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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.
I found Slackware unleashed an excellent Slack book for beginners.
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!
Let's just all get our RTFM's out of system now.
Learn to use the command line and not a pretty gui, it will teach you alot about how Unix and Linux works, Plus it makes you look cool to your friends when ur flying though the command line:)
Gotta love the tab key!
keanmarine.com
Very visual, easily understood, and it'll appeal to everyone who's ever had that happen to them before.
Carousel is a lie!
The fourth edition of Running Linux came out this month. Great for beginners.
Great Expectations ... then follow it up with ...
The Great Failure
And dont forget The Communist Manifesto
I don't need no instructions to know how to rock!!!!
Killer Linux app to show off:
VMWare
Try THAT under Windows!
slashdot!=valid HTML
"player 4 hit player 1 with 0 stroms"
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**
With that song from Sesame Street:
"Cooperation... Makes it happen."
"Cooperation... Working together."
(Dig it)
Maybe change Dig It to Linux. But maybe not.
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
Face it, a book just doesn't cut it. Nobody should be required to pick up a manual and read through hundreds of pages before they're able to use something. That's the main difference between products that fail and products that succeed. It all hinges on the usability and intuitiveness of what you're dealing with. What is needed is a really good "teaching Linux" distro. It installs automatically and flawlessly, and it first boots up into a tutorial that the user can go through while exploring the system and learning the ins and outs. Obviously you'd want to keep root access away from the newbie user until they get more adjusted. You can't expect someone to read a whole book and just "get it". You need to acclimatize people in gradually. This is one of the reasons Windows is successful and Linux isn't, for the most part: ease of use. Windows just works. To get a Linux install to my satisfaction took over 100 hours. Most people simply don't have that kind of patience.
Cyde Weys Musings - Scrutinizing the inscrutable
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.
Getting started in Linux is easy. First, read this . Then, follow all the steps in it Backwards. Backwards is key. After that, you should be all setup.
Karma: Not Particularly Funny.
... Linux has become such a great Complete Solution for everyone. I'm not sure what the TV show's target audience is, but here are some suggestions:
For The DeveloperShow how easy it is to setup Apache/PHP and start rolling out web apps...
For The Office TypeShow off OpenOffice, it's MS import capabilities, equations marksup (For The Artsy Type [gnome plug] Show 'em art.gnome.org to point out the thriving arts community, 100% free gimp
I'm not sure why everyone is set on reading "dead trees" for Linux info, it's all out on the web! I, myself, learned from the great Red Hat online docs...
That's my 2 cents worth.
Just a thought...
Since the submitter (chrisd) asked for opinions and got feedback, wouldn't it be nice if someone filtered the responses and provided a digest? The original queries were for books for developers and books for web development. Furthermore, if someone already has done some filtering, it would be great to see the results.
S
While what I have in mind is nothing special or cool, it is something that I think many people really need to see. My parents, for example, use the computer to play games, mostly card games, browse the web, send email, and other every day things. The thing that bothers them is that they have no control whatsoever. Something crashes and they have no clue what they can do as a user.
It would be beneficial to many average users to see that Linux can do all of the every day tasks they perform. Show them the simple things. They can use email, web browsers, play games that come with kde or gnome, and still play web-based games like Yahoo! Pool. Getting them started on something they feel comfortable with will be an easy step they can make. Then they can move onto controlling and customizing the OS one piece at a time.
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...
Some of the books I have on my shelf are:
-O'Reilly:Linux in a Nutshell (good reference, somewhat bad as you need to know command)
-Sam's: Slackware Unleashed
-Coriolis open Press: Linux System Administration Black Book
-Sam's: Linux Complete Command Reference
Finally:
- Sam's: Maximum Linux Security
It was only later that I found out you could wordprocess, play games, and do many other things. I would suggest showing how to do everyday stuff, as a comparison to Windows and/or OS X. I don't mean a "see Linux is better 'cause it doesn't crash and it does this and doesn't crash and..." kind of stuff. I mean showing that you can play MP3s and they work just as well as under windows. And that they sound just as good as under windows. Show a wordprocessor or two. Show some web browsers. Show it can play shockwave flash, java, and other things. Show Quake III and UT2k3. And make sure to point out that the performance is always like in windows, if not better. I don't mean braging, but more of "see we're just as good." Show how Linux can be used for many things. Play a DVD, burn a CD, etc.
Other than the above "practical" things, show some neat stuff. Show a few windowmanagers. Sure there is GNOME and KDE, but what about showing Enlighenment, WindowMaker (my fav), and other cool ones. Show Quake III in one window, UT2K3 in another (or maybe just two Quake III connected to eachother) and have something else up doing something; to show that Linux is good at juggleing things.
I know you've shown at least one of these things in the past (MP3s) but I don't get to watch much TV lately. And of course, these are just my ideas. I'm sure the other posters have come up with some cool ideas by now.
Comment forecast: Bits of genius surrounded by a sea of mediocrity.
Probably the most important thing for a Linux beginner is a book on how to withstand infantile criticism by hordes of 17-yr-old nerds with a superiority complex. You'll see a lot of that if you try to learn linux. For not already possessing all the esoteric knowledge, you will be berated and demeaned in the foulest terms. Hopefully you'll encounter enough of the good free-software people to keep you involved. Furthermore I'd suggest reading In the Beginning Was the Command Line by Neal Stephenson. Good layman overview of the history/philosophy.
We've all seen the IBM ads with the basketball team, and specifically the one featuring Linux ("Because He Loves The Game" So TRUE!). Now, here for all of /. to see, is my Linux Commercial pitch.
The commercial opens with the side of a large house shown. This house has many, many windows, some ornate, some plain. After a few seconds, a baseball smashes through one of them, shattering it. After a few more seconds, another baseball smashes another window. Several quick cuts of different windows being smashed by more and more baseballs. Cut to a pile of baseballs laying on the ground. After a moment, a black CG flipper reaches down and picks one up. The camera follows the ball to reveal Tux, wearing a ball cap bearing the "official" Tux logo, and he's got an EVIL grin. The final cut to the product screen, which says "Linux: Smashing Convention. http://www.linux.org" and a final sound of a ball shattering glass.
Let the Love Fest Begin...
Blog Prophyts - Right On, Man
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
but I am starting out in Linux right now and I'm finding LFS (Linux From Scratch) to be a very good tutorial to the ins and outs of a linux system.
For people who don't want to look it up, it basically has you compile a custom version of linux on a separate partition. Since you have to install everything from scratch, you are forced to learn what everything does.
Cogito ergo sum in Slashdot.
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
Start with Rute.
There is no need to use a SlashDot sig for SEO...
/. pointed me to the excellent Knoppix version; I splurged a whole five dollars for the CD. What does it do for you? Let's you see if your hardware is compatible with Linux and does not write anything to your hard drive while doing so. If you wish to introduce new folks to Linux, this is a good way to do it. It totally removes any fear-factor about having to dump your current system and try something that just might not work for you. No, it's not a book but for me, it was better than a book. I'd rather buy a book than take a class but I'd also rather buy a tool rather than read about it in a book. Hands on, know what I mean?
The best way to illustrate the power of Linux on TV, is to demonstrate a Linux box doing something that is considered unusual and desireable. Something that will make people say "Wow... I can't do that with this other OS I'm using. I should try Linux." It shouldn't be too hard to come up with a bunch of gee-whiz cool tasks that Linux can do, and that other OS cannot.
Either that, or have Linux performing some intensive server oriented task, alongside a computer running one of those other, more common OS's. Show how Linux does more and does it faster.
I'd rather be a conservative nutjob than a liberal with no nuts and no job.
