How to become a better linux hacker

[Fire Hazard]

First off when I say hacker I mean someone who knows a computer/system frontwards and backwards, hacker as in guru.

I see so many people who have a far greater understanding of Linux than me and I'm woundering how they got there. Is it that you have messed up Linux so many times and learned from those mistakes. Or do you just read people's questions and see how other people solve them.

I want to be able to be in complete controll of my system. If something fails I can fix it. And I can complie any source code program I want. How does one go about being a linux hacker?

I'm sorry if this doesn't quite fit into the forum but I thought it was the best one.
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"Linux is only free if your time is worthless."

"Here is your parachute and here is the manual.
Welcome to Linux."

[Roguelazer]

All of the above. Install your system, and things will break. Find out how to fix them and learn. Or, just read all your man pages. That works too.
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Registered Linux User #263260

[Plazmic]

Experience, trial and error, whitepapers, man pages, tutorials, support threads, IRC chat, newletters, articles, practice, millions of other words to describe some of the routes to a further knowledge of your system... of course the most simple, all inclusive answer would be time

There's no single method to becoming a savvy administrator... but many factors. Some of those might be logic, curiosity, time, patience, and perhaps most importantly... common sense........
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..::I reject your reality and substitute my own::..

[Cinder6]

I learned 90% of what I know by reading docs and troubleshooting problems myself. Granted, sometimes there are things I don't know how to do/fix, so I will ask/search these forums for a hint. It just takes dedication, really. You don't NEED to be a guru to use Linux, just like you don't NEED to be a guru to run Windows or a Mac.
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Knowledge is power.
Power corrupts.
Study hard.
Be evil.

Ugly Overload

[mpagano]

Stage 1 Install.

[Plazmic]

Or as I prefer a 1 on 3 install
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..::I reject your reality and substitute my own::..

[ph03n1x]

Install gentoo

break
fix
break
fix
break
fix
break
fix
....

[justincataldo]

Just keep trying new things and not being content with the way things are.

I tend to keep exploring new and interesting things and I find a learn a lot this way.

[mrv]

http://catb.org/~esr/faqs/hacker-howto.html

-mrv-

[tomvollerthun]

As well you should be aware, that a modern computer contains so many hard- and software-components that it's close to impossible to know them all by heart. Not to speak of total control over them.
You can only ever know so much as you have time.

And even if you managed to know not only the kernel inside-out and all of your CPU-internals, the diverse protocols and layers and stuff ... plop a new kernel release or cell processor-laptop you urgently want and you can start learning again.

It's far better to find places where to look up the information than having all the information in your brain. If you want to, you can specialize in one area and try to stay up-to-date with that, but in other areas, you may have to rely on information other specialists provide.
Know the basics, then grasping new information will be easier for you, but know that generally this is true as well: the newer the information, the faster it might be obsolete ;)

As many people have said: the ages of the universal geniuses have gone: you can't specialize in all areas anymore. This is even true for only computer-related areas.

cu, tom
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Computer science is no more about computers than astronomy is about telescopes.
Dijsktra
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Don't believe my "Guru" status!