Introduction

Welcome!

Hi there. Congratulations on being interested enough in the process of learning about Linux to have gotten your hands on this book.

If you haven’t guessed already, this will be a journey of discovery for both of us. I have ‘played’ with computers and Linux for many years, but I always felt like something was missing. So I have decided to write a book about Linux commands and the philosophy behind them to help my understanding and hopefully yours as well. I know that this sort of effort has been done already by others, but I think that it’s useful for people to have options :-).

Like other books I have written (or are in the process of writing) they will remain a work in progress. They are living documents, open to feedback, comment, expansion, change and improvement. Please feel free to provide your thoughts on ways that I can improve things. Your input would be much appreciated.

I’m sure most authors try to be as accessible as possible. I’d like to do the same, but be warned… There’s a good chance that if you ask me a technical question I may not know the answer. So please be gentle with your emails :-).

Email: d3noobmail+jelinux@gmail.com

Who is this book for?

You!

Just by virtue of taking an interest and getting hold of a copy of this book you have demonstrated a desire to learn, to explore and to challenge yourself. That’s the most important criteria you will want to have when trying something new. Your experience level will come second place to a desire to learn.

Having said that, you will need access to a Linux command line somewhere. This could mean that you stand up your own with a Raspberry Pi (My recommendation) or you could run a Linux server as a virtual machine under another operating system. Failing that you could boot into Linux from a live CD. Sadly I’m not going to go through how you accomplish this part of the equation, but feel free to check out ‘Just Enough Raspberry Pi’ for some inspiration.

The best thing to remember is that before you learn anything new, it pretty much always appears indistinguishable from magic, but once you start having a play, the mystery quickly falls away.