How did you learn about how computers work?

[RebeccaHowarth]

I'm a complete noob. I've been interested in electronics for a few years, and it recently occured to me that I have no idea how computers work. When I say that, I mean that I knew how to type, click, do email, use the internet, etc. So yeah - no idea.

I wanted to learn how computers work, like on an electron level. I began reading the documentation on Harry Porter's relay computer (Google it if you aren't familiar - it's amazing). I'm now reading "Understanding Digital Computers" by Forrest Mims (other electronics people will know who he is; computer people might not). I'm slowly piecing together a picture of what a computer actually is, and how it functions.

I've noticed that when I ask very basic questions about the actual function of hardware, people's response is something to the effect of, "Why do you want to know that? It's not really necessary to know that. People stopped doing that years ago. Why deal with long lists of 1s and 0s when you can just install this new blah blah blah and do this task 5 billion times in 2 nanoseconds?" This makes me crazy. Obviously, the reason why I would want to know/do that is to learn! What I'm beginning to think is that many people who program computers don't have much of a clue about how the machine actually works on a fundamental level. Am I wrong? Why would a person be satisfied working with a thing that they didn't really understand? As I said, I'm a complete noob, so I'm hoping it's my ignorance at work here.

In any event, it seems that I'm learning about computers from the bottom up, whereas most people learn it from the top down (so to speak). I'm not using Linux at this time, and the plan is to get a hold of a junk computer and install Linux on it as part of my learning experience. How did you learn?

[jayd512]

Welcome to LinuxForums!

Actually, I got tired of having a bunch of dead-end jobs where there was no real opportunity to learn anything new or use any part of my brain. The girl I was dating at the time (now my wife) was taking some courses for A+ certification and also looking into a bit of Networking. She started explaining a few things to me, and since I was getting some explanations that made sense to me, I started getting more and more curious. Next thing I knew, I had a tech support job. Thanks to her early coachings, I'm currently studying for my Linux+ certification, as well as considering my A+.

[Geeth]

I was pretty much an out cast at school, so I needed to find something that I could do that would keep me away from other people. That was computing.

I had a nack for crashing pc's so I had to start learning how to fix them up. This was done by alot of solo reading late nights and caffeine.

After what is it now.... 11 years or so of self learning and migrating to linux I will be starting uni so I can actually put my skills to use and develop them in a more 'fitting' way.

[Freston]

Slackware. Books. Questions.


I still don't know how a computer works on the electronic level. But I am one of those people not content with this hiatus, although I've come to terms with the fact that it takes time to learn stuff that complicated.

These things are incredibly difficult. Just ask a random person in the streets how a light bulb works. Most will mention there is a switch that you have to press, and then it comes on. But the switch is merely the interface. You cannot deduce how a light bulb functions on a fundamental level by examining the switch.
In the same way, you cannot deduce how a 'computer' works by examining the GUI. And although the CLI is also 'just an interface' I feel it brings you closer to the hearth of the system. Because from the CLI you can not only examine equivalents of the 'light switch' but also for example equivalents of the ground fault circuit interrupter, all the wiring, voltage fluctuations, the relation between Amp and Watt. All this while you're learning about the behavior of something called electricity, bringing you closer to understanding the nature of electricity. Until at one point you can say you understand in general (or maybe even specific) terms how a light bulb functions. And you understand the light switch is incidental, trivial, and very much besides the point.

Happy hacking!

[oz]

How did you learn?

Welcome to the forums!

All my learning comes from actual use and experience, and lots of online research.

You can learn a great deal about how computers (and other things) work here:

Howstuffworks "Computer Channel"

Have fun here and enjoy the Linux experience.

[Cool G5]

Best of luck !!
I appreciate you. Let people say whatever, it's you who should choose a different path which other's will follow.

[Thrillhouse]

I've noticed that when I ask very basic questions about the actual function of hardware, people's response is something to the effect of, "Why do you want to know that? It's not really necessary to know that. People stopped doing that years ago. Why deal with long lists of 1s and 0s when you can just install this new blah blah blah and do this task 5 billion times in 2 nanoseconds?" This makes me crazy. Obviously, the reason why I would want to know/do that is to learn! What I'm beginning to think is that many people who program computers don't have much of a clue about how the machine actually works on a fundamental level. Am I wrong? Why would a person be satisfied working with a thing that they didn't really understand? As I said, I'm a complete noob, so I'm hoping it's my ignorance at work here.

Well, you're certainly free to explore any aspect of computers you wish. I think what people are saying when they tell you that is that those low-levels of computer design are purposely abstracted out for your benefit. That makes it possible for a programmer to do his/her job without worrying about how the underlying hardware and machine language is handling his/her code. While it's good to know at a low level how a computer does what it does, it's not necessarily practical. You can't do a lot with 1's and 0's and that's what the higher level languages are for. That being said, I wouldn't discourage you from studying those things. There's certainly a need for people to work on it and constantly make it better.

In any event, it seems that I'm learning about computers from the bottom up, whereas most people learn it from the top down (so to speak). I'm not using Linux at this time, and the plan is to get a hold of a junk computer and install Linux on it as part of my learning experience. How did you learn?

I was always curious about computers as a kid. I was constantly fiddling with things to see how what I did was affecting their behavior. It wasn't until college, though, that I actually learned about them. I didn't really know what I wanted to study and I picked Computer Science on a whim, partly because I had always been curious about computers and partly because I heard you had good career options with a degree in CS.

[fingal]

From my perspective I began to learn about computers when I read a book my Ray Bradbury sometime in the 80s. I can't remember the title but the book left a big impression on me because it said, 'No matter what you think, computers are going to happen to you.'

I realised that learning about how they work would be important, but I don't have your 'low level' approach. I would rather know about basic 'top level' principles, and learn about the functions of key hardware components.

If your approach is different then I think that also has its uses, and perhaps you are looking more at computer science or even physics in general.

[safernetworks]

A few thousand installations of softare that doesnt work.

Buy a pc without getting a mouse (sure way to leanr keyboard shortcuts really fast)

6 GB of ebooks and a few good manuals later.

Take aa source snippet, remove something, see what happens, ...

repeat the above about 48 times a month for 12 years and it would be strange if you didnt learn a few tricks on the way.

(^^)

[rokytnji]

My Wife. I hated computers and the computer age till she showed me the error of my way of thinking, Started off with Windows 98 on IBM 390E buying Harley parts on Ebay and using Motorcycle forums for Technical knowledge.

Now I run Ubuntu,and Mandriva, toy around with other distros when I aint on my motorcycles and still have that 390E (broken left screen hinge and all) running Nimblex Live, Puppy 3.01 Live,DSL 4 Live, and luvin it.