I have to agree, although I'm sure "Running Linux" is an excellent book, I
found it to be too advanced. I just bought "Red Hat Linux 7 Weekend Crash
Course" which comes with a disk and I plan to read through it over the
weekend. One of the problems I had reading through "Running Linux" (and I
have to confess, I didn't read it cover to cover) was that it often used
programs as examples which I didn't get with Mandrake, so I think perhaps
for a beginner a distro specific book is less confusing.
In the interim I've put Windows back on the computer I plan to use for the
install, should I leave it on or remove it before installing? As I said,
this is an old computer and I can screw up all I want. My goal is to first
learn Linux from the command line and install a desktop interface once I
understand the basics. I know basic UNIX commands and I'm not intimidated
by a non graphical interface.
I'll try to make the meeting in Tampa tomorrow. Thanks to everyone for all
the help.
Brigitte
Actually (Speaking from experience here) "Running Linux" is probably a
>book you DON'T want as a beginner. There are alot of books out there on
>running GNU/Linux that are alot less complicated than the O'Reilly books
>(those books make me feel like I already have to know something about
>the subject I'm learning. They serve much better as refferences than
>anything else). Not to advocate it, but this is when you wanna be
>running Red Hat - there are so many "total newbie" books for Red Hat out
>there that it's sickenning. I would actually recomend that you just go
>to the local bookstore of your choice (I recomend the Borders in south
>Tampa - their computer section is HUGE!) and grab a pile of books on
>GNU/Linux and just read a bit of each, to see which one you're most
>comfortable with. You might just end up grabbing "Linux For Dummies",
>which is a pretty ok book, in my bo... err, opinion. There's also "Sam's
>Teach YOurself Linux in 24 Hours" which, while I wouldn't personally
>recomend it, might be more to your linking. Truth be told, how good a
>book is depends on how much you want to know, how much you like rreading
>and how much time you spend "hacking" at it. the answers to these are
>"not much", "not much", and "not much", then you might want to get one
>of the "Visual Guides" or "Teach yourself Red Hat Linux Visually"
>(They're big colorful books with lots of pictures and basic step by
>steps). If the ansers are more like "a fair ammount", "I'm willing to do
>it" and "I'll try to spend some time at it", then you might even want to
>consider the McGrw Hill "Complete Reference: Linux, Fourth Edition", or
>the "Norton's Guide to Linux", or pne that I found to be quite good
>published by IDG (the "Dummies" people) is "The Linux Bible", which is a
>bit dated, but most of the information is still good (save for some of
>the GUI stuff whcen it comes to KDE).
>
>Reall, though, if you want to slush arround in your system, trying to
>figure it out from a "programmer's point of view without actually having
>to be a programmer, then you really might want to try Corel Linux. It
>doesn't install much AT ALL, save for the OS, a couple of basic tools (a
>al Windows Notepad and Calculator) and is so gernerally deplete of
>libraries that you'll find that you have no othere choice but to simply
>learn stuff. And besides, you can probably upgrade Corel to Progeny,
>whcih is cool in it self. The install is TOTALLY painless, the box set
>comes with ins own boot floppy, and the GUI and tools look so much like
>Windows you'll be expecting blue screen. If you do wnd up getting that
>distro up, you'll probably want to take a look at the "Corel Linux OS
>Starter Kit, The Complete Guide" Which is a book put out by Corel, and
>it's actually EXTREMELY well written, EXTREMELY comprehensive and
>EXTREMELY useful.
>
>Ok, I hope this helped. If not, then just go to your local book store
>and look at some books and figure out which you like best. Remember,
>most bookstores have a 14 day return policy, provided that you keep the
>book in sellable condition, keep the reciept, and don't open any
>software included, so you have a chanco to try some of these at home
>yourself.
>
>
>Norb
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