My 1000th post. What I have learned?

[soulestream]

Probably not much , but other people are doing so I am too.

1. Read. Read all the docs, books, posts, man pages, and wiki's you can get your hands on. Most questions you can answer yourself and you are more likely to remember how to do it next time. Even if you don't use gentoo, their docs are awesome.

2. Choose a distro and stick with it. Some people think reinstalling, changing distros, trying every new distro on the block is a good idea, its NOT. Learn about a distro. Listen to what other people say, figure out how that distro installs software, how much support you can get, and is it popular enough for you to find answers. Places like here and distrowatch.org are a great place to start.

3. Hardware is kernel specific. Just because Fedora, Slackware, or whatever didnt detect your network card on install doesnt mean it doesn't work on that distro. If it works on one, it will work on any. You just might have to manually install it.

4. Command line is your freind, learn it now. No matter what distro you choose, the command line is always the same (mostly). If you learn how to mount a drive in one distro from command line, you have learned it on all of them.

5. Noob, is a stupid word. When asking questions remember that "noob" is a relative term. Do you have alot of computer experience. Do you know what a Hard Drive is? Do you have common sense? A noob might be someone who is installing Linux who has only used a PC for 6 months or a noob might be a 15 year windows/novell admin who just started using Linux after using Unix for the last 6 months.

6. Be patient. Take you time, search for answers, and dont make posts like "I need help right now" - you won't get any. There are some really helpful and smart people here, but the aren't charging and have their own lives.

7.Live CD's are great. Try them out. Keep a couple around they are great at fixing problems and fixing other OS's too.

8. Search for answers, before you ask. This might go under #1, but I think it deserves its own line. www.google.com/linux. Every help site has a search feature. Odds are you aren't the first person to have your problem. Search the site and google before asking a question. Think about how to word the search. If you don't know how to mount a drive don't go to google and type in "hard drive" it wont help, try "mount drive linux".

9. Linux is not Windows. They don't work the same way. You will have to learn new things and new ways of doing things. Some things work better on windows, some better on linux.

10. Have fun. Linux is an amazing, flexible and quite pretty OS. Remember unless you are reading this before installing your companies server (and you shouldn't be) you are choosing to install linux. Take your time, dont get frustrated.

soule

[dkeav]

good advice, and you put "read" as the first one, lets hope they everyone "reads" that

[Parcival]

Congrats and thank you for your help in the forums.

[mrBen]

Well done for learning in 1000 posts what seems to take some a lifetime

Agreed on all points.

[beetlespace]

What an awsome post and great advice as well!

I need to print this out and frame it!

[Hayl]

My favourite points you made are: 2, 5, 6, and 8.

[cybertron]

Join Date: Sep 2004
Location: too close to graceland
Posts: 999

Methinks someone is playing fast and loose with your post count.

Anyway, congrats. I'm always amused by people who use noob in their username. It's kind of like putting the year you registered after your username. What do you do next year when that's out of date? Start a new user?

[JayMan8081]

Those are all great points. I think 2 is one of the most important ones I have learned for at work where everyone has their own flavor of Linux that they like and are good with. Many a pointless argument would be ended if everyone involved held that view.

[soulestream]

Methinks someone is playing fast and loose with your post count.

Hmm, i was on 999 when I posted this. Maybe the linux gods were making a joke (or a point)

soule

[JayMan8081]

Well now you are at 1000 anyway and your post will show that you are now above 1000 so only a few people would have known you weren't at 1000 when you made the post if cybertron hadn't put it in his post. Oh well, I guess that just how things work out.

[JamminJoeyB]

Congrats on the 1000 and good advice to everyone trying linux.

Now if I could only get to 1000. Maybe a bunch of posts in /dev/random line Blackbelt Jones will help

[seldomseen]

Good list there. Sticking with a distro? I guess I have, to a degree. Used Kanotix/Debian Sid as my main system for about a year (after periods with Fedora and Mepis), and switched to Vector a couple of months ago 'cause I wanted something a little more solid as my mission-critical system, and I always did like Vec. Reckon I'm staying with that.

My main unit has four distros on it, plus W***ows 98 on a 4GB partition -- that's all Bill G. gets. Vector is the one I boot into most of the time, when I want to get work done. The other distros are there for experiments, and those change all the time. Those are the systems I break, rebuild, and play with. So, yeah, one can stick with one distro while penguin-hopping.

[Parcival]

Hmm, i was on 999 when I posted this.

I'm 100% sure that the first time I read this thread you had 1'000 post. Usually post counts decrease when a post or a thread is deleted but I can't remember anything special happening as of late (except for the mail script).

Oh, and the best way to get posts is being a mod. It took me two years to reach 1'000, but only half a year to add 500.

[tlyons]

Congrats on the 1000 and good advice to everyone trying linux.

Now if I could only get to 1000. Maybe a bunch of posts in /dev/random line Blackbelt Jones will help

Put your 2 cents into solving other people's questions for a day or two, and you could easily knock off a dozen posts or so (you're at 987 as I'm writing this).

- T.

[Hayl]

Now if I could only get to 1000. Maybe a bunch of posts in /dev/random like Blackbelt Jones will help

rofl.... but please no :P