[lug] New to the group

[Bear Giles]

Installing Linux is probably the least interesting thing to do. Not "least
interesting" as in "boring", but "least interesting" as in the thing least
likely to teach you anything at all useful elsewhere. Fortunately as you
said it's a lot less painful than it used to be but it still takes a lot of
time to go from a boot CD and blank hard disk to something useful to the
average person.

I think I missed a question/answer earlier - what does he want to do with
Linux at this time? I know most of us learned from the metal up but I think
someone coming in today would want to go the other way.  E.g.,

1. Here's an image with wordpress installed, or some other common app. Add
and remove accounts, install extensions, perform an update.

2. Now here's an image with a working database and web server - install
wordpress.

3. Now here's an image without a working database and/or web server.
Install them and then install wordpress.

4. Ditto with a few other common apps, then set up the apps to use HTTPS,
etc.

You'll still end up learning sysadmin skills but I think it's a lot more
productive to work down than to work up - a "wordpress administrator" is
still a useful standalone skill. It takes a lot more study to learn what
you need for an introductory sysadmin cert and even then how many places
are going to trust him with anything other than 'help desk' type work?

Bear


On Mon, Aug 19, 2013 at 2:39 PM, Alex samide <absamide at yahoo.com> wrote:

> Another place to consider looking would be http://virtualboxes.org/ where
> you can download already built images to try out on a Virtualbox
> environment.
>
> I would always recommend doing installs for the experience, but many of
> the distributions have quite simple and straight forward installs now a
> days, so there could be times when you just want to download an already
> existing image to play around with and the images on that site are good for
> that.
>
> Plus they have the websites listed for each of the distributions next to
> the image link so that you can investigate them individually if you wanted.
>
> Alex Samide
>
>
>   ------------------------------
>  *From:* Crawford Rainwater <crawford.rainwater at linux-etc.com>
> *To:* lug at lug.boulder.co.us
> *Sent:* Monday, August 19, 2013 9:44 AM
>
> *Subject:* Re: [lug] New to the group
>
> Jason:
>
> For the most part, Linux is similar "behind the scenes" on the "bare
> metal".  The differences is in package management and installation between
> distribution A and distribution B as well as release cycles of said
> packages (e.g., Fedora is a bit "bleeding edge" in releases, Debian is a
> bit "slower" on their "stable" stream, CentOS and Scientific Linux parallel
> RedHat more or less).
>
> So if you really want to learn Linux, start at the command line and build
> up from there.  Yes, it is not as "sexy" nor "pretty" cosmetically
> initially.  However, you will get the most out of such from this approach.
> There are quite a few "LiveCD/DVD" distributions as well such as Ubuntu,
> Mint and Knoppix (just to name two; these are variants of Debian as well)
> as well as "minimalist" distributions as well.  The LiveDVD/CD
> distributions have different desktop environments (I believe Knoppix has
> 3-4 to pick from on their LiveDVD for example) so you can "test drive" with
> minimal effort of installation time.
>
> Then there is the virtualization approach of taking a distribution (or
> three) of choice, then doing some R&D (= research and destroy/discover)
> within the virtual machine containers.  Vagrant (a favor for "devops"
> folks) is quite a popular one for such that can be built upon VMware,
> Virtualbox, KVM, and some other hypervisors.
>
> Training material wise, there are a few trainer types (including myself)
> so you can inquire with the LUG lists or go for something a bit more
> formal.  I am not sure what DeVry has to offer course wise, so I cannot
> advise either way there.  There are two certification tracks (RedHat
> oriented and LPI oriented) to go for such avenues if that is desired in
> time.
>
> So some more to digest and process.  HTH.
>
> --- Crawford
>
> The Linux ETC Company
> 10121 Yates Court
> Westminster, CO 80031 USA
> voice:  +1.303.604.2550
> web:    http://www.linux-etc.com
>
> Please do not print this email unless it is absolutely necessary.  Be
> friendly to the environment by saving paper.
>
> _______________________________________________
> Web Page:  http://lug.boulder.co.us
> Mailing List: http://lists.lug.boulder.co.us/mailman/listinfo/lug
> Join us on IRC: irc.hackingsociety.org port=6667 channel=#hackingsociety
>
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> Web Page:  http://lug.boulder.co.us
> Mailing List: http://lists.lug.boulder.co.us/mailman/listinfo/lug
> Join us on IRC: irc.hackingsociety.org port=6667 channel=#hackingsociety
>
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.lug.boulder.co.us/pipermail/lug/attachments/20130819/10facb86/attachment.html>