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What Are the Best New-To-UNIX Resources?
cam_macleod asks: "I will soon be teaching an Introduction to UNIX course, and I usually provide recommendations on resources that students can use to further their learning. In this case, the course must be OS-, vendor- and distro-independent, and yet accessible to different levels of experience. My question is: what sites and other resources do you find most helpful, both for you and newbies you help?"
I know that when I first started playing around with linux, I knew nothing about UNIX systems at all. However, I found the HOWTOs useful at both a) setting up my linux system and b) educating me. There are lots of great resources out there to help you out, telling you how these systems work and how to work with them. Sure, books are great, but the Internet is a lot bigger ;)
-Leo
My recommendation would be The UNIX programming Environment, Kernighan & Pike, ISBN 0-13-937681-X
It's what was used to teach the intro UNIX/C course that I took, it's an excellent book that I keep close at hand.
It's a bit dated though, you'll probably want to teach an editor other then ed(1).
...as a newbie myself--the O'reilly Linux site, the LDP of course, &, since I'm using Slackware, their forums at slackware.com. Still, hardcopy is great to have, & the best of what I've looked at (which is alot, I work in a bookstore & go through the unix/linux stuff alot, but these 2 I mention are the ones I've gone to the trouble of buying):
--Running Linux, Matt Welch, et al., isbn 156592469x
--Think Unix, Jon Lasser, isbn 078972376x
Lasser's is especially fun, he has a unique approach. A simple approach really, but quite different from much of what's out there.
Sorry if I rambled a bit....
Granted, this isn't platform independent, but I've found that I've learned more about Linux and Unix by playing with the system, rather than reading books. You might want to consider handing out Linux CDs so people who want to can install them and play with them.
Aside from that, a really good book that is largely platform neutral is Unix Power Tools. It is a huge collection of tips and tricks that demonstrate the true power of Unix.
Meldroc, Waster of Electrons
Once you learn the absolute basics (ls, cat, etc.) and you know what you want to do with your system, but don't know where to go from there I always find usenet to be the place to look. More than likely someone else has had the same problem as you and a quick search on Deja will usually turn up something. If your search fails to turn up anything relavent you can post your own question. The people on usenet seem quite knowledgable about the questions and they'll probably do thier best to help you out.
In my experience usenet is the best place to look for tech help. It's too bad that so many people who are on the internet don't even know what usenet is! (Some would argue that's a good thing though)
After that, there really is no substitute for man pages. Teach how to search man pages for keywords and how to RTFM. If they don't learn how to find the answer themselves, you won't be doing them a favor.
For programming, try Advanced Programming in the UNIX Environment by W. Richard Stevens, and for extreme beginners, try The C Programming Language, 2nd Edition by Brian Kernighan and Dennis Ritchie.
For system administration, try the whatever Unleashed books. On Linux, much can be learned by browsing /usr/doc/HOWTO and the man pages.
Good luck!
Brian