It is usually said locally that to become a man is not a day job – so it in becoming a Linux user. Here we’ve compiled five good points that would get you as close to becoming that Linux pro user that we know you’d like to be.
LINUX BOOKS AND TUTORIALS:
Becoming a better Linux user takes effort which includes reading! There are hundreds of books out there that would make your Linux experience pleasant and your journey to becoming a Linux pro easy. You have to LEARN, LERARN and LEARN – there is no other substitute. The wonderful thing is that there no lack of good Linux books out there to welt your appetite in this regard. Some good ones to start with include the following; free software free society (by GNU press), Just for fun (Linus Torvalds and David Diamond), using Linux (Jack tackett and Steve Burnett), Linux complete command reference (J. Purcell for REDHAT Inc.), Command Line (FLOSS manuals), and Linux system programming (Robert Love). And there are many websites that shouldn’t be left out in this quest, a little googling would solve that, starting from FossNaija.
PRACTICE:
In a popular way it is usually said that practice makes perfect, but I tell you continuous practice makes you remain perfect. This is the ultimate goal of every Linux user. It is a requirement by the OS itself, being an open source project, that you can tinker with and learn new things about it in the process. And there is never an end to how much you could learn in the process, since thousands of developers are working tirelessly to add new features to the OS every day. So for a Linux user to be technically useful for himself and the entire Linux community. Either through finding bugs, suggesting new features, or contributing code. Another important aspect is the fact that Linux is majorly a system that involves the use of commands for optimum productivity (irrespective of the highly polished and intuitive graphical desktop environments that are bundled with many distros today). So a Linux user have to be familiar with these commands by using them constantly (I would recommend daily). This is how great Linux power users around the world became what they are today – not by magic but by this simple principle.
SHARE YOUR IDEAS
This is another very important point as you consider your becoming a better Linux user. It is usually said that it is better to eat among many where the food is little than in a house with abundance alone. The import of that is that sharing your ideas and experience (happy or sad) as regard Linux use would make the journey worthwhile. It is beautiful when you see how well people around the world are developing Linux to satisfy their varying taste. This is a philosophy that is among what gave rise to the development of the operating system in the first place and what is still sustaining its existence – that is the ‘openness’ that deserve to be shared. And there many forums, social media platforms, IRC channels on the Internet for this.
LINUX PROJECTS:
People that are new to Linux can easily be discouraged, especially those that are migrating from a proprietary OS like windows. Engaging in Linux projects (as little as they may be) would spark curiosity and dedication to the Linux experience. It is interesting to know that there are many projects that a user can participate in or even create (start). When some people hear of “FOSS projects” they suddenly get apprehensive thinking that it’s only people with advance programming skills that can contribute to FOSS. Whether we are advance programmers or not we can create our own projects built around the open source ideology. For instance you can decide to use only FOSS apps – writing articles with LibreOffice Writer, editing pictures with GIMP, and so on. Doing this would make you, first of all, appreciative of the extensive features of the apps and in the long run find out new features that could be added to the app. You could either report this to the developer or if you have got the skills do it yourself, before you know it you have ventured into a FOSS project circle. And there are many apps out for you to lay your hands on.
FOSS ROLE MODELS
There are many FOSS programmers, developers, engineers, activists advocates and more that are involved in the success of the OS. Getting to know them, their background and what they’re contributing now to the FOSS community can go a long way to inspiring you. Prominent among them are Linus Torvalds, Richard Stallman, Alan Cox, etc.
NEWS SITES:
Just like the combination of number 3 and 5, for you to know and always be updated in events that are happening in the world of Linux you have to look for medium to get this news. The Internet not also lacking in this capacity, is populated many sites (including FossNaija) that you can subscribe to for free through newsletters, RSS feds etc. to keep yourself up dated. As an updated knowledge is the only relevant knowledge.
With all these thoughts in mind you will have a less turbulent trip towards becoming a Linux pro.
Happy linux’NG
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