The best way for most people to learn is by doing. And the best way to learn Linux is by installing and using it. Most of the popular Linux distributions are pretty easy to install and I’m not going to show you how to do that in this post as you can find plenty of video walkthroughs out there on installing the distribution of your choice. This post will mostly be focused on some of the best methods of using Linux. The two main ways are either by using virtual machine software or on physical hardware. For anyone who has never used Linux before I am going to always recommend installing virtual machine software and installing Linux as a virtual machine. It is, in my opinion, the best way to ease into using Linux. Not only does it give you the ability of installing and running Linux but it also allows for testing multiple versions of Linux at one time (depending on how much memory you have on the host machine) to see which distribution you favor before jumping right into one specific distribution and not liking it. And, one of the best free virtual machine applications out there for Windows and Mac users is Oracle’s VirtualBox (available as an install in Linux also). If you are a Mac user one of the more popular non-free virtual machine software that works really well is Parallels. The other virtual machine technologies in my presentation in Quickemu project and KVM require you to already have Linux installed as your based operating system and is intended for intermediate to advanced users of Linux. Proxmox VE is, basically, a server distribution of its own designed as virtual machine server host to be installed on dedicated hardware for hosting guest virtual machines (also intended for intermediate to advanced users).
However, if you have a spare laptop laying around not being used then by all means be adventurous, wipe the hard drive (after a good data backup) and install Linux on it, desktop or server. Of course, if you already have Windows installed, on a laptop or desktop computer, creating a partition (of at least 30GB) and installing Linux is another method in a dual-boot option so that you can keep that Windows install around in case of issues. But, you will want to make sure you have a good backup of your data on that Windows install before you go that route. If you are a Mac user, I’m not entirely sure, but I believe you can dual-boot macOS and Linux. Another way of using Linux on physical hardware is on a Raspberry Pi. If you do not already have a Raspberry Pi, unfortunately, they are pretty difficult to find right now at the time of this post due to chip shortage and supply chain demand.
Once you get a distribution of your choice installed, poke around and get familiar with that distribution. Navigate around the desktop environment and check out the applications that come with that distribution. Be curious.
Stayed tuned to upcoming sessions as I go through in more detail on how to use Linux as I continue to help you learn Linux.