LINUX

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Linux in a Nutshell : A Desktop Quick Reference (Nutshell Handbook)
by Jessica Perry Hekman

Price: $15.96

Scaling the Linux Learning Curve

Eight books to get you up to speed on this challenging operating system

by David Wall

There's a joke circulating on the e-mail circuit: "The manual said the program required Windows 95 or better, so I installed Linux."

Hundreds of programmers around the world have improved on and expanded the original Linux kernel that was written and released as freeware by Linus Torvalds in the early 1990s. The current results of these programmers' efforts are several excellent Unix clones that run on Intel processors and that can be downloaded off the Internet and installed free of charge. Now available are a complete port of X Windows for Linux, a suite of GNU commands and utilities, and many other tools.

Linux is a recent, large-scale result of what Steven Levy, in Hackers, called the hacker ethic: information ought to be free, and those with skills ought to contribute them freely toward improving the community.

Like other Unix flavors, Linux isn't the easiest operating system (OS) to figure out initially. However, this OS rewards the diligent explorer with power that rivals any graphics-driven operating environment. The following books will help you scale the learning curve.

Following the lead of O'Reilly's other heroically popular Nutshell books, Linux in a Nutshell ranks as the single best reference for people who know Linux generally, but who need a list of commands, their parameters, and their potential uses. This book covers several shells and lots of utilities, including several text editors.     Read more

A no-frills tutorial on how to get Linux to work properly, Linux: Installation, Configuration, Use is a beginner's guide for people who don't like heavily illustrated, highly flippant introductory guides. This serious book is almost all text and accomplishes (more satisfactorily) in 650 pages what other Linux books do in 1,000 pages or more.     Read more

Linux Configuration & Installation makes you competent in Slackware Linux 3.2 in a hurry. One of the book's authors is also the creator of Slackware, so this book is the authority on the distribution.     Read more

Slackware Linux Unleashed includes almost everything you could want to know about Slackware Unix, plus information about loads of related subjects. Though it's not as readable as some of its competitors, this book stands unrivaled in the volume of information it provides.     Read more

The only Linux book to include three major distributions (Red Hat, Slackware, and Caldera Open Linux Lite), Special Edition Using Linux serves as both a convenient way to experiment with different flavors and a good reference to Red Hat Linux.     Read more

If Red Hat is your distribution of choice, Red Hat Linux Unleashed, which provides task-oriented documentation of Red Hat Linux, will suit you. From installation to administration, this book probes the environment and includes some interesting forays into Perl, C, C++, and Motif programming along the way.     Read more

Unique in the field of Linux books for its coverage of Red Hat Linux 5.0, Linux for Dummies explores the operating system from the user's point of view. The Dummies format excels at documenting operating systems, and this volume is no exception.     Read more

Discover Linux offers an elementary introduction to Red Hat Linux 4.2, meaning it teaches you to do quite a few important tasks, but doesn't train you to deal with more exotic problems. This is a user's guide, although not a particularly good one.     Read more