Aside from whatever Linux-specific books get recommended here, one of the best investments you can make in the transition out of rank UNIX-beginner status is "UNIX Power Tools" published by O'Reilly. Its title is really a misnomer as it's actually an excellent book that teaches you all the finer points (which are not really all that "fine" if you really want to make UNIX work for you) about using UNIX. You don't at all have to be an "advanced"/"power" user and in fact, I'd argue that the greatest benefit from reading can be derived by those less experienced with UNIX. If you want to *understand* what you're doing in a UNIX system, with information that most certainly applies to Linux, get/read a copy of this book.
Get some of the basic shell instructions that are provided for new users. Normally it's just a few sheets long, and describes how to login to the system, how to move files, how to check e-mail, yadda yadda yadda.
This kind of basic stuff, I think, is more important than any book one could read. After someone is somewhat proficient just navigating around, then the books become interesting and relevant.
Teach the new user how to use vi.
Although nano/pico are more user-friendly, and you may like emacs (although I think that's nuts), any system the new user logs into will have some variant of vi. The use doesn't have to go much beyond describing the two modes, and how to insert and delete text.
That is one thing that really impressed me when converting, i install a program and it worked.. no reboot! *gasp* As for showing things on tv, play some dvd's and mp3's, chat a little on gaim, stuff that people do on a regular basis. I've been talking to people about linux lately, and there are a lot of misconceptions... try to debunk some big ones. I have a friend who swears that whenever you add any new hardware, you HAVE to re-compile the kernel. Another thing i hear a lot is that even if a game has linux binaries, it runs like crap. play some unreal or wolfenstien (the new ones ;)) to show it's quite fine.
Another good idea would be to show them some of the free software out there. if they need to edit some pix, they can just d/l the gimp... no need to pirate/look for cracks.
One last thought about helping people that are new to linux: it's a completely different perspective of an operating system. It's taken from a muilti-user perspective, whereas windows is pretty much one person on one computer. Once you understand this, things make more sense..especially the file system layout. when i first started i always wondered why everything went on / instead of breaking it up into drives. and why do i have a home directory? if you tihnk in terms of only one person on a computer, it's hard to get the concept.
You mean I've been making them by hand all this time, when I could have just done it on the computer?
Hm. Now, that would be an example. "Look, you can even insert a potato into this cooling fan..."
Now, I already knew that mine functioned as a hot plate. Love those Athlons.
# man man
http://www.linuxnewbie.org
Don't think anyone posted that yet.
SecondPageMedia - Wha
They are good suggestions, but the links are part of Amazon's affiliate program. If someone clicks them and then buys the books, the poster is going to get a cut of it.
live(free) || die;
For a TV demonstration, try CD Burning.
I installed knoppix on my IBM thinkpad, default install (which may be the only way with knoppix) and plugged in my USB CD/RW drive, it was automatically detected as a SCSI device. Launch CDBakeOven as root (also already installed), drag and drop, and done.
It's as simple as using Roxio/Nero under windows, which means it's come a long way from writing bash scripts for mkisofs and cdrecord.
As it's something that people do regularly, it would be nice to show off that linux can be user friendly for day to day tasks.
Also, OpenOffice.org is quite impressive, intuitive, and visual.
In my (humble) opinion, the programmes included with the knoppix distro are a good general selection for showing off. (:
While newbies shouldn't be forced to use the command line, it might be nice for them to see why it's a great thing. Show them something really neat that they can do with the command line, which is awkward to do with a GUI. Make it something useful, which even if they're not doing now, they might want to later.
Chris, I've seen you on The Screen Savers several times, and I think you do a very good job talking about Linux. The one thing that sticks out in my memory about your appearances is that the fonts you are using on that laptop are just terrible! They're blocky, aliased, and just plain ugly.
Now, I am well aware that the fonts have no bearing on the quality of the operating system, but newbies will be put off by the less than attractive fonts. It's so easy to set this stuff up that you should never show Linux in anything less than a first-rate configuration.
If you can't upgrade your installation to use AA fonts, then either reinstall with RH 8.0, or get someone to loan you another laptop you can keep in TV-ready condition.
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!
1. To Start: Mandrake, Redhat or Suse. On the assumption that anyone interested in trying Linux has some computer experience (otherwise they wouldn't have heard of Linux), start with a 'does-everything' distro. Gnome and KDE are windowish enough to be manageable by anyone who knows that retractable tray thing isn't a cup holder and supermount will prevent the pain I went through trying to mount make my CDROM work in Redhat 5.2.
2. Neatest Thing: NFS. Show them how remote servers appear as as completely transparent subdirectories of Home and not as drive letters or mappings outside of the C: drive. Simple, but amazingly natural compared to the default Win method. (Yes, XP and 2K do mounts but not as default.)
3. Best Book: None. Google Groups all the way. Anything a newbie could ask has been answered ad nauseum and there's no chance of alienation from RTFM if you don't ask in the first place. Distro forums are also a valuable source of information.
Knoppix is the easiest, coolest way for people to get their feet wet with Linux. Nothing is as simple or user friendly, plus it requires no committment at all -- no drive partitioning, installation, etc. All you do is pop the CD in and run it, and you're booted to a fully featured Linux machine in minutes. When you're done, just shutdown and remove the CD, and it's as if Linux never happened on your machine -- perfectly safe for kids messing with the family computer!
I particularly like Mandrake's demos. I checked them out before switching to Mandrake. They give potential users a nice overview of the power and ease of modern distros. In addition, rather than a book, I would recommend people to buy a damn boxed set which includes useful manuals. Both Mandrake and RedHat have great manuals (Mandrake's are more newbie-friendly IMHO). Show them a nice shiny box with pretty manuals, that's more sexy than home-made burned CD's ... and helps keep distros healthy ;-)
A lot of people are recommending "Running Linux", but I never found that one I wanted to refer to most of the people who ask me.
Sobell's "Practical Linux" is good, as someone noted. Lasser's "Think Unix" is also excellent, and the only text I know of that does such a good job of explaining why Unix is *different*, not just in command names but in philosophy and structure. It's the grammer to Unix, where most other texts are only the vocabulary.
I also used to recommend the install and reference guides for Mandrake's distro, as I found it one of the better newbie guides around. I haven't read it over in a few major versions, though, so I don't know if this is still true.
I'm generally not a big consumer of computer books because most of them suck, but when looking for a general Linux book I found Linux Cookbook to be pretty neat and useful. It's somewhat Debian-centric, but useful for anyone. Another good book in the same vein is Linux System Administration by Michel Gagne. Both these books are centered on doing typical things that people want to do with their (Linux) computers. I like them both, but I do like the Linux Cookbook better.
1. Learn Linux.
2. Write book.
3. Pimp book on national show.
4. $$$$!
"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."
I think that the common belief of "You get what you pay for" is one of the things that bites linux in the arse...First thing I would do is show what programs have come out of OSS. My best example would be GIMP (while Moz, Evolution,XMMS work too). Here is this relativily little known open paint program, that does a lot of what Photoshop does. And its free!
About the books. My fav. intro books are.
-RH Linux Admin Handbook
-*insert any low level unix book*
-linux system admin whitepapers
-linux for dummies (dun laugh, great series)
sorry, the was no definitive linux book for me, unlike php
forget it.
The thing about Linux TV ads is that your average person does not want to be shown screen shots of Mozilla, etc., and see that they look exactly like what they're already using. That's boring. They probably won't even think it's Linux. So this is not what we want.
Take Microsoft commercials for example. They either involve multicolored flying butterflies or people discussing their crazy business solutions. These are obviously the kinds of ads that are succesful, and the kind that we should duplicate.
IBM has already duplicated the latter type in their Linux-based server ads: remember the one where the servers have gone missing, but they've simply all been replaced with one server running Linux? So we're pretty much all set in that department.
