I remember the first time I lay my hand on a keyboard with Linux on board about 6years ago. I can still remember the excitement looking at the monitor with different looks.
Like all the version of Windows I have tried 95,98,Me and XP, each level upgrade really excite me just only by looking how it install and reading the new features it says while installing. Its the same feeling just add nervous. I am at my first work and it is Fedora Core, not sure about the version. Though I did not work long enough to learn more because of project shift.
The next time I encounter Linux as a direct user and administrator was less than 3years ago. I am working on Asterisk on a console mode on one of the computer and a Windows XP on the other. I have no books about it, I have dial-up internet connection from home which I use for searching about everything about Linux and download those files and update with it.
With a limited resource, I learned to install almost everything from a console, reading documents such as README for installing instructions. I learn how to untar (unzip/extract) files. And the first one I learn is how to extract and compile PHP from source, though I find it hard back then enabling the right extension to include, it really pays the experience as some more application was required to install later which I find much more like they are using same steps as a generic step for installing software, and It is the standard which I have confirm.
This gives me a hard time finding the applications dependencies, I google on finding the source for each dependencies compiling them and even much harder was the conflict of versions. I walk on this path long enough, enough for me to learn from the base before I was introduce to YUM.
It was CentOS server. I desperately watch yum install the application I needed, doing everything automatically including finding all dependencies and updating everything as needed. That time, I said, its like working on a square wheel and to find out that there is already a circle wheel that is being used by everybody else, wow WTF. Its a good memory after all.
Someone will find Linux a very not intuitive OS, specially if they will be looking and working on a console and if the person is born and learn from MS Windows environment to mention a resource for learning and training is limited.
My path on learning Linux maybe rough, but now I know that I walked on the right path after all.
