Off-Topic > Off-Topic - Tiny Tux's Corner

Where should one begin?

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NeoPhyte_Rep:
Continuing the basic questions theme, if someone were to ask you how they could get started with Linux, what would you tell them?

robc:
I would tell them they should "shop around" a little before settling with a distribution (My first Linux experience was with MEPIS, then Mandrake, Puppy, DSL, Debian, Xubuntu, now here). They should find one that works well enough with their hardware so most functionality is present but shouldn't worry about every detail because putting in the time to make the pieces work is how you learn. If everything worked "out of the box" then there wouldn't be any need and probably no desire to learn.

NeoPhyte_Rep:

--- Quote from: robc on December 12, 2008, 05:10:52 PM ---I would tell them they should "shop around" a little before settling with a distribution.

--- End quote ---

OK, so how would one start from scratch and gain enough knowledge to evaluate the various distributions.  It's tough to "shop around" without knowing how to ask basic questions.

tobiaus:

--- Quote ---Asking all the dumb questions so others need not be afraid.
--- End quote ---

let me just mention how much i approve. i feel the same way.

let me also tell you how to get the answer you want. there are some great tools online that ask you a bunch of questions and then a script guesses which distro is best for you.

i bet since you're here that something attracts you to tinycore, like its size, which makes the question more fun. just imagine everything you want in a distro, mention as much as you see relevant here, and i'll give you the totally biased answer tailored to what you outline.

then the best part is that based on what you said, other biased answers will come that disagree with mine. if it sounds crazy, it is, but it should give you a better idea than those scripts. besides, i'm curious what you're looking for now. other than that i would say try dsl. why? because it's only 50mb to download and i'm not yet qualified to recommend tinycore. if you want to know which bloaty distro to try, make it ubuntu, kubuntu, or xubuntu. and i can tell you which of those is the best of the three based on what you say next.

NeoPhyte_Rep:
I guess I'm not stating the question clearly enough.

A person who uses a computer that came equipped with the usual software wants to know how to get started with Linux.  They don't really know what Linux is and, so far, the term distro or distribution has no meaning.

Where does one go to learn the really basic concepts that lead to using Linux?  And I mean really, really basic concepts.  This fictional person knows there is hardware and software, but thinks all software is, uh, software.  Where does one go to get the structural relationship of microcode, BIOS, kernel, task manager, file system, window manager, compiler, interpreter, etc., etc., etc. so that one can make intelligent, informed comparisons between the various implementations of the various software components of a functioning system.

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