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Getting Started In Linux
In previous posts, I've asked for the Slashdot community to help me identify good books and websites for developers and I thought the response was really useful. This time, I'd like to ask you all for your recommendations for great Linux beginner books and also what you think is the best way of showing off Linux on TV. Read on for more info ...
I do this thing twice on month on TechTV's "The Screen Savers" where I try to show off something neat about Linux and Open Source software. At the end of each segment, I give out my email address for people to send questions. The question I get most is "What book should I get to help me learn Linux?" I have a couple of books that I do recommend, but I want to hear what you guys think so I can link to this conversation and have it be available for everyone to refer to.
Additionally, any tips on what you guys would think would make good open-source oriented TV and make people really want to try out Linux would be appreciated.
Linux in a Nutshell, concise, to the point, reference manual for just getting stuff done.
Guess what? I got a fever! And the only prescription.. is more cowbell!
The fourth edition of Running Linux came out this month. Great for beginners.
I'd also recommend the O'Reilly Learning Linux/Redhat/Debian set. Well worth the money, and they deserve the endorsement.
Carousel is a lie!
Mark Sobell's A Practical Guide to Linux is the best beginner's book on Linux I've ever found. After reading this book, all the man pages and HowTos finally started making sense.
** The opinions expressed here are my own, and do not reflect those of my employers - past, present, or future**
Here are some sites you will find useful which are going beyond newbie level.
/ rtfm.mit.edu/pub/faqs/unix-faqm /autobook/ (automake autoconf book)n elnewbies.org (kernel info)a t/booksIndex.html
www.linuxdoc.org (Linux documentation project)
www.xml.com/ldd/chapter/book (linux device drivers 2nd edition)
www.advancedlinuxprogramming.com
ftp:/
sources.redhat.co
www.scyld.com/network (network device drivers)
linuxassembly.org
linuxsocket.org
ker
freebooks.boom.ru
www.maththinking.com/bo
Analytic & algebraic topology of locally Euclidean meterization of infinitely differentiable Riemmanian manifold
This was the book I read before even touching a Linux terminal. It was an invaluable lesson in the ways of Linux and provides a nice gentle intro for new users (and by new, I mean new to Linux, not computing. A good deal of technical understanding is required to appreciate this book. Not for Grandma is what I'm trying to say...). The 4th Edition just came out so it's all up to date again, and I would reccomened it to anyone interested in, well, Running Linux. This book is much more useful to a new user than Linux in a Nutshell since it is a narrative guide to learning Linux, and not a reference book like Nutshell.
Here's my first two books I bought, and why I like them. First of all, for any distro: Running Linux, latest edition you can get. Why? It is a book you can read cover to cover. It has some scary stories of the old days of installation in the beginning. You realize how easy it has gotten. Then you will learn the many different ways to do the same thing. You don't have to be on a computer to learn from this book. If you are using Red Hat, then grab Red Hat Linux Unleashed. Why? This has MUCH more specific information. It's not something you can read cover to cover, you read the different sections as you need to learn them. In general though, I've never found a bad O'Reilly book...
Go to http://sunsite.dk/linux-newbie/ and get the Linux Newbie Administrator's Guide.
:)
I've bought different linux books in the past to try and get me started, and none were as good as the LNAG. Best of all - it's free! Read it online, or download it and print it off at work to piss off your co-workers.
- Dave
There are two seasons in my world - Hockey and Construction
Graham Glass is a skilled writer who is capable of introducing complex topics and commands easily to the reader, regardless of their skill level. His book benefited me greatly, and even allowed my father to gain a good footing in unix commands and philosophy.
I have recommended this book to numerous people over the years, to people who just wanted some familiarity with unix commands, to people who were interested in learning Linux, to students looking for interesting things to delve into, and to many others. The book has benefited them all. Although it is not directly a Linux book, it is exceptional at providing the tools necessary to use any unix-like system. This makes this book a wonderful reference or a great starting out point if you're just beginning.
In other words, I highly recommend it.
---
"Of course, that's just my opinion. I could be wrong." --Dennis Miller
Agreed -- but he was also asking for good examples of Open Source goodness for TV. That's what I had in mind.
Carousel is a lie!
I'd hardly call Mozilla an odd-ball product considering many, many sites have already made changes to accomodate it and the very similar Netscape 6.x 7.x series. My bank, Bank of America, somehow found it useful to make its online banking site Mozilla compatible. Maybe said parent post should consider a different bank if Online Banking is so important to him.
That's interesting. I've rarely found the texinfo pages to be of any real use to me when a manpage fails.
