Stage 1 of 8 · 8 lessons · ~2 weeks
Set up your machine
Get comfortable with your distribution, its terminal and its package manager, then set up Git and VS Code. The rest of the roadmap runs in this shell, so a clean setup now saves hours of confusing errors later.
Start: Distributions and which one to useLessons· one lesson for each topic, in this order
- 1Distributions and which one to useLesson
- 2Your terminal and shell on LinuxLesson
- 3Packages, snaps and flatpaksLesson
- 4Terminal, shell and promptLesson
- 5Getting help from the terminalLesson
- 6Updating and installing packagesLesson
- 7Installing and configuring GitLesson
- 8VS Code, opened from the terminalLesson
Do this
- Find your distribution and release with `cat /etc/os-release` and check it still gets updates.
- Learn the shortcut to open a terminal and how copy and paste work in it.
- Update and upgrade with your package manager (apt, dnf or pacman).
- Install git, curl, jq and tree from the distribution packages.
- Configure Git: name, email, default branch and editor.
- Install VS Code from the official repository or package, and open `~/code` with `code .`.
- Write a short setup note listing every tool you installed and how.
Start with
- GuideFreeThe Linux Command Line for Beginners (Ubuntu)
Canonical · Beginner
A short, friendly first hour in the Ubuntu shell once your terminal is working
Keep handy
Also worth your time
- roadmap.sh: LinuxGo deeper
A map of the whole Linux topic, to see how much there is beyond this stage
Before moving on: A Linux machine on a supported release with updates applied, Git configured, your tools installed from the package manager and VS Code opening `~/code` with `code .`.
Do this once, properly, and write down what you did. Most beginners lose days to a half-finished setup: two versions of Git, projects in the wrong folder, a PATH nobody understands. A short setup note in a text file is worth more than any theme or plugin.