That leaves the first type. Pretty butterfly. Dancing happy people. Hm. For some reason that doesn't seem to fit our image all too well. Okay then, take Apple's ad campaign. Remember the "Think Different" ads? I've found the people who most want to switch to Linux are those who just don't want to be fettered by Microsoft. Rather than showing facts, show the symbolic advantage of Linux over Windows:
Show hordes of distraught people in chains and handcuffs trying to follow a fluttering butterfly climbing up a mountain or through pricker bushes or something, and a few others who have cast off their chains and are skipping along happily after a large penguin running through a field, a pied-piper sort of thing. The fact that we have a fuzzy mascot is actually probably our best weapon in convincing the "average" person to switch.
Parallel Illiad's idea, and show a Star Destroyer or something chasing after a small lonely X-Wing (perhaps piloted by Tux). The Star Destroyer gets a BSOD, GPF, or some other easily recognizable bane of Windows users (but not Windows-specific, to avoid lawsuits). It needs to reboot Windows. The X-Wing comes around, and ten seconds later (emphasize that Windows needs lots of time to reboot, which it does) KABOOM! no more X-Wing.
The main thing to remember is, people don't care about facts. Maybe businesses do, but IBM's got that covered already (if they stop, just follow their example). But people don't. They like colors. They like humor. They like special effects. They like fuzzy. They like Star Wars. Oh, and they really like free internet. A RedHat- or Mandrake-sponsored version of MSN would be wonderful.
But face it. People want entertainment. Facts aren't entertainment. Facts are when you get another sandwich. Entertainment keeps you glued to the screen those extra thirty seconds: thirty seconds of Linux.
In going with the idea that bright and shiny things can catch attention, my advice would be to use Keramik if you're showing KDE, and also install the Geramik gtk theme. I've always considered Keramik to be a very inviting theme for people used to XP. It's similar enough in style that they'll feel unintimidated by it, and different enough that they won't be thinking "ripoff" when it comes up. Linux still has a very bad reputation for being a scary operating system that only the extreame computer geek could comprehend. Having ones first real experience with linux instead of a command line being a nice shiny set of buttons I believe can have a big impact on getting someone into it. Plus having Keramik and Geramik both active will hide the multiple styles and give a unified appearence. In terms of functionality I like having the choice, but in terms of the 'average' end user I think most would rather remain ignorent of what's running at any one time.
I also think another thing you might want to try is showing off apt (via a frontend), or one of the apt like systems. One of the biggest impressions mandrake made on me was when I typed mp3 in the search field of rpmdrake, and it gave me a list of media players which could be installed or downloaded with just a click or two. I think something like that can be a huge help to someone not overly familier with computers, or especially with what software is available for the platform.
Everything will be taken away from you.
When I got started, it was (chagrin) through Stephenson's ITBWTCL, which piqued my interest along with ESR's work.
Beginner courses should probably focus on what Linux does really well conceptually. Like how it's a hot-rodder's dream - that you can really trick out the system the way you like it. Or appeal to the political side and talk about the freedoms you get with the switch.
Geeks need to appeal to things other than reason and logic. Right?
Keep your packets off my GNU/Girlfriend!
He's too right about the elitism attitude on the part of many in-deep Linux users. It's probably one of the biggest barriers-to-entry for well-seasoned Windows veterans.
Likewise, Linux users need to drop the whole "All Windows users are morons" attitude, because the odds are pretty damned good that at least 3/4's of those preaching the message are probably doing so from a Windows box. I'm on one right now. It's not long left in this world, however - I just need some disk space on the network to back up everything before I format the disks.
Hey. We all have to start somewhere. At least respect the fact that some of us are *interested* in Linux.
*Jump* at the chance to add another one to the fold.
Do what you can to help others out. This doesn't mean "go to LUGs and help out people". This means to actively keep an ear out for people who are interested in Linux. You might view it as signing a support contract for life, but the fact of the matter is that if someone's interested in Linux, you probably wouldn't have to support him for that long, and they're probably wanting a minimal amount of handholding anyway (Since they're being adventurous enough to switch OSes).
You want Linux to succeed? Show people why it's better. If Windows works for them, that's fine. Leave 'em the hell alone. If they come to you with a problem one day, though, then think of a way that Linux can solve it. It might be just the ticket.
"Mod, mod, mod...and another troll bites the dust."
It all depends on your audience.
Are you looking at tech savvy newbies (the BOFHs of the future) or Joe User?
For me, a growing tech savvy young man a while back, being introduced to linux was cool. I finally had control of my PC. Several years ago someone introduced me to Slackware and all I did was start playing.
I had at first someone to help me, then I read some books, but my best resource has been the internet.
Slackware does not hide you behind something fancy, but is a little easier to use compared to LFS or Gentoo.
I can now jump in and use any distribution. You have to be careful not to change config files without changing the database, but you learn the hard way.
If you are trying to get Joe User to use it, you need to find a book related to one distro, because all the config things are different.
This is what makes Linux hard from Joes perspective. If he buys a book written for Suse and then buys Redhat, the gui config tools won't be the same. The other problem is everything changes so quickly that books have a hard time keeping up with GUI changes and config tool changes.
Joe doesn't know that "ethernet card config" is the same as "network config". This makes it very hard for them.
Anyway... don't buy a book if you are wanting to be the BOFH of the future, dive in and give it a go. Join a LUG, jump on some mailing lists, find a friend who already has some experience.
Things to show off on TV: All the cool stuff that open source is used for everyday: rendering LOTR for example.
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This may sound strange but I have found an explanation in a fact that the whole logic of the Linux (*NIX) system is much better fit for me and the way I think. I guess system openness and the ability to try and do virtually anything with it helps a lot as well.
http://www.sfvlug.org/
http://www.lalugs.org/
Knowledge is power. Knowledge shared is power multiplied.
Red Hat is THE de facto best newbie Linux distro now as far as I'm concerned, and you can't go wrong with the Red Hat Linux 8 Bible. This, in combination with O'Reilly's Linux in a Nutshell is all you need to get started with Linux. You've got the RH book for your GUI, distro-specific stuff and you've got Nutshell for all the command line stuff. Any gaps in this combination can be filled in with man pages/websites/IRC/bulletin boards/usenet/etc.
Chris
> I found Slackware unleashed an excellent Slack book for beginners.
That's assuming beginners should be using Slack as their first distro. I guess it depends on your savvy. Like many here, I'd recommend a Debian distro.
Anyway, I've found Linux Administration, A Beginner's Guide to be excellent. Most of the books I saw at the book store on "Beginning Linux" showed you how to use the latest outdated GUI on a specific distribution. Boring. I already know how to use Windows. The aforementioned book shows you how manage Linux from the command prompt in a very easy way. It assumes you know a little bit about computers (like what "users" are and file system basics like file types and permissions) but shows you how to get all the things you know how to do in Windows done at the Linux command line.
It is fairly platform independent too. It describes things like how to install programs via RPM or compiling from source in a very straightforward manner (as well as the difference and why you might need/want to do one or the other).
When you're done with it, it also makes a great reference. Very easy to find stuff you're looking for via the TOC or Index. Truely a great book.
In addition to books on how to get Linux up and running your first time, you might also want to consider letting the viewers know about such great works of art as:
..A great book that describes some of the details behind how open source has come to be, and the processes that go on in the background that make open source software advancement possible in a seemingly chaotic environment...Extremely well written, and very motivational to getting involved in the Open source community!
:)
Eric Raymond's - The Cathedral and The Bazaar (ISBN:1565927249)
Rebel Code: Linux and The Open Source Revolution by Glyn Moody (ISBN: 0738203335) - An amazing history of the Linux and Open source, from the days of RMS building the GNU tools, right up to the now infamous IBM investment into Linux and Open source. This book filled in many of my gaps in knowledge of where some of the projects I use everyday came from...A truly great account of the Linux and Open source history.
