What are the good ways to learn Linux for beginners?

[roggy]

I want to move some sites from shared hosting accounts to VPS packages or higher levels such as dedicated servers or cloud hosting, but that is requiring me to have good knowlege about Linux OS. My question is, what are the good ways to learn linux for beginners?

 

[Rob Whisonant]

Moving sites does not require you to learn Linux. Yes it's nice to know. But... Sounds more like you need to learn how to move sites from one server to another using cpanel/whm instead.

 

[Mike001]

Many of the hosting providers now have tools on the cPanel for the site that can automate many of the aspects of moving a site for you.

Have you checked with your hosting provider? Many times their customer support, if they have a decent one, and that is becoming harder and harder to find, will assist you in moving the site. This is especially true if you are moving to a new hosting provider. Moving your site can be a part of the initial configuration that the provider provides.

Linux is a command line OS, and it is great to learn but unless you are really into learning the intricacies of an OS it can be a challenge. There is a lot to it. I would never discourage anyone from learning anything that they really want to learn but for the reason that you stated it may not be necessary.

Understanding the basics of Linux (Unix) is always good to know as a web site owner. There are some things that you can do for security on your site that are command line driven that can really help protect your files and directory structure that go beyond your typical .htaccess file.

There are ways to setup a Linux virtual box on your PC that can help you learn if that is the route you want to take. There are many different ways that it can be done, all you need to do is google .... "create a linux virtual machine"

That would be the simplest and safest way to get comfortable with the OS before jumping into the command line on your web server. Let's be honest, it is much better to make a mistake on a virtual machine where these is no impact, then on your web host where you could lose all your work.

One of the biggest things I stress to my students in class when working with Unix, there are no "Are you Sure?" message boxes when they issue a command. Once it is written and executed, it assumes you know what you are doing, and completes the command.

There is no "UNDO" in a command line OS. Unless of course you have a complete backup of the system prior to the command, which most of us fail to do, myself included.....

It has bitten me in the butt a few times.

 

[Alex Thompson]

I want to move some sites from shared hosting accounts to VPS packages or higher levels such as dedicated servers or cloud hosting, but that is requiring me to have good knowlege about Linux OS. My question is, what are the good ways to learn linux for beginners?

Hey Roggy,

If you want to learn Linux or gaining your knowledge about web hosting then this hosting forum http://forumweb.hosting/ is a great place to start

There are many good hosting providers there and they are ready to help you on your questions.

In other words, you can use search engines to find specific hosting tutorials if needed. I often use both methods to learn web hosting

Hope it helps!

~Alex

 

[mellisas]

You can simply ask your hosting provider to do migration for you because if you are not aware of linux command line then its always better to avoid such critical work because it will cause you problem in future after migration.

To learn linux commands simple install vitual box on your local machine and create linux vm's start learning linux command and once you expert to execute linux command on test server then you can work on live server.

 

[Rob Whisonant]

Now if you want to learn Linux anyway, here is how I learned. If you don't know DOS this may not work for you.

I learned like I was learning a new language to speak.

I took a DOS command and then researched how to do it in Linux. For example, the DOS dir command list the contents of a directory. In Linux you use the ls command to list the contents of a directory.

Just cross reference each command in DOS to one in Linux and you will then be able to do "simple" things in Linux.

As you need to do something new, research and learn how to do that specific task.

Over time you will be a Linux guru.

 

[Mike001]

Rob, your giving away your age, most people hear have probably never heard of DOS. It is amazing though, when I was learning UNIX I did the same process you did and even built a cheat sheet that I use to carry around with me.

It worked really well for me also, and after a few months I was as comfortable, if you can ever really call using command line comfortable, with using the UNIX Commands as I had been with the DOS Commands.

Now the only time I ever get to see a prompt is using php artisan or GIT Hub. The days of the command line are rapidly closing. It is a shame too, because it was so much faster to get things done....

 

[Rob Whisonant]

Rob Whisonant

lol... With age comes experience. or is it, with age come senility?

I agree 100% that DOS was an amazing OS. It was simple and easy to use.

I'll show my age just a little more. I started programming back around 1972. No monitor. Just a teletype style device for input and output. We use to design some crazy ASCII art.

 

[Mike001]

I believe it is the latter.... LOL.

