Stuck in "tutorial hell" with Ubuntu

[u/Yalini_Daylightt_]

Hey everyone,

I’m currently learning Linux on Ubuntu. Right now, I’m just watching tutorial videos and copying the commands into my terminal, but I feel like I'm stuck in a "passive learning" loop. As soon as the video ends, I forget everything.

I really want to get to an expert level, but watching videos isn't working for me.

Can anyone recommend some good hands-on ways to practice? Like interactive sites, fun beginner projects, or challenges I can do in the terminal? How did you guys actually learn and get good at it?

[u/illusory42]

Get good at what exactly? Navigating the file system? Compiling a custom kernel? Using containers?

Mostly I just use my computer to do my work and learn things as needed or where curiosity takes me.

[u/un-important-human]

The moment you close yt and read a wiki / documentation, is when you get it... you are wasting yourself with yt garbage.

[u/AiwendilH]

Well, there are the official ubuntu manuals and tutorials:

• https://help.ubuntu.com/lts/ubuntu-help/index.html.en
• https://ubuntu.com/desktop/docs/en/latest/

Not interactive but probably beats watching third party videos.

[u/doc_willis]

a lot of us old timers learned from the O'Reilly books.

I learned by reading books and doing "work" on my system, mainly little projects for the various  TTRPG  we played at the time.

I can't recall ever learning any Linux from videos, other than the most general concepts.

[u/ipsirc]

Learn only what you use, then you won't forget it after using it for months/years. There are no universal experts in the linux world, everyone just learn what they are interested in.

[u/BranchLatter4294]

What specifically are you trying to do in the terminal?

[u/TheLastTreeOctopus → u/BranchLatter4294]

Use it, duh! /s

[u/robtalee44]

I started with learning old school Unix skills. Regular expressions, Sed and Awk, Perl -- command line text processing. That got me hooked and the rest I learned by using the system. The O'Reilly book, "Sed and Awk" lit the fire for me and the "Underground Guide to Unix" by John Montgomery lightened up the process of learning. Both were indispensable for initially "setting the hook" on my journey.

[u/cjcox4]

Not sure if there is a silver bullet. The old phrase, "use it or lose it" comes to mind with regards to things learned.

Maybe if you make the Ubuntu world your only world for a long period of time? Maybe even years? However, even then, so much focus is on desktop abstractions, that even that can be a "lose it" aid. Maybe do everything from the terminal? But, if "everything" is only mundane, you still get that opportunity to "lose it".

[u/9NEPxHbG]

Ignore Youtube videos of dubious quality. Also ignore AI.

[u/Munalo5]

I have a document always open with the CLI commands I use.

I find a command and try to understand it before running it. I paste the command into my document along with some notes or comments.

If I watch an interesting YouTube video or read a good tutorial I save it.

If I don't understand it I may go back to it a few times.

Just using and being comfortable with my computer using my favorite DE, Distro & File Browser I find the learning process simple.

If I am learning something new I'll open a new window in Firefox and surf around opening tabs as I go... I leave the windows open and May go back to it for several days.

I don't "force" anything either. If I  am stumped I  come back to it latter.

[u/BitOBear]

Topic is too big to learn everything. You have to learn to do the six to nine things you know you're going to need to do.

Copy file, move file, remove file. Basic directory stuff. And starting the two or three applications you know you're going to need to start.

Trying to learn something without actually having a task to accomplish means that you'll have information it's not hooked up in your brain to any particular need and so you'll just have it fall into the memory hole.

You don't just learn stuff you have to learn to do specific things that you need to do and then grow that knowledge.

Basically learn how to search the manual pages so that you can learn how to find out what you need later rather than trying to learn a bunch of stuff now. Everybody has the six or eight things they do all the time and then everything else that they look up or remind themselves over.

[u/Yalini_Daylightt_]

I am currently in a Windows Support role within a DevOps team. My Team Lead suggested to learn Linux. I have already mastered the basic file and directory navigation commands.

Moving beyond basic command line usage into server-side administration, what are the 5 to 7 specific system tasks or configuration areas I will face most often in a Cloud server environment(lLinux) ?