What you wish someone told you when you first started....

[cfmaurer]

Hi my name's Chris. I'm a Linux newbie and I ask the lot of you, pros and hacks alike. What is the one thing you wish someone told you when you first started cutting your teeth on Linux?

[Phred]

As someone who is STILL cutting their teeth, there are actually three things I wish I had:

#1 - A "cheat sheet" aimed at former Windows power users/Admins. Something that has (as close as possible) a side-by-side explanation of "this was how you did it in Windows/WinServer... now this is the same concept in Linux" particularly vis-a-vis administrative tasks

#2 A "Best practices" guide. With many things in life, just because you can doesn't mean you should.

#3 Both of the above in language that a reasonably intelligent experienced user like myself, who doesn't have an MS in computer science, can understand.

[dethklok02895]

As someone who is STILL cutting their teeth, there are actually three things I wish I had:

#1 - A "cheat sheet" aimed at former Windows power users/Admins. Something that has (as close as possible) a side-by-side explanation of "this was how you did it in Windows/WinServer... now this is the same concept in Linux" particularly vis-a-vis administrative tasks

#2 A "Best practices" guide. With many things in life, just because you can doesn't mean you should.

#3 Both of the above in language that a reasonably intelligent experienced user like myself, who doesn't have an MS in computer science, can understand.

Phred they do have All of that available if you know where to look on the internet. lol

But one thing i wish i really had was someone else who knew what they were doing to teach me. But I've learned quickly so no worries I suppose.

A few other things it would have been nice to know before hand though is it requires A LOT of patience, and you need to know how to read cmd output to determine errors or security threats on a system. I know how to read it know but before it was just. Error......FML what happened and I'd have to go search the web for an answer.

[D-cat]

CLI Cheat Sheet: Linux Commands - A practical reference (I like this better than the "DOS equivalent" lists)
Shortcuts: Linux Newbie Guide: Shortcuts And Commands (outdated and examples do not apply to all machines, but still quite useful)

I started in the Linux game early enough that I cant think what I wish I knew earlier back then.

[oz]

What you wish someone told you when you first started....

Hello and welcome!

Unfortunately, lots of good things to know can't be easily told, but only come with experience. That said, I remember wishing on my first ever Linux install that someone would have told me which packages needed to be installed. I ended up installing everything just to be sure the system had what it needed.

[rokytnji]

"DON'T TURN ON THAT COMPUTER"

Too late for that now.

So some good list of Bookmarks before learning install, a physical person who knows the ropes standing behind me (only Linux user in these here parts), But, I learn as I go through life.
But. This forum and others have educmecated me as well as the good people from all over the world to make me comfortable now using OSS.

Kinda like a first motorcycle ride. First you crash. Then as you get proficient.
You then wonder why everyone does not ride motorcycles instead of cages.

[Rubberman]

I recently spent an evening with a friend who is an old time WIndows user (we play bluegrass together in a band - he's the guitar picker, and I'm the mandolin guy), playing around with Linux on his system using a live DVD of Scientific Linux 6. I haven't convinced him yet to make the switch, but he was really impressed how easy it was to access the net, mount/view/edit his Windows data, add new software packages, and such. However, I think the process would be much easier for him if as Phred said, there was a "cheat sheet" that came standard with all of these distributions...

[elija]

I do have something that I wish I hadn't been told. That your home directory is like My Documents. In fairness, he did add "only more" but I didn't get that and for a long time resisted the idea of installing any software there.

[MikeTbob]

I just wish someone had told me about Linux sooner! I would have been using Linux a lot longer than I have.

[dethklok02895]

Oh Mike.......actually i have to agree my first computer had Windows 98.......think anything Linux at that point would have made me much happier...btw got my first computer in like 2002 this is how depressing this whole thing is lol.