I’ve been interested in Linux and FOSS/Libre internet and “darkweb” stuff for a long time, but just as an outsider looking in. In my youth I never had means or reason to actually be familiar with how computers and the internet worked. It’s always just been log onto current windows computer and just do what you need to do. No problems; just werks. From what I hear you can’t do that with Linux. To do any of the things you would usually do or any of the cool Tor shit you need an actual capability to get under the hood and tinker with shit. So, how do? How much do I actually need to know and where do I learn this? Some people say learn C but also say OS’s use more than one language at times so idk. Books, videos, general concepts, etc. share all that you have to understand the computer box and argue about which is the divine word of the machine god and which is midwit heresy. Love you cuties :3 <3

Might be bait, but I'll semi-effortpost anyway against the spirit of cynicism.

The amount of up-front effort you'll need to invest depends on the particular goal, and it sounds like you have several broadly topically related goals. For most of them, what you'd need to learn isn't particularly hard; some of it just takes time and interest. For most people, the cost-benefit analysis is that it's preferable to just stick with what one knows, and it'll probably be that way for you in most cases. If the main desire is to look and feel cool when using computers, I guess you could just install some distro and run some flashy terminal programs and post in desktop generals. If the main desire is digital privacy, the things that will have the biggest effect are changes of habit (e.g., compartmentalizing your various digital identities, not posting stuff you shouldn't on social media (or not using it entirely)) rather than using x particular software instead of y, though that can matter too.

When trying to pick a distro/language/whatever, just pick something and don't worry about picking the "right" or "best" one. I literally took some "what distro is for you quiz" in highschool, went with its suggestion, and have been running it ever since. Most of the popular languages are pretty similar in the sense that they have transferable skills. I personally prefer text over video instruction, but it doesn't really matter.

If you want someone to make some arbitrary choices for you:
- Read But How Do It Know for a very basic intro to "how computers work" at the level of hardware logic. It won't give you much knowledge you can readily apply, but it'll probably make you feel like you have some footing.
- Install Ubuntu Linux (it has a lot of resources online and is no more involved than installing Windows).
- Learn some basic shell usage (bash is the most common, but they're all pretty similar). Any online tutorial is fine.
- Learn the Go programming language (https://go.dev/learn).

To respond to some particulars:
>darkweb
The dark web is pretty boring unless you wanna buy drugs basically. The main use case for Tor is as a proxy to get around various restrictions.
>From what I hear you can’t do that with Linux
I haven't had any more issues running Linux than I did with Windows personally, but YMMV.
>To do any of the things you would usually do or any of the cool Tor shit you need an actual capability to get under the hood and tinker with shit
You can use Tor by just downloading the Tor browser and not understanding any of the internals.
>Some people say learn C but also say OS’s use more than one language at times
C is a fine language, and so are many other languages. OSs are written in a variety of languages, with C being prominent among them.
>argue about which is the divine word of the machine god and which is midwit heresy
You'd do best to avoid cynics and flamewars and neuroses about what the "best" way to do something is and just learn whatever interests you.

bump