[Tfug] Where to start

[Claude Rubinson]

On Wed, Feb 06, 2008 at 08:04:17PM -0700, christ wrote:
> I was patient though, and not in school, so I could tinker, break
> and reinstall a lot, and I did.
> 
> Notions like 'devices', and mounting them, are just bizarre and
> daunting when you step into this, but having had to deal with them
> has allowed me to do some pretty cool things that a more user-
> friendly environment might have shielded me from.

I completely agree with what Chris says.  In particular, patience is
key when it comes to *learning* Unix--I don't think that the distro
one chooses matters at all.  What matters is sticking with it until
you learn how to get, e.g., the sound subsystem working, not just
jumping from distro to distro until it magically does.

When I first started with Linux years ago, I could get the sound
system working.  I think that I was without sound for at least a year,
probably more.  During that time, I found that (1) I didn't need sound
quite as much as I originally thought that I did and (2) I learned
oodles about my system.  I'm not somebody who's going to build a
linux-from-scratch box but, if something's not working, I'm going to spend
the time to figure out (1) what's going on and (2) how to properly fix
it, rather than just searching around for magic incantations.
(Except, of course, when it comes to wireless networking ;^)

This approach, however, assumes that you have both time and patience.
Certainly, Ubuntu has its time and place.  But from what I can tell,
it's not going to be helping you to learn Unix.

Claude