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What Are the Best New-To-UNIX Resources?

Posted by Cliff on from the helping-them-help-themselves dept.

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?"

4 of 18 comments (clear)

  1. I'd recommend Linux CDs and Unix Power Tools by meldroc · · Score: 3

    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
  2. Usenet by mini+me · · Score: 3

    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)

  3. Man Pages by lw54 · · Score: 4
    Teach them the basics: ls, cd, and the filesystem layout.

    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.

  4. O'Reilly Knows UNIX by bziman · · Score: 5
    Check out O'Reilly & Associates UNIX Homepage for a list of UNIX books. In particular Learning the UNIX Operating System is in its 4th edition and is one of the best intro books there is. O'Reilly publishes books that cover general topics such as the one I mentioned. Also they have books that go into details on the utilities like sed and awk and shells like bash.

    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