Need something to do.

[ImNeat]

Being a linux newb has been fun - I've learned quite a bit.

I got my comp to dual boot Fedora C3 & XP Pro, configured everything from grub to yum, installed numerous fun programs like java and limewire from yum and rpms and all that, configured fstab to auto mount a new partition -- all of that fun basic stuff.

What now? Anyone got any ideas of some basic things I can do to learn a little more?

[AlexK]

compile your own kernel
stop un-needed services
try a new distro

and last but not least, for the most fun
nuke everything and start over.

oh, there are plenty more things to do, it is up to you to find them.

[Dapper Dan]

If you have the HD space, you could add a second distro and tri-boot. Multiple OSs on the same HD is challenging and a great way to learn about boot loaders.

[oz]

Being a linux newb has been fun - I've learned quite a bit.

I got my comp to dual boot Fedora C3 & XP Pro, configured everything from grub to yum, installed numerous fun programs like java and limewire from yum and rpms and all that, configured fstab to auto mount a new partition -- all of that fun basic stuff.

What now? Anyone got any ideas of some basic things I can do to learn a little more?

You could try Linux From Scratch:

http://www.linuxfromscratch.org/

[ImNeat]

Trying a new distro definitely sounds fun. I just don't feel like scrapping Fedora quite yet, but maybe sometime in the not-so-distant-future.
My HD is only 80GB - and between my XP partition, Fedora partition, and a partition I use to share music/office files etc, I don't have a whole lot of room to work with. Maybe I'll look into buying an external drive or something and go from there.
I wish I wouldn't have donated that 450MHz HP over winter break -- doh!
(na - someone else needed it more than me)

I was thinking more along the lines of projects-in-fedora. Like maybe create a sweet theme or something.

[dylunio]

You could look into creating a theme for Gnome or KDE (whichever you use) and them submitting them to gnome-look or kde-look. For this you could use tools such as the gimp and inkscape.

You could also look into learning to program in a language like python or C

best of luck

dylunio

[jonantice]

I'm a Linux newb myself but before I became a Linux user I took an Introduction to Computer Science course at the University of Delaware (as a requierment for my Civil Engineering major). The course was basically programming in C on the school's Unix network. I swear that I learned more about how computers work by learning to program in C than I did in my whole 15+ years of turning computers inside-out. Had I not learned C programming, I don't think I could have made the transition between Windows an Linux so easily. So, to all you newbies out there, find a good online c tutorial, and have fun. It was fun for me.

[DagonSphere]

If you really want a challenge, give Gentoo a try. Fedora has a nice gui for the install. Gentoo boots off a live CD and you pour in the OS from tarball, chroot into the 'new' OS, and continue to configure things. And, just like jonantice said that learning 'c' programming helped him understand Linux, doing a Gentoo install will help as well. Then you can see what goes into creating those shiney distros like FC.

And, the nice thing about Gentoo is you can re-compile the entire system (which is not as scarey as it sounds) to create a custom system tailored to your CPU. Many Linux distros still build to 386 architecture to insure compatibility, while at the same time loosing a certain amout of 'enhancement' the chip makers build in. The result is a faster distro. I'd dig up an old 10 or 20 gig hdd and use it for gentoo, keeping all your current stuff separate.

The sky is the limit for what you can do. Create a web server, an email server, start programming in various languages. Install other window managers other than Gnome or KDE (like XFCE, Enlightenment, IceWM, etc) and customize them.

Find an old computer and create a network, using Linux as a network controller to hand out IP addresses (DHCP), share an internet connection (google for Arno's IP tables for a quick and secure firewall/NAT configuration)

And, if you like Fedora, check out CentOS. It's an RHEL clone, but is much more stable than Fedora's bleeding edge testing playground!

Enjoy!

[kbk]

Try a different desktop environment/window manager. That's what I did last time I felt bored..

[ImNeat]

Yea when I get to my pc I'll prolly switch over from gnome to kde or something. Get a feel for other environments. Then maybe try out some other 'not so user friendly' ones. We'll see - small but fun stuff for now =)

I definitely wanna try out that LFS ozar mentioned - but I need to wait until I have enough time to do that much thinking =)