[ltp] Comprehensive Linux Book to show me the ropes

[Richard]

Dear Anthony,

Firstly, I guess you know already about 'man' and apropos. Also, that you
probably have a huge amount of documentation already on your laptop
(HOWTOS and stuff in /usr/share/doc).

The snag with books is often that they are hideously out of date! It
depends a lot on what you want to do - if it's command line/shell things
you want to know about, then a book that is 2-3 years old will be ok. If
its the GUI and its associated programs, then you really want a book
published after 2001, preferably in 2002. Many programs are evolving so
fast that you might otherwise miss out on some key features.
What is worth saying is that Linux is basically linux, whatever flavour
you use, and whether you use KDE or GNOME. So, there isn't any need to buy
a RedHat-specific book as for almost all the stuff, it will be the same
across distros.

Perhaps you can tell us a bit more about what you want to know. Are you
seeking a general "beginner's guide", a guide to the command line (eg bash
scripting and utilities), or a guide to the programs themselves such as
GIMP, Mozilla, OpenOffice, ogg/mp3 playback...
Also, what level are you wanting?


If you prefer physical documentation, one book I can recommend is "The
complete Linux" - it's bright orange, cheap (and on cheap paper!), and
rather like a telephone directory, they have just printed out all the man
pages and howtos! Also, I would recommend the Mandrake manuals - you can
get them online (www.mandrakelinux.com/en/fdoc.php3) and they give you a
good tutorial to it all - you could even consider printing them!
[Mandrake 9 is very similar to Redhat 8 in which programs are included].

Lastly, one thing you may be certain of. If there is a program that you
want, it almost certainly exists - and if you want documentation, it's
fairly much guaranteed that *someone* has put it online. With the
(possibl) exception of video production, anything you can do in Windows,
you can do better in Linux!  www.google.com/linux is your friend.


Hope that helps.

Best wishes and good luck!

Richard

P.S. www.linux-laptop.net




On Wed, 19 Feb 2003, Anthony Gee wrote:

> I am dabbling in Linux with my new Thinkpad... and was wondering if there
> are any recommendations on a book that will teach me all the ins and outs
> of Linux. I know there is a lot of information online, but a hardcopy of
> something that could basically teach me all I need to know would be good to
> follow so I can have a reference to follow...  So far all I've done was
> install Red Hat 8.. one of the first things I would like to learn is how to
> install the driver for my integrated wireless (Intersil Prism 2.5) on my
> T30.  Any suggestions out there?
>