So after reading a number of posts and comments on here about Linux, I’ve decided to give 'er a go. I have access to an Azure VM, but I have never done anything involving Unix before and have only a basic understanding of coding in general.
Where do I even start? The most daunting thing for me is command line script, as it seems I have to memorize close to 150 common commands and their functions. Is there a set of tools or free classes that would make it easier for me to understand, or should I just get stuck in there? I was planning on using Pop!_OS since I do a lot of gaming and it seems like the closest thing Ubuntu has for that purpose.
As @Sharmat@beehaw.org pointed out, you don’t need to dive into the terminal right away. As long you stick to the more user-friendly distros, you should be able to get on board fairly quickly and easily. Also, as @ezri@beehaw.org pointed out, Google is your friend!
That said, if you want to dive into the terminal, read on! I spoiler tagged it so it doesn’t overwhelm you or anyone in the same boat. Just click on the arrow or “The dive!” to expand it 😊
The dive!
System76, the group behind Pop!_OS does have documentation on using the OS: https://support.system76.com/#learn
But for using the commandline in general, there are a number of resources out there from books to courses. I’ll list some but I can’t really vouch for them.
- https://www.codecademy.com/learn/learn-the-command-line - This one seems like a general take on using the command line. I think it’s free and it’s just the certificate that needs to be paid for if you wish to have it.
- https://ubuntu.com/tutorials/command-line-for-beginners#1-overview - Ubuntu actually has a tutorial on using the command line. Hopefully it’s similar enough with Pop!_OS that you don’t have to guess around.
- https://exercism.org/tracks/bash/about - This one actually goes over using Bash, the shell/programming language typically found on a Linux system. This one is more like a list of exercises to do so it might be more useful after you’ve gone through the courses/experience of using the command line.
- The Linux Command Line by William Shotts (https://linuxcommand.org/index.php). He has both a free “Internet Edition” (under Books) of the book and there’s the version published by No Starch Press. A quick skim between the two version, both the Internet Edition and the published edition seem about the same so I doubt you’ll miss out on anything by using the Internet Edition.
Digging through my early days of playing around in Linux distros, I remember man -K <keyword> (capital K, lowercase k does something different) was helpful to me. man -K basically let you search for a command based on whatever keyword you put in. Although the controls for it when you get multiple results is a bit…obtuse. Make sure you read the bottom line, usually they tell you what different keys will do.
