How to learn more about Linux

[Deus Absconditus]

Ultimately I am not so sure where to put those items, since Ubuntu/Mint puts settings in different places
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/EnvironmentVariables

• Not recommended:

I've used Mint for about 4 years happily, but not learnt much about:
1. scripting
2. configuring my system
3. the way linux works
4. my favourite text editor, vim

I've just started to try to address this by branching out and learning something about:
1. TAILS
2. tor
3. kali linux
4. doing some tutes on vim and Command line

When trying to edit resolv.conf last night, I discovered that kali would while mint would not let me mask my DNS.
The mint command line informed me that my editing would be written over,
which, in combination with the quoted text above, brings me to some
QUESTIONS
1. What motivates Mint to take more and more control of the system from the user, if that is indeed what I am observing?

2. Even if this is not the case, it seems that I could spend 20 years using Mint and never learn much about linux, SO ...
which distribution would folks recommend to someone like me wishing to take a tentative step towards more self-sufficiency and greater independence in configuring and "playing in the sandbox" of linux? -without, that is, jumping in the deep end and being embittered by too many failures, too high a pleasure-return threshold for too high a painful curve?

I guess I'm thinking about a compromise between the efficiency and clean-ness of Mint on the one hand, and the dreary (to me) Siberian steppes of Slackware or Arch on the other.

[xenopeek]

1. NetworkManager manages the resolv.conf dynamically:

Code: Select all

$ ls -l /etc/resolv.conf 
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 29 Jun 27 13:21 /etc/resolv.conf -> ../run/resolvconf/resolv.conf

/run is a filesystem for system software to place runtime data in. It's flushed on boot so pointless to edit files in as it's not persistent between boots.

Arch Linux wiki has some information if you want to edit resolv.conf by hand that will likely work on Linux Mint also: https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Re ... orkManager. I think that also disables dnsmasq so if you use a VPN it might be some more work to get things to work.

2. I answered a similar question here recently: http://forums.linuxmint.com/viewtopic.p ... 1#p1048101. Debian could be a good first step. I'd suggest using VirtualBox to play around with your distro of choice.

I'm using Arch Linux since mid 2014 (http://forums.linuxmint.com/viewtopic.php?f=61&t=163710) but I'd been using Ubuntu since 2006 and Linux Mint since 2011. Honestly, I learned most about Linux trying to help other Linux Mint users here on the forums. From there to Arch Linux was still a step but not as big as by then I was quite comfortable on the command line and finding information.

[shengchieh]

2. Even if this is not the case, it seems that I could spend 20 years using Mint and never learn much about linux, SO ...
which distribution would folks recommend to someone like me wishing to take a tentative step towards more self-sufficiency and greater independence in configuring and "playing in the sandbox" of linux? -without, that is, jumping in the deep end and being embittered by too many failures, too high a pleasure-return threshold for too high a painful curve?

If you really want to get your hands dirty and learn the inner working of linux, go with Arch or Gentoo. And real geeky, Linux from Scratch.
Alittle higher up are Debian or Slackware. Fedora is one step more up. LM is an user-friendly distro. although you can dig in and hack it, I vote Debian.

Also, feel feel to surf my website (signature) - lot of links you may like.

Sheng-Chieh