How hard is it to learn Linux? I want to switch to Linux but I don’t think I have the time to learn it.

You need time so if you don't have any I'd suggest sticking with Windows or dual booting. If you go into Linux with the mindset that you don't want to put any time in to learning anything then you won't learn anything and you will just get pissed off.

I agree with Crashed, read the different threads here and see what is going on with other people. I did not have any problems loading up RH 7.3 on my computer. Then I found this and other sites and started reading the threads and trying different things out. If you don't have time, linux might not be best for you right now.
Good luck, and if you have any specific questions, post them here.

So you have not found it to be too difficult or anything, just more of a time commitment?

Thanks for the replies and help! I'll keep looking into it and may have more annoying, newbie-type questions in the future.

It will seem more difficult when you first start, because almost EVERYTHING will be new. But once you get the hang of it, you'll see that the unix method of doing this is much more logical.

For example, while /bin may make no sense now, you will always know that any directoy called /bin, contains binaries. See, logical.

Yes, its harder and takes more time, but any OS is like that when switching.

And all the commands go together, so once you learn the commands, you will be able to string them together to be able to perform almost any task.

But if you dont have the time, all you will get is frustration.

Just wanted to add my thoughts about the subject. I am still a newbie by all means, but learning more and more. The best way to get into the ways of how linux works a bit by bit is like this:

Set up a system to dual boot with both windows and linux, then set your self goals for what you need(and want) to be functioning proper under linux. This way you learn bit by bit how to do things, and then suddenly one day you find out that you dont need windows anymore, linux can do everything you want.

This revelation at least came to me one day. Hope it will for you as well. Have used linux exclusivly for over a month now

Well enough of my rambling, good luck.

I would say for a someone starting to get into linux try a distorubtion like mandrake or red hat and dual boot. I really didn't the hang of it at first but now I love it. You also get into a linux mindset. Like the other day I was using a windows machine and I was in dos for some reason and I wanted to get back to the C: drive so I typed cd / (root directory, linux equivilent of c. Also if your not ready yet try knoppix Read the intructions there for burning to an iso to a cd and you have an entire linux filesystem that boots entirely from a cd. Its neat.

Satwar~

I agree with every one here. I would just start off with a dual boot between a 'friendly' distribution like RedHat, Mandrake, Suse, and I'm sure a host of others.

Linux isn't as much of a time commitment as it is a time investment. You could just use the gui for everything, and you would find that a distribution like Red Hat operates like a 'weird' windows. If you choose to invest some time into learning how to use linux, you'll find that using it will start saving you time.

Unix-like systems such as linux will afford you the opportunity to cut out repetetive tasks by writing scripts to do the for you, and they are surprisingly easy to write. Definitely give linux a shot, and you won't regret it!

dual booting can be dangerous for a newb. If somehow it fouls up so windows cannot be booted, you would not know how to fix it! I would suggest installing on a sperate machine if available, or, equally good, when you install the dual boot, tell it you want it to make the boot disk and DON'T tell it to mess with installing a boot loader to the hard drive. Usually there will be 3 options:

Install loader to MBR (hard drive, avoid)
Install loader to linux partition (hard drive, avoid)
Neither (It'll ask you for a floppy at some time if not here)

Hmmmmm....

What, exactly, do you mean by wanting "to learn Linux"? That's a loaded question....

@system.... dual boot isn't that difficult. Even if you screw up it's one of the simplest things to solve.

If you end up messing up your MBR you can wipe the MBR easily. Boot to DOS using a floppy or a boot CD, and type fdisk /mbr at the prompt

easy peasy

I'm only just starting to learn linux now. I have had distros in the past but was too attached to windows back then. I now have mandrake 9.1 installed and it's fun trying to get everything sorted. It's not easy, but that's what these forums are for...

I rarely access windows now. I just got my boot sorted... just about I think...

Regards

If you ever get stuck where the boot loader doesn't work and you don't have a boot disk, you'll be in a position I found myself in

If you install the loader on the hdd, make sure you have a Windows emergency boot disk and you write "fdisk /mbr" on it!

Thats exactly what i did, I installed Mandrake , on my old winyuk system and screwed around for 3 months or so like an hour a day, then made a dual boot with 98, then bought RH, and now I use my windows system strictly for gaming and use my Linux system mostly for browsing and other stuff, I hardly know anything about Linux like commands but i got it to work with my dsl, my printer, and installed it with no problems at all by myself, once you get linux up and running its way better than windows, No blue screen of death, no illegal program crap, no lockups at all its unbelievable that windows is such crap but its the most widely used. Hopefully Linux will become more user friendly.

Download a CD-based linux distro or demos, burn it, boot from it, learn it.

www.linuxiso.org

I like Knoppix and SuSE live eval ;-)

Well, I started out with RedHat. Stick to the graphical interface the first while. If you don't have any idea about UNIX, i'd suggest you buy a UNIX book.