Just do it...

[t2k2]

During my short time here with AO, I have seen many linux newbie questions. I have also posted a few myself. One thing that I have learned - especially after it was reiterated on a couple of occasions - is that I could learn this OS best by "just doing it." And so, I tackled a project that would allow me to gain valuable experience and force me to learn at least enough to get the job done. My point is this - the advice that I was given me here and by others was good advice to say the least. Hands-on has proven to be the best method of learning in this case just as others. The problem with learning a new OS is just that - it's new. For many, this is a terrifying experience. My recommendation - get a copy of a few distros and load'em up. Play with it. Of course, you will have to familiarize yourself with a few basic commands. There's definitely research involved, but the best way is to just do it! I can give one recommendation if you are used to a Windows environment - get a copy of Linux for Windows NT/2000 Administrators The Secret Decoder Ring. This book was great! Probably the best peace of advice - read, play, read, play, read, and keep reading...oh, and I can't forget asking questions here on AO! I have received a lot of great advice and good tips. Don't underestimate your fellow AOers! Take some time to do a search on the Home page. You will come across a lot of good threads here. Use the resources available.

To the oldheads: I felt like this could possibly help those that are feeling discouraged about learning this great OS that we have grown to appreciate. I know I was a bit intimidated, but I'm over it now...

[TomCruise]

yeah
Although linux is easy to learn, for a beginer with windows experience gets a little confused over the distributions and window managers. But as the time goes by, definitely he will improve.
In my case, my first experience with a linux distribution was 2 years back when i was given a redhat (6.x) installation CD. But trial was a partial success , but i can't configure the xwindow quite right by that time. Then only i started curious about such an os and as the time goes by
it happened.

In my opinion, the fellow AOers are giving very nice advices. nice

[lekt0r]

Along the lines of this subject. People who may be dreading the partitions and configuring may also opt to get a Lin for Win distro such as phatlinux which gives you the ability to get your feet wet with linux without all of the stress of installing a distro on a new partition. I believe phatlinux released a beta for XP which supports NTFS. I myself started using linux this way and where as I am still a newb to open source it was a great development and learning experience. But as t2k2 said and I quote "just do it"

[Chuck56]

I have an old 486 machine running a version of linux. I'd hate to guess how many times I've ended up changing or deleting something and having to reload, or reformat and load the distro again.

I don't find linux easy, I find it dangerous. It's a dangerous OS. Everything is there for the viewing, and changing, tinkering with or wrecking, and I can't stay away from it.

[t2k2]

I feel your pain Chuck. I have the same problem. The good thing is that I have a test box at work that I can break as much as I want. I am learning a lot, however. I definitely wouldn't have learned as much by just reading the material.

[mmelby]

I have just recently install Redhat 7.3. I think they have taken a lot of the installation and configuration pain away. I had done previous installations of Redhat 6.1 and even though I am an old DOS user I still had a big learning curve. They have covered up the complexities with a decent GUI interface. The nice thing is that you can still get "under the covers" and play with the config files directly. I have been using 7.3 for about a week and like it a lot. The one downside I can see is that as they make life easier the box needs to be much bigger than it used to be. My full installation took a little over 2GB and the GUI runs a little sluggish on a 350Mhz with 128 MB of Mem.