What's the best place for learning how to use Linux?

Not at all. I just fail to see why installing a distro from scratch is considered something good for your mental health, especially since you have a step by step guide to achieving that. Kind of defeats the purpose.
Mrk

 

Again, I am asking myself what you understand by "learning Linux"?

You have to start somewhere. In order to learn something you have to do something. In this case, I had to read about all the things I needed to know in order to install Parabola. What is wrong with using a step-by-step guide and why does it defeat the purpose (of what? Learning?)? Of course, I was not just copying commands but trying to understand what I was doing. That’s why I borrowed books from my library.

Do you learn languages without allowing yourself to use a dictionary? If you don’t consider being able to help yourself manually (like setting up a network, learning commands to find out what’s working and what’s not, et cetera) an advancement over just using a GUI than I might understand what you’re getting at. I don’t think there is just one way of learning whatever you want to learn (often being called the "right way").

What you make of other comments is your thing. No one said it was good for your "mental health". It helped me by learning how to set things up manually. It helped me handling of commands in general (being of use with my RaspberryPi). Unfortunately, I wasn’t born with this kind of knowledge. It’s just a kind of a hobby.

 

That does not mean you learned anything valuable just by having completed a difficult and unneeded task. I've outlined my Linux learning mantra here:
http://netrunner-mag.com/?p=3432

Mrk

 

Depends how well the guides explain why you do each step.
You could learn the same from a ready to roll distro though.

 

Exactly what I meant - the distro choice is irrelevant at best.
Sending a newbie down a long path of typing commands in a terminal. Why?
What's the purpose of the exercise? To learn how to install Linux?
Or to learn what this system can do, and the underlying fundamentals?
Mrk

 

You don’t seem to waste a lot of time on reading closely, Mrk, do you? I have to admit it is getting a bit tiresome and annoying having to correct what you take out of context or read between the lines. No one was "sending a newbie down a long path of typing commands in a terminal." I am a fairly new to Linux myself. I was merely responding on mattdocs12345's post regarding Arch. It lead to an off topic discussion.

As I said before, I want to be able to solve problems. I also said before, that I think one can learn Linux on any distro. Regarding your mantra: It’s all a matter of perspective. Sitting in your ivory tower looking down on the crowd I can understand your position. It must have taken you some time to get up there, I suppose. I am already reading a little on subjects you mention in your article. Maybe I will learn a little more in the future, but I’ll probably never even get close to being an expert. Which is perfectly fine. I never claimed to be an expert or being on a path to getting there. I just claimed to learn a little (as part of a process) which was obviously too much. So let me correct myself, I am fooling around with Linux.

I don’t think there’s only one way of learning Linux ("the right way"), as I mentioned before. Sure, it would be nice to be an expert on all of those things you mention but you’d probably have to study at a university, to even get near there. I am not (and will never be) an IT professional.
I am willing to learn and it is nice to read about different approaches but your monosyllabic comments are rather discouraging. Anyway, nice talking to you!

 

My post was not addressed to you personally - but to all people who equate learning Linux = running a non-newbie distro. That's all.
Mrk

 

Going back again to OPs questions. I think the best way to learn Linux is to start with the easiest distro that has the most online support. Go with Ubuntu or Linux Mint. Go play around with both, see which one you like more.


Yup. I felt disgusted and that overcame my laziness and motivated me to try Linux. Securing XP was going to be a lot harder than going with Linux. I couldn't even install XP on my newer laptops because of some kind of compatibility problem that requires floppy drive, etc to solve. And at the same time Linux is the future and is actively developed while XP, well it is done.

 

I guess this is just another one of those Wilders threads where the OP checks out after the first post while we bicker amongst ourselves over nothing.

 

Yep, looks that way...