How to avoid a lot of frustration (for newbies, mostly)

[synecdoche]

I am a newbie. I've been playing with Linux off and on for a year and am now finally settling in to using it as my usual OS.

If you are like me, the first little while you use Linux, you switch distros a lot. You try different things out, see what works for you, learn to do things.

Well, here is a tip that I think is crucial for all the people like me who go through this: keep a notebook.

Jot down everything you do and how you did it. Next time you have to do it you'll have a reference to start from. Plus, if you ask for support, you'll be able to describe exactly what you did.

Also keep a page that has a list of all the common keyboard shortcuts and command prompt commands. If you lose your mouse and your internet access, or install a distro that doesn't support your NIC or mouse off the bat and you haven't memorized them yet, you'll appreciate it.

Just jot down anything and everything. It is worth the extra time. I've reinstalled many times and my notebook has saved me a LOT of searching and messing around.

Just a bit of general advice to the other learners out there.

-dave:cool:

[Alex Cavnar, aka alc6379]

I'll second this idea.

Also, I suggest becoming familiar with two text editors: vi and vim. On most versions of UNIX, one of these editors will be available to you if you don't install anything else.

They can be testy to learn, and a little confusing, but once you get the hang of it, they can be very efficient tools, especially when coding or editing config files.