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Best Web Resource For Linux Help?
mikeswi asks: "I made the big switch to Linux from Windows about six months ago (SuSe Linux 10.0). Overall, I am very pleased with Linux. Every now and then, I run into a problem that I cannot puzzle out on my own. I am absolutely not a Linux expert and have no idea how to do certain things that expert Linux users take for granted. If a determined Google search turns up nothing, I plead for help at LinuxQuestions and someone there usually does a good job of helping me out. What web sites or other resources do Slashdot readers use, when they run into a Linux problem they can't handle themselves?"
Freenode on IRC holds a wide variety of tech channels that you can ask questions on.
God spoke to me.
Although this is specific to the Gentoo Linux Distribution, Gentoo has fantastic forums. Gentoo I hope that helps.
-Jon
Look for resources that pertain to your specific distro. As an Ubuntu user, I use the official Ubuntu forums, and it works beautifully.
Here is a list of some SUSE resources. It has forums, wikis, mailing lists, USENETs, etc.
Get an IRC client and connect to irc.freenode.net:6667. There are a zillion channels on it, so you might feel a little lost, but few to start on would be ##linuxhelp, #suse,##kde/##gnome. Note: ## instead of # for channels means that it is a help or 'about' channel.
DYWYPI?
The Linux Documentation Project is a really great site with loads of HOWTO's and guides. Really worth checking out if you have a relatively big task to do (eg. setting up a mailserver or such).
If you want help with smaller tasks I would recommend finding a nice channel on freenode (IRC).
Ooooooh! Pick me! Pick me!
Oh, uh, Google I should think.
...you might not of heard of: Google! Seriously, it is a search engine that allows you to type in a subject, or a question, and it in turn provides you with related subject material or actual answers to questions. You might want to keep this under your hat though, as we might not get good questions like this again if people know they can EASILY search for information on their own.
To me the quality of the community, especially as shown by a distro's Wiki/Forum/IRC Channel is a big determinant in the desirability of the distro. I've been using ArchLinux for years, and one of it's strongest suits is its knowledgeable and within reason, patient and helpful community (along with great package management). If a quick search of the forums and wiki fail to answer your questions, someone on the IRC channel probably can; sometimes I leave the channel up in the background just to learn tricks from the more knowledgeable people hanging around. Keeping an eye on a good distro community can teach you all sorts of useful things. Also, never rule out a simple google search, if you are having a problem, there is a good chance someone else has had it too, so learn from their experience.
I'm a Ubuntu person myself, and feel that the Ubuntu forums are excellent.
That being said, I sometimes find answers on the debian forums for obscure problems.
Help! I'm a slashdot refugee.
...a remedial reading course. This is right in the dude's article -> "If a determined Google search turns up nothing...."
I recommend http://www.ubuntuforums.org/ even though it's distribution specific. There's a lot of questions/answers and how-to's and the search function works reasonably well.
I either use google or instant-message a friend of mine.
Works especially well when I have a brain-fart moment.
Not familiar with Suse myself, but virtually every distro has their own mailing list, I should think. I am a Debian user myself, and debian-user at lists.debian.org solved many of my problems.
I know the submitter uses SuSE, and that's fine, I have no wish to sway people away from their favorite distributions. But Ubuntu is crazy delicious this way. You can post even the most newbie-ish of questions on their forums and almost always someone will help in a friendly manner in a matter of minutes. In fact many times Googling for general Linux problems will turn up solutions from ubuntuforums.org.
I think this is the "thing" that is going to be a big driver of certain distributions in the near future (as if it isn't already). I mean, you can have a distro like Linspire or Xandros where they try hard from a technical standpoint, but there's no community of helpful souls to help you out. What makes OSS go is the gift economy, and one (major) way to give back is to offer friendly technical assistance on the boards. Distros that don't "feel" like they are part of the gift economy are destined to languish. Ubuntu and Fedora seems to have communities like this, even though the vibe of each of their communities is pretty different.
Anyway, on completely different note, I kind of cringed when I saw this topic, because I expect to see a lot trolls posting anecdotes about how someone screamed at them to RTFM, how everyone is sooo hostile, and other such BS. The fact of it is that I have seen the opposite a lot more. For example, a user shows up on the boards, posts a problem involving a very rare digital camera that exeedingly few people have even heard of, and when nobody responds with a 100% solution in under an hour the user starts flaming the community for their "lack of responsiveness to problems."