DOS was an amazing OS and oh so stable. What happened to those days.

My first computer was a timex sinclair, I still have it and the Commodore Amiga, Commodore 64, VIC 20, Apple IIe and an Apple IIC. Then I moved to the TRS-80 series. I even had a LISA and a NEXT, wish I still had those, they may be worth some money. Lost them in a fire when I was living in Alaska.

I saved all my old systems and have a little museum in my college classroom. To include the tape drives, Apple dou-disk, floppy drives, even an Imagewriter II printer.

My first programming language was Fortran on Hollerith cards, you probably remember those too. Things were so much different then. These guys today have no idea how easy they have it.

I remember the old ASCII art and the neat things we would print for the holidays. We thought that was something else. I still have a box of fan fold tractor feed paper in my office closet. I don't know why I save it, can't use it in anything anymore, probably for the nostalgia.

I started in the early 70's too.

It is nice to look back and think of where we have come just in our lifetimes. Can you imagine 50 years from now. When I look back on the last 30 it is amazing.....

 

[Rob Whisonant]

Rob Whisonant

Now that is a walk down memory lane. I believe our past pretty much paralleled each others.

My favorite was the C64. In fact I use to run a users group called "Lords of Basic" back in the VIC 20 and C64 days. We advertised it in all the major computer magazines back then.

 

[Mike001]

I think your right, are backgrounds sound very similar.

I also really enjoyed the C64, when I was in college I was part of a Dungeon and Dragons gaming group. When the Temple of Apshai was released for the C64 I was hooked even though it took my tape drive over 45 minutes to load that goofy game.

I think my favorite computer from all the older ones, was the Apple IIgs. That computer was the first real graphics computer and actually started the trend to some really good UI and productivity software for the home user.

I will look through some of my old magazines and if I find one of your ads I will scan it and send it to you. I have boxes of those old magazines laying around.

 

[Rob Whisonant]

Rob Whisonant

If you find one, please do send it to me. It would be near the back and would be a 1/8 page ad.

 

[roggy]

Moving sites does not require you to learn Linux. Yes it's nice to know. But... Sounds more like you need to learn how to move sites from one server to another using cpanel/whm instead.

Yes it can happen if I used a managed hosting but you still need to learn Linux commands to install cPanel/whm and control it if you are using an unmanaged hosting service.
When I have my sites on an unmanaged VPS, many tasks I might need to use commands because its more convenient than using hosting panels.

Hey Roggy,

If you want to learn Linux or gaining your knowledge about web hosting then this hosting forum http://forumweb.hosting/ is a great place to start

There are many good hosting providers there and they are ready to help you on your questions.

In other words, you can use search engines to find specific hosting tutorials if needed. I often use both methods to learn web hosting

Hope it helps!

~Alex

Thanks I will check it out.
Hosting forums are one of good sources to learn web hosting but since they are just for promoting hosting packages I rarely visited them in the past.

You can simply ask your hosting provider to do migration for you because if you are not aware of linux command line then its always better to avoid such critical work because it will cause you problem in future after migration.

I want to control whole hosting server by myself which has more advantage than using a shared account.

To learn linux commands simple install vitual box on your local machine and create linux vm's start learning linux command and once you expert to execute linux command on test server then you can work on live server.

What are vitual box and linux vm on my machine?
it is better to hiring a VPS and do some practice with Linux before applying to my real VPS?

 

[Rob Whisonant]

Rob Whisonant

You should of mentioned you where going to use "unmanaged" hosting in your initial post.

I have both managed and unmanaged servers. Have installed many Linux distributions and LAMP installs. Lot's of tutorials on the net that can walk you through it.

If you want to do it all old school, you don't even need cpanel/whm at all.

 

[UWH-David]

I am right there with you Rob. Started off with DOS, read the complete DOS6 bible when I was a kid and created a lot of customized boot menus, boot disks and a million ways to squeeze a few K more just to play a new game. Got into Linux in the early days as a young adult!

OP: Have you considered a free control panel which automates a lot of this for you? zPanel, CentOS Web Panel or Sentora for example? CentOS Web Panel looks pretty damn promising with cPanel migration, CloudLinux, CSF, Varnish, Nginx, Roundcube, and Softaculous support. I am really tempted to install it onto a few of our VPSs myself.