Couple other simple things you could show:
- I can't imagine a more meaningful display of the benefit to Opensource software then finding a bug in a piece of open source software, submitting the bug and receiving a response from one of the main coders within 3 minutes to say that the problem has been addressed..Then conversely going into Windows getting IEXPLORE has crashed and you have the option to click OK or Cancel and thats about it...
- Mozilla Pop-up blocker! What a great piece of software that Mozilla is...!
- Mozilla Tabbed browsing! Another amazing, yet simple in concept feature, implemented in a piece of open source software...
- Any time the above two things are shown to non-Linux and non-Mozilla users they never cease to be impressed..it's a simple thing, but a very nice thing.
- Finally, for those users who still need their MS Office applications and/or Quicken...Throw on a copy of Codeweavers Crossover office. A great application built on Wine that helps thousands of people every day keep from having to reboot their computers!
Just a few random thoughts of mine....Good luck with the show, it's always a good show whenever I get a chance to watch it!
Jeff
I have been a Win32/MFC developer for last 4 yrs.
When I started my development, I know how websites like CodeGuru/Codeproject helped me.We usually get most of the commonly used code there and sometimes very specific ones.
Recently I have started some development on GNU/Linux, I couldnt find any sites similar to Codeguru/Codeproject. That's definitely a problem,that needs to be addressed. What we need code snippets/workarounds for console/gui applications at a centralized location.
I think a late night infomercial with that Ronco guy would be extremely effective [It slices, it dices, and makes juliened fries].
Excitable Announcer: Are you sick and tired of this? [shot of some dude downloading porn then getting the BSOD. "Aw man!"]
Lame-ass closed-source software getting you down? [same dude hunched over with BSOD in background. thought balloon: "THIS SUXX0R5!!!!11"]
Well move over Winblowze, 'cause RONCO LINUX is here!
It slices, it dices, it humps, it dumps, it bakes a cake and takes a leak on the seat while it's in heat. fo shizzles ma nizzle, linux is the tops, ma man be linus (he's got his big penis!). it starts up a riot and it never stop, you want me be quiet? well then call the cops...
ahem
Yes, linux does it all and it's guaranteed to NOT make you gay. It's fun for the whole family, just watch:
[little girl using bash: "Heehee, I'm l337!! w00+!!!"]
[grandma using mozilla to view goatse.cx: "You M$ f4gg0ts can blow me!"]
[dude from earlier successfully downloading porn: "Dude! I feel less gay already!"]
How much would you expect to pay for such an amazing system?
$99.99?!?
$89.99?!?!
$79.99?!??!!
!?!?
Order the Ronco Distro today and pay only three easy instalments of $14.99!
BUT WAIT! That's not all!!
Order now and we'll toss in two CDs of free software at no extra cost!!!!
Operators are standing by! This is a limited-time offer!! ORDER NOW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!111111111
(ronco enterprises will not be held liable for time wasted setting up linux. ronco enterprises does not endorse rms or any of his views. ronco enterprises has never been affiliated with the communist party. ronco enterprises is a god-fearing corporation. ronco enterprises is required to reveal the following: ronco enterprises is being investigated for fraud in thirteen states; please check with your local authorities.) tt
My favorite way to show off linux on TV is with my TiVo, of course... ;)
:wq
The hard truth (not a flame):
First, you need to learn how to learn.
Go to a book store and browse around.
Surf the net - use Google to find stuff.
Talk to your friends.
What do you think we do?
For the "Screen Savers" crowd (and I watch, so I don't mean that to sound condescending), most of these suggestions aren't gonna cut it. You're talking about people who are (A) primarily Windows users, (B) not sysadmins for a living, and (C) are generally of the "weekend techie" variety. Sure, they have Palm Pilots, they may crank out some HTML for their personal web page, and they may even hack together a little "My Grateful Dead Tapes" database in Access or FileMakerPro. But Mastering Regular Expressions? Linux Admin Black Book? Show them only the CLI? I think Chris is smarter than that.
These aren't all people who are going to compile their own kernel or debate the merits of different file systems over their beer (though some are in that crowd)... taking the usual l33tist attitude of "You don't need no steenkin' GUI, just build from source using the command line" approach is going to turn people off and drive them away -- defeating the purpose of "spreading the word".
In terms of books to recommend, take a look at Linux for Windows Addicts or Add Red Hat Linux to Your Windows Desktop In A Weekend. I've not looked over the latter in person, but the "Addicts" book is one that I read through myself a year or so ago when I wanted to start doing Linux development (after developing Win32 software for several years). It's great for taking general desktop/workstation concepts and tasks you know from the Windows world and explaining how they work or are dealt with in the Linux world. For me, it took me past the initial hurdle after installing Red Hat, firing up Gnome, and thinking "Where to next?".
As for OSS, in general... find some useful apps or utilities, ones that would "show well" on television, and highlight them. Evolution (an Outlook clone) is an easy choice. Churn through SourceForge for others... some that come to mind are the Horde project (web-based PIM, mail client, and more), or dotProject (web-based project management and collaboration tool). There's no shortage of these types of things that could be set up inside of an hour or two, show well visually, and show the useful and usable stuff that's out there in the OSS world.
It's not perfect, but it's pretty damn great. They just make/buy the cd, throw it in and check it out. No worry/ No changing/partitioning, just a quick demo. Specific directions on what to check out in Knoppix would also be helpful
Twitter scanns his bookshelf and sees feet of useless M$ books, and a few inches of very useful Linux books and a foot or two that span both, C, FORTRAN, tcl refernce books. My oldest book on Emacs is still useful. Most stuff between that and my first Linux books refer to stuff that no longer works. That's the beauty of free code, new stuff is added and older tools just get better. Nothing seems to ever go away, despite the wonderful work to make new and very easy to use tools. The older and more powerful interfaces stay the same and are there for those who need or want them. Books are useful when you want to learn from the experiences and mistakes of others and not waste time running down misconceptions.
Best starting books for me were Linux Unleashed by Sams Publishing and Linux in a Nutshell by O`Reilly. Linux Unleashed tries to cover everything and gives good references. Older versions were Red Hat centric and gave more space to things like vi. Newer versions cover different distros and GUI stuff and may appeal to more general users for that reason. It also walks you through the install. Linux in a Nutshell is the reference I use most often. Both have common examples to help you out.
Best screen shot movies: Multi-layered Gimp image manipulation. Simple multitabed Mozilla browsing shot. Mail notification from multiple sources. Any big task started by X forwarding on another computer followed by clicking trough to another virtual machine where another big task move along on another computer, and so on. You don't need a beowulf cluster to get lots of work done with more than one machine, thanks to the beautiful X window system and OpenSSH.
Windows just works. To get a Linux install to my satisfaction took over 100 hours.
No Windows install will ever meet my expectation for what software should be ever again.
Friends don't help friends install M$ junk.
Other than that, the Apple Switch Ads have been quite effective on the desktop level, as have the IBM e-Business ads (particular the one with the Universal Business Adapter).
I think it would be great if somehow the Linux community could muster some financial resources and put some TV ads together. That would be cool.
Statistically speaking, there's a 99.998% chance that my IQ is higher than yours. Get over it.
Make sure you do a trial first. I've tried the service twice and found it slow and sometimes buggy. The selection of books is okay. I have access to a books24x7 corporate account through my employer, and it is a slightly more polished service with about the same selection of tech books. Neither of these services is something I'd pay for yet.
[Set Cain on fire and steal his lute.]
Running Linux by O'Reilly was essential for me. (still is at times!) - it's a great reference book once you've gone thru it all.
LinuxNewbie.org has some nice how-to/help files that were also big for me.
You could show them a BSA or FBI raid on a Warez house. Warehouses full of confiscated PCs, or "obsolete" boxes. Nah, they get to see that at the local public school anyway.
