Install stuff, try and make it better but end up breaking it horribly, and then spend time fixing it. This is how I've learned everything over the years.

I distro hopped for a few years but eventually settled on Arch over a decade ago. It was a lot more difficult to install back then, but it will still get you comfortable with the CLI if you're not comfortable with it already. Also, if you don't know already, Arch pretty much has the best Wiki available and it works with almost all distros since most only differ in package management.

I actually got heavy into Linux during my freshman year of college (2004) back when Linux wasn't supported for most things, so I wiped Windows off of my PC, and forced myself to use Ubuntu for 2 months, which required me to figure out how to install WINE and Microsoft Office. It was a pain, and after two months I put Windows back on it for dual-boot and ease of use purposes but largely used Linux once I got over the learning hump.

I'd suggest setting up a Level 1 hypervisor like VMware or Proxmox so that you can have multiple things running at once independent of each other, but a Level 2 hypervisor like KVM works just as well, but you have to make sure that you don't break the host OS somehow hahaha

I'm a Linux System Engineer now 🤓

I used to Google for help, but the thing about Google is you have to know the correct technical terms, but when learning Linux, there are many unknown unknowns. And then you have to trawl through am the answers.

Now, any time I enter a command and get errors, or if I don't understand something in the logs, I'll copy paste it into perplexity.ai - if necessary, it'll ask for clarification. But mostly, it'll suggest various causes and solutions, with explanation.

There's a channel "learnlinuxtv" on YouTube that is pretty good. I haven't looked in a while but I watched their entire course on proxmox. They also create books.

Does the group have any archive, mailing lists, ticket system, etc, where they work on and document the work that they have been doing?

Past questions and answers will tell you common issues, solutions, should point you towards the areas where you need to focus.

"The Linux Command Line" by William Shotts is a fairly comprehensive guide to basic use, you can find a link to the .pdf here: https://linuxcommand.org/tlcl.php

Ask your Linux group. Seriously. They should know best what kinds of issues their 'users' frequently face and what kind of information there is.

I learned Linux by doing. Set up a webserver, set up a network share, assemble a RAID with 2 old HDDs. Install Steam and play around a bit. Try LaTex and write your next homework assignment with it. Set up a Python / R / C++ development environment. All of that is good practice and you'll understand the concepts and specific issues once you do it yourself. Imho that's better than a theoretical course. You can do this in VMs or find old hardware. Some people in such groups have good connections.

Also a university library should have some free (for you) material (books) on Linux.

Just installing, gentoo or arch and using them teaches you alot about how your system works