Any Linux Books worth buying?

[JaY_III]

Just was wondering if it would be worth my while to buy a Linux Book, buy a Distro with Documentaion.
Or just use the WWW for info/help

I still consider myself a Linux Newbie. (as root anyways) I have used linux (debian) all through highschool(95-2000), at school... but never as root or anything.....
I can work in the shell ok.....
And am ok in X (like KDE).

I wan Linux for Networking (LAN, FTP, WWW?,MAIL?), Multimedia (got a DVD player) Music, Possible gaming. 3D animation ( blender rules), and a little bit of office. (anthing other than Star office worth looking at? )

So anyone have any ideas on a book? Or what type/brand/puplisher of book(s) I should be looking at? What BRAND of books to STAY AWAY from? Any thoughts would be great, thanks.

 

[Cowboy Shane]

i learned a lot from O'Reily's Running Linux, but it is a bit out of date and I came to linux as a total newbie. I've learned the most from just using the system and tapping the freely available resources online. The distro you choose can have a lot to do with how much you actually learn. I used Mandrake for a while and didn't learn much except that I could run linux. When I swithed to Slackware, and later Gentoo, I really did have to learn the basics of linux administration. Of course ymmv.

 

[klosters64a]

If only one book can be bought, it should be "Running Linux,"(3rd edition or newer) from O'Reilly publishing. When I started using Linux, no "Linux for Dummies" or "Linux for the Complete Idiot" was available. "Unix for the Complete Idiot" had to do.

As of ~two years ago, the "Linux for the Complete Idiot" was said to be better than its "...for Dummies" counterpart.

Some distros come with excellent manuals. SuSE does, but only with the "Professional Edition." Come to think of it, it's probably cheaper to buy the Pro version of SuSE than to buy the Home version, with the added expense of "Dummies" and "Running Linux."

"Running Linux" is an exceptional book. It explains things "for dummies"---However, if you want to dive deeper, it's right there!

 

[Jeff Bolton]

i recommend the book "Linux Administration: A beginner's guide" by steve shah....VERY VERY VERY VERY informative and helpful. go to barnes and noble and check it out...believe me when i tell you its the best linux book that i have ever seen.

jeff

 

[chaim79]

I'll post a second vote for "Linux Administration, A Beginner's Guide". It goes through a lot of information, but it's also nice in that it will walk you through differences between Windows and Linux, helping you understand how things are done.

I will say this though, Linux for Dummies is a decent book, it's not all that advanced but it was the first book that had a simple list of commands and what you can do with them. One thing I defenetly like, it got me used to vi editor, a basic tool on any *nix system. even though everyone else hates it.

 

[David]

I learned a lot of the basics through necessity. When my video card didn't work and I was a complete newbie, I had to dive straight in at the command line. Very useful.

 

[JaY_III]

I learned a lot of the basics through necessity. When my video card didn't work and I was a complete newbie, I had to dive straight in at the command line. Very useful.

1- my video card does work, put in the nVidia drivers no problems, and played tux racer for way to long...

2- thats not a book.

3- No more freak?

Basics through necessitys ,its how I learn alot too... but i want more than just the basics..... But i get your point though... And i got no problem with the command line, I still know how todo more in the command line than in X still.... But I want to learn X, something about being in a shell all day just isnt fun anymore. 32bit colour has spoiled me

I'll goto Chapers after work tomorrow and look for the two books, hope they have one of them...

Thanks for the help guys

 

[mcrites]

Read any Unix book, they are all great. Linux is POSIX compliant so most things that work in other POSIX compliant UNICES work in Linux. The only real deviant is the different startup procedures from lets say redhat to debian, however all they change is the location of the directory that init looks for programs to startup during boot. One book I recommend is Essential System Administration by ORA, a great book to have, and Unix shells, i forget the publisher. I