Recently, I’ve been using linux(tried multiple distros). I’m curious about how linux works, it’s architecture! Is there a book, guide, video, etc to learn about linux? By using linux, I get to know something. It would be better If I know how linux works!
I can also suggest installing gentoo if LFS is a bit much, which is understandable. It won’t have as much direct information as LFS but if you look up everything you don’t understand and follow all the links you’ll get a fairly good concept of the thing
I think they should try learning the basics with an easy to use and install distro (learning cmd like cd, lsblk, ls, ln…) then if they want more try to install arch Linux using the arch-install, then installing arch linux manually, and the diving into gentoo and then into LFS if they really want the time! (Also, for gentoo and lfs i’d recommend having a really good computer to make compilation time slower!)
Hey, I’ve tried some distros(fedora, ubuntu, vanilla…), I think it would be better If I learn. What I mean by learn is about understanding the concepts and, as I’ve been using fedora. I didnt really learn how cd, ls(although I use it a lot) works. So, I think learning through LFS is good and interesting. Do you think that it would be good if I learn from installing gentoo and arch, then go onto LFS
If you’re interested, you will learn a lot of things by installing lfs, arch or gentoo, you’ll just learn differents things with each distro and will learn in a different manner, all are interesting imo, but I think it’s better to learn gradually than to learn from the hardest thing (lfs is the hardest in my opinion)
Hey, I will try to ubderstand LFS and build it myself. If it’s much harder than I expected it to be, i will install gentoo. What about arch? Why install gentoo instead of arch? The installation process of gentoo will teach me about linux, the same could be said about arch?
Absolutely, arch will teach you quite a bit. Not nearly as much as Gentoo though. If you’re going for learning how things work at a core level Gentoo is a fantastic place, though of course LFS will be better though more involved. I’m glad you’re willing to take the harder path though!
As for arch, it’ll teach you about mounting, user management, partitioning and partition management, an overview of how to set up a system and a few of the options available, and make you more comfortable with the command-line. With a few exceptions, that’s about it. you can understand what makes arch arch in less than a day.
As for Gentoo, it’s a guided experience that will teach you all of that but much, much more than arch will. With arch you could look more into it, and arch will be very well documented on what to do, but Gentoo will lay out the choices clearer with an explanation as to why. What is SystemD and why would you use something else (or, why you need so much to replace one thing?) How is networking built up? how do package managers work? What different kernels are available and why would you use them? What file system should you use? How does networking work on Linux? How do you install a tarball? What are firmware and microcode?
Just look at the index (legend?) on this page Gentoo Wiki and then this page Arch Wiki (on the left.) You’ll see how much more Gentoo goes over
To be clear, I use arch on my main system, it’s a fantastic OS and I’ll likely use it until the heat death of the universe, but installing Gentoo, following the links, and searching up what I don’t understand has taught me much more. LFS will, of course, teach you essentially everything though. It’s a great option, and you’re in for a fantastic journey. Once you’re done you’ll be the most impressive person in the room, if that room is full of us linux nerds
To make the learning process much more enjoyable, I’am going to try one of the OS’es either arch or gentoo. Which one will best for as a beginner? As gentoo has much more wiki than arch, which one will best suit for beginners(like me) to trying to understand things? Are there some resources, where I can learn some very basic stuff like about package manager, linux kernel, etc(if there, please share it here) and then it would be good if I go onto the installation and then onto the LFS thing. Learning linux would be a fantastic journey!
When I was in your position one of the first things I did was to install arch. It is very similar to gentoo but you don’t have to compile everything yourself which is just more practical in the beginning. You still have to learn all the basics and the arch wiki is one of the best of it’s kind. I am myself to install gentoo as a next step but the procedures are very similar to arch. Also with arch you can reinstall the system in minutes (with enough proficiency) but on gentoo or LFS this depends on how beefy your computer is. With a regular desktop you will sit there staring at 5the compilation for quite some time which was the biggest drawback for me. It will cost you more time to repeat a process and for me the best thing on arch was to srcap everything and restart to try something new.
One last thing: You will always learn as much as you are willing to understand. You can install gentoo and arch withoit any problems by just following the great wiki pages but you won’t learn much besides typing some commands. But doing some research wbile installing will help you far more. Also learning linux is a process. It’s not only about the system itself but rather about the community it’s culture as well as the philosophy behind it.
I’ve used both, and really, from an understanding standpoint, there’s really not much difference between Arch and Gentoo.
Gentoo’s main advantage are its USE flags, which the packages use to determine which “configure” options to select at compile time. However, installing and updating the system can take hours or days while you wait for everything to compile.
Arch, on the other hand, uses binary packages, which is faster, but lacks the flexibility of USE flags.
Understanding is more important than installation! So, arch is a starting point and then gentoo for a little advanced user? Yes, the community and the philosophy behind the GNU/Linux made it a great thing to explore! As it have made me switch from windows to GNU/Linux!
