I learned SunOS (and later Linux and HP-UX) by full immersion with a non-root account on a multiuser server. It was non-graphical, though I was able to tunnel X

I learned SunOS (and later Linux and HP-UX) by full immersion with a non-root account on a multiuser server. It was non-graphical, though I was able to tunnel X over SSH across the Internet and actually have an almost usable desktop. I was learning C programming at the time, so beyond dealing with bizarre things like my program crashing due to "segmentation fault"s, I was trying to understand what was going on. The first time I opened vi, I couldn't figure out how to get out. Once I did, I used `:sav %` followed by `:q` for longer than I care to admit. If I had to recommend anything to someone just learning, I'd recommend learning these commands: cd ls touch rm # but be careful! ps head tail nano who whoami man apropos # this is technically man less These will help you do a lot of what you need to do on Linux about as well as you can do similar things on Windows. Once you've mastered those commands, learn about piping `|`, grouping `{ foo; bar; }` and sub-shells `$(foo)`. Learning about variables `$foo` Then read up on: grep sed cut find awk # really just `awk '{ print $2 }'` xargs env export test # [ foo ] source # . foo crontab top # or even better `htop` shell control flow When you're done with that, learn vim # `vimtutor` can help emacs After that, there's tons of other tools you'll pick up as needed: dd df du fsck and a bunch of other system-related tools You'll learn a ton as you move along. Just remember that for the most part, each tool solves approximately one problem, and the complex behavior comes from chaining tools together. Chaining mostly involves `|`. Once you see that at work, you probably won't want to go back to the crutch of point-click-drag. Best of luck!