Need #Linux Help!
For a layperson comfortable enough with tech (& grew up typing prompts into DOS), but with ZERO experience using Linux - what are the basics I need to know in order to switch?
I'm especially interested in:
• How to keep using all/most of my current #Windows-based software (an expensive investment - many of which are no longer in production)
• How to interface with peripherals (3D printers, Synology, Blu-Ray drives, etc)
• What you wish you knew before you made the switch
It's great that you already are comfortable with the commandline! almost anything can be run and configured from there.
- Cmdline switches/params are prefixed with "-" or even "--" instead of "/".
- Many commands allow long and short forms and combinations of switches, e.g. "ls -ad" instead of "ls --all --directory"
- The commands' help ("manual"/"man) pages are usually quite helpful, call them with "man <command>". A more concise version is often available with "<command> ---help". You can have several "registers" of manpages (e.g. for configuration file syntax vs commandline switches) that can be referred to as numbers in calling the manpage, so when you miss some information in the default manpage, check if the command has a manpage in another "register". At the bottom manpages usually have examples and references to related manpages. And "apropos keyword" lists manpages related to keyword.
- see @b0rk 's mega terminal cheat sheet: https://wizardzines.com/terminal-cheat-sheet-one-page.pdf
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- unfreeze commandline with ctrl-q (I keep forgetting that. When you accidentally hit ctrl-s in a terminal window, you suspend the window and need to unfreeze it like this.)
Helpful web resources:
- For all kinds of configuration (peripherals!), the #Archlinux online docs and wiki are really excellent, and in many cases apply to other distributions just as well. (The arch community can be a bit "rtfm" but you can consult the docs without exposing yourself to that. And insofar as the docs are really good, they do often have a point there.) The distro itself might be a bit too technical for beginners as it requires you to learn and control many technicalities from the outset.
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