Friends don't help friends install M$ junk.
You just don't get more photogenic, than RMS do you? Toss his mug up there demo'ing things on TV, and things will fly off the shelves, won't they?
"Politicians are interested in people. Not that this is always a virtue. Fleas are interested in dogs." P.J. O'Rourke
Unfortunately I wasted a week with maddog's Dummies book. Jon's a great guy, but a computer manual for novices author he ain't.
Then I got Running Linux. I was up and going in no time and years later I still refer to it. At this point I don't recommend *any* other book for the newbie. There's no fluff in this book. It's the straight dope, dense but completely readable, technical but not over the newbie's head (at least if they're the sort who's eyes don't glaze the second you say "compiler," but I don't think of The Screen Savers viewers in that catagory), more in depth where it needs to be than any other newbie manual I've ever seen while at the same time running a broad overview of everything you need to at least hear about ( and refering you to other great O'Reilly books that cover the subject in greater depth).
Throw in Linux in a Nutshell and the Armadillo book ( Essential System Administration) and you've pretty much covered everything you'll ever need to keep a basic Linux system ( or network) up and running in any enviroment from your home desktop to the small corporation data center.
These three books are the grand triumvirate. The first to buy, the first to read and the first you'll turn to when all others have failed you in some way. All others are but shadows on the wall of the cave.
Beyond these three the first book a newbie is going to want is a dedicated manual for his choice of text editor, that would be vi of course. Running Linux gives an overview and In a Nutshell gives a reference but nothing beats a dedicated book for learning. Once you know it pretty well you'll keep it on the shelf but really only need In a Nutshell for a quick reference. O'Reilly wins again here with their Learning the vi Editor.
Ok, ok, some wrong thinking people are going to want to go with emacs instead. For them O'Reilly has Learning GNU emacs.
Congratulations, your viewers have just gone from newbies to system admin gurus in just four short books.
Here's where I step away from the crowd a bit. I'm a firm believer that any serious Linux newbie should do a little programing right off the bat, and do it in C, on the command line. O'Reilly loses here. The two volume C For Dummies books are the ones to grab. They're the best Dummies books I've seen. They're the best newbie intro to programing books I've seen for that matter. Not for the hardcore geek, but complete, understandable and fun. They'll have grandma writting her own prank commands in a couple of hours and LIKE it!
Now we've gone up to a full library of Linux books, all the books most people will ever need, including C programing manuals, and we haven't even used up a foot of bookshelf space yet so I guess throw in the Camel book for good measure.
Done, your viewers are now Linux grandmasters and *still* have a couple inches short of a foot of bookshelf space left they can fill with whatever special interest book catches their fancy from what they learned in Running Linux.
What can you do on the show to impress people with Linux? Damned if I know. The most impressive things about Linux aren't visual. In fact the *most* impressive thing about Linux is *philosophy.* Not in the philosphical sense itself, but what that philosophy *means* to the average user. No one really explains that well.
vim doesn't break. vim doesn't change to an incompatible file format to force you to download the latest version. All files written in vim are readable by all versions of vim and *all other text/word processors.* No lock in, no lock out. Ever. If the current maintainers lose interest, because it is open source, *any* programer with the interest can just pick it up and start maintaining it-without even having to ask permission (although this is good form), let alone spend years with a room full of lawyers to make the arrangements. If you don't like something about vim and are willing to put in the work you can bloody well change it yourself, at will, again without even asking permission. YOUR vim is yours to do with as you please.
And because all of this is possible with a Linux system running GPLed software tens of thousands of programers are working at it around the clock, so even if *you* never touch a line of code you directly benifit from its openness.
This is the true power of Linux, this is the part that's truely impressive. You can't show it. You have to explain it. Explain what being ope *means,* and means to *them.*
And what it means is freedom.
What feature is more important than that? Can MS or Apple match Linux, *feature for feature?*
KFG
There are 2 very distinct classes of beginners, the technical power user that is beginning in Linux, and the absolute beginner that still has trouble with windows.
For the power beginner the O'Reilly books will do, as a number of people have mentioned before.
The absolute beginner won't be able to make it through all the geek speak in O'Reilly books. Although I hate to say this probably a "dummies" or "idiots" book would be better. I remember seing also a "visually" series with lots of pretty pictures. Which one of those I don't know, I'm a power user.
I've found the GUI config applets I've uses so far marginally useful at best. In my 3rd day of running Linux, I had to modify fstab and System.map (yes, this is RH 8.0) using vim. On my 4th day, I grabbed a RPM of nano (updated pico for those of you who've used pine) and don't have to remember vi(m) commands anymore.
I've got to get my Winmodem working and my HP Series II printer running as well.
OK, I'm not that new to linux, I've had a linux shell account for years, this is just the first time I've ever installed it.
My system runs two mobile drive racks, one for Windows (and soon, Linux) backup, the other for the unix drive. Took me the longest time to realize the reason why grub just sat there and beeped instead of booting Windoze when I pulled the unix drive was that grub.conf file was on it. I had unplugged the Windows backup drive during the original install, I didn't want to chance my backup data to anything going wrong during the Linux install.
I had to put a MBR on the Linux drive running a grub boot disk.
If I were depending on the GUI only, I'd be completely SOL.
Tech Public Policy stuff
I read this essay a long time ago. I even find myself re-reading it from time totime. It's what made me try linux in the first place. :^)
I wanted a free tank
Check out the Starter Guide & Everyday Applications Manualonline. You can Download them too.
Excerpt from the index:
Full plate and packing steel! -Minsc
These people are newbies. They don't know what man is. They don't know what bash is. Many of them don't know what a CLI is, and if they do, have no idea of the power of the Linux CLI. They probably don't even know what a distro is. They've probably never even installed Windows, much less any sort of *nix. They need their hand held, people . This is the exact attitude preventing main stream adoption of Linux.
Read reviews of shopping cart software
i'm just waiting for become a billionaire like bill gates for dummies . . . . .
"You never want a serious crisis to go to waste." - Rahm Emanuel
because you thought using the bandsaw should just be "intuitive?"
By the way, you're right, Linux isn't intuitive, neither is Windows. People have to learn Windows. They use, ummmmm, books to do it. Go into Borders and look at all the books on Windows explaining how "intuitive" it is.
"Ok, now click this, pull down that, go over to the other thing, don't ask us what it's called, we don't know either, now stick out your left elbow and scratch the cat with your right foot and chant . . . "Please don't crash again.""
Yeah, intuitive. No book reading needed here. The Video Professor must be some sort of philanthropist paying for all those ads, just for something to occupy his time, because "Windows is intuitive."
This is the single biggest load of malarky that anyone ever says about Windows, or Macs for that matter. Windows and Mac OS's are *learned.* They only seem intuitive because you've already learned them. My 70 year old mom learned KDE alongside her Mac OS8. She prefers KDE.
It's "intuitive." Or at least it was *after she had learned it for a while.*
*Linux* just works. Most of the Windows books at Borders, however, are about how to make Windows work despite itself because it's "intuitive."
Linux *at the command line* is arcane, but just works. Always.
English is arcane too but most one year olds manage to pick it up. They even resort to reading books by the time they're five or so. You should read one too. Maybe that install wouldn't have taken so long if you'ld read the bandsaw manual and had both hands to work with. My last install took about half an hour and consisted of putting the CD in the tray and clicking "Ok, whatever" a couple of times.
Wish I could do that with Windows, but the Goddamned wizards puke on drivers all the time and keep asking for second floppies that don't exist because "Windows just works" and is "intuitive." To uninstall a program cleanly I had to hack the "intuitive" registry and to make the "Start" button do something as simple as change its label I had to hack the *binary code* of the GUI shell itself because Windows "just works" and is "intuitive."
