My Linux journey started many years ago, and it got off to a really rocky start. I was just beginning to learn how computer hardware went together, and in the process of reviving an old rig that had belonged to my dad, I installed Ubuntu on it. I had no idea what I was doing outside of the GUI, so naturally, I made a ton of mistakes, eventually got frustrated, and proceeded not to touch it again for years.

Fast-forward to now, and I did end up using it pretty extensively. I’ve worked intimately with Linux in my formal education, at home, and for work. While I’m no expert, I’ve learned enough to be confident with the fundamentals, and most of that came with making mistakes. These five lessons were the hardest to learn early on, but surmounting them is what took me from complete novice to a confident user.

The terminal is more mighty than the GUI

It’s just a must-learn skill

When I first started learning how to use Linux, my only experience with a command-line was with purely diagnostic commands; things like “ipconfig” or “tracert” in Windows. I had absolutely no idea what to type in a Linux terminal, and I quickly learned that I would need to get comfortable with it if I wanted to use the OS effectively.

At first, I tried to avoid it by using the GUI for everything, and while it has become considerably better than it used to be, you do eventually hit a point where what you want to do cannot be done through the GUI.

In college, I learned pretty much all the basics through using a GUI-less form of Ubuntu; everything had to be done through the command line, there was no graphical interface to save me. Things like systemd and systemctl commands, installing packages, navigating the file system and especially grep were so imperative to learn. Not just because they’re indispensable, but because it showed me just how much more powerful the terminal was than a GUI. If you plan to use Linux at all, get comfortable in front of a command-line. Trust me, you won’t regret it.

Backups are non-negotiable

You will ruin your OS at some point

There are only two types of Linux users: those who have nuked their install, and those who will. Running everything as the root user and smashing “rm” commands a little too confidently can get you into trouble really fast, so that’s why backing things up is so imperative on Linux.

My own experience is with rsync, but learning how to use Timeshift or Borg can be just as good. When you have a solid foundation for backups, you aren’t as afraid to run commands. I still use caution whenever running risky commands, like to remove files, because there’s no “undo” button for that, but with things like drivers, having a snapshot to rollback to is really nice.

The distro doesn’t matter as much as you think

Just pick one and go with it

Of course, the Linux distro you choose has some bearing on the experience, but the reality is: it’s really not that important which one you choose out of the popular options. There are hundreds of different distros to choose from, but they all stem from only a handful of different “families”, each with their own primary focus.

My advice would be to just choose one and run with it for awhile. I started my journey on Ubuntu, but really got into the nitty gritty of my Linux learning journey on openSUSE, which is more of an enterprise/server distro. I learned pretty early that it really doesn’t matter what distro you choose, as you can pretty much mold any of them to your particular use case. Everything I learned on openSUSE transferred over to Arch, which transferred over to distros in the Red Hat family, which also applies to Ubuntu, which is Debian-based. You can make any distro usable, so just choose something you think is close to what you need.

Don’t copy and paste what you don’t understand

Trust me

Credit: A photo of a command line showing a forkbomb

A random comment on Reddit says this will fix my Wi-Fi? Sure. A Stack Overflow answer has a one-liner that edits a config file I’ve never heard of? Sounds great.

This approach really only works until it doesn’t, and then once it doesn’t, you’ve probably messed something up that you don’t exactly know how to fix. Running commands you don’t fully understand is how you end up with a slightly broken install, or at worst, a completely borked one, so as a general rule of thumb: don’t copy and paste everything you see. Some commands that worked for other people’s setups might completely brick yours.

Linux isn’t for the impatient

Linux, no matter which distro you choose to start on, teaches patience and attention to detail. It provides an incredible amount of performance and control that other operating systems just can’t match in certain instances, and it’s why I’ve grown to love using it so much. I really implore anyone learning Linux to give it a true shake, as it can be such a great skill to have, even if you don’t plan on daily driving it.