On 29 May 2001, MJ Ray wrote:

David Freeman david_freeman@rocketmail.com writes:

...

Please, it wasn't a flame, it was just a small rant aimed at noone in particular, I was only Identify a weekness in the documentation of Linux.

What the hell are the "Introduction" sections for, if not to explain? They usually lay down the basic concepts in really easy language. In fact, it irritates me by being a bit too "Noddy" sometimes.

Sorry I must disagree with this, I remember when I first started using Linux that many of the HOW-TO docs seemed circular in nature i.e. you pick one up and it would reccomend you have a knowledge of X,Y,Z so you would go and find X,Y,Z and they would refer you to A,B,C etc! Although that once you have cracked most of the basics the HOW-TO series are OK, although you have to be prepared for lies and out of date info :-)

I know some of the Introduction sections are a bit Noddy if you are more experienced but they really don't help a complete newbie, I also have problems with how-tos telling you everything apart from what you need to know, a quick google search usually turns up the answer but this again is not ideal for newbies (I remember when I was having trouble as a newbie getting ppp and my modem working, the documentation was out of date so I had to keep booting into windows and doing a google search and then printing out the docs to refer to when I rebooted into Linux).

How To Design Programs from PLT Rice (IIRC) is a quite good intro to programming. I'm biased.

Other than that, I have a Babani book on C (for when I have to hack and I can't tell my pointer from my elbow) and an old Linux book which came with my second distribution (right about when I realised that CDs in books are really out of date when you buy them).

Hmmm, two of those books probably won't help people like Jen *that* much! I would recommend (for newbies) a copy of A practical guide to Linux by Mark Sobell (ISBN: 0201895498) This book is a great introduction to Linux.

Unix power tools by O'reilly (ISBN: 1565922603) This is another great book that has loads of tips tricks with everthing from a everyday unix users point of view. (it's also great for experienced users)

And one of either the Unix systems administrator handbook (ISBN: 0130206016) or Essential system administration (O'reilly ISBN: 1565921275) for finding out what really is going on under the hood, these books are also great for more experienced users.

Adam