Absolute beginner wants to understand systems and networks, what language to learn and where to start?

Question

I’m sick of windows and IOS and I want to be able to understand what’s going non in the background, system and network wise. Possibly learn to root my android phone, ipad and get linux on my laptop to optimise it better but with a deep understanding of what I’m actually doing not just jumping in and messing everything up, including opening myself to a wide variety of security issues. Where should I start, what languages should I start learning? Thanks

Answer 1

Format your laptops hard drive, and make 2 partitions, one for windows to get stuff done, and another small one for arch linux. Try to get the arch installation into a usable state - by the time you're done you will have grown a beard and you'll be very comfortable around linux distros. Extra bonus if your laptop is old and you have to scrounge the internet for drivers for weeks.

You can get used android phones for like 15€ if you don't want to mess up yours.

Experimentation is the best and only way to learn. If you've messed up your arch installation just format and start over. And googling stuff you don't know is an important skill and you will be doing it all the time.

You'll see what you'll need to learn when you dive in! Any computer science subject is an endlessly deep can of worms, you can't learn it all beforehand.

(Also if you haven't tried linux at all, maybe go for kubuntu first)

You can also run linux virtual machines with VMware player on your PC. Maybe that is a better place to start.