I get the feeling that as a mac user, I've been spoiled with convenience and friendly interfaces, but now I'm planning to switch to Linux. The question I have is, what do need to know? I get the feeling that learning Bash is pretty essential, but what else? I really want to know what is going on behind the curtains and learn Linux from the ground up. So where should I start?
JACKd aka JACK Audio Daemon is like soundflower for MacOS. Jack is your best friend if you learn to use it and if you are into music or audio production. If you are, I recommend installing Ardour DAW and Audacious. LMMS and Rosegarden are nice too.
Wait, audio and music? I think you might be in the wrong thread.
you did say Mac to Linux. Most common user of MacOS is Audio production and Video Production
Oh, sorry. I misunderstood. But I'm not really asking about specific programs to use, but rather how to understand Linux as a whole. Like learning the jargon of Linux, and if there are any programming/scripting languages I will need to know other then bash.
Python is good to know. as well as basic shell scripting.
Ok, I've heard python being mention before in context with Linux. I'll check it out.
Things needed to know in the transition:
- A lot more consolework (terminals will be your friends).
- Bash is mainly C, and some environments use Python as a side of scripting.
- Basic Jargon would go for tty (console), X (short for Xorg, most of the times...), Distribution (who you prefer for the GNU/Linux pre-configuration) Display Manager (What comes first when starting X the easy way, much like a login but through an X display), Desktop/Window Environment (What comes after the login in X.), and sometimes mounting (since some drive formats and hardware like to derp).
- Depending on your Distribution, is as how you'll do the first bullet. You'll also need to learn the specific commands to each distribution, like apt-get or pacman or yum or even... Well, wget and gcc compiling at times.
- GNU/Linux gets confused with only mentioning the Kernel (Linux), which is each time a stab on the gut to Stallman.
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Bash (like you mentioned) would be good to learn, a text editor like vim is also essential.
I have a question though: Are you installing it on your exsisting mac, or are you installing it on a regular PC?
I'm planing on building a PC when I can afford it. I'll keep OS X on my laptop for now. I have a few old macs I plan on experimenting with Linux on.
Great explanation! I didn't know python was used that way, nor the similarities between bash and C, I'll have to look into it. tnx
Although its inner workings are easily but superficially explained with examples on a page written in the 2000, this is the simplest I've found: http://tldp.org/HOWTO/Bash-Prog-Intro-HOWTO.html
Well, it's a good start. I also just realised I have an old book on Linux my uncle gave me a long time ago, 'using linux, 5th edition', from year 2000. I have a lot of reading to do.
If you have some spare gigs you can run a virtual machine using https://www.virtualbox.org to try it out. It saves you the trouble of messing with boot loaders and all that jazz. Most distributions have instructions on how to install them virtually. It usually requires some guest additions to make the integration more seamless.
There's actually a fully unix compliant system under that fancy GUI you're already used to. You already have access to most of the tooling you have on a linux box it just hidden for novice users. If you want a package manager, check out http://brew.sh. Want to run some vagrant boxes?... http://vagrantmanager.com. Window management and other automation scripting: https://github.com/sdegutis/mjolnir. Mouse and key binding: http://boastr.de. What more do you need?
Well, I still want to support open-source, but it's true I can brush up on my unix skills via the laptop I already own. Thanks for the links anyway, will check them out.
Ok, if your only goal is to learn linux as a desktop, then just install linux and you will figure it out along the way with no issues.
If you want to eventually make your own apps and essentially become a linux developer, then yeah, python, bash, and C/C++/C#.
Some of the stuff Linux users utilize should already be available to you on Mac, since the software is opensource you may only have a few compatibility issues. Bash and GCC will help you transition to linux, also Xorg is semi-useful to learn if you ever need to mess with it, but it will soon be replaced. GRUB is a very useful thing to learn about as you will most likely have to mess with it at some point, creating a GRUB rescue CD would be optimal. CUPS is also used for printing as in Macs and audio is handled with ALSA. ctrl+alt+t will start a terminal session (I use this constantly, no tab for drop-down terminal here) and ctrl+alt+fkeys will cycle through tty sessions and provide a terminal session if stuff breaks (probably X). Magic sysrq keys are pretty useful if you don't mind memorizing them, don't mind the complicated ones. Also be comfortable with compiling from source, as you will probably do that alot if you like installing things.
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This is definitely the kind of answer I was looking for, thanks. Btw, when will Wayland replace Xorg? Does anyone even know?
It's anyone's guess at this point. Wayland and Mir seem like good alternatives, so it will probably be only a matter of time as X can be buggy and difficult at times. Wendell is even experimenting with Mir and Ubuntu on his surface pro, I think he even has a video on Mir that will be released in due time.