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After going thro' some websites, I would like to try out Fedora as a first Linux OS, though I am a complete novice to Linux. I hope to be able to learn to work with Fedora, but also to take that OS as a start point to learn about Unix.
Do you know any beginner-level books to start out with Fedora ...that is the way I learnt Windows & MS Office (plus some help from websites, this was in the days of Win 98SE, so online help was not so great as it is today).
Even though its not Fedora check out: gentoo wiki, slackbook, and of course this forum . Most basic stuff is not Distribution specific, so looking at Docu even from other distros (Gentoo and Slackware in this case) helps when you have Problems.
The most effective would be learning by doing I think, so get your hands dirty, and setup Linux the way you want to.
Have Fun
I started with ubuntu then switched via Gentoo to Arch and Slackware and ended up with Fedora
Distribution: Debian testing/sid; OpenSuSE; Fedora; Mint
Posts: 5,524
Rep:
The Fedora Project wiki is the almost worst wiki I've ever seen. Fedora itself is fantastic. You would want a recent book on Red Hat Linux to learn Fedora. You would also be advised to use Fedora 8, as 9 is a little buggy.
I hear that RH (Redhat) is the better system to use but when I go to the site it only offers FC (Fedora Core) does this mean that you can no longer down RH or what is the deal with the partnership that seam to be taking place here
Fedora is the development branch of Red Hat. RHEL5 (Red Hat Enterprise Linux) was based on FC6. RHEL charges for support and updates (and initial download). Fedora is free to download and update. Centos is RHEL with the logos removed. It is free to download and update. Fedora can be seen as bleeding edge and therefor will have the newest releases of all packages (of the RH based distros). RHEL/Centos is the rock solid version and as such all packages will be thoroughly vetted before they are introduced(they will lag behind). While Fedora 9 uses FireFox3, RHEL/Centos 5 uses FF1.5. Since Fedora is a development distro it only has support for about a year(after that no more updates of any kind). RHEL/Centos is the enterprise(industrial) version it has support for five years.
Try
Chris Tyler. Fedora Linux. O'Reilly, 2007. $40 -- all you'll need for a long time.
I'd strongly recommend that you look at the on-line installation guide mentioned by axelfc, since you will have to download some non-Fedora stuff to access proprietary media files.
If you are set on Fedora, I strongly recommend staying one release behind. If you go for Fedora 9 you are bound to run into some bugs. As a new user you will have enough to figure out as it is.
I really like Fedora, but they aren't making things easy for inexperienced users. A good way of learning is to read up on the basics - a book can help here, as the documentation on the internet is not the most coherent. After that, once you run into a problem just post it here.
I agree about staying one release back if you go with fedora.
However, you might also look at Mandriva which started long ago as a fork of Redhat (ancestor of the current Fedora). Today, Mandriva's architecture is extremely similar to Fedora's and Mandriva works very smoothly.
If you learn Mandriva then with the sole exception of the Mandriva specific tools you are also learning Fedora.
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