hello and thank you for reading.. i install slackware and i feel like im in the matrix, anyways i want to know is there a guide would explain all the commands and secrets etc.. how to get use to linux ? i had hard time loading the GUI but i after a search in the forum, all i had to is type startx , how simple it was i was pissed but was fun thou...

thank you very much for your time..

i recommend "the linux cookbook" by michael stutz. you can get it for free on the web. in fact i bought a paper copy via amazon since you most need advice when your computer doesn't work, you can't get onto internet... i have redhat 9 and it comes with a whole bunch of manuals. they are extremely useful...

By the way, if you ever happen to take a Unix course in college you would discover that most ordinary common Unix commands also exist in Linux. I discovered that by accident when I installed Linux and then happened to take a 2 credit Unix course about a month later. I soon realized that everything we learned in class could also be done using Linux on my computer at home. However, once you get beyond the ordinary common commands some things are probably different.

Slackware is somewhat harder for beginners than some of the other distros although it is a good disto. For instance, the installation program does less hand holding that Mandrake, Red Hat or SuSE. There are two books specifically about Slackware that have been published. One is for a slightly older version of Slackware. I do not know if the books are any good or not. There are many good Linux books available.

Bro- excellent Linux resources:

Slack: http://www.slackware.com/book/

Linux: http://www.icon.co.za/~psheer/book/

CLI: http://www.unixguide.net/linux/linuxshortcuts.shtml

Best general resource of all: http://www.google.com

And of course: http://www.linuxquestions.org/

-- J.W.

I'd recommend Unix Power Tools - it's a collection of like 10 O'reilly books + Usenet articles etc. in one 1000+ page book . It'll cover heaps of commands, shell scripting, text editors, directory structures, inodes and more. It's really worth a read and it might be available online from O'reilly's website (It's probably 10-15 years of republishing now and I have no idea what edition it is up to now) I know that the second edition doesn't go into X but the latest one might. If you want to lean about X I'd suggest "The Joy of X".

thank you all for the recommendations...

It might be a little basic for some people, but I'm totally new at this and found O'Reilly's Linux in a Nutshell useful, if only for the copious amount of pages describing all the commands. It's not platform specific, either... just generic Linux commands.

shoe