But at least people seem to have "that kind of patience" for this stuff.
Well, actually, they don't. A study about stress in the workplace revealed that the majority of stress in the workplace these days came from their computers not working right, computers running Windows, which "just works" and is "intuitive."
Am I anti MS? Damned straight. After more than a decade of being a loyal customer they damned well made me that way and they damned well deserve it.
Am I anti Windows? No. I'm writing this under W98 right now.
But it DON'T "just work." And it AIN'T "intuitive."
Tell you what, use your remaining hand to crack a a book. I'd recommend you start with Vonnegut's "Welcome to the Monkey House." From there go on to reading the bloody manual. It might save your remaining hand. And get your kids bike assembled in time for Christmas-WITHOUT any "spare parts" left over.
KFG
Oh yes, and find a Linux user you can ask for help when you get stuck!
Linux reads books on how to use YOU!!
You like your new Mac more than you like me, don't you, Dave? Dave? I asked...She said Yes.
Apart of any books you may read, the gurus that may advise you, the tons of information that you may get on Internet, there is two thing that are highly important to take into account.
The first one is what you expect to find on Linux. You can be sure that you don't get the same thing as Windows. So any expectations should be put in the typical rule of economics: "You choose something for the price of loosing the other choices". However, take into attention that this thing is more tricky than it seems. You may loose some present choices, which, in the moment you are now, may be very important for you. However nothing can be said about the potential of your choice. Here you may obtain some important personal victories or get such a slap in the face, that you will always flame Linux for the rest of your life. To avoid such desilusions, you should not only read books and news, but also take care to search for real goals in this world. Linux, and *NIX in general, is a world too vast and too amorphous to show you a direction. Here there are no arrows and signs asking where do you wanna go. You choose your path.
But here enters the second important factor. On choosing your path, you will have to manage this new system. And this is not so simple as it seems. For the last years, a lot was done, that approached the *NIX world of interfaces to the more common Windows GUI. But, still the *NIX never has lost its rawness in the bottom line. Besides, it keeps paths of development that go quite far from what you may expect in Windows or some other systems. The *NIX world is a mix of rational conservatism and risky progressism. Coming here, brings a feeling much like the one that some people may find on changing cars of different countries. Imagine that you go from an confortable american car, for which you are offered service, maintenance, features and choose a rough jeep where even the driver sits in the "wrong" side. Worse, this "jeep" is much like those weird australian cars that made so much fame in certain stories. A mix of an old car and some fresh new technological mess. With exception of a certain skeleton, everything else is what you put into it. You may find a mechanic or some service that may check and maintain some general parts, but which will surely not help in everything you have there. By changing cars in this way, you will get some sort of psychological shock. You will get some feelings about the positive and negative effects of this change, you will be surely forced to change some driving habits, and you will surely need to know, more deeply, the mechanics of the monster you drive with. However, there can be a big danger here. Before you get real acquainted to the positive or negative effects of your move, despair may overcome you, and you quit early in the race. That's what happens to 90% of the people who try Linux. Unfortunately, the majority does it in a very superficial way, much like installing a new game, so, their critics cannot be taken seriously. The *NIX world is rough and wild. It needs time to reach the level of flexibility you may need to feel confortable in it. So think, that no matter the books and howtos, you may need some good months of patience before you can make a wise and weighed judgement.
And remember - negative results are also results. There can be lots of them before reaching a certain level of practice and knowledge.
... The people who contacted you want to know how to get started using GNU/Linux, not Linux.
;)] ) I'm writing to underscore one of the problems that your viewers will come up against: there are too many distros. Well, ok, that's a value judgement on my part, but in reality your viewers are going to be confused when they hear there's more than one GNU/Linux. In terms of picking a good beginner's resource, my only advice would be (this comes from experience):
I'm not writing this to berate you or get into some political issue about giving GNU credit, although I do think that's important. (Actually, I still slip up and write Linux instead of GNU/Linux, or NIC card instead of NIC or network interface card. [hey, it happens
The fastest, most effective way to turn a user off to GNU/Linux and send him back to his Windows or Mac box is to tell him that the easiest way to do any task is through a CLI.
Avoid books that say that if you can.
Yes, I know that's the truth sometimes (one of the great parts about *nix is that everything is scriptable, and scripts are great tools for getting things done), but Joe User wants to do everything graphically. The problem is that Joe User is already very comfortable with a GUI, and so even if there were a task that he wanted to do on a regular basis that would be easier on a command line, the extra work and annoyance of having to get used to a CLI would more than balance out the gain in productivity.
Myself as a geek i always throw any manual out the window upon purchase. I have learned linux the hard way and even if i now manage linux pretty well i could have learned it in much shorter time. Ofcourse experience cant be read but many of the pitfalls can be avoided by reading a newbie book.
As of showing linux off at the telly it wont have to be anything special. just show that you can surf, play music, movies, write calcs and letters etc. Everything you do on windows you can do in linux.
HTTP/1.1 400
Peter Norton's Complete Guide To Linux was the only book I used when I decided to learn linux. It is a little bit outdated now (the version of Redhat mentioned in it is 6.0), but it took me from "never used linux/unix in my life" to "set up own web, dns, ftp, and mail servers" in a matter of days. It is concise, informative, and sometimes humorous ("comprehensive sendmail books can be used as boat anchors", reads the chapter on sendmail). However, I would not go so far as to recommend it on the show unless a new version comes out.
The deal is, a lot of people worry about functionality while learning Linux or a BSD, etc. With VMWare, you can still run your old MS-Windows software in a little box, and gradually move to *nix-based tools.
When I was working high-level tech support for a major ISP, a small number of us got approval from our boss (and pissed off the IT department) to reformat our workstations, install Red Hat, and then drop the demo version of VMWare in on a trial basis, installing NT 4.0 (it was a while ago, but a lot of shops STILL use it, you know).
We could use things like Matt's Traceroute and other stuff that we normally had to ssh into production machines for, we didn't have to deal with those stupid NET MSGs from the lower level teams, and we could still use Microsoft Office apps (we had the licenses already) to fill out our expense reports and use IE for whatever internal webservers had been built using ActiveX or other IE-only stuff.
I think if you show this type of thing, you can get people hooked. Especially if you take a windows-crasher test program and show it running under WinXP vs. WinXP-in-VMWare. BSODs become a joke, a chance to say "silly old MS" and restart the virtual PC.
The accountants for small businesses should like the fact that they won't have to burn the money they paid for licenses, like I mentioned in my example. I think IT people will still grumble because for many people IT = MS (MCSE drones, etc.) and they don't want to have to learn new stuff and support it.
Get off my launchpad!
When mentioning computer books, I freak at the thought. Just like when I was in college, the prices of college texts, and computer texts are too rich for my blood.
Until I discovered Computer Book Works. Too good to be true. They have new titles at decent discounts. But once a new edition comes out, or if the title is at all old, out comes the price hatchet!
This most awesome bookstore has good Gnu/Linux books, certification books, programming books, any kind of computer books, and most of them are 50% off or more!
The Coriolis Exam Prep General Linux I book is 75% off cover price. The orange book (LPIC Prep Kit, forgot the rest of the title and author, also known as the orange book), another Linux LPI exam book which is used by one of the nearby LUGS for their Gnu/Linux intro course is 75% off.
The Programming Perl 2nd edition is 50% off or more (I think I got my copy at 75% off), and the Perl 1 class I took is still teaching out of the second edition, but you can use the third edition for the class if you like wasting money.
I've purchased Samba books, dns and bind books, other certification books, IBM red books, html, unix, and so many other titles, all 50% to 75% off the cover price, and all still useful.
Last time I checked, they didn't have a web site. Their info is:
Computer Book Works 78 Reade St., NYC NY (near city hall)
call them for zip code
212-385-dont-use-555-the-fives-1616
and their email is: bookmanJV@mindspring.com
tip: take out the two caps (JV)from the above email address, and replace the two capital letters with a single number, 3, and you have the correct you know what.
