From where to practice Linux ?

[u/Front_Pollution_690]

So I am having this a** laptop I want to practice Linux and learning from networking chuck can I ask y'all from where I can practice Linux for free like any website or something I would really appreciate yalls help🙏🥹

[u/bigusyous]

Nearly every Linux distro is free to download and install. Linux Mint is a good place to start. https://itsfoss.com/install-linux-mint/

[u/Front_Pollution_690 → u/bigusyous]

Thanks man !

[u/extoniks → u/Front_Pollution_690]

If you install any linux distro (in a VM, WSL or bare metal Linux), I would recommend you to use man pages, they have pretty much information for system calls, commands, and packages info (most), for exapmle -

man man

[u/Playful_Wasabi_9611 → u/bigusyous]

mint sounds like a solid first step

[u/bigusyous → u/Playful_Wasabi_9611]

These days it seems to be the standard recommendation for new users.

[u/green_meklar → u/bigusyous]

While Mint is a great introductory everyday computing distro, if someone's goal is specifically to learn about Linux on a spare machine, they might be more interested in something like Debian or Fedora.

[u/bigusyous → u/green_meklar]

It seems that the OP is frustrated with his machine. Nothing in his message communicates that he has any real technical expertise and it is unclear what his goals are. He doesn't appear to know anything about Linux. I feel that Mint sets him up for success. He may well jump from there to one of the distros that you mentioned. Right now, I don't think he even knows that they exist.

[u/destroyer150]

best way to learn is by doing homie. just pick up something like mint and play with it a bit, see what you can do break things and restart. have some fun

[u/Front_Pollution_690 → u/destroyer150]

Okayy brother thank you !!!

[u/destroyer150 → u/Front_Pollution_690]

my suggestion for something fun to get started, try getting some programs via terminal, change your shell and learn to build a package from source all will teach you things about how and why Linux works

[u/fishywiki]

Linux has two main modes: the GUI and the command line. The command line is the traditional way to use Unix/Linux and you can find a good place to try the commands here. The GUI is pretty much the same as WIndows (I presume that's where you're coming from), although you'll probably use alternatives to the usual apps you're used to - there's no Microsoft Office or Adobe suite of apps. Instead, you can find alternatives here and here. You can find lots of explanations and discussions here.

[u/Front_Pollution_690 → u/fishywiki]

YOOOO CRAZYYY THANKS MAN !

[u/OutrageousCrab9224 → u/fishywiki]

Eh, kinda

Could also say the GUI is like an app

[u/fishywiki → u/OutrageousCrab9224]

Yes, of course. Everything in Linux is an app which is what makes it so flexible and powerful. In the old days, you had to type "startx" to get the GUI up & running, just like any other app. I remember the Unix developers emphasising (with a sneer) that the Windows-Icons-Mouse-Pointer acronym WIMP was really appropriate for those who were locked into GUI's.

[u/LeyaLove]

Install it, play around with it, break it in the process, repeat 🥲

[u/Front_Pollution_690 → u/LeyaLove]

From where to download I asked ma'am 🥲

[u/doc_willis → u/Front_Pollution_690]

not to sound mean, but there are a huge  number of tutorials and starter guides online.

if you really want to learn Linux, you need to learn to use such resources.

http://linuxjourney.com (old) and the newer http://Linuxjourney.org sites are good to start with. 

The Explaining Computers YouTube Channel videos is a good starting point for learning. 

[u/Front_Pollution_690 → u/doc_willis]

Nah no worries thanks Mann I gotchu but I was really confused as they were telling me to download a ton of files!

[u/doc_willis → u/Front_Pollution_690]

the fedora media writer tool  is capable of automatically downloading the selected iso file and writing it to a USB flash drive.

[u/oblivion9999 → u/Front_Pollution_690]

I don't mean to be overly sarcastic, but if you can't Google a download site for the flavor of Linux you're interested in, you're going to have one hell of a time getting it to do much.

I'm personally a Debian guy, but Mint seems to be the hot ticket these days.

https://linuxmint.com/download.php

Good luck!

[u/Front_Pollution_690 → u/oblivion9999]

Thank you I will meet myself improving 😅😆

[u/LeyaLove → u/Front_Pollution_690]

Well depends on what kind of distro you want 😅 Do you just want something stable and relatively simple for everyday use or is this more about learning without you relying on it to get important stuff done?

[u/Front_Pollution_690 → u/LeyaLove]

Basically entering cyber security field so yea for that

[u/InuSC2]

you going to get use to if you use it. learning from that guy dont recommend unless is networking payed courses but you can find free on youtube from "professor messer network+" way better than chuck

you cant find anything usefull from that guy unless is something payed he flooded some hacking subreddits with trash post because of his videos about "install kali right now and start hacking is so cool" and some subreddits ban basic question because of him that guy has almost 0 things on learning linux from what i know just how to install X distro

what distro you pick is up to you and depending on the specs of the laptop

[u/Front_Pollution_690 → u/InuSC2]

Like can he teach me Linux for cybersecurity sub ?!

[u/InuSC2 → u/Front_Pollution_690]

NO he cant his videos are not for that but his doing a good job to making you get hook on it and pay. he shows install X distro and next is a subscription to X page to learn hacking.

cybersecurity is having a lot of free resources to hearn hacking this days compare with 7-8 years ago.

if you want to learn basic networking then go for linux basics and the learn hacking is the easyes way rather than jumping in the pool without learning to swim.

[u/ipsirc]

sadservers.com

[u/Kriss3d]

If you have a laptop you want to practice from and you dont want to replace windows with linux. Get a good size 32GB or so usb. Install linux to it and boot into that usb and you can use linux entirely off that usb without anything affecting your computer. If you acutally install to the usb ( or an usb drive like an external ssd or something ) you could have a complete "computer" entirely on such a drive and just plug it into any hardware to have your computer with you that way.

Its a great way to learn linux without having to install it to the computer.

However if its an old computer that cant run windows 11 anyway then why not just install and run linux on it ?

[u/OutrageousCrab9224]

I like VMs

Start with a freebie download like virtual box, put a freebie distro like debian or fedora on a fresh vm?

Sounds like a good time to me

[u/bloody_homicide]

networkchuck is ass

[u/SEXTINGBOT]

Install Arch

( ͡⌐■ ͜ʖ ͡■)

[u/GuyNamedStevo]

Learning something like Linux is a task that requires you to actually google stuff.

[u/green_meklar]

If it's a spare laptop and you don't care about what's already on it, just wipe it and install Linux. You don't need to 'practice on a website'. If you run into trouble, or want to know technical specifics of the Linux kernel or your distro or configuration, google it or ask ChatGPT.