Our intelligent designer has never created an animal that we couldn't improve by strapping a bomb to it.
You say a determined google search turns up nothing? My guess is then that you're not determined enough!!
I'm a full time linux admin, and have rarely, if ever, had Google fail to answer my questions. Best start (if you're getting lots of irrelevant results) is to start with the linux search - http://www.google.com/linux - and from there start narrowing your search terms. Sometimes you might need to search some "newbie" sites to figure out what the term you should be using is.. eg. if you're looking for network configuration options scrap the search term "network" and try "eth0" or "ifconfig" or something, use the + and - operators, quote phrases, etc. I'll often run half a dozen searches adding and removing terms until I find what I want. Often the answers lie in forums, etc which google all indexes.. but if you've got a problem there's a 99% chance that someone else already has had the same problem and an answer has been found.
http://forums.scotsnewsletter.com/ (the "All Things Linux" section mostly, but the others are useful too) – not only do I find it useful myself, but I've also recommended it to a couple of my own users the few times I couldn't figure something out myself. Speaking of which, I'd say if your distribution has its own forums, check there too – not sure if SuSE runs any forums, but if you want to switch to Ultima Linux, we'll be more than happy to welcome you in ;-)
Creative misinterpretation is your friend.
"What web sites or other resources do Slashdot readers use..."
Find out what Linux User Groups are in your area and ask your question there. In most cases, local LUG groups, <plug type=shameless> like my own Tucson Free Unix Group - http://tfug.org </plug>, are invaluable in providing quick responses and personal experiences for local users. Quite often, your own LUG may even hold periodic meetings at a location near you, so someone more experienced can "lay hands" on the problem if it comes to that.
You provided some great Googling tips but I don't think Google is the answer for a Linux newbie.
The problem isn't that mikeswi wasn't determined enough in his Googling, the problem is that he does not yet know enough about Linux to have the context needed for effective Googling to solve his Linux problems.
We don't see the world as it is, we see it as we are.
-- Anais Nin
Join a mailing list for your distro,hang around on their irc channel,join a linux forum.Do all that and you will get all kinds of support.
Sure as hell isn't Slashdot where people only talk about adopting and using Linux with their Windows boxes.
I still run SuSE 9.2. You already know about LinuxQuestions.org. If your ready try these links:
http://www.justlinux.com/
http://www.yolinux.com/
http://www.pclinuxonline.com/
Some online magazines (I suggest you read the past issues):
http://www.linuxmagazine.com/
http://linuxgazette.net/
Enjoy,
It's just the normal noises in here.
Lots of people I know try google but don't realize that Google has a linux site-only engine, which is a huge asset, even over normal google search. Very helpful when looking for an application or the official site of a package you're working on getting running.
You should have a look at Qunu. It's a quite new Jabber/XMPP-based service. You go to the ["AJAX"/"Web2.0"/super high-tech] website, select/search a topic (Linux, Apache, Website, Ubuntu, Suse, networking, etc.. it doesn't have to be technical but the site is quite new so I doubt you'll find help for other domains); you'll get a list of experts (ie: people who have registered themselves as experts, you can adjust with multiple domains, eg expert in both Linux and GTK). Qunu supports other languages too. Once you've chosen an expert, you can ask your question, and hope for an answer (but if the expert is on the list, he should be available and answer in a timely manner). It's just like getting help on IRC, except that thanks to some Jabber/XMPP magic you go directly to the point (no need for a client other than your web browser, no need to know where to go, etc).
;)), or if you're fed up with helping on IRC (and people asking if they can ask and not asking the fucking question), you should give it a try.
Now, for the Slashdotters wishing to help (I personally don't yet, since last time I checked it wasn't really finished, but this question reminded me of it, so I may register and help in my spare time -- you decide when you help anyway), you can use your preferred Jabber client, add quser@qunu.com to your roster, and then select your domains of expertise. When you don't want to help, you can simply block the user or change your status (Away, DND, etc). If you want to stop helping completely, just remove the user from your roster (you can actually control user subscription in both ways with Jabber/XMPP, so you can stop when you want).
Qunu is a great idea, so if you have some time to waste (I mean, we're on Slashdot, right, so we do
Perhaps try the following site for suggestions:G =Google+Search&meta=
http://www.google.ca/search?hl=en&q=suse+help&btn
The Ubuntu Forums are a wonderful resource. Instead of beeing called an ingnorant newbie, people with questions get quick, polite answers. Very little of the arrogant, elitist attitude that pops up in so many Linux forums.
There are many good resources on the web. The standard resource is The Linux Documentation Project, or http://www.tldp.org/. Another site, which is much better than it used to be, is http://www.linux.com/. http://www.linuxjournal.com/ has many great articles to guide you through a wide variety of small projects. A great newer site with helpful articles is http://www.howtoforge.com/. For help on the desktop side, http://www.desktoplinux.com/ has many articles you may find of use. Documentation and information about KDE is, of course, available at http://www.kde.org/ and it's affiliated sites (linked from their homepage). IBM is always putting up new articles at http://www-128.ibm.com/developerworks/linux/ that can provide usefull information for development work under Linux. You may also find the articles on http://www.debian.org/, http://www.gentoo.org/, and http://www.ubuntulinux.org/ usefull even though the articles were written for other distros.
If you can't find what you're looking for there, you can always head over to irc.freenode.net. The #suse and #opensuse channels will be of particular interest to you. You may find #kde helpful for KDE applications. ##linux is basically a catch-all channel; we'll generally be able to field just about any question you throw at us there. If we can't, we will point you in the right direction.
Keeping up with the FOSS news can also teach you quite a bit. You already know about Slashdot. http://osnews.com/ is another very nice resource. http://www.kerneltrap.org/ is a less frequently updated site which can provide you with more advanced information. Keeping an eye on http://www.freshmeat.net/ can help you get a better feel for the various software available for Linux. And of course, with gmail you can setup alerts for Linux, KDE, etc.
If you really want to learn more about Linux, there's no better way than distro hopping. Go to http://www.vmware.com/ and download their free VMWare Server 1.0 to allow you to try out various distros without having to wipe your hard drive. This does, however, require you have a decent amount of RAM (I'd recommend at least 1 GB). Go to http://www.distrowatch.com/ for a fairly complete list of the available Linux distros, sorted by popularity.
If all these links really don't solve your problems, take yourself over to your best local bookstore and buy a book or two. The drawback of doing this, however, is that most of them will be pretty much out of date by the time they hit the shelves. On the other hand, they will give you a great foundation upon which you can build (update yourself) easily by utilizing the online resources.
Also, never forget about http://www.google.com/linux!
Check http://gmane.org/ (best viewed in a news reader). It's a treasure.
I have been "in the industry" for about 12 years now and opened my own computer support company about 2 years ago. Early on I came across the site http://www.experts-exchange.com/ . I found it in a google search for some wacky problem on a client's computer that I hadn't seen before. I could see the question, but the answer...for that I had to take out a $9.95 per month subscription.
I decided to subscribe figuring that I would cancel it once I fixed this one problem. Turns out that I use it a couple of times a month to find the answer to some obscure problem in just about any area from Programming to Desktop tweaks and Linux to MS Exchange Server.
For me it's well worth the money because I'm the guy they call when no one else can fix a problem. It might not make sense for a regular user who has an occasional question with an easy answer to pay the fee...but if your time is worth a lot to you, I'll say you can find just any piece of information on the site.
Since a good 90% of what I and others do is not specific to a distro or even an operating system, I thought I'd take the opportunity to ask if anyone here can recommend a decent place for Unix discussion (mailing lists, forums, etc). I gave up on Usenet a long time ago, but perhaps there's something there too?
Especially the ##slackware channel. People who use bare-bones distros are generally more knowledgeable about Linux (myself included). They frequently help people from other distros, even Ubuntu, though you should probably not bring your n00b questions there.
Don't believe in miracles -- rely on them.
In a certain mindframe, it seems logical enough, but the content on that site is NOT linux reference material. Just trust me.
ceci n'est pas un sig.