They don't have a web site, but they do ship UPS. So you can call and order by phone (which is more secure than internet). And they are a good bunch of people there. Not a huge publicly traded company. Email them for what you are looking for, and ask the price. You'll be pleased with the response. It's the cheapest I've found for "used" or older edition books. Cheaper than other online sources.
This is one great store. Very highly recommended.
My article Why We Should All Test the New Linux Kernel gives some tips on how to get started building new kernels (although it emphasizes testing the development patches).
The #kernelnewbies IRC channel has a website at www.kernelnewbies.org that you will find helpful.
And finally there is of course The Linux Kernel HOWTO.
Request your free CD of my piano music.
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.
you should try the site:
http://www.sslug.dk
which is a goldmine of nicely arranged information about Linux.
Well, it't in Danish which is very similar to the "Bokmål" of Norway.
-- From Denmark
http://www.admin.com/
/ 146252&mode=thread&tid=130
They also have a Linux version,
i personaly think this book rocks.
I bought it after a review on slashdot,
let me find it: http://books.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=00/10/10
Have Fun
Bernard Babani Publishing do *fantastic* books on a wide range of subjects. They tend to be inexpensive beginner-to-intermediate level, and they do a couple of books like "Linux for Windows Users", and "Using Linux the Easy Way". Pretty much all their books are small paperbacks, and cost about ?6-?7. They start at around ?2 for the cheapest, and the dearest I've seen was the Mindstorms book for ?13. They're pretty cheaply printed, but seem to last well - I've got a copy of "Electronic Projects for Beginners" which I got when I was first learning about electronics, around 23 years ago (yep, I was a geek when I was six).
The authors tend to be well-known (at least in the UK) technical writers and journalists, like Robert Penfold and Noel Kantaris, who's "Introduction to C Programming" is still probably one of the best guides to getting started with C I've read.
I've bought some quite expensive books on computing, and electronics, and been utterly disappointed with them. I've always found these guys to be consistently helpful and well-written, with a nice "light" style. I should point out that I'm in no way associated with Babani Publishing. I'm just a very satisfied customer.
I'm a BIG believer in tech books...I'm only 4 years out of school (non-technical), and working as a completely self-taught network engineer, using Unix/Linux regularly, and starting to get into C and Perl...
"The Unix Programming Environment" by Kernighan (of K&R) and Pike, is a great intro to Unix. The book gets very complicated very quickly, but the first 2.5 chapters are VERY basic, and give you a great foundation in how unix, the filesystem, and the shell works...Get it used and cheap on Ebay.
I started with "Learning Red Hat Linux" (O'Reilly) which may be outdated now, and of course "Running Linux" (O'Reilly) which is a great intro and resource.
After you've got the basics down, I highly recommend doing LFS, or Gentoo (or both), as they hold your hand every step of the way, and even if you only understand 10% of what you've just done, it is guaranteed to fill in some conceptual knowledge gaps that don't get filled by reading a book, or even just screwing around on your own...
I picked up Linux in 1996 and after six years of using it constantly instead of windows I can say I feel like just this year I've begun to become proficient with it and with modifying its kernel and modules.
How do you show off Linux on TV? How the heck do you show off any computer on TV? You need to show off end-user benifits. Try showing off how customizable Linux is, show off GUI's since it's TV. Show off CrossOver and other apps that help people to "CrossOver" to Linux.
Things you can talk about but can't show: Linux is free as in speech... saving companies from being tied to a single vendor. One vendor dies and all its customers die with it.
Linux can't be killed. If you are a small company, you can have custom software that you never have to worry about a big company pulling the plug on or wrecking support for. Linux spells security and security for long-term investments. Other OSes are at the mercy of the vendor. You could end up like all the SGI Irix users too... Linux and GNU won't die.
If you have to you could maintain your own distro of Linux. That's appealing if you are a big company. If you are small, you can take solice in all the other small companies out there and the community of Linux users.
However, Linux requires a gigantic investment in people. You need good solid System Admins and you need them to be knowledgeable. Nothing will substitute for an experienced SysA. You can get by with novice programmers but you can't get by with novice System Administrators.
You can't really give somebody new to unix or linux any idea of what it's all about without giving them a real hands-on experience. The best safe way to do that is with a Live CD. Knoppix is one which actually works. Demonstrate it on your show.
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
Last time I checked, both Gnome and KDE Help systems where able to render info pages in an HTMLish way using info2html or something similar.
It makes the reading of info data much less painful.
A documentation standard for *ix would be nice. But consider that the way you present your information has to change according to the target audience.You can't use the same _semantic_ structure for a tutorial and a reference manual.
Ciao
----
FB
Even without all that AI, the command line could be made much more user-friendly. What is more user friendly : use the mouse (a most unintuitive device) to double-click (what?) on an icon (uh?) that try to represent an interconnected globe, or just type "Web Browser" ?
True, the *ix command-line tools are conceived for expert usage and in an epoch when not typing two or three extra characters was seen as a great advantage. However, with alias, scripts and maybe a user-oriented shell integrated in a graphical environnment, the command line could become a real friend for computer newbies.
Ciao
----
FB
Comment removed based on user account deletion
by Paul W. Abrahams, Bruce Larson: Older book meant for literate computers looking (or forced) to get their feet wet with Unix. The tone is nice because it doesn't talk down to you like most "beginner" books do. Highly recommended.
Finally,
by Syed Mansoor Sarwar, Robert Koretsky, Syed Aqeel Sarwar: More along the lines of a college textbook, so it is thorough... but may be a bit dry for some people's taste (also large blocks of text...good and informative, but maybe a bit too long for most beginners). Check into the other books first and use this one to transition to O'Reilly texts meant for the experienced user.
I hope these help...
Linux for Windows Administrators by Mark Minasi & Dan York
When we interviewed one guy, he said he knew Unix well. I asked him what his favorite shell was, and he looked at me with a blank stare. Have you ever done any shell programming? Yes, in C. Needless to say, he didn't get the job.
We had to eventually get someone hired, and hope to teach them basic Unix skills later. When asked if he knew Unix, he said he could learn it if we had a manual. From then on, every time we were at a terminal installing/configuring software, he was there with his notepad and pen, writing down every command. (even ls, pwd, etc) He would constantly be asking questions like "ok, so I type ls -l, and that will...?) It was oh so painful. I am all for teaching people, but this guy (who TAUGHT junior college CS classes) could not pick up the basic commands of Unix.
Then one day the server stopped responding. After investigating, we found out he had typed this command: rm -rf /bin
My beliefs do not require that you agree with them.
Plus it makes you look cool to your friends when ur flying though the command line:)
Unless any of your friends happen to be female. Then it makes you look like a complete dweeb.
Unix Power Tools is the book for learning, not just what all those oddly-named UNIX utillities do, but how to use them together to accomplish useful tasks. I've never seen a better book on how to think like a longtime UNIX-user.
--
CPAN rules. - Guido van Rossum
Get the guys (Todd et al) from Dash PC on the show. They're doing some cool work with in car PC building and (mostly) linux. The DashPC project is on Sourceforge.
j
-- There is no sig line, only Zuul.
When I started off with linux (maybe a year ago) i actually never needed to buy a linux book. I found that all information I needed was online often hard to find and often contradictive or outdated (especially howtos etc.). But often times you find some serious pearls.
c hapter/inde x.html
o per/lib rary/l-gloss.pdf
i als_and _books/free_linux_training_materials.html
A power application that is typical for linux/unix i think is a linux X terminal server. Nearly impossible to do for a windows environment (unless you have money out the ass). But with a linux desktop of reasonable size and a couple old machines you can have a whole family on a full scale computer. check out www.k12ltsp.org.
and it isn't too difficult to setup either. this is definitely a linux power app.
