Re: (OT) Beginner's Linux book recommendation
[KS] wrote:
> Hi all,
>
> This is a little bit off topic but I thought I might get
> some good recommendations from subscribers to this list.
> [...]
I've spent a lot of money - too much - on a tall stack of
beginner's/intermediate guides to Linux. If I were to have
to do it all over again, I would spend my money on the
following three and leave it at that.
Short book:
1. Daniel J. Barett: Linux Pocket Guide, 190 p. (O'Reilly,
2004)
An excellent, judicious selection of the most essential
knowledge about Linux. Gets you up to speed fast.
Intermediate size book:
2. Brian Ward: How Linux Works, 347 p. (No Starch Press,
2004)
An extremely well chosen selection of essential topics for
beginning to intermediate Linux users, extremely well
presented. A pleasure to read.
Big book:
3. M. Welsh, M.K. Dalheimer, T. Dawson, L. Kaufman: Running
Linux, 4th ed., 672 p. (O'Reilly, 2003), new edition due in
December 2005?
Perhaps the best all round generic introduction to Linux;
it's got high marks from practically everyone (some refer
to it as the "gold standard" by which all other Linux
intros are to be measured).
I would also second some of the other recommendations made
here:
4. Paul Sheer: Linux: Rute User's Tutorial and Exposition,
630 p. (Prentice Hall, 2002)
Also available for free as downloadable pdf or html files
from http://www.icon.co.za/~psheer/book/index.html.gz
Excellent. Focusses almost exclusively on using the command
line. Parts are somewhat dated.
5. Mark Sobell: A Practical Guide to Red Hat Linux - Fedora
Core and Red Hat Enterprise Linux, 2nd ed., 1090 p.
(Prentice Hall, 2005)
One of the best intros to Linux, solid, thorough,
didactically sound, and readable, and it's not just for Red
Hat or Fedora.
Finally, if you don't want to spend any money, there is the
excellent "Introduction to Linux - A Hands on Guide" by
Machtelt Garrels, also mentioned here and available for
free in html or pdf format from
http://tille.xalasys.com/training/tldp/ or
http://tldp.org/guides.html
You can also buy this in a print edition (support the
author).
Robert
Reply to: