I'm new to linux hence would like to know if there are any books that can be helpful in understanding linux from the scratch. Any suggestions would be greatful.

Thanks in advance.

You can get a lot of online ebooks, PDFs in the internet. I'll give you some website names. Hope, those will help you to build up your Linux knowledge.

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http://www.linux.org/lessons/beginner/toc.html
http://www.roseindia.net/linux/tutorial/
http://linuxreviews.org/beginner/
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You're already at one of the best resources available. Read questions posed here to see how others use Linux, and also to see how people solve practical problems. When I joined LQ, I thought I knew a thing or two, but there is nothing like seeing how others view problems and craft solutions to expand your viewpoint. Try to identify users who consistently provide nice solutions, and use the philosophies and idioms that they use. There are plenty of resources in the LQ Tutorials section and other LQ areas. Many threads will lead to very useful external resources, and these may be of a higher value than a simple Google search, since at least one person deems them appropriate and useful.
I suggest that you try to develop a sense of the general kinds of uses you have, problems you need to solve, and your overall aptitude for computers. Don't try to learn everything; you've only got one lifetime. Focus on the things that are most important to you, but don;t be afraid to push the envelope a little. Try to see why something works, as much as simply that it does work, and expand on the principles that are used. Linux/Unix pioneers were very big on re-using existing conventions, so a lot of what works in one application applies to others, especially if they are of a similar ilk.
Have fun.
--- rod.

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Hi,

Welcome to LQ!

'Linux Books & Online Magazines' section of 'Slackware-Links' has loads of links for information on line. Too many to link separately.

The above links and others can be found at 'Slackware-Links'. More than just Slackware® links!

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Try this: ftp://ftp.slackbook.org/pub/slackbook/slackbook-2.0.pdf for a start. It's about Slackware but it will tell you a lot of details that may come in handy, sooner or later.

LQ is the best book to read though... :0)

Or see this: http://www.amazon.de/gp/offer-listin...condition=used

Cheap and I like the 'In easy steps' books a lot.

Having just start learning Linux a year ago, the book I seem to like the best is "Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5 Administration Unleashed" by Tammy Fox. I deal mostly with RedHat and Fedora so it was right up my alley. I came from a Windows background, so searching for windows vs linux also helped making some comparisons for me. and really, this website has been the resource I've used the most. A book can't cover everything, and sometimes I just don't know what to search for to get the answer I need, so coming here and asking helps a ton.

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Hi rjo98,

You can download some beginners tutorias from Internet, but I believe that the books provided by Red-Hat itself(those Red color books) are the best to start Linux. See if you can arrange one of those to get started. I started from those, and I found them really interesting and informative.

Cheers,
Kapil

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Thanks Kapil.

1 members found this post helpful.

Hi,
Then my suggestions to you are that LQ searches would be one of the first with proper keywords or tags to do. Google searches do show a lot of LQ replies if your search criteria is good.

Thanks Gary. I hope the original poster realizes how valuable this website is. and you're right, a lot of search engine results do turn up links to this very site as the top results.

Thank you one & all for the response.

Another question, do i start with vendor specific linux or vendor neutral linux?

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I would say neutral at first. That way you'll learn the things that are the same in any distro compared to what's specific to a certain one like RedHat. For example, to restart a service in linux in general you do /etc/init.d/whatever restart, but in redhat you can also do a service whatever restart. from time to time you'll see people argue about which is the "right" way, where it's really a matter of vendor neutral vs. vendor specific. start with general, then you can use specific stuff later on as shortcuts to build upon your general knowledge.

I guess that all depends on whether your approach is 'I only want to know about this installation', or 'I want to become a Linux generalist'. There are vendor-specific configuration issues, so if you are having problems setting something up, a vendor-specific book would be useful. The application software bundled with most distros tends to be very consistent, so there isn't much reason to pick up vendor-specific information about that. There are also broader categories of conventions that are vendor-family-specific. Debian derived distros all tend to have the same or similar conventions. There is a similar class of conventions that are Redhat-like.
In my experience, there is never one single tome that addresses everything I want to learn about any category of computer related subject. If I approach a new subject, especially something as broad and general as 'Linux', I will expect to acquire numerous books if I want to get the full spectrum of information.
--- rod.

Thank you all. The whole thread has many info which i found is very knowledgeable and useful.

Let this be the begining of my entry to the LINUX domain!

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