/usr/share/doc/packagename. If the manpage fails me at all, this is where I go first. The documentation that came with a program is often the most useful documentation you're going to find, especially because the Readme's and the like often have a lot of quick notes in them. The changelogs have tons of good info too. Of course, to be able to use these docs requires knowing what program you're looking for in the first place, which requires some experience, but it's by far the most useful documentation that's physically on my system.
I don't know how it is for other distros, but every debian package puts its documentation in
"I may not have morals, but I have standards."
Oh yes, and find a Linux user you can ask for help when you get stuck!
My first Linux book was Linux Unleashed, 1st edition, published by Sams Publishing. This book included Slackware with it. I'm afraid to think what verion, as this book is (c) 1995. It was good for a start. It's been read, borrowed, and stolen over the years. Hopefully it has a good home now.
:) Borders and Barnes & Noble frequently have sales on previous edition books. If you flip through both, sometimes you'll see there were only very subtle changes, or chapters which aren't important to you. For a $40 price difference, it's worth getting the older one. :)
:)
I still highly recommend Slackware for a distribution. It's what we use on all our servers, and my workstations (Home, Work, and Laptop)
I bought a co-worker Linux System Administration: A User's Guide by Marcel Gagne. Published by Addison Wesley. Flipping through it, this seems like a very good book. It seems to be working out. He's coming to me with very intelligent questions after reading chapters, rather than "What do I do at the prompt".
After the Unleashed book, I personally got into the O'Reilly books. If you do this, go to the store with the company credit card, it'll be expensive. Oddly enough, most bosses are ok with paying for books, even when they're being tight with equipment. You can't get a new $5 CPU fan, but you can spend $500 on books. Hmmmm.. Well, buy more books.
O'Reilly Essential Systems Administration
Learning
the Unix Operating System (got it for my girlfriend, so she'd understand what I was doing all night)
vi Pocket Reference. It seems none of my coworkers could use vi before I got to this office. Now they're all using it. [esc][esc]:wq!
Programming Perl. If you're going to play with Unix, you should learn Perl.
Then you should read up on what you're working with. If you're networking or on the Internet, TCP/IP is good to know.
TCP/IP Network Administration
DNS and BIND very definately, unless you want to be clueless about what happens between typing in "yahoo.com" and it coming up in your browser. Having a good understanding there definately helps you debug problems.
Sendmail This is the perfect book to spin your head, and leave you with a headache for months. But it's the topic, not the book, that's so complicated. If it didn't do absolutely everything, I'm sure it would be simpler to use.
O'Reilly has a lot of great books.
"Learning" books are for beginners.
"Nutshell" books are usually to help you figure out something if you don't really know it.
The rest of the books have various degrees of learning to them. On my desk at work, for O'Reilly books, I have 3 different PERL books, the JavaScript book, and a few others that I reference on a regular basis.
I recommend going to book stores, and flipping through everything they have (restock it to the proper places). See what your comprehension level is. If you have no clue what they're talking about, you need an easier book. If you almost understand, buy it, read it, and then share it with a friend (especially on the company expense account! hehe).
When you're ready to get out of the books, and into the real world, the most valuable reference you'll ever have is dejanews.com. If you don't know an answer, search it there. Probably someone in the last 20 years has already asked it. It's the quickest way to look smart and impress your friends, even if you're stupid.
Having the stack of O'Reilly books is always good though. I recently changed offices (same company), and while riding in the elevator, I was offered a job because I looked educated and had a big stack of O'Reilly books in my arms.. Little did she know that was only 1/3 of them. The rest were still in my car..
Serious? Seriousness is well above my pay grade.
Redhat 8.0 retail box set comes with Excellent Documentation, and is quite specific without being overly technical. As an added bonus, it also comes with a CD full of documentation.
Chris, I watch the ScreenSavers on TechTV quite often, and saw the Quake server demo. Qudos to TechTV to give it a try. For a good topic for a show, most folks want to see what Linux can DO! Show them Ximian Evolution and Mozilla, OpenOffice, and TuxRacer. If you have time, do a demo of the Redhat setup agent, and show off Redhat Network (sorta like Windows Update). The new GUI RPM Package Manager and other GUI config tools are nice looking and will display well.
A dual boot setup would be nice to show off also.{I set up a dual boot Win98/RH8 for a newbie laptop user and they have been very happy to boot into Linux, and don't really bother with Windows anymore.}
Anyhow, love the TechTV, please say Happy Holidays to Patrick and Leo and Megan and Morgan and Yoshi and Martin and Sumi and Adam and Jennifer and Michaela and Chris and Erica and Alex and Becky and . .did I forget anyone?
I may be bad with names, but I'll never forget your IP address