They have some basic howtos and tutorials gathered there-- nhf means Newbie Help Files.
For a broader and deeper reference, try http://www.tldp.org/ which is a set of heavier docs. That site's full name is The Linux Documentation Project.
BUT, for starters learn how to read the Linux documentation built into your Linux. There are two commands that are core to pull up the docs that come with Linux:
man (a MANual reader) will pull up basic info on a command, if you remember the command.
The other command, info, actually tries to help you figure out what you need to look at. Give the console 'info info' and you will see what I mean. It is like an old PC DOS help tree, you can go through a tree of knowledge on your own linux box.
BTW, if you do not find a MAN page, try info, and vice versa. Also learn how to use slocate, lots of linux apps come with HTML help files you can pull up in a browser.
'slocate -u' done as root will build up a file index, then you can feed it names of files and since almost all commands run scripts of same name, you can find things like help files with slocate. slocate finds directories and files. (slocate means Secure Locate, most distros use that instead of an old locate that was once used, and many use it instead of find also).
Learn how to use rm(ReMove aka delete) and mv(MoVe) to start, if you want to rename a file, you use mv and tell it to use same directory for destination and a different file name. Move can copy a file to a new name, but then it finishes by deleting old file. So, you can rename as you move if you want, or just move with same name used for a file in a new place. cp is CoPy-- cp leaves old file behind also.
be careful with mv, cause you can mv files into non-existence. one thing about linux/unix, it doesn't baby-sit you the way windows does. there is no "Are you sure" dialog (well there can be, but it's usually off by default)
I am Linux newb too, but I'm tired of being outta the loop on this ****e. However I find I learn better by just messing with stuff as much as possible, so, I installed Mandrake 9.2 (who just lost their OS name today according to the [H]!) and I'm gonna just mess with it till I have a remote sense of what I am doing, or until something breaks.
I had a UNIX class, but it turned out to be a Linux class based almost entirely around Red Hat. Not that I'm griping, but I thought I was going to get to play around with a true UNIX box so I was a bit disappointed when I saw that I was going to be playing around with the same stuff I could download and play with at home.
Back in college, I took a class on 3d modeling and VR programming and we used REAL UNIX on SGI machines. It totally rocked. That was like 3 years ago, so i have been out of the UNIX/LINUX loop for a while. I would like to get back into it. My question is what distro of linux is the most like UNIX? Or what is the favorite distro lately? Any suggestions would be appreciated.
gentoo is really starting to roll it seems. it's a lot of fun to play with. I think slackware is universally accepted as the most unix like of all the linuxes. you might also try out freebsd, since it actually came from unix, whereas linux was created from scratch in 91.
Cool. Thanks. I think i'll try slackware and maybe gentoo. I have a 1.2ghz celeron and soyo mobo just waitng for an o/s..........just need to see if can find an old hdd laying around
Comments
the ultimate resource
Thats how I learnt what Linux/Shell I know now
Try http://www.justlinux.com/nhf/
They have some basic howtos and tutorials gathered there-- nhf means Newbie Help Files.
For a broader and deeper reference, try http://www.tldp.org/ which is a set of heavier docs. That site's full name is The Linux Documentation Project.
BUT, for starters learn how to read the Linux documentation built into your Linux. There are two commands that are core to pull up the docs that come with Linux:
man (a MANual reader) will pull up basic info on a command, if you remember the command.
The other command, info, actually tries to help you figure out what you need to look at. Give the console 'info info' and you will see what I mean. It is like an old PC DOS help tree, you can go through a tree of knowledge on your own linux box.
BTW, if you do not find a MAN page, try info, and vice versa. Also learn how to use slocate, lots of linux apps come with HTML help files you can pull up in a browser.
'slocate -u' done as root will build up a file index, then you can feed it names of files and since almost all commands run scripts of same name, you can find things like help files with slocate. slocate finds directories and files. (slocate means Secure Locate, most distros use that instead of an old locate that was once used, and many use it instead of find also).
Learn how to use rm(ReMove aka delete) and mv(MoVe) to start, if you want to rename a file, you use mv and tell it to use same directory for destination and a different file name. Move can copy a file to a new name, but then it finishes by deleting old file. So, you can rename as you move if you want, or just move with same name used for a file in a new place. cp is CoPy-- cp leaves old file behind also.
John D.