Learning Linux 🐧

YES! I agree use it recognizing that it does not really know the answer. A LLM can and will make up command line flags that does not exist – maybe the option exist in another Linux distro but it could be 100% made up. Use it as a learning partner for motivation.

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This is especially important when asking it how to solve a problem, too. Never blindly follow the directions it gives you. We’ve seen several instances of new users to Linux blindly following what ChatGPT told them to do, and it made things far worse, not better.

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I literally started from scratch … got my first IBM PS/2 ($3800 in 1987 bucks) and then a 386 for $3200 … after that I decided to build my own 486 and put OS/2 on it … from there I went to a pentium and windows for a short time … in 1995 I went to Linux, made my hostname “windeath” and never looked back … from there I went to Redhat for a bit then Mandrake/WindowMaker (which I loved) and then Suse which led to TumbleWeed (which I also love) in 2012 … or so :thinking: If I had any words of wisdom to impart at all I would be “learn how to use the command line” … back in the 90’s we used to have what we called “console night” where you weren’t allowed to use any sort of GUI at all … chat, man pages, system admin, web browsing (lynx) … nothing … it was so much fun … if you can do that you can do linux … you can do anything

I learned a lot with the handbooks that came with SuSE Linux in the box while you still had to pay for the latest distribution that came delivered as a CD-set. I would be still willing to pay for those guides. But they seem to be discontinued?

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Hehehe. For years I bought those (though we could download, if you knew how to) with a friend. One of us got the media and copied them for the other, the other one got the books+box, next version the other way around.
That said, the same docs are on docs.opensuse.org AFAICT

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At least the “Startup” guide is more or less the same as the Handbook which came with the more recent boxed editions – the earlier “big-box” versions of SuSE (in the years preceding openSUSE) had a big meaty book with content which included items which are in the current “Reference” guide.

The content of the “Security”, “System Analysis and Tuning”, “Virtualization” and “AutoYaST” guides wasn’t included in the physical distribution boxes – AFAICS …

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Important, fun topic; why learn Linux? And, how?

I started Linux with SuSE 6.1 Pro having begun with programming assembly language using punch cards. I can still run programs written in MS QBasic and Borland Turbo Pascal on the openSuse Linux application “dosemu.”

Just as I have become obsolete, so have most things I enjoyed learning and the great community of people that created them. I never experienced a suse linux failure, while re-installing MS Windows through versions ME and 2K for my wife and children.

Every linux distro, version, hardware has its own quirks as things have evolved so fast. One suse feature I learned most from seems to have disappeared after openSuse Leap 15.0. That feature from YAST extensively categorized available suse software packages by type, allowing the user to select well described packages from old to experimental.

Suse advises “have a lot of fun!”

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I’d echo this. Sure I just installed OpenSUSE Tumbleweed (okay, part-time distro hopper) but I really recommend at least listening in the communities like on IRC, Matrix, these forums, etc. I’ve learned a lot from simply listening and then trying to do X myself. I notice that OpenSUSE forums seem active and responsive to queries.

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