You're not going to believe this...

medicnick83

medicnick83

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But I've been told that I need to learn Linux.

Specificially Gentoo.

In my 'new' job, my boss does alot of things on Linux and ultimately, I'll have to learn how to do it.

He can't expect me to be a genius in it, but his main thing is that I have to start somewhere sometime. (He has been using it for close on 6 years)

Anyone got some 'good' sites where I can go and start learning the basics?

What I plan on doing (for my own good) is the following:

I plan on buying a laptop (maybe you've seen the thread) and on the laptop, I'm going to partition the drive into 2, maybe more drives and on one drive I'll have Gentoo Linux and the other drive XP (for normal use).

So ultimately, what I'm asking you guys for is to be nice to me please and help me out with some sites where I can start learning the basics.

I know I can ask my boss (as he is generally helpful) but I want to also use this as a chance to get to know who here (in the Linux part of MyBB) knows their stuff and such.
 
All the documentation you need to get the base system working is on the Gentoo disc.
 
I think installing it is the easy part isn't it?

Installing most things is simple!

It's AFTER it's installed that is another story :)
 
I you can, don't go with Gentoo. I not an expert in these matters, but Gentoo isn't really geared towards someone without Linux familiarity.

Go with Debian and if you have the time work through the Debian reference manual(http://www.za.debian.org/doc/manuals/debian-reference/). I don't think there's a better source of generic Linux knowledge than that. (Disclaimer: I read it as a newb, so my opinion is probably biased.)
 
Installing it is time consuming as you're compiling everything from source code and reading the docs as you go, the After bit would be x windows and a window manager which I never quite got that far with it. Yeah but at the end of it you'll have a super fast linux OS on your laptop which you will know through and through.
 
Seriously, concentricpuddle is right. If you can, go for ubuntu, debian, suse, fedora - anything but gentoo. Gentoo is not noob-friendly.
 
chiskop said:
Seriously, concentricpuddle is right. If you can, go for ubuntu, debian, suse, fedora - anything but gentoo. Gentoo is not noob-friendly.
Click to expand...

I would like to do that, but sadly, all the stuff my boss does is basically done in Gentoo so learning the other stuff won't help much when I can't 'do it' in Gentoo. :(
 
gentoo

Installing Gentoo is one of the best ways to learn about the inner workings of linux. Stage 3 is fine, but try stage 1 for a bit of a challenge. That said, I will probably never touch gentoo again...
 
gdiza said:
I would like to do that, but sadly, all the stuff my boss does is basically done in Gentoo so learning the other stuff won't help much when I can't 'do it' in Gentoo. :(
Click to expand...

Gentoo is just the OS - just make sure you're using the same desktop (ie KDE/Gnome) and you'll be able to use all the same apps as him.
 
not true

chiskop, not true, the package distribution systems and location of many configuration files is entirely different.
 
For a corporate environment, i would say you need to do OpenSuSE, or Red Hat Enterprise [they are sorta the same]

Futhermore, CentOS is also used quite a bit in the Corporates

good luck
 
psichron said:
chiskop, not true, the package distribution systems and location of many configuration files is entirely different.
Click to expand...

Package distribution - once you're setup and familiar with the workings of your new OS, does it really make a difference whether you're using apt, YaST or portage?

Config files - I didn't know that - but then in a proper distro, how often do you need to know the location of config files (as a new user)?
 
gdiza said:
I would like to do that, but sadly, all the stuff my boss does is basically done in Gentoo so learning the other stuff won't help much when I can't 'do it' in Gentoo. :(
Click to expand...

That's why I recommended Debian. I'm guessing that your boss isn't looking at you to be using GUI's, but rather the UNIX aspect of Linux. Although a lot of the stuff mentioned in the Debian reference is Debian specific, most of it is not and is applicable to any other distro you come across.

Other distros mentioned here (Fedora,Suse,Ubuntu and Mandriva being ones I've used for an extende period), while user friendly aren't as generic and have distro-specific configuration-utilities that aren't applicable outside its derivatives.

Man, I sound like a fanboy.:D
 
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not a guru but i've heard the same - gentoo is like out-there hardcore stuff dude.
ubuntu is hailed as the best newcomers choice (going onto it myself shortly).

what exactly will you be doing with linux ? and why, i mean ... are you moving from M$ ?

[interested, as just finished a book called 'after the software wars' freely downloadable from http://www.lulu.com/content/4964815. chapters on linux are quite thought provoking and provide some interesting insights into the state of things]

regarding resources, never forget torrents ! i luv 'em, and there are a lot of complete pdf's out there on the subject. grab all you can via the likes of http://isohunt.com/, before that also gets shut down :(
 
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