n00b needs ideas

[fifasar20]

ok I am new to the linux world...i recently got a 2nd computer and decide to learn linux on it. Right now I have ubuntu installed on it and like it, prolly will tast some other flavors. I want to use kismet and mess around with that or just use knoppix std. Other than that I have no idea what to do with it.... I just sit there and try to learn some commands and do the basics for a while and get bored. I have no direction or anything to work towards. People say you can do anything with linux..which is cool, but I cant think of "anything" to do with it.

any ideas would be great!!

[Cabhan]

Well, Ubuntu is very new-user-oriented: use it to learn some commands, maybe try the tutorials at:

http://www.linux.org/lessons/

Once you're comfortable with Linux, you can try a more customizable distro (such as Debian or Gentoo) and learn how to (for instance) set up networking, prepare firewalls, etc.

[hazel]

What I did in the beginning was to work slowly through the boot-up scripts, finding out how the system was put together and how it came up. You learn a lot about the Linux shell that way. When I couldn't understand how a line in the script worked (and that meant *every* line to begin with!) I used man and info to explore the commands in it. And I found it useful to write down notes on what I was learning so I learned how to use the vi editor too. The nicest thing about Linux (apart from not having to worry about viruses) is that you can actually understand it. No-one understands Windows!