O'Reilly Learning Debian GNU/Linux
http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/debian/
A brief Linux Glossary for Windows Users
ftp://www6.software.ibm.com/software/devel
More free books
http://www.intelinfo.com/it_training_mater
I started out trying to learn Linux and was doing well from the odd book and looking through the man pages. As soon as I found the website http://linuxfromscratch.org I learned more in a month then I had done in a year.
Depends how deep you want to get into linux but its well worth a look.
"I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it." - Voltaire
...is The Linux Network Toolkit. Granted, it's not exactly a total newbie's book, but it really got me rolling on the Linux thing and networking Windows and Linux machines. Which, if someone is just starting out with Linux, is a very likely scenario.
Here's an idea for something that would be interesting to go over for the newbies... Webmin. There seem to be a lot of comments related to the (lack of)virtue of the CLI. I like the CLI, but sometimes don't feel lie screwing with it. With Webmin, I can configure just about anything on the box via this web interface. I can also update Webin from within Webmin in addition to adding functinonality to it from within it. All of the configuration modules are right there at your fingertips. Very cool stuff. You can even configure a box remotely if you've got everything set up correctly. Windows can't touch Webmin.
We all know scripts are a great way to deal w/ command line complexity. But it takes a lot of background knowledge (editor, obscure scripting language, filesystem & permissions, jobs, piping, etc.) to start writing and using scripts. Debugging scripts isn't for the beginner. Running scripts isn't as easy as it could be. Sharing scripts requires yet another set of skills. I've often wondered if and easier scripting system couldn't be created. One of the most profound inventions of this sort was the macro system in Lotus 123. It took some learning, but it was learning that newbies could accomplish because Lotus made it very accessible. The knowledge leap from spreadsheet building to macro writing wasn't very far. I know people who otherwise knew nothing about computers who wrote some truly astounding macros (for their skill level). They weren't fast, elegant or even stable, but they scratched the itch. The shell script concept seem to offer the same possibility for this kind of mass creative expression, if only the environment for doing it was more obvious and available to the inexperienced.
I think the best way to learn Linux is just to use Linux.
/etc and take a look at some of the important files there fstab, mtab, lilo, etc..., take a tour of /proc, /dev, /sbin, /bin and /boot. Learn about the STDIN, STDOUT, and STDERR facilities and how to redirect input and output from a running program. Also, learn how to pipe or string commands together with conditionals too. Learn job control.
Learn your way around a shell first. Navigate the directories, learn the commands cd, mkdir, ls, cp, mv, etc..., learn the help commands info, man and "commandname --help", understand the concept of the symbolic link, go thru
Learn the boot process of Linux: bootstrap, loader, kernel, INIT, INIT scripts, shell, X etc...
Once you've got a basic understanding of the system, then venture into X and learn how it ticks (from a user point of view). Learn how to copy and paste, kill a running program, operate your windowmanager, switch virtual terminals.
Learn how to use the various package formats from tar.gz (tgz), rpm, tar.bz2, deb, zip, etc and how to compile and install programs.
Learn how not to run as root.
Most of the help you will ever need with Linux is already right there on the machine.
Codifex Maximus ~ In search of... a shorter sig.
And this represents the major problem facing Windows users.
I say, divide and conquer. Or more to the point, know your user. Different people have different expectations.
Programmers want to know about toolsets and whatnot. Windows reboot monkeys (sorry about the mandatory dig) want to learn about being able to run a server. Office users want to know about applications and usablility.
The first two camps are relatively easy to accomodate. The last is the hardest due to the fact that Linux just-ain't-there-yet-but-we-will-be-real-soon.
Some of the administrative books I recommend are:
Linux Admistration: A Beginners Guide 2nd Ed.by Steve Shaw
I toss this one under every Windows admin's nose who wants to come over to our camp. It's a good starting point.
Linux Administration Handbook by Evi Nemeth et al.
The bible. Old Testament-style. Polemic. God bless them.
Essential System Administration by Aeleen Frisch.
The one that sits on your desk when you need to look things up. The New Testament. Less polemic. Still excellent.
Throw in Linux in a Nutshell for quick reference and those represent my "Linux Admin Starter Kit". Add your own ingredients to make it work.
I won't bother listing each and every other good admin book because many of them are specialized. BUT, a good book on bash, vi, emacs, sendmail, dns/bind, firewalls, etc. are all nice for expanding ones brain. Oddly enough, most of them are known by the fact that they have an animal on the front cover....
\Programmers can just go and have at 'er with all the tools available to them for the amazing price of free.
Office worker types: be prepared for some serious hand holding. They don't want to deal with administrative issues, security, etc. They just want something that's going to work. I'd actually recommend OS X first. Failing that, Running Linux in the latest and greatest eddition.
Oh yeah, parting words: HELP those who want to make the transition. The Linux community needs to change from RTFM, STFW and STFU to, "How can I help you?" THAT will help people to be more willing to make the move.
Not so. You can do everything with a Linux GUI that you can do with a Windows GUI, and more. You can point and click your way around just as well, and do everything that most users do by pointing and clicking. Web, email, word processing, image editing, printing, etc.
Well, with Mandrake, for example, you can first select the purpose of your machine when installing, by clicking on a button for Desktop, Server, Developer, etc. This will install only the software you need, so you don't have every service in the universe the installed and running. Then you can go to a nice control panel, just like Windows' Start/Settings/etc., and find a nice list of services that you can start/stop by checking/unchecking little boxes. Then, through another icon, you there's a neat wizard that sets up a very effective firewall, with really simple questions a third grader could understand. After all this, you'll have a system more secure than most Windows boxes run by professional admins. Windows offers nothing this simple or effective. And it's all point and click.
Books are ok, but the best thing for beginners might be simply to join a LUG (Linux User Group) and make friends with some people who are experts. When I was starting out I learned TONS just from watching other people at their consoles.
This is the book to give to a n00b if they are really interested in Linux/UNIX "methodology".
I've been unimpressed with all the Linux books for newbies. The expert books are great but if your new to Linux they are also useless.
I've not looked at Linux for Dumbies and I have over all been impressed with the dumbies books.
The best by far was a booklet made by SCO for Xenix. This is obveously out of print but it was a mini refence.
Probably the best thing is time in the trenches. For exsisting Mac Os X and Linux users thats call up the shell and experement.
For Windows users however that's not so easy. But it can be done...
Msys is a Unix environment targeted at Windows software develupment.
Software dev is easyer from the Unix shell what can I say?
It's very Unix but still running under Windows. Just an app. Not a scary install like Linux as it dosen't threaton to destroy everything in favor of the new os...
(Think of an Os install as the Genisis torpedo from Star Trek II.)
Spock "It would destroy such life in favor of it's new matrix"
In otherwords Installing Linux means never being able to go back to Windows (the old matrix).
All your data is gone.. everything...
Your not just trying Linux your commiting to it.
New users need some asurence that Linux is the way to go.
If they can learn Linux from the safe confines of having never installed it so much the better.
Cygwin is annother Unix environment again for software develupment.
Add a good Linux or Unix newbie book and the trasnsition should be smoth.
I used Danix to move from Dos to Unix.
Unlike the rest Danix is a dos port of Unix commands so as to give Dos that "Unix" feal.
The other files in the linked archive are also good for the job.
Also I was going to frivlously suggest using a "hot geek chick" the way beer ads use super modles to sell beer.
"Drink beer and date a super modle"
"Use Linux and date a hot geek chick"
But being realistic people aren't going to switch to Linux in order to date hot chicks. I honnestly could not think of a dumber reason.
Still ammusing to think of Cat teaching Linux... Yummm.
I don't actually exist.