I am getting nowhere trying to understand Linux programming on my own. Should I just get a book to study from? How did you learn? Where did you start?

Did you just take some code and read it? And that's how you learned?

I am getting nowhere trying to understand Linux programming on my own.

What kind of programming, is it just C/C++?

Should I just get a book to study from?

Probably.

How did you learn?

I had a mentor.

Where did you start?

It helps if you understand a little about the environment. You need to be able to compile and run a simple program. Once you can do that, you can pick up the rest as you go.

Google

Use youtube.. places like thenewboston give good tutorials that give you a good understanding of whats going on

http://thenewboston.org/

If you're talking about just understanding the OS itself and shell scripting I suggest you read the tutorials that come with your Linux distribution. The Ubuntu and DebIan guides cover the basics through very advanced concepts.

A good book that covers everything from the hardware and number systems on up is available as a free PDF all over the web and is called: LINUX: Rute User’s Tutorial and Exposition. It's from 2001 but it's still valid for learning the basics of Unix/Linux. It's very thorough and not a bad read.

Try forming your lack of understanding into questions and then post them. I can probably answer most of them or provide a source of information for better understanding.