this is always a fun subject, linux distros can create religious battles lol

If it were me and I'm going to assume that you're more of a windows guy right now so dont shoot me, I would start with Ubuntu. Debian is another good place to start because the availability of information around it is massive.

Windows, I can go all the way back to DOS. I cut my teeth on Windows in the late 80's and early 90's along with OS/2. I've dabbled in Linux but never actually sat down to learn it. Thanks for the suggestions. It's like guitars and amps, people have favorites and you can't convince them otherwise.

 

[NullNomad]

Windows, I can go all the way back to DOS. I cut my teeth on Windows in the late 80's and early 90's along with OS/2. I've dabbled in Linux but never actually sat down to learn it. Thanks for the suggestions. It's like guitars and amps, people have favorites and you can't convince them otherwise.

I'm an old schooler as well, first PC was a Timex Sinclair 1000 which I still have. First real business environment I managed was a 3B2 "network".

 

[mtbloco]

@ToohipGottaGo I see your DOS and raise you VAX/VMS. if you want to go old school, you really should go back to the start.

 

[JonD]

I would have recommended Ubuntu or CentOS as well, but mainly because those are the two I've had to use for work and found a good bit of online documentation and help while working through issues, etc. Have fun learning something new!

 

[ToohipGottaGo]

@ToohipGottaGo I see your DOS and raise you VAX/VMS. if you want to go old school, you really should go back to the start.

Stone tablet and chisel. Computers didn't interest me until my early 20's. I did have a Trash 80 and then a TI 99 when I was a kid/teenager. I've enjoyed it over the years. So you older (not old) guys can go back to the WYSIWYG green screens and mainframes and leave us younger guys to our Windows.

 

[M2Giles]

Good entry Distros:
Ubuntu - Probably the largest distro for general users, a lot of support material
CentOS - Use Redhat forums/support for troubleshooting
Debian - A lot of resources available
Mint - Very user friendly

Avoid anything with rolling releases - you want something relatively stable. Grab a book to help you out, pretty much the lexicon is more or less the same across distros.

Don't sudo rm -rf /*

 

[mtbloco]

Stone tablet and chisel. Computers didn't interest me until my early 20's. I did have a Trash 80 and then a TI 99 when I was a kid/teenager. I've enjoyed it over the years. So you older (not old) guys can go back to the WYSIWYG green screens and mainframes and leave us younger guys to our Windows.

I'm not that old...but this computer illiterate was thrust into the world of VAX/VMS when I went to collect data at a national lab in grad school. that was a frustrating experience. that said, I also remember seeing the "internet" for the first time via mosaic and going to the "terminal room" to read email on those green screens.

 

[shanewu]

I'm surprised @SquirrelyDave hasn't popped in here.

I'm sitting at home learning some new stuff and I've decided to give Linux a run. After 25 years of tech work it's time to dip my toes into the Linux pool. Can anyone recommend a good learning version of Linux? I'll use it more of a test bed than anything else. I'm going to build a few VM's so more than one idea is great. I'm going to be home until May 1st so I might as well stuff my brain with something other than video games.

Also I want to give my buddy @shanewu a big shout out. He helped me down the road to righteousness using NetApp and ONTAP. Thanks Shane.

You're welcome! Any time, my friend.

 

[ToohipGottaGo]

A big thanks to all you guys for the help. It looks like I'm going to run the Ubuntu and CentOS routes. The Debian and Mint builds will get a look after the 1st round. I'll build the VM's and destroy them as I go. Tomorrow will be work and fun at the same time.

 

[SquirrelyDave]

I would vote CentOS. It's well supported and updated. Free! we use this at work on a lot of my instruments. With all linux, if your stuck....it's a package issue. update everything. YUM is your friend. Install all versions of those libraries even if it "shouldn't apply to my version/hardware". In the case of Linux....Bloat is your friend.

you waiting this long to dip your toes is a good thing. It's so much more user friendly than before.

Good entry Distros:
Ubuntu - Probably the largest distro for general users, a lot of support material
CentOS - Use Redhat forums/support for troubleshooting
Debian - A lot of resources available
Mint - Very user friendly

Avoid anything with rolling releases - you want something relatively stable. Grab a book to help you out, pretty much the lexicon is more or less the same across distros.

Don't sudo rm -rf /*

I wouldn’t recommend centOS honestly. Unless you’re aiming for a RHEL cert or job. It’s fine. It works, it’s just a bland and boring OS to use at home. It’s great to learn if you’re going to really learn Linux, especially in combination with a Debian/Ubuntu distro because that will get you both sides of the Linux world. CentOS is a work tool though, and it’s great at that.

Personally I recommend Mint for people who are thinking about Linux for daily use, or Ubuntu for people that are sick of Windows and want something very different. At least for starting out.

I actually use Ubuntu as my daily driver and I’ve had no problems getting done what I need to do

if you’ve got any other questions feel free to ask or PM me.

 

[JohnSinVA]

Good entry Distros:
Ubuntu - Probably the largest distro for general users, a lot of support material
CentOS - Use Redhat forums/support for troubleshooting
Debian - A lot of resources available
Mint - Very user friendly

Avoid anything with rolling releases - you want something relatively stable. Grab a book to help you out, pretty much the lexicon is more or less the same across distros.

Don't sudo rm -rf /*

Seriously. Should already be logged in as root when you do that

 

[Scorp]

@ToohipGottaGo if you're still looking for Linux information, check out linux.org

On their website, they've got a link to download. On that link, there's a list of the 25 most popular distros of Linux. And there should be answers to your questions in the forums there as well should the forum here not be able to answer them.

I'm not much of a Linux user... it's been a while since I've even booted a Linux box but when I did, I used a bootable distro... it made it a lot easier to get up and running and, when I was done, shutting it down made it go away. Similar to your virtual machines, if you don't save the config it's toast when it's powered off. The distro I used back in the day (if it's even still around) was Knoppix... It was a nice distro and fit on a CD. Power on the computer that was set to boot from the CD first and it was running. Even if I completely horked up the session a reboot fixed all.

I'd imagine it's a lot better than it used to be. I remember when Mandrake was the Linux distro to have back in 2001 or 2002... so it's probably improved by leaps and bounds...and it's FREE!


For even more information check out distrowatch.com lots more information on Linux distros and which ones are best for what purposes.

 

[ToohipGottaGo]

Right now I'm rifling through Ubuntu. The GUI part is really cool and I'm working on the command line part. My brain is still trying to soak this in but it's working so all is well. I've still got at least 3 weeks at home so next week I'll fire up another flavor and see how that is.

 

[chile]

I've dabbled in Ubuntu and Mint...prefer Ubuntu...both are easy to get up and running, tho.

 

[BeCu_Ping]

I have used numerous Linux distro's over the years. Agree with much of previous posts. Probably at the moment recommend one of the Ubuntu flavors for beginners.