Install a Linux Mint flavor. Mint is a rock solid platform that just works on 99% of the computers out there, and there is even a 32 bit if you are on a sllloooooow laptop like mine. The best way to learn Linux is to use it. You, more than likely, have been using Windows all your life, and while modern day Linux has some of the same looks to it: Icons, taskbar, et al, it’s quite different under the hood than what you are used to.

If you foresee setting up a server, then you are going to have to learn how to set up your server, secure your server, monitor your server, and all these things take experience. Experience takes time. Servers take a lot of administering and securing. There are thousands of bots just waiting around the periphery of your server, salivating, at the prospect of a fresh meat starting up. So you’ll have to learn how to keep the good stuff in, and the bad stuff out. Just keeping the bad stuff out is a constant vigil. These modern bots are very capable and can do cve vulnerability scans, scan attack surfaces, any little crack in the armor to get a foot hold in.

So, after you learn your way around a Linux desktop, then need to study up on how to set up and secure a server. What software to put in place to do security, using no root login, ssh keys, a long list. If you get stuck on something or just want to bounce some ideas off of someone, I’m no guru but I’m willing to share what knowledge I have with you.