I want to say, it takes a while to learn many stuff in Linux. You didn’t learn everything of Windows in one video or blog post either. And in Linux, its even “worse”, as it is open ended with many operating systems and replaceable parts. That means its by design more to learn than on Windows. I’m just setting expectations. “Learning Linux” is not a single event or product you learn, and you hopefully never stop learning.

1. Maybe start at high level “What is Linux?”.
2. Go into “The Linux Filesystem”.
3. Learn about “Linux Philosophy and Shell Tools”.
4. That should lead you into scripting with “Bash”.

That should give you a bit of background and basics to start with. Just search these terms and start learning and experimenting. Plan years into learning…

Did you read tutorials or videos when you started using Windows? Probably not, you wanted to game or write or be social on the internet and you learned “on the job”.

It’s the same thing with Linux. Don’t take it too serious. Some nerds started that rumour that Linux is “hard” and only for the techi folks. That’s not true at all, it never was.

Yes, there are things that just work different and you have to find a new way to fix them. But it will come when you encounter them and we will be here to help.

Just start with Mint or Bazzite and you will be fine.

Honestly? Do you want the “real experience”?

Set up a VM (or a spare computer) and start an Arch install following the various tutorials.

Why?

Well, Arch may not be the best daily driveable distribution if you want just an uncomplicated experience, but setting it up from the bare bones boot medium and slowly following the (very well written) instructions in the wiki it will give you a solid foundaition going forward and UNDERSTANDING what you are doing.

Also - while not explicitly Linux and quiet a bit dated - i HIGHLY recommend to read The UNIX Programming Environment, written by the guys who are responsible for this branch of the OS evolution in the first place. It is a nice read to understand why - to this day - some things are the way they are.

Edit: Typo

There’s a free, 30 day program for learning Linux that may help, The Linux Upskill Challenge.

I like that it walks you through doing stuff, step by step, starting with foundations and building on it.

Bazzite is a great distro if you want to jump in and start playing games and getting the software you need to use your computer. The intent behind bazzite seemed to me that it should be accessible enough for non-technical users but provide access to a large library of programs in just a few clicks. It has a few quirks that make it different than other Linux distros if you pick it apart.

Have you ever used command prompt, batch scripts or PowerShell on Windows? That’s what BASH, shell scripting or ‘the terminal’ is equivalent to on Linux (and mac sorta). It’s the virtual scalpel you can use to tinker, fix, control, or totally screw up your system. If you don’t have important data to lose, then feel free to just try whatever and learn from mistakes you make along the way. If not, then backups are your friend, and be EXTRA careful doing anything as the root user (that’s the admin account with total access over the operating system) or any command like sudo (it might even lecture you about it once)

For self-hosting, if you have a spare machine you can just try experimenting on it to your heart’s content. If your search-engine skills are good enough then you should be able to fumble your way through install instructions or tutorials. Another alternative is you could rent a VPS and optional domain for <$90/year, which then you can learn about SSH (secure shell) and fiddle with a computer remotely for fun.

People here can probably give you advice or support, if there’s a specific problem you’re having and you’ve couldn’t figure it out from the documentation and search.

I started saving what I put into terminal into a Google doc. That way if something gets screwed I have a record for how to undo it. Also, don’t copy paste from chatgpt to terminal. And make sure the source you are using isn’t 7 years old.

Best teacher I had was breaking things by installing everything under the sun then trying to fix it. But its time consuming.

I would say go at it yourself, you’ll learn along the way, same as you did with windows. For tips, its hard to say, see if you can get your hands on Sander van Vugt - linux fundamentals. I watched it a few years into my linux journey and it schooled my ass still.

I learned a lot from Raspberry Pi tutorials; that’s where I got my start.

Bazzite might be a bit of a tough one to get your hands dirty in; it’s an immutable distro, it locks down the guts of the OS kind of like Android does. Useful for gaming appliances, not so much for learning to sysadmin.