[olug] Today's recommendations for a beginner

[Jared Bernard]

As someone who teaches Linux for a living, I think you offered the best
advice. Your friend should install Linux and live in it. Do everything they
normally do with a computer but with Linux. They should force themselves to
do as much as possible in the command line. This will be where most of
their learning will happen.

I have found that one of the biggest struggles for newbies is understanding
paths and using the correct path with commands. I blame modern GUI file
managers that hide the paths by default on all platforms.

Having a mentor is also extremely helpful. Everything can be found online,
but sometimes new users don't know what to search for or what question to
ask or how to translate the answer and apply the answer they find. So,
having someone they can go to when they get stuck is beneficial.

On Tue, Jun 6, 2023 at 8:03 AM Lou Duchez <lou at paprikash.com> wrote:

> Sounds reasonable to me. Although, maybe we can recommend a curriculum.
> I would suggest learning to do these things, in this order:
>
> - Install Linux
>
> - Get used to the file system and associated commands
>
> - Create user accounts
>
> - Change user passwords
>
> - Install updates
>
> - Manage the firewall
>
> That's how I'd start; that's, what, a day or two of learning. But if you
> can learn to do those things, you'll be well on your way to running
> Linux effectively.
>
>
> On 6/6/2023 8:54 AM, Tim Larson wrote:
> > On 1/28/23 7:34 AM, Dan Linder wrote:
> >> A friend of mine at work is peripherally involved in our it work, but
> >> at a
> >> security and essentially non-technical role. They are interested in
> >> learning more about Linux, and possibly dipping their toes into
> >> programming. They asked me for suggestions on learning material I would
> >> suggest.
> >
> > My suggestion is the learn-by-doing route. If you're not using FOSS
> > alternatives on your current platform, why not? That's very likely
> > what you'll be using if you jump into Linux, so lessen the transition
> > headache by getting accustomed to them now. To some this may seem
> > obvious, but I thought I'd say it anyway.
> >
>
> _______________________________________________
> OLUG mailing list
> OLUG at olug.org
> https://www.olug.org/mailman/listinfo/olug
>