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Linux Book Recommendations, for 2004? 20

Posted by Cliff from the for-those-getting-started dept.
An anonymous reader asks: "LinuxDevices.com editor Henry Kingman has reviewed O'Reilly's new Pocket Linux Guide, a 191-page guide to Linux, asking whether a book that short can tell you what you need to know to get started working on a Linux system. Apparently this book cannot, to believe Kingman, who also dismisses O'Reilly's Linux in a Nutshell as 'dry.' Can anyone recommend a good book for smart but inexperienced Linux users, something that conveys a little of the magic of Linux without being too chatty, or too esoteric, or just too overwhelming?"
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Linux Book Recommendations, for 2004? More

Linux Book Recommendations, for 2004?

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  • Linux for Non-Geeks (Score:4, Informative)

    by metallicagoaltender ( 187235 ) on Tuesday March 23, 2004 @08:04PM (#8650868) Homepage
    I'll admit I haven't read it, and therefore can't vouch for its quality, but Linux for Non-Geeks [oreilly.com] sounds like it may fit the bill.
  • If you want an OS that rides on top of Linux that provides you with a slick gui, get one. You won't then need a book.

    Otherwise, this '2004' stuff implies that the gui slickness is 'progress' and that the old ways are 'backward.'

    I find that offensive. If you want a good Linux reference, 'Running Linux' by Matt Welsch, in the second edition published by O'Reilly back in about 1994 is entirely filled with material that you really should have a thorough exposure to. And I saw a copy of it at Half-Price boo
    • Well "how things are done", at least things that new users want to know HAS changed in the last 10 years. How to get sound to work, how to burn a CD, etc.

      I'm fairly certain that the book you refer to will cover linuxconf in depth, as that was typically available on distributions at that time or shortly after. I don't believe ANY current commercial distribution actually installs linuxconf by default anymore.

      And, offensive as you may find it, most "New" users of Linux WILL care about the GUI. The hope is th
  • <guru>
    Just read the man pages!
    </guru>
  • that, and use a junk computer and/or live cd to experiment.

    this is IMO important
    • I started back in the 2.0 days with a debian install, getting X up and-running took three days for a newbie back then. I learned SO MUCH though, from the basic filesystem layout to text editors, the init system, building and installing a kernel, and package management.

      I'd suggest starting with Gentoo, you'll learn a lot about how and where things are in Linux if you follow the installation instructions well. Gentoo installs today somewhat resemble that Debian install I did backintheday.

  • After experiencing the quality of the documentation of systems like Solaris and OpenBSD, perhaps it is better to do most learning there and then apply it to Linux. Linux is the "Windows" of UNIX, where there are so many third parties involved and so many similar software packages available that learning can be very frustrating. The "Cathedral" approach of traditional UNIX can be much more coherent and satisfying for newbies and old farts alike.

    I don't intend to sound like a troll, but I'm pretty convince
  • I think the best introduction to Linux (or any *nix for that matter) is Think Unix by Jon Lasser. It is written for competent Windows (or pre-OS X) Mac users who don't need words like "disk" explained to them, but aren't exactly comfortable at a command line and have trouble conceptualizing linking together several different programs to produce a result. Chapter one is about nothing but man pages, and X doesn't appear until the end.

    My favorite reference book is O'Reilly's LPI Certification in a Nutshell; it covers the same material as Running Linux, and is just as dry, but I prefer the layout and organization.

    So how does our newbie get from point A to point B? The same way most of us did: with the distro manual, man pages, HOW-TOs, online support, and so on. I love computer books, but there's definitely something to be said for figuring stuff out for yourself.

  • A Practical Guide to Linux" by Mark G. Sobell (Score:4, Informative)

    by brianc ( 11901 ) on Tuesday March 23, 2004 @11:28PM (#8652481)

    I recommend "A Practical Guide to Linux" by Mark G. Sobell for a very good distro neutral book. Although it might be a little light on admin specific stuff.

    http://www.sobell.com/LINUX/linux/html

    Here's an online Linux admin guide I stumbled across awhile back-

    http://rute.sourceforge.net/

    For Linux specific security, I recommend "Real World Linux Security - Intrusion Prevention, Detection, and Recovery" by Bob Toxen (Prentice
    Hall ISBN 0-13-028187-5).

    http://www.realworldlinuxsecurity.com/

    All "smart but inexperienced Linux users" should follow the guidelines Toxen presents before ever connecting an ethernet cable (or modem) to the machine.
  • "The Complete FreeBSD", 4th Edition, Greg Lehey, O'Reilly and Associates.

    Heck, I have karma to burn...
  • 6 years ago I used redhat because I heard about this linux thing. Then 4 years ago I switched up to Mandrake, because it supported my hardware, came with a newer version of KDE (2 instead of 1) and I needed a *nix to do CS homework. Even after many years I still really didn't know much about linux. I mean I'm not a complete moron, so I could use it, and I knew how to use some of the tools, but I had no clue on most of it. After installing numerous gentoo systems I've come to learn everyting about linux th

    • Or...

      • Install a live CD (like Knoppix).
      • Visit the Linux From Scratch [linuxfromscratch.org] project site.
      • Download the LFS book, plus the all of the GNU/Linux source tarballs, patches, etc.
      • Build you own basic Linux system, from scratch.
      • If you're feeling adventurous, you can also read the "Beyond Linux From Scratch" book and build X11, Gnome or KDE (or both), etc.

      You will certainly learn a ton about Linux systems in general just by following the LFS recipe. Plus, you'll end up with a system that has exactly what you want on i

  • Another question... (Score:3, Interesting)

    by dargaud ( 518470 ) <[ten.duagradg] [ta] [2todhsals]> on Wednesday March 24, 2004 @10:12AM (#8655469) Homepage
    ...I have been using Linux professionally for a few years, so I know how to configure ethernet, Apache, firewall, an internal RAID and more stuff from the config files, but I have no idea how the "Linux on the Desktop" works. I just installed Knoppix and Mandrake on my own machine for the 1st time a few days ago and was a bit lost. Is there some book or comprehensive website that will tell me how to:
    • use Gnome or KDE (how to add icons, how to add menus, how to add context sensitive menus, where are they defined internally...)
    • how to burn CDs
    • how to configure sound cards if they aren't recognized at once (I'm lucky, mine was)
    • how to deal with advanced X-windows. For instance on installation Mandrake guessed my 2 monitor setup. On second boot, X wouldn't work anymore and I had to manually delete all references to the 2nd monitor in the X config file...
    In other words, a "How to use a Linux Desktop for command line admins" type of book.

    • Re:Another question... (Score:3, Interesting)

      by NullProg ( 70833 )
      If you don't mind having extra CD's laying around, buy the latest SuSE Pro for the books. It comes with two well written manuals, one for admins and the other for desktop users. The users manual covers Audio, CD Burners, Office Apps, CUPS, Web Browsers, and KDE/Gnome configuration.

      Enjoy,

  • One of the things I hate about "newbie" computer books, is that it's great when I'm first learning the stuff, but after I've read it once, I almost never go back to that book.

    I try to stay with reference material like " * in a nutshell" whenever possible, so that it will always be useful to me, and then just google for newbie tutorials.

  • Any books that actually are offically printed by linux companys are really good resources for noob's to advanced placed linux users I use Red hat 9's assortment of guides to be pretty helpful in a stick situation...

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