I’ve always approached learning Linux by just diving into it and bashing my head against problems as they come until I either solve them or give up, the latter being the more common outcome.
I wouldn’t take this approach with other pieces of software though - I’d read guides, best practices, have someone recommend me good utility tools or extensions to install, which shortcuts to use or what kind of file hierarchy to use, etc.
For example, for python I’d always recommend the “Automate the boring stuff with Python”, I remember learning most Java with that “Head first Java” book back in the days, c# has really good official guides for all concepts, libraries, patterns, etc.
So… lemme try that with Linux then! Are there any good resources, youtube videos, bloggers or any content creators, books that go explain everything important about linux to get it running in an optimal and efficient way that are fun and interesting to read? From things like how the file hierarchy works, what is /etc, how to install new programs with proper permissions, when to use sudo, what is a flatpak and why use it over something else, how to backup your system so you can easily reconstruct your setup in case you need to do an OS refresh, etc? All those things that people take for granted but are actually a huge obstacle course + minefield for beginners?
And more importantly, that it’s up to date with actually good advice?
The thing is, the day to day is mostly your distro. There are several that hide most stuff away and just work, but a resource would need to be distro specific, and the ones you’d want for a beginner are pretty straightforward. They’re a start menu and an app store that work pretty much how you expect.
The hang-up is mostly “I need word” and being confused by a different document editor, or things like that, and the fact that a lot of open source alternatives to popular applications don’t have as much work done on casual friendly UX. So maybe you’d want something like “alternative to” and guides to basic usage of common replacement apps?
Most anything past that is how the OS works.
Isn’t there a lot of overlap though, at least between OSes that are of the same type (like debian/ubuntu)? How to set up users, knowing that you need to manually configure automatic mounting of your drives, knowing how/when to use flatpak or apt or .deb, where to install apps… These are not really intuitive things, especially for someone coming from windows, and most “how to install linux” guides don’t really go into these in any meaningful way.
For instance at first I thought I could just keep a list of apt commands and make an “easy to reinstall” linux script at one time, and that lasted for whole of 10 minutes before I realized every app needs manual intervention in one or another way, or has a different way of installing. Also, as many people I just prefix everything with sudo to get it to install, but who knows if that is the correct thing to do? not me at least
There is and there isn’t.
Some things are pretty standardized. Users and groups, permissions, systemd (usually), a lot of the underlying architecture is pretty much the same everywhere.
A lot is very much not standardized. Booting, networking, desktop environments, what specific software is installed, the specific package manager in use, I could go on and on.
To learn the former, the book I recommend is the most accessible thing I’ve read. You don’t need to read everything, but portions were very helpful. To learn the latter, your distro will have the info you need, or should at least tell you what to look up elsewhere.