I have found the IRC channels on irc.freenode.net to be a superb source of good Linux support. #gentoo is friendly, knowledgeable, clean, and decent.
yuck, linuxforums has a bunch of morons running the show, last time i checked too many restrictions were there. On the other hand, http://forums.gentoo.org/ are a charm.Hats off, free as in freedom and you can really ask all advanced questions. I work on a variety of distros, Ubuntu,Suse and Gentoo, but when in doubt always goto Gentoo forums. Just a warning, most often you need not tell them, that you are actually not running Gentoo.
Those aren't trolls and that isn't BS. Maybe you haven't seen that behavoir, but I have. The Linux newsgroups on Usenet a few years ago were exactly like that. People would get pissed of because someone asked a question which none of them knew the answer. Then they'd be pissed because someone outside their circle answered it.
Specificly the one I remember: some embedded guy asked how to make direct calls to the kernel, so he wouldn't have to include the huge system libraries--libc alone is over 1Mb. They give him long winded reply more or less saying: "why would you want to do that?" in a nasty tone as if to say only an idiot would want to do it. Then some poor bloke answers the guy. From what I understand, they sent a complaint to that guy's ISP. There would be all sorts of crap like that.
I suppose you don't see that on most websites because the complaints would go to the webmaster. The webmaster of a linux site would probably know the correct person to ban or at least they just don't care, so no absurd punisments get dolled out to people who don't deserve them.
..everyone else does. And we are a friendly bunch who never tell you to just %^&%1#@#$%en Google It.
I look forward to your further Linux questions (as long as it is about Debian).
First find a good distro spesific IRC channel. (Learn IRC if you are an old fart like me who originally hated this kid stuff.) Whatever you have in your mind it is always a good idea to utter something to IRC. For example the Ubuntu default IRC client automatically goes to Ubuntu channel when you open it, and so does bitchx IRC client on Debian.
WHILE waiting for answers/flames read man pages/docs or google, and also the Google Groups. How to balance you problem solving between "official" docs of the SW at hand and more free googling? It depends on the case. If you have an error message, definitely do google with it, with and w/o quotes. AT THE SAME TIME, when you learn anything new with man/docs/google, you can augment or rephrase your question on IRC. On the other hand, if someone answers on IRC, pick and feed better keywords for further googling. In the end, even if nobody answered on IRC, it is an altrustic idea to write your final solution there, because nobody seemed to know it. And they can maybe verify it.
Only when all else fails, ask on a distro specific forum. That is so much slower and rarely gets you any better results.
In difficult application spesific cases you of course have to move the issue to application spesific IRC channels or forums, but it is always a better idea to start on distro channels and forums, because you might be using the sub-optimal application in your environment in the first place. And the help in distro channels/forums is more accessible, especially for newbies. And everybody is a newbie when starting with a new application. And the answers might be distro specific.
Anssi Porttikivi / app@iki.fi
Seems most new arrivals to Arch Linux forums are folks from Gentoo and from Slackware. Many new to Arch site the forums themselves as yet another refreshing change. I personally enjoy the balance of overall friendliness but occasional justifiable-policing of the too-absurd or off-topic.
/plug
Just submit your Linux questions as more Ask Slashdot articles. Duh.
I have always found the best resource for help is the Linux Bible, and everything else I need I tend to find lurking around the Linux Documentation Project pages. For Distro specific their websites usually help, and like the others said, IRC helps for that too, last resort could be troubleshooting Distro members. But yeah, the Linux Bible rawks :)
g00p.
You run Suse? All sorts of ways to get help are collected in the wiki.
http://en.opensuse.org/Communicate
A few weeks ago there was one article here that linked to three useful books for learning linux, and I'd just like to link to that for anyone else interested:
http://linuxboxadmin.com/articles/first3.php
I picked up Linux: Rute User's Tutorial and Exposition and I have to say it's been a great read so far. Thanks again everyone for making this switch as painless as possible - it's really nice to see some of the more Linux-savvy people stepping up and extending the olive branch to the Windows users.
the first thing i obviously do is searching google. the correct keywords will definitely bring up the right search results. If that doesnt help, the next place i go is ubuntuforums (i use ubuntu). and instead of posting right away, i take time off to read up the faq(which is updated quite regularly) and search the forum for the answer just to make sure its not a regular question. It sometime is very annoying if people keep asking the same questions again and again without reading stickies.