Starting Linux

[iwishiwascool]

Okay, so here's my deal...

I'm 16 years old. I pretty much grew up on Microsoft because that's what the family computer always has had on it. A few years back we got a new computer, so the old one went in my room. And for, god knows what reason, it was always running Windows ME. That didn't matter too much because I don't have internet access in there and never used the machine for more than some word processing or something of that sort. A couple years ago I really got interested in programming, but I have yet to actually start REALLY programming. (I've done some Flash actionscript work but nothing real great.) And with this interest of wanting to be a programmer, I just became interested in learning a lot of "geek stuff", I guess. And along the way I realized there's a lot more stuff out there than Microsoft, and I wanted to give it ago. So for a while now I've had some version of Red Hat running on that computer in my room. I messed around with it and ended up not really doing much. ANYWAY, now that I'm on summer break, I really want to start learning things on the computer. Mostly PHP and maybe some c++ programming, and I'd rather do it on a Linux box. So I'd like to put the newest version of Red Hat (or Fedora now) on there. And I used to come to this site to read up to try to understand Linux better, so I thought coming here might be a good idea so some guys could maybe help me out on my new quest. Is Fedora a good choice or should I try something different? I know there's a C++ compiler on there, but for any PHP work I'd need to download PHP and Apache? And after getting the new OS running on there nicely, I'll probably need some help getting the Apache and whatnot to run because uhm, I really don't know what I'm doing there.

So I guess this post was just trying to make myself known as I guess I suppose I'll probably be needing a lot of help coming up. But my main concern right now is just getting the OS running in there. Uhm, I guess that's all I've got.

Thanks.

[Master of Reality]

Fedora's a great choice, perhaps eventually youll want to switch to Slackware    which pretty much forces you to configure and customize everything to your liking.

Once you get it and install it which should be nothing as you have installed red hat and the installer has only improved since then, then you can post again to get some advice on apache and such which is really one of the easier errrrr program server deals to run.

If you really want to learn C++ i would suggest a book such as *looks at shelf* "teach yourself C++ for Linux in 21 days" it's published by SAMS (great publisher of computer books.. along with O'reilly being great as well)

[iwishiwascool]

Okay, I have successfully installed Fedora Core 2. Yay.

However, I'm still pretty clueless about Linux as I never learned much before. But I'm going to try to read some tutorials and learn more. I want to learn more about the command line and stuff, but I have GNOME installed so I feel comfortable on the machine right now.

But can anyone help me out in what I need for PHP development on there and how I would get and install it? I'm afraid if I don't have someone explain it to me I'll crash and burn if I try doing it on my own. And I'll also like to install MySQL as well. Any help appreciated...

[WMD]

PHP and MySQL comes with most Linux (or at least PHP does).  What install method did you use?  Probably personal desktop, right?

Go to System Tools > Add/Remove Programs, and look in the development section.  I'm pretty sure that PHP is in there, somewhere.  Ah, just checked, Fedora Core 2 has PHP and MySQL in it     just install them.  I'm sure that'll come with mod_php if you want to host the stuff yourself (even on a local web server).

You'll have to look into the packages yourself, I don't know the details myself.  

[iwishiwascool]

Eep.

It's running and I'm happy.  

Thanks guys.