[CentOS] A new blog on the block for Linux newbies

[William L. Maltby]

On Thu, 2008-09-04 at 15:34 -0400, Ross S. W. Walker wrote:
> Mike McCarty wrote:
> <snip>

> > May I suggest that, if you really want to learn how a Linux
> > system gets put together, and works, then get a copy of
> > Linux from Scratch and build your own?
> > 
> > http://www.linuxfromscratch.org/
> > 
> 
> Well for a newbie that might be too much to start with.

Actually, it's better than one might think for a noob aspiring to become
more knowledgeable.

1. Brief discussions of why most things are done: gives insight to
underlying components.

2. IIRC, every command is laid out in form useful for C&P, allowing
focus on discussions, not on handling a keyboard.

3. If you have natural curiosity to learn, introduces a bunch of little
frequently used utils of which a noob might be ignorant.

4. Gets a good overview of bash introduced.

5. Has *lots* of follow-on possibilities: BLFS, CLFS, ... that continue
to expand on the base knowledge.

6. Likely to severely test the mettle and commitment of those who are
just "wannabe" icons to those around them.

7. Makes them really, really appreciate an enterprise distro like CentOS
with its yum, rpm package management, broader support network in the
community, ... I could go on.

8. (The best one yet?) Gets them at least some basic knowledge before
they appear on lists like this with no knowledge, high ambition and tons
of the most basic questions. Keeps them busy for awhile too!  :)

> 
> I'd probably go, CentOS/RHEL/Suse -> Gentoo, then if you know the
> parts of a working distro well, then try to roll your own.

That's a natural since LFS requires an existing base installation to do
LFS. Ubuntu is missing gawk though (has mawk?) and generally needs to be
enhanced a tad to finish the LFS install. Another day for the noob,
another plus! ;-)

> 
> -Ross
> <snip sig stuff>

-- 
Bill