in desperate need of linux help

[ghetto guy]

I put Saybaon Linux on my desktop computer and set it up so I could dual boot between Linux and Windows XP.
The problem is: I know next to nothing about Linux. I was wondering if anyone knows of a good, free, and extensive tutorial for Linux in general.

[watchman]

I put Saybaon Linux on my desktop computer and set it up so I could dual boot between Linux and Windows XP.
The problem is: I know next to nothing about Linux. I was wondering if anyone knows of a good, free, and extensive tutorial for Linux in general.

The Internet. Use google and the *NIX kernel you are interested in and you will find a great deal.

Mostly you learn *NIX by using it. Breaking it, getting stuck and figuring it out.

Along the way you will meet people and learn from them as well.

Like any scene, there are a few people who "know more that anyone" and people who fell like they will never learn anything.

But the vast group in the middle is where you will find the enjoyment.

*NIX. It's not FedEx.
You don't get it overnite...

[ghetto guy]

ok then.
How do I find what kernel I'm interested in?

[Pleye]

This site is the ultimate in Linux docs:

http://tldp.org/

I am a fan particularly of the How-To's

http://tldp.org/HOWTO/HOWTO-INDEX/howtos.html

But you may find a better introduction in the Guides:

http://tldp.org/guides.html

I run Ubuntu right now and they have a good install guide, forums and wiki so you may find that for your distro too.

But I've been using the Linux Doc project for as long as I can remember. It used to be if you had a hardware problem and punched it into google you came up with the LDP first.

[watchman]

ok then.
How do I find what kernel I'm interested in?


Well, staying with Sabayon, you can find out about it here, (but i suspect you may already have this link Sabayon (http://www.sabayonlinux.org/)

But there are so many distros, and many of them have multiple kernels, for various needs, some are server related, others are for graphics, utilities, games Windows, Mac, Amiga, and other clones, as well as non-graphical menu driven systems.

If you can, get a used or low cost PC, or a spare drive. (removable drive bay with a couple of spare caddies is a good, low cost alternative.

Then you can use the spare drive(s) to play with and remove your main drive so you don't have to worry about trashing it. You could use dual boot partition managers or the BIOS feature to select a boot drive, but I found using multiple drives easier to keep from involving a production drive at all.

Then just install, and play with them, using the forums when you run across something you cannot figure out.

If you are looking for just pure command line *NIX, or are looking to create custom hacks, then you will need to focus on groups that deal with them.

If you are just looking to run alternative versions of GUI OS, then you can search, install and play around with many of the distros that are complied and are pretty much "one click installs".

Hope that helps.

[ghetto guy]

I've played around with Ubuntu, Saybaon and Free Spire. I like Saybaon because it has an intensive GUI which I need because I'm used to Windows. Right now I have it set up so I can dual boot Windows and Linux.

[watchman]

What exactly is your goal, maybe I or others can help you with getting started.


All your squirrel are belong to Stew.

[ghetto guy]

I want to break away from Windows. Pleye answered my question and you helped me with my second one.

Thanks



They're my acorns, you can't have them! I might share though...

[Pacman]

Psychocats (http://www.psychocats.net/ubuntu/index.php) is an excellent resource for newbies. It's written with Ubuntu in mind, but most of it will translate pretty easily to other distros.

PCLinuxOS has a pretty thorough GUI layer, btw. You shouldn't ever need to touch the CLI if you don't want to.