white hat hobby

zxy · June 11, 2010, 4:50pm

I don’t know if it sounds ridiculous as a hobby, but I hunger for knowledge and I want to know how to become one. What books should I read? Is there online resources that are the equivalent? I have a good idea on networking and security in Windows, which doesn’t mean a **** on Linux, but it’s always something I liked doing. Now I want to do the real thing.

I’m pretty much a beginner, so I have a looooong ways to go.

DenverD · June 11, 2010, 5:59pm

zxy wrote:
> I hunger for knowledge … I’m pretty much a beginner, so I have a
> looooong ways to go.

-=welcome=-

Linux is a BIG pie…so, bring lots of patience!

i suggest you begin by knowing everything, as that is the
easiest…but, if you have to learn as you go remember that
openSUSE (if that is where you are gonna start) is just one of several
different ways to ‘do’ Linux, so go FIRST to the openSUSE
documentation…and, to the net for more generic info…

wait, i’ve written all this before–for a list of openSUSE specific
and generic linux info available for free, see: http://tinyurl.com/ybklh48

CAREFUL with buying dead trees and ink touting The One Stop Route to
all Linux Knowledge and similar book…most (not all) will base on
one distro, as it is today…and will soon be out of date…on the
other hand one i bought in '97 or '98 (and weighs a ton) is still
great…but, only for generic use…

all you need is time…suggestion: take small bites and chew well
before turning the page.

oh, one last thing: in many many (maybe most) cases your experience
with that other system might be more of a hindrance than a foundation
you can build on…see here, for example: http://tinyurl.com/8b9s6

TaraIkeda · June 12, 2010, 1:11am

I say start off simple and read beginners guides and wikis, don’t complicate things

zxy · June 12, 2010, 5:40am

By reading those documents, I’ve got a better idea of how to go about learning Linux and becoming a useful part of the community. Thanks for the responses.

I’ll be over in the corner reading.

GregBrannon · June 12, 2010, 1:13pm

What’s a “white hat hobby?” I’m not familiar with that phrase?

ken_yap · June 12, 2010, 2:11pm

You might want to try studying for the LPIC exams even if you don’t actually take the exams. There are various self-training materials you can download, even a live DVD that contains Debian and Fedora for practice.

DenverD · June 13, 2010, 9:00am

GregBrannon wrote:
> What’s a “white hat hobby?” I’m not familiar with that phrase?

in the old/early dayz of hollywood, they made a lot of “cowboy movies”
in which the bad guys wore black hats and the good guys white…

in the computer age there are programmers called ‘hackers’ and others
termed ‘crackers’, it is generally agreed that ‘hackers’ are good guys
(and therefore wear white hats)…

though, unfortunately the news media is not smart enough to catch the
distinction and therefore award what should be a good label (hacker)
to scum of the earth types who get kicks by propagating malware or
cracking movies, music, games and etc in order to steal and